The Philadelphia Rapid Transit trolley company fires 173 workers – all members of the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees of America – and replaces them with scabs from New York City.  Street battles, demonstrations, and a general strike ensued in the city that lasted for 57 days.

The division bench of Chief Justice A.K. Mishra and Justice Jaymalya Bagchi also directed bandh supporters not to apply force on common people to “make their strike successful”.

Referring to a 1997 Supreme Court ruling, the division bench observed that bandhs and strikes were “illegal”.

“Bandh-callers will be held liable for the damage of any property on the strike days and they will have to compensate for it,” the bench said.

The high court order said: “The state government will have to take all sorts of measures so that willing people can join their work or move freely on the strike days. The state secretaries, district magistrates and senior police officers will have to ensure normal life during the strike.”

“Adequate police force will have to be deputed in all government establishments, including the high court and lower courts, educational institutions, railway stations and airports. Squatting in front of offices, educational institutions and other establishments will not be permitted,” the order added.

The telegraph, Calcutta India

Appearing for the state, lawyer Ashoke Banerjee assured the court that the government would take all possible steps to maintain normalcy during the strike. “The state government is against holding of any strike. The government will take all possible measures to maintain normality,” Banerjee said.

State Citu president Shyamal Chakraborty said the petitioners had not served a notice on the union. “So, we have hardly anything to say about the court order. Secondly, we have called a general strike, not a shutdown,” he said.

The order followed petitions by advocates Idris Ali and Ramaprasad Sarkar, demanding a directive declaring the strike illegal. The petitioners also sought an order asking the unions to withdraw the strike.

Twelve trade unions have called a countrywide strike from February 20 to protest “anti-people policies” of the UPA government, including price rise and “poor implementation” of labour laws. The unions are also protesting disinvestment in public sector units and FDI.

In Bengal, the CPM-affiliated Citu and the CPI’s labour arm, Aituc, have decided to exempt the transport sector from the strike on February 21. The Left Front has extended support to the strike on February 20.

Appearing for Citu and Aituc, advocate Subrata Mukhopadhyay opposed the prayer and said: “To call a strike is the fundamental right of the trade unions. We have appealed to the people to join the strike and support our movement. There is no question of applying force.”

The division bench said in its order: “If to observe a bandh is the fundamental right of trade union bodies, the general people also have the right to free movement, expression and speech. Article 19 of the Constitution has given this right to the people.”

On November 13, 1997, the Supreme Court had declared forced bandhs “illegal” while upholding a Kerala High Court order.

The apex court had observed that a bandh could not be enforced as it would affect the fundamental rights of citizens and cause national loss.

A Calcutta High Court bench had in 1998 declared illegal a bandh called by the then ruling Left Front.

Since then, the high court has passed several orders in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009, directing bandh-callers to allow people to work.

In the 2004 order, passed by a division bench headed by former Justice A.N. Roy, the court had said the judiciary was “helpless” as it could not take steps against the bandh-enforcers

inser

After 10 years of focus on global sex trafficking, the State Department has decided to take a look at trafficking within the U.S.

What prompted the change? Officials cite mounting evidence of this horror’s existence right here at home.

Shared Hope International is a non-profit organization that works to combat trafficking globally. Undercover video captured by the group revealed how young the targets are.

According to researchers, traffickers usually begin targeting kids who are 12 years old. Every year, up to 300,000 U.S. children are at risk of being sold for sex.

What happens to sex trafficking victims in the United States? What happens to the those who sell victims?

To the untrained eye, trafficking is hard to spot. While many believe it’s confined mainly to urban areas, General Strike USA.com recently discovered that Toledo, Ohio, is one of the top city for trafficking.

An FBI anti-trafficking task force now operates there, as well as in 38 other communities around the country.

Problems within the system abound, however, making justice difficult to obtain.

Also, most state laws aren’t nearly as comprehensive or severe as federal laws, often leaving authorities with nowhere to take victims.

