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27 April 2005
Volume 2, Issue 6
Free Voices
eZine of the People
Shout the Truth....
May Day Celebrates Resistance
Tarantula Distribution
Portland, OR
May 1st is observed around the world as a workers holiday, a celebration
of the labor movement and its traditions. In cities everywhere,
people take to the streets and try to make their presence known.
There’s the speechmaking of union leaders and the bluster
of leftist politicians. We go through the motions of being in the
streets once again. May Day has not always been such a safe and
predictable affair, and indeed sometimes it still escapes from
the set parameters - in 2000, the Portland cops decided to go on
a rampage, beating and shooting beanbag rounds at May Day celebrants.
In 2001, police in Long Beach, California attacked a May Day "Reclaim
the Streets" event. Following a mass arrest, one participant
was deported; another is serving a lengthy sentence for his alleged "crimes".
Internationally, some cities see barricades and burning cars each
year.
For the most part, however, the events remain well-managed. Real
life - whether terrifying or joyous - does not interfere with ritual. Continue
Reading
Helping Your Community Survive the Crash
By Brandon Batzloff
Editor, Free Voices
At a time when panic is spreading through the moneyed segments
of our society, it is important to step back and observe the effects
of the declining economy in our own communities. It is doubtful
that anyone in the United States has not been touched by changes
and tremors in the capitalist system over the past few years. Rather
than shrugging our collective shoulders and saying, “It had
to end sometime” or curling up in a fear induced stupor,
it is imperative that preparations are made to ensure that our
communities survive the rough times that have begun and will apparently
intensify. Continue Reading
Free Voices Hacked
By Brandon Batzloff
Editor, Free Voices
Two weeks ago a person or organization hacked into the Free Voices
website, erased several issues of Free Voices, eZine of the People,
and attached a virus to a story. Why would such an attack
take place on our website? Perhaps that question can be better
answered by looking at the story that was targeted. Continue
Reading
The New Threat of Big Brother: The REAL ID Act
William J. Watkins Jr.
Oakland, CA
The United States Senate is the most august deliberative body in
the world. In Federalist No. 63, James Madison, the principle architect
of the U.S. Constitution, reasoned that with fewer members and
longer terms than the House of Representatives, the Senate would
be insulated from the pressures of reckless popular politics. Hence,
it would possess the requisite coolness needed for self-restrained
deliberation. With the REAL ID Act just approved by the House in
a 261–161 voice vote, temperate deliberation on the Senate
floor is sorely needed. Proponents of the REAL ID Act claim it
is an anti-terrorism measure meant to protect American lives. According
to House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.), the
legislation’s author, the Act will “prevent another
9/11-type attack by disrupting terrorist travel.” Although
the Act will make it easier for the national government to monitor
suspected terrorists, it also lays the groundwork for a national
identification system that threatens to invade the privacy of ordinary
Americans. Continue Reading
Going To Places That Scare Me: Personal Reflections
On Challenging Male Supremacy
By Chris Crass
San Francisco, CA
"What do you mean I'm sexist?" I was shocked. I wasn't
a jock, I didn’t hate women, I wasn't an evil person. "But
how can I be a sexist, I'm an anarchist?" I was anxious, nervous,
and my defenses were up. I believed in liberation, for fighting against
capitalism and the state. There were those who defended and benefited
from injustice and then there’s us, right? I was 19 and it
was 1993, four year after I got into politics. Continue Reading
You're Right, You Are Nothing Alike: Defending Lynne Stewart
By Ian Werkheiser
Japan
On Monday, February 14th, the head of New York's Republican Party
Stephen Minarik made a very inflammatory statement. "...the
Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past
two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the
party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean." Outrage
was immediate and intense. Howard Dean, the new head of the DNC,
demanded that he either retract his "character assassination" and
apologize or resign. The democratic blogosphere reposted the story
decrying the Republican "Hate Machine". Even George Pataki,
the Republican of New York, scorned his fellow Republican: "The
Democratic Party doesn't have anything to do with Lynne Stewart,
obviously. She was found guilty of a heinous criminal act and that
is not something within the realm of appropriate political discourse
in New York state." The best rebuke I read though came from
Howard Wolfson, Senator Clinton's top advisor: "Don't accuse
the 5.5 million Democrats in this state of treason if you hope
to win our votes. And, if you make that mistake again, you best
be prepared to make it to my face, because we love this country
much too much to allow you to ever question our patriotism." So
why is lumping the Democratic Party with Lynne Stewart such fighting
words? Who is this woman and traitor, this human pariah who taints
anyone associated with her? Continue Reading
The Bipartisan War Against Poor Folks
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
With the 2004 elections in the can, and people conditioned to accept
the results as a kind of 'act of heaven', the other shoe has fallen.
With amazing quickness, sound and fury, the poor and working people
of the country were rewarded for their exercise of democracy by
the promotion and passing of the recent bankruptcy bill -- an Act
of Congress that makes it far more difficult for poor folks to
declare bankruptcy, and became but the latest windfall for big
business. Continue Reading
New Undeclared Arms Race: America's Agenda for Global Military
Domination
By Michel Chossudovsky
Ottawa, Canada
The Pentagon has released the summary of a top secret Pentagon
document, which sketches America's agenda for global military domination.
This redirection of America's military strategy seems to have passed
virtually unnoticed. With the exception of The Wall Street Journal
(see below in annex), not a word has been mentioned in the US media.
There has been no press coverage concerning this mysterious military
blueprint. The latter outlines, according to the Wall Street Journal, America's
global military design which consists in "enhancing
U.S. influence around the world", through increased troop
deployments and a massive buildup of America's advanced weapons
systems. While the document follows in the footsteps of the
administration's "preemptive" war doctrine as detailed
by the Neocons' Project of the New American Century (PNAC), it
goes much further in setting the contours of Washington's global
military agenda. Continue Reading
Colombia Vs. Venezuela: Big Oil's Secret War?
By Bill Weinberg
New York, NY
Now, with the world's eyes on Iraq, a similar carve-up may be underway
in South America's Orinoco Basin and La Guajira, which together
hold the planet's greatest proven reserves outside the Persian
Gulf. These adjacent oil-rich regions are both dissected by the
border between Colombia, Washington's closest ally on the hemisphere's
southern continent, and Venezuela--ruled by a left-populist government
sharply at odds with the White House. Continue Reading
Crying Art....
Boogie Down
By Action Jackson
Denver, CO
The Soundsthatpound crew from G~Flow Records is gearing up for
it's next musical release called "DJ WOOGIE FRESH @ HIS BEST," set
to be released in May 2005. It's significance will be to solidify
it's house band formally known as the Wild & Peaceful Band
and it's group of emcees known as the BOOGIEDOWN ALL-STARS. Continue
Reading
Talking About....
Go Down, America!
Review by Darryl Clark
Rochester, NY
During my spring break in New York City, I went to an early screening
of Inside Deep Throat expecting the kind of film that you won’t
see in Rochester. It was a pleasant surprise to see a documentary
that, for its first third, was a comedy. At least, it was
funny to me. It was also thought provoking and, like so many
stories of its kind, heartrendingly sad by its conclusion. It
is the real deal, not an abstraction. It is the film Boogie
Nights or Wonderland (Julianne Moore aside, of course) should have
been and Baddassss! almost was. Continue Reading
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