Make a donation

You can subscribe by sending a blank email to
freevoices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

11 May 2006
Volume 3, Issue 4

Free Voices
eZine of the People

 

Shout the Truth....

Getting Down to the Basics
By Brandon Batzloff
Editor, Free Voices

There is a strong focus in our communities on self-education. This is a great thing except for the fact that many times the most basic parts of education are ignored, creating an incomplete understanding of a subject that leads to serious problems within the community. Such a statement is hard to understand without a clear example. I will illustrate this using my own experiences as an HIV+ person dealing with the ignorance of the people around me. The moralistic reactions of these people will be used as an opening to discussions and critiques of problems in independent and self-autonomous communities. Continue Reading

The US Gulag Prison System
By Steve Lendman
Chicago, Il, US

No, not the one you think, outrageous as it is. I'm referring to the US prison system that's with no exaggeration about as shockingly abusive as the gulag abroad. It qualifies for that label by its size alone - more than 2.1 million as of June, 2004 and growing larger by about 900 new inmates every week. Blacks (mostly poor and disadvantaged) especially are affected. While they make up just 12.3% of the population, they account for half the prison population, and their numbers there have grown fivefold in the last 25 years. Hispanics (also poor) account for another 15%. Continue Reading

Queer Community Organization in Honduras Seeks Assistance
By Diana Carbajal
San Pedro Sula, Honduras

We are writing with an important request for your support of our group, Grupo de Lesbianas y Bisexuales Mujer Sin Lmite, in our efforts to march in the upcoming Marcha por el Orgullo (Pride March 2006) in San Pedro Sula, Honduras on June 11, 2006. The Pride march is organized by Comunidad Gay Sampedrana, a non-profit fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in our country and working to protect the civil, political and economic rights of all Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender citizens. Despite the recent increased visibility of LGBTQ people and issues in the US, in much of Central America, including Honduras, there continues to be a heavy, imposed veil of silence on our community, allowing for nearly unmitigated discrimination, harassment and police brutality. Continue Reading

Potential Evidence Surfaces of Bush's Illegal Spying
By Onnesha Roychoudhuri

Five months after news of the NSA's warrantless spying program broke, and after we've learned numerous details of the program's extent, a Portland, Ore., attorney may have finally obtained hard evidence of illegal wiretaps by the government. Thomas Nelson has been practicing administrative law for most of his professional life, but after Sept. 11 he first began offering pro bono work for immigrants detained in broad FBI terrorism sweeps. He is currently leading a little-discussed case that may contain the first documented evidence of an illegal wiretap and believes that, as a result, he himself has been subjected to warrantless -- and therefore illegal -- wiretaps and physical searches, the kind of clandestine operation that Nixon referred to as "black bag jobs." And as a result of extreme carelessness by the FBI, Nelson may have his hands on the only solid evidence of these searches. Continue Reading

Transgender Woman Assaulted by Police
By Maria Louise Roman and Susan Forrest
Miami, FL, US

Transexual Activist Maria Louise Roman was assaulted, discriminated against and wrongly incarcerated – ironically, after a taping of "Transamerica" segment for Spanish TV Talk Show Cristina. This letter comes directly from her. Dear Friends: I am writing this letter to give you a snapshot of how I was assaulted, ridiculed, humiliated and wrongly incarcerated while celebrating a successful taping of the Cristina Show. Many Media outlets continue to perpetuate stereotypes and sensationalize our lives. It has been a long process but I am a firm believer that the only way we can influence change is by being involved in the process of creating this change. We cannot sit back and expect change to magically happen. Continue Reading

Derailer Bicycle Collective Seeks Community Support
Derailer Bicycle Collective
Denver, CO, US

The Derailer Bicycle Collective has been providing free bikes and bicycle education to Denver's low-income cyclists for over three and a half years and now the City is ordering them to shut down. But the Derailer volunteers have something different in mind. On April 5th Derailer Collective members received an order from the City of Denver to cease and desist operating a non-profit bicycle shop at their residence. In recent years the need for services and programs for low-income people has been increasing, and public demand has been increasingly vocal. Continue Reading

U.S. Immigration Law Inhumane to Same-Sex Couples
New Immigration Reforms Must End Discrimination Against Lesbians, Gays
Immigration Equality and Human Rights Watch
US

Thousands of U.S. citizens and their foreign same-sex partners face enormous hardships, separation and even exile because discriminatory U.S. immigration policies deprive these couples of the basic right to be together, Human Rights Watch and Immigration Equality said in a report released on May 2. As Congress debates immigration reforms, it must end the discrimination that lesbian and gay Americans and their foreign partners endure under U.S. immigration law. Continue Reading