“Most of the girls have no self-esteem by the time we get them. They have been beaten,” FBI Victim Specialist Jennifer Meyers said.
   
Across the country, Christian grassroots groups have begun to set up shelters for victims – a beginning step in an enormous battle to fight this modern atrocity.

Pimp-controlled commercial sexual exploitation of children is linked to escort and massage services being advertised on-line. On-line advertising profits exceeded $83 billion for 2010 alone. About one-fifth of these children become entangled in national organized crime networks and are trafficked nation wide. They are transported around the United States by a variety of means. The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12 to 14. It is not only girls that are affected — for boys and transgender youth the average age of entry into prostitution is 11 to 13.

MOB CHILD ABDUCTIONS

In 1975, the New York District Attorney and New York police department initiated an investigation dubbed Operation Together which, among other things, was looking into mob control over gay bars, several murders of gay bar operators, drug trafficking at gay bars, and underage boy sex rings. Among the several murders being investigated by the authorities were those of Robert Wood, the owner of Salvation who was killed in February 1970, and Shelly Bloom, co- owner of the Sanctuary with Seymour Seiden, who was killed in March 1972.

A May 13, 1977 article (“Investigation into the sex industry begun by New York State and City; Inquiry Seeking Organized-Crime Involvement Is Outgrowth of Aborted Police Project”) by Howard Blum from the New York Times states “Mr. Bloom had been shot to death in his apartment on the night before he was suppose to testify before a federal grand jury investigating a South American cocaine-smuggling network. According to a confidential police report, the murder of Mr. Bloom may have been connected to the attempt by organized crime to control homosexual bars, to eight other unsolved homicides, to the procurement and prostitution of young boys and to narcotics trafficking.

This writer spoke with a former New York Police Department detective who worked undercover on the Operation Together investigation, and he stated that one of the men identified in Robert Wood’s letters complaining of mob extortion was Sonny Tobin. The source also identified a reputed Genovese associate whom he believes was responsible for the murder of Shelley Bloom, and stated that the guy’s primary role was collecting the mob’s take from several gay bars.

However, just as law enforcement was prepared to seek indictments, the investigation was inexplicably shut down over the objections of the investigating Assistant District Attorney and two detectives assigned to the case in 1977.

Operation Together allegedly implicated officials at the highest levels in New York City politics, power and society. For example, the former detective with whom I spoke alleged that the underage boy sex rings involved several high profile names, and among those he identified was an Oscar-nominated director who was notorious for his sex parties, which he stocked with underage sex slaves. And, of course, the mob had the goods on the powerful gay men who participated in these illicit Bacchanalian orgies, which exploited children.

Indeed, a mobster visited the investigator and warned him to close the investigation because of where it would lead. The investigation nevertheless continued, even after a firebomb was tossed through the window into the apartment where thedetective and his family lived. The detective claims that the NYPD refused to report the incident to the federal authorities as required by law, and further refused to provide him with protection. Two weeks after the bomb attack, ‘top brass’ at the NYPD closed down Operation Together.

R. Thomas Collins, Jr., a former Daily News reporter, writes about the shut down of Operation Together in his 2002 memoir Newswalker: “For 18 months a team of as many as 56 investigators from homicide, vice, narcotics, and intelligence worked under the command of the department’s Organized Crime Control Bureau. In all, Operation Together made dozens of arrests for dope peddling, prostitution and other moral charges and attempted bribery of police. The strategy of the investigation was to target people involved in gay bars, nab them on narcotics charges and get them to turn on their mob controllers, partners or extortionist. Among the depravity unearthed by this team was a network of chicken hawk patrons of child prostitution and kiddieporn as well as mob control of the gay bar scene. Then suddenly, just as members of Operation Together felt they were getting close to making investigative breakthroughs, the plug was pulled.

