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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
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