West Point Graduates Against the War Launches Campaign Against the Deceit of the US Government
West Point Graduates Against the War
US

Three alumni of the United States Military Academy at West Point have launched a grassroots movement to convert the disgrace of governmental lies and evasions about the assault on Iraq into a force to redeem the honor of their country. At issue –which directly assaults the West Point honor code which forges the character of all graduates – are the falsehoods by administration officials, culminating in Secretary of State Colin Powell’s presentation to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, which catapulted the United States into a preventive war. Continue Reading

America's Geopolitical Nightmare and Eurasian Strategic Energy Arrangements
By F. William Engdahl

By drawing attention to Iraq and the obvious role oil plays in US policy today, the Bush-Cheney administration has done just that: They have drawn the world’s energy-deficit powers’ attention firmly to the strategic battle over energy and especially oil. This is already having consequences for the global economy in terms of $75 a barrel crude oil price levels. Now it is taking on the dimension of what one former US Defense Secretary rightly calls a ‘geopolitical nightmare’ for the United States. Continue Reading

Free Voices has joined the COA News affiliate network.
Look for our content to be featured on the COA News website, as well as the COA News Alert Service.


Talk It Up....

9/11: Revealing the Truth, Reclaiming the Future
June 2-4, 2006
Chicago-O’Hare Rosemont, Il, US

Authors, researchers, activists and political candidates associated with the growing 9/11 truth movement will gather at the Embassy Suites Hotel (Chicago-O'Hare Rosemont) June 2-4 for a weekend of exposition and strategy aimed at challenging the conventional view of the 9-11 attacks, and raising public awareness of their full scope. Educational presentations will offer alternate analyses of both the meaning and etiology of the attacks, and strategy sessions will consider constitutional approaches to reining in elements within the US government who have criminally chosen to ignore constitutional protections since 9/11 and plan further encroachments on individual rights. Continue Reading


Storytelling....

Glimmer of Heaven
By Tamara Hendrix
Phoenix, AZ, US

Sons of Adam
Daughters of Eva
stumble through the gate of the 21st century
we descend
into hell and chaos
to which we scarcely comprehend Continue Reading


Crying Art....

Neither Criminal Nor Victim: We Want Our Fukcing Rights!
Call For Contributions to Sex Work DVD

By Véro
Montreal, Canada
Toulouse, France

Hey! Hey! Hey! A compilation DVD on sex work is under construction!! A co-creation of Montreal's Pink Panthers and the video-activist collective Les Lucioles In collaboration with Stella (a community organization by and for sex workers in montreal). and Grisélidis (community health association for sex workers in Toulouse, France) Sex work occurs in a context of increased repression, perpetual stigmatization, and misunderstanding on behalf of much of the population. It's not only wh0re-o-phobes who have the right to speak! Neither criminals nor victims! We want our fukcing rights! CALL TO CONTRIBUTE… put in a bit of effort!! We welcome every kind of work: we like "do it yourself-diy" creations!! Continue Reading


Make a donation


Subscription Guidelines:

Send a blank email to freevoices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net


Submission Guidelines:

Send submission to freevoices@lycos.com
In the subject line write only "submission" and the date
The piece should be headed with
1) Title
2) your name including titles as you would like it to appear
3) the city you live in
4) organization you represent (if applicable)
5) Anything you may have published and want to promote along with publisher and date
6) your email address if you would like to be contacted by readers
7) your website if you want it publicised
8) whether you would like your story to be printed under Copyright or Creative Commons License
Please be sure to cite your sources (MLA preferred) as we are all critical readers! The next deadlines are 5 June and 3 July.


Reprinting Guidelines:

All writing in Free Voices remains the property of the author. Contact the person or organization that the writing is copyrighted under. Anything published under Creative Commons License may be reprinted so long as guidelines of specified license are maintained. Any writing by Brandon Batzloff may be reprinted as long as copyrights are maintained and writing is not used for profit.

 

Volume 3, Issue 4

Archives:

2006/vol 3
Issue 3
Issue 2
Issue 1

2005/vol 2
Issue 11
Issue 10
Issue 9
Issue 8
Issue 7
Issue 6
Issue 5
Issue 4
Issue 3
Issue 2
Issue 1

2004/vol 1
Issue 18
Issue 17
Issue 16
Issue 15

Issue 14
Issue 13

Issue 12
Issue 11
Issue 10
Issue 9
Issue 8
Issue 7
Issue 6

-- Archives | e-zine | Directory | Donate | Advertise | Contact | Method --
Free Voices E-zine of The People Directories and contacts Contact Subscribe Donations Free Voices as a Method