The task force was broken up; detectives, undercover officers and the Manhattan assistant district attorneys were reassigned. When a couple of plain-clothes guys protested, they were given uniformed foot patrol. One Midtown ‘pimps and pros’ expert was sent to Harlem. There was bad blood among the police. Cops I spoke to believed the worst, that the mob had pulled strings inside the NYPD and gotten the investigation killed. That’s what they expected; fearing that whoever committed these murders would get away with it.

Sexual abuse of children has become a public concern only recently in the United States, young girls and boys have been used to satisfy adult sexual desires for most of our history. Castration of boys, fondling, forced genital or anal intercourse, and sale for prostitution were common through much of Western history. “It was not until the sixteenth century that laws were enacted in England to protect girls and boys under the age of ten from rape and sodomy.” (Knudsen, p. 106) “In the nineteenth century, after the exposure of the ‘white slave’ trade, in which young girls were sold or kidnapped and forced into prostitution, the concept of ‘age of consent’ developed in England, defining the age at which a girl could consent to sexual intercourse initially at ten, then at twelve, and finally, in 1885, at sixteen…. Over the past ten years, the availability of literature on sexual assault has increased significantly. However, clinical data are increasingly suggesting that boys may be at equal risk for sexual victimization, since they are the preferred targets of habitual pedophiles and victims of child sex rings.”

Amy Goodman

Amaia Engana didn’t wait to be evicted from her
home. On Nov. 9, in the town of Barakaldo, a
suburb of Bilbao in Spain’s Basque Country,
officials from the local judiciary were on their way to
serve her eviction papers. Amaia stood on a chair
and threw herself out of her fifth-floor apartment
window, dying instantly on impact on the sidewalk
below. She was the second person in two weeks in
Spain to commit suicide as a result of an impending
foreclosure action. Her suicide has added gravity to
this week’s general strike radiating from the streets
of Madrid across all of Europe. As resistance to so-
called austerity in Europe becomes increasingly
transnational and coordinated, President Barack
Obama and the House Republicans begin their
debate to avert the “fiscal cliff.” The fight is over fair
tax rates, budget priorities and whether we as a
society will sustain the social safety net built during
the past 80 years.

The general strike that swept across Europe Nov. 14
had its genesis in the deepening crisis in Spain,
Portugal and Greece. As a result of the global
economic collapse in 2008, Spain is in a deep
financial crisis. Unemployment has surpassed 25
percent, and among young people is estimated at 50
percent. Large banks have enjoyed bailouts while
they enforce mortgages that an increasing number of
Spaniards are unable to meet, provoking increasing
numbers of foreclosures and attempted evictions.
“Attempted” because, in response to the epidemic of
evictions in Spain, a direct-action movement has
grown to prevent them. In city after city, individuals
and groups have networked, creating rapid-response
teams that flood the street outside a threatened
apartment. When officials arrive to deliver the
eviction notice, they can’t reach the building’s main
door, let alone the apartment in question.

The general strike across Europe ranged from mass
rallies in Madrid, with participation from members
of Parliament, to protests in London, to outside the
European Commission headquarters in Brussels, to
high atop the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, where
protesters flew anti-austerity flags and banners. In
calling for the first pan-national general strike in
Europe in generations, the European Trade Union
Confederation hoped to express “strong opposition
to the austerity measures that are dragging Europe
into economic stagnation, indeed recession, as well
as the continuing dismantling of the European
social model. These measures, far from re-
establishing confidence, only serve to worsen
imbalances and foster injustice.”

Back in the U.S., a group from Occupy Wall Street,
which itself was inspired in part by the Spanish
M-15 movement against austerity that began on May
15, 2011, has taken a creative approach to the
blight of debt that is afflicting millions. Calling itself
“Rolling Jubilee,” after the ancient practice of
forgiving all debts every 50 years, the group is
buying debt from lenders, for pennies on the dollar,
and canceling it. This discounted debt market exists
primarily because collection agencies and “vulture
capitalists” acquire bad loans that people have
stopped paying for 2 to 3 cents on a dollar, and still
make a profit by hounding people to pay back some
or all of that debt. Rolling Jubilee, according to its
website, “believes people should not go into debt for
basic necessities like education, healthcare and
housing. Rolling Jubilee intervenes by buying debt,
keeping it out of the hands of collectors, and then
abolishing it … to help each other out and highlight
how the predatory debt system affects our families
and communities. Think of it as a bailout of the 99
percent by the 99 percent.” To date, Rolling Jubilee
has raised $175,000, which it says will be used to
abolish $3.5 million in debt.

The amount may be symbolic, but an important
message to President Obama and House
Republicans as they wrangle over the future of the
U.S. tax rates, deficit reduction and how to fund so-
called entitlements. Sarah Anderson of the Institute
for Policy Studies prefers to call Social Security and
Medicare “earned benefit programs, because these
are programs that American workers are paying into
over their lives, and they have a right to that money,
to have these basic social programs that have made
us a much stronger society with a stronger middle
class.” Anderson told me, “The approach to the debt
should be to look at the ways that we could raise
revenues through … taxing financial transactions …
cutting fossil-fuel subsidies and using carbon taxes,
and cutting military spending. That kind of
combination could raise trillions of dollars over the
next decade.”

As the movement for that strong social safety net
grows around the world, and locally here at home,
the mandate is clear: Austerity is not the answer.

SOURCE:

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2012/11/15/the_growing_global_movement_against_austerity

A web tool being used for practical organization is meetup.com. You can just type in your ZIP code, join a group with which you share ideas/feelings and which meets near your location, and start organizing.

.

“It was not by accident or coincidence that the rights to freedom in speech and press were coupled in a single guaranty with the rights of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition for redress of grievances. All these, though not identical, are inseparable. They are cognate rights, and therefore are united in the first Article’s assurance.”                                     – Judge Wiley B. Rutledge

An object (or an idea) is viral when it has the ability to spread copies of itself or change other similar objects to become more like (it) when those objects are simply exposed to the viral object.

General strikes, more common in Europe, are events that shut down the normal operations of a city, state, or nation for a period of time. These strikes aim to force awareness and action on a single issue or broader set of concerns. The General Strike has a central location - http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/general-strike-usa/ – on the Internet, which is linked to and reproduced on a variety of other internet sites. The site states the rationale for the effort:

The General Strike is a national call to action, from citizens to other citizens. It is not about a single issue. It is not an anti-war protest, a civil rights protest, an corporate/banking fraud protest, Second Amendment protest. It is not about torture, surveillance, gun control, gang violence, immigration, inflation, corporate media, bailouts, high taxes, sub standard education, lack of jobs, government corruption, or the environment. This strike is about all these issues and more.We all have different concerns, but we all have the same concern: we are being lied to and this government does not represent us. Join other Americans in demanding truth, justice, and accountability.

This is our country.
And our world.
We just have to stand up.

A National Call to Action LOCK DOWN USA The strike targets key issues facing the American public, issues that have not been addressed in any meaningful way by any branch of government.

The strike campaign argues that these and other issues rarely covered in any depth by nearly all of the corporate media leave only one move for citizens – a general strike to protest the policies plus the lack of recognition and response.

Call to action: We just have to stand up

Standing up includes no work or school. It also includes “no shopping;” a suspension of all purchasing during the strike. One strike web site claims that this can have a substantial impact even with just a small percentage of the population participating.

The general strike calls for participants to “Hit the Streets.” General Strikes in the United States

Seattle General Strike ProjectThe Seattle general strike of 1919 is the first known city-wide general strike in U.S. history. Failing to get promised wage increases, 35,000 ship yard workers were joined by 25,000 other Seattle union members for a 6 day work stoppage. The 60,000 workers and their families represented a huge portion of Seattle’s 315,000 populations at the time.

The most recent U.S. general strike occurred on May 1, 2006 when millions of Latinos hit the streets across the country. The Latino population once, known as the sleeping giant of American politics, awoke that day in a national effort that shocked and awed the U.S. political elite. Millions protested proposed immigration laws that would made a felon out of anyone claimed to have assisted undocumented workers and broader social justice issues. The May Day demonstrations, in effect a general strike, were preceded by a series of protests beginning in March 2006.

Sooner or later all freedom loving Americans will realize that the only way to stop those who would bleed our nation dry, dismantle our constitution, and dissolve our national sovereignty is to say: I will NOT work for you, buy from you, fight for you, or die for you, until the criminals are gone from the halls of our government.

General Strikes shut down the normal operations of a city, state, or nation for a period of time. These strikes aim to force action on a single issue or broader set of concerns.

The reason for this shutdown is not to hurt this country in any way shape or form, but is, in fact, a peaceful method of sending a message to Washington, D.C.

The General Strike is a national call to action, from citizens to other citizens.

Unions, corporations and the major parties have failed to deal with pressing matters of war and peace, income inequality, crime and punishment and the meaning of citizenship itself. It has fallen to the American people to set things right!

Public protest is an important part of democracy, just as much as a free press, a judiciary, and congress. A general strike does NOT have to be violent. It is a matter of CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, NOT VIOLENCE. You are NOT going to school. You are NOT going to work. You are NOT shopping. You do NOT have to be violent to NOT do those things. March legally. Protest legally. Our causes are many but our voices are one.

You will need to plan, set up and hold your own local protest. Vigorously promote your protest via local activist and church groups. Also on social networking sites- Facebook, Meetup, Tribe, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Call in to talk radio shows, print and distribute this flyer, create freeway banners, write OPEDs, etc., etc. You will need to organize enough people to shut down, disrupt normal operations of your local city, town, county and state.

There will be ZERO mainstream media discussion of this general strike BEFORE it happens. ZERO. So, we must be our own media and PROMOTE it. Link to this site from blogs and forums. Put it on your personal pages, send this URL to your friends, mention it with links in your comments. PROMOTE IT. http://www.generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com

Join the Consumer Fast already underway. http://www.generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com

Related articles:

Shut It Down…They Won’t Listen Any Other Way http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/23/832/

Are you willing to be arrested? http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/are-you-willing-to-be-arrested/

(How to) Bloody Revolution for dummies http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/how-to-bloody-revolution-for-dummies/

Bankrupting the FED http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/bankrupting-the-fed/

Banks Financing Mexican Drug Cartels Admits Wells Fargo http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/banks-financing-mexican-drug-cartels-admits-wells-fargo/

“Cardinal Mahony personally oversaw the transfer, oversaw the facilitation and oversaw the enabling of abusers to continue to abuse children in Los Angeles for decades,” said Joelle Casteiz, who self-described herself as an abuse victim.

Although relieved of public duties, Mahony will retain all of his rights as a retired Cardinal inside the church.

Many pedophiles don’t have criminal records, either because they haven’t been caught or haven’t been prosecuted. The majority of churches and religious groups do not conduct backround checks or take any steps to protect children against mistreatment.

Children’s advocate groups say not all background checks are equal and warn that religious groups are often targets for abusers. There is a $10 basic-level background check option that includes a national criminal and sex offender search. In a sampling of 900 churches and religious groups 11,277 background checks were conducted, 40% returned a hit, 21% or 2,320 returned records with felony offenses.

Insurance companies recommend churches and religious groups conduct background checks but don’t require such screening for coverage. Insurance and child advocate groups also urge background checks not only be conducted on newcomers but with existing staff and volunteers.

Rick Schaber, risk control manager for the Merrill, Wis. based Church Mutual Insurance Co., the leading U.S. insurer of worship centers and religious organizations with nearly 100,000 customers, said, “We do understand there is an upfront cost but religious organizations are not struggling and bear a responsibility. … How do you look a parent in the eye if something does happen and you didn’t take any steps to prevent it.”

Richard Dangel, president and CEO of the Arlington, Texas based Praesidium Inc., an abuse risk management-consulting firm, said his company conducts more than 100,000 background checks each year. “Less than 1 percent come back with a disqualifying offense which typically involves violence or a sexually related conviction,” Dangel said.

“It’s so small because only about 3 percent of sex offenders have criminal backgrounds,” Dangel said. “Offenders go to places where they think they can get in. So while doing criminal background checks is prudent and thoughtful and responsible, it’s not the end-all. It’s a piece of the puzzle.” He said, “training staff and members at church and religious groups to recognize potential abuse before it happens is far more critical than background checks. If you don’tteach people how to spot warning signs and if you don’t teach them how offenders infiltrate churches… then they don’t know when they’re hit. They don’t know until they’ve already got victims.”

Until, churches are willing to conduct background checks and train personnel to spot “warning signs”, children are not safe at church. Please, remove your children immediately. They are in grave danger.

A 270-page report published the church’s handling of 100 allegations of abuse against 21 priests. The investigation found that for 20 years church leaders did not expel priests against whom abuse allegations were made but simply transferred them to a different diocese so they would be able to or did re-offend. Here is a sampling of that report:

Cardinal Roger M. Mahoney allowed priest Michael Baker, to remain in ministry even after he told the cardinal in 1986 that he had molested children.

Cardinal Mahoney of Los Angeles supervised Bishop Oliver Frances O’Grady when he became Bishop of Stockton in 1980. Mahoney testified that he never saw O’Grady’s letter of apology for molesting a boy in the priest’s file, but when molestation charges were brought against O’Grady, he was moved to a parish in San Andreas where he was promoted to pastor.

Cardinal Mahoney has long fought to keep files from prosecutors and the public citing the church’s constitutional rights and other privileges. Even the national review board appointed by U.S. Bishops slammed Mahoney for withholding church records from courts seeking justice for victims.

Cardinal Bernard Law knowingly transferred priests with histories of molesting children to numerous parishes, The Boston Archdiocese settled with 552 child victims who were molested by priests.

Father Michael Wempe, age 65, is awaiting trial on criminal charges of molestation from 1990 to 1995 while he was a chaplain at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center. Wempe is also charged with 42 counts of molesting 13 boys from 1977 to 1986. Cardinal Mahoney was aware of abuse allegations against Wempe when he transferred him to the hospital.

Siegfried Widera, priest in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, was convicted of child molestation in Wisconsin in 1973 but was later sent to work at a parish in Orange County.

Anthony Edward Rodrigue, also known as “Fr. Tony”, was ordained in 1962. Though registered as a sex offender in 1980, he wasn’t removed from the priesthood until 1992. He admitted in a lie detector test that he sexually abused 4 to 5 young boys a year while he was a priest. Rodrigue was finally sentenced to prison for one offense despite admitting that he abused over a hundred children. He served 8 1/2 years of his 10-year sentence. Rodrigue has been released and moved back to San Bernardino County were he was a priest. The Catholic Church says they are not responsible to warn people of his release, since he is no longer a priest. During Rodrigue’s priesthood he was transferred and shielded by brother bishops enabling him to abuse innocent kids time and time again. Rodrigue was asked by other priests to request re-assignment after abuse was reported but they failed to report him to civil authorities.

Priest Michael Baker molested boys as young as five to seven years of age and was transferred to other dioceses to protect him from criminal prosecution.

L.A. Catholic school Dean, John Joseph Malburg, son of Vernon Mayor Leonis Malburg, has pleaded not guilty to numerous counts of child sexual abuse, lewd acts and making a video tape of a minor engaged in sex acts which was available to be sold.

Roger M. Mahoney ignored 3 complaints against Lynn Caffoe – one by a nun, the second by an anonymous caller, and the third by a pastor. A sex tape with “improper behavior” of high school boys was found in the possession of the priest before he was put on inactive leave.

Father Gary Wolken was sentenced to 15 years in prison for multiple counts of statutory sodomy and child molestation. He pleaded guilty in 2003 but is still a priest.

There are 544 sexual assault cases against the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is to compensate 132 victims of clergy sexual abuse.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Reno has been named in more than 150 sexual abuse cases.

Bishop Phillip Staling moved from Boston to the Diocese of San Bernardino in 1990 and is charged in 150 molestations of young boys.

Joseph Lundowski, a volunteer missionary who served the parish from 1968 to 1975, abused 85 Alaska natives as children.

Fr. Fernand Lopez, was arrested in October for sexually molesting multiple victims. Rev. Fernando Lopez pleaded not guilty to 4 counts of felony lewd contact with a child- a felony count of sexual battery by restraint, two misdemeanor counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery. (L.A. Times 2007)

All across the U.S., every state, every town, spanning around the globe, the church has not done one single thing to help any of the victims. Settlements were only won after years and years of litigation and the church forced victims to relive their horrors over and over again on the witness stand. Rather than helping the victims or ensuring justice or even from keeping these priests from re offending, the church has, and still is, with holding church records and protecting the guilty.

Ten Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse remain in parish ministry: Msgr. Richard A. Loomis, head of clergy who oversaw misconduct allegations against Msgr. Patrick Reilly of Burbank, Father Michael J. Carroll, Father Sean Cronin of Northridge, Father Walter Fernando of Pasadena, Father Richard Martini in L.A. and Father Samuel Orellana, also in L.A.
(some names were redacted by court records)

So I ask all good Christians and Catholics to explain how we can ask the church to absolve us of our sins when their sin is greater. How can we ask the church to remove a splinter from our eye when they have a 2×4 in their eye? For which sins do we, the congregation, owe penance – smoking, drinking, extra marital affairs? Did you know that even though Cain killed Abel, God forgave him? So, I say to you, even if you have murdered your own brother in cold blood, God will forgive you! Go and sin no more. Live in peace.

But to the churches, which won’t even admit their own crimes and, indeed, try to hide their own sins, for them there will be no forgiveness. There are only two sins in the Bible that are unforgivable. Jesus says it would have been better for you to never have been born (because of the punishment that awaits you). Mark 9:42:

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea…”

Mark 11:16 “You have turned my fathers house into a den of robbers.” (NIV)

It is not necessary to seek God out in buildings of stone or brick, buildings that were made by man, for God is everywhere. The priests are guiltier than you. May the truth set you free. Your sins are forgiven. Go now, leave the church and sin no more.

The U.S. Justice Department has told a Texas court that a lawsuit accusing Pope Benedict XVI of conspiring to cover up the sexual molestation of three boys by a seminarian should be dismissed because the pontiff enjoys immunity as head of state of the Holy See.

Related articles:

Are Your Children Safe at Church http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/are-your-children-safe-at-church/

Are your Children Safe at Synagogue http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/are-your-children-safe-at-synagogue/

Are your children Safe at Mosque http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/are-your-children-safe-at-mosque/

Over a year ago, the Suez Canal city of Port Said was thrust into the centre of Egypt’s ongoing revolution. It had been almost a year since a popular uprising had ousted Hosni Mubarak. But it had become apparent that the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) would not facilitate the sort of democratic transition protesters had hoped it would.

The period of SCAF rule, which ended with Mohamed Morsi’s election and assumption of presidential office in June, saw more military prisoners than had three decades of Mubarak rule.

Throughout the fall months of 2011, Cairo witnessed SCAF brutality – protesters were targeted by snipers and trampled with military tanks in October’s “Maspero Massacre”, and were tear-gassed and shot at with live, rubber and khartoush bullets during November’s Mohamed Mahmoud Street clashes and December’s sit-in at the Cabinet Building off Tahrir Square.

Dozens of protesters were killed, some specifically targeted, for their opposition roles by a vengeful military regime.

