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15 March 2006
Volume 3, Issue 2
Free Voices
eZine of the People
Shout the
Truth....
Checkmate:
The End of US Hegemony and What it Means for the People of the United
States
By Brandon Batzloff
Editor, Free Voices
In October 2004, i wrote an essay titled “US and Russia: Democracy
in Check” in which i compared the methods that both the United
States and Russia were using to curtail human rights and democratic
process. Since that time both countries have taken great steps in
this direction, but the US has definitely taken the lead. Under
the banner of providing security and an expanded economy, the Bush
regime has taken unprecedented powers and restricted the lives of
US citizens in ways that would have been unthinkable even ten years
ago. In the end they have provided neither security nor economic
advancement. The results have been quite the contrary; US supremacy
is being dismantled in the manner that was once applied to the governments
and economies of developing nations. Continue
Reading
The White
Collective (a blinding glimpse of the obvious)
By Barbara Karens
"Anti-racist" white people often implicitly locate ourselves
and other white people as individuals. We do not locate ourselves
as part of a collective entity whose purpose is to perpetuate the
survival of white supremacy and the European-white cultural/structural/spiritual
system. But the truth is that we are part of this white collective.
The individual focus functions to mask that reality. When a person
of color points out how a white person's actions support white supremacy,
the white individual response often is to try to defend her/his
"good white individual" honor. When white anti- racists
speak about how important it is for us to be aware of our own racism,
we may really be talking about racism at the individual level rather
than how we actually function as part of a white collective that
includes *all* white people -- from the white vigilantes patrolling
the U.S.-Mexico border, to "colorblind" white people,
to the white people who believe we can individually opt out from
the collective while it still exists, to the white people getting
paid to speak and write and teach from an anti-racist perspective,
and everywhere in between. Continue
Reading
Weekend of Resistance Against
the Green Scare
By Jeff Free Luers
Oregon State Penitentiary
This June marks my 6th year in prison. From behind these walls I
have strived to remain an active part of this struggle; from contributing
to the dialogue and discussion of tactics, to furthering the debate
on climate change in the public. Perhaps most importantly I am proof
that prison cannot crush the spirit of resistance. This year has
seen an increase in state repression against activists and radicals
alike. It is truly a scary time. We all know about the "Red
Scare" – the government's attempt to justify repression
by labeling dissidents "communists" back in the 1950's.
Today we see their "Green Scare" attempt to crush resistance
by labeling them "eco-terrorists." Continue
Reading
On Organization,
Oppressive Social Relationships and a Revolutionary Movement
By Joaquin Cienfuegos
Los Angeles, California
I think we need to change the oppressive social relationships while
we're building a revolutionary organization and a revolutionary
movement. Some anarchists do focus only on the organization and
not on the actual politics, revolutionary vision, or challenging
capitalist social relations. They take on an obscure anti-statist
position, without looking at imperialism and the specific conditions
that have devoloped because of capitalism. For example, in the US,
one cannot just take on the issue of class, with out discussing
issues of culture, race, gender -- because this is how capitalism
has developed -- on the backs of racially, culturally, and all oppressed
people and with a white heterosexual male supremacist ideology.
Continue
Reading
Attorney
Lynne Stewart Now Confronts Cancer as Well as Terrorism Charges
By Pat Levasseur
New York, New York
Attorney Lynne Stewart now facers another battle for her life: the
battle against breast cancer. Ms. Stewartrt's sentencing is pending
following her conviction last year on charges of aiding terrorism
in a case where the government stretched her conversations with
a reporter regarding her client into serious, felony charges. Ms.
Stewart, 67 years old, faces 30 years in prison and has already
lost her ability to practice law - her beloved profession. She was
diagnosed with breast cancer in November, 2005. On January 9, 2006,
doctors removed a 2.4 centimeter tumor from her left breast that
was discovered to be an invasive ductal carcinoma. Over the past
two months, Ms. Stewart has consulted with a number of medical specialists
about her cancer, the treatment options, and the risks of recurrence.
Continue
Reading
U.S.
Found in Violation of Human Rights of Native Americans - Urged to
Take Immediate Action
By Julie Fishel and Raymond Yowell
Geneva, Switzerland
10 March 2006 - Today, in an historic and strongly worded decision
by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
(CERD) the United States was urged to "freeze", "desist"
and "stop" actions being taken or threatened to be taken
against the Western Shoshone Peoples of the Western Shoshone Nation.
In its decision, CERD stressed the "nature and urgency"
of the Shoshone situation informing the U.S. that it goes "well
beyond" the normal reporting process and warrants immediate
attention under the Committee's Early Warning and Urgent Action
Procedure. This monumental action challenges the US government's
assertion of federal ownership of nearly 90% of Western Shoshone
lands. The land base covers approximately 60 million acres, stretching
across what is now referred to as the states of Nevada, Idaho, Utah
and California. Continue
Reading
Guantanamo on the Mississippi
By Jordan Flaherty
New Orleans, Louisiana
Sometimes the injustices here in New Orleans leave me numb. But
the continuing debacle of our criminal justice system inspires in
me a sense of indignation I thought was lost to cynicism long ago.
Ursula Price, a staff investigator for the indigent defense organization
A Fighting Chance, has met with several thousand hurricane survivors
who were imprisoned at the time of the hurricane, and her stories
chill me “I grew up in small town Mississippi,” she
tells me. “We had the Klan marching down our main street.
But still, I’ve never seen anything like this.” Safe
Streets, Strong ommunities, a New Orleans-based criminal justice
reform coalition that Price also works with, has just released a
report based on more than a hundred recent interviews with prisoners
who have been locked up since pre-Katrina and are currently spread
across thirteen prisons and hundreds of miles. They found the average
number of days people had been locked up without a trial was 385
days. One person had been locked up for 1,289 days. None of them
have been convicted of any crime. Continue
Reading
Talk It Up....
The Sweaty
Southern Radical Queer and Trans Convergence!
By Sweaty Southern Radical Queer and Trans Convergence organizing
collective
Durham, North Carolina
Enough of single-issue "LGBT rights," constant focus on
gay marriage and electoral politics, and corporate Pride... we can
only be free as queer and trans people through a collective struggle
against all systems of oppression. Come join us at a festive and
fabulous gathering to network and learn about grassroots projects
happening around the region, share strategies for organizing against
assimilation, and to build a fierce movement of radical queers and
trans people in the South! From May 19th to 21st in Durham, NC,
this convergence will feature a wide variety of workshops, movement-building
discussions, time for networking and hanging out, drag shows and
performances, and more. Continue
Reading
Crying Art....
Maggots and Men
By Oakie Treadwell
San Francisco, California
Maggots and Men, a provocative historical drama set in Russia in
1921, recounts the tragic and heroic events of the Kronstadt uprising.
In the spirit of a Soviet propaganda film, Maggots and Men pays
tribute to the Kronstadt sailors and their earnest pursuit of communist
ideals. A thoughtful homage to the Soviet silent era directors,
Maggots and Men documents actual events from an important moment
in Soviet history while its themes remain relevant to current political
struggles. Maggots and Men expands on the homoeroticism of Battleship
Potemkin and explores naval life as the scene of homosexual adventure
with gender upheaval as a stimulating subtext. Continue
Reading
Heart of Factory
By Virna Molina and Ernesto Ardito
Argentina
Hello, we are Virna Molina and Ernesto Ardito, filmmakers from Argentina.
At the beginning of 2004 we started our documentary project “Heart
of Factory”. The film looks at the life of a group of workers,
men and women, inhabitants of the Argentinean Patagonia. These workers
start a fight to stop the deaths and accidents that happen in the
factory where they work. They live complex and dangerous conflicts
and they are taking more and more commitment, something many of
them had never imagined could happen. These strong episodes are
affecting their perception of the reality, of the world. No one
now can see himself or herself like the human he or she used to
be. Something broke, something has changed and can not return to
the original place. In a poor country looted by its own governments
and businessmen, the workers of Zanon Ceramic take the factory in
their own hands when the owner closes it. Continue
Reading
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