But none of these SCAF crackdowns or those of the Mubarak regime matched the brutality of February 2012’s Port Said Stadium massacre. The soccer match, between Al-Ahly and Al-Masry teams, would otherwise have been unremarkable.

Port Said Stadium massacre

Like any other game, team fan clubs had gathered at the stadium and viewers from across the country had come down to watch the match. At the end of the match, chaos erupted: thugs, armed with knives and batons, attacked Ultras Ahly club members, throwing them off bleachers and mercilessly beating them.

Fans ran frantically for the exit, only to find that stadium doors had been locked. The sparse security present stood idly, while the Port Said governor, a regular attendee of local matches, was nowhere in sight. For approximately two hours, the nation watched on their television screens as over 70 Ahly fans were killed in the stadium.

The Ultras Ahly members had been the most active and vocal opponents of the SCAF junta; SCAF’s message, that resistance would not be tolerated, was clear to all. Official discourse insisted that the incident could be blamed on Al-Masry team fans or Port Said locals.

Interviewed immediately after the incident, Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, offering no condolences, urged the Egyptian population to act. “Why are the Egyptian people silent? They must do something,” he stated, in his perceived imploration for civil war.

The next day, Cairo saw marches led by Ultras Ahly members and joined by Ahly team coach and hundreds of other protesters. As the activists neared the Ministry of Interior, they were met – as they had been accustomed to – by tear gas and khartoush bullets. This round of protests is especially remembered for the number of protesters who lost their eyes, as the security forces seemingly made a game out of blinding activists.

The recently-elected parliament at the time, dominated by Muslim Brotherhood members, echoed SCAF and national media discourse, insisting that the Port Said Stadium massacre was carried out by a mysterious third party, by foreign hands or by revolutionaries themselves who were in actuality paid thugs rather than political protesters.

A year has passed since the Port Said Stadium massacre and the city has been once again been thrust into the centre of Egypt’s revolution, as 21 of the defendants accused of the killings, including many young students and Al-Masry Ultras members, were sentenced to death. Morsi, who has openly challenged the judiciary over past months, called for respect for this court decision.

At the announcement of the verdict, protests erupted in Port Said, and were met violently by Security Forces. Over two dozen protesters fell dead on the first day of protests. A funeral march the next day was met with more violence, leaving additional civilians dead.

As the government announced a curfew on Canal cities, protesters continued to gather throughout the week, completely disregarding government orders. In recognition of an inability to exert control, the curfew was changed but not cancelled.

At a press conference hosted by the Port Said governor to announce his support for the curfew, Al-Masry fan club members erupted in protest, calling for the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood regime and declaring the city of Port Said independent.

While protests continued throughout the week, this past Friday witnessed the opposition’s domination of the city. Through pouring rain, thousands began their march at the Port Said Stadium and continued to the Governorate building and police headquarters, where they staged sit-ins calling for the resignation of the Morsi-appointed governor and police chief.

Marginalised by the government

Some protesters hoisted the flag of their governorate, adding to it with black marker the line “Republic of Port Said”. Gamal Abdel Nasser-era music praising the city of Port Said as the heart of resistance played in the background.

Embittered Port Saidis expressed rage not only over those martyred, but for what they perceive as a political antagonising of their city on part of the Morsi government. This sentiment can be traced to the Mubarak era, when in 1999 a poor Port Saidi man approached the then-president. While many say the man was carrying a letter addressed to Mubarak, the regime accused the man of an attempted assassination.

Residents complain that the city had since been systematically marginalised by the Mubarak government, which neglected the city’s public infrastructure and revoked the city’s duty-free status that had boosted its prosperity since the honour was granted by Anwar Sadat.

The SCAF added to this sentiment, by leaving security forces accused of murder in Port Said during the 18 day uprising that ousted Mubarak uncharged, and laying blame on locals for the Port Said Stadium massacre. Some Port Saidis believe that the massacre was intently planned to unfold in their city as to further add to its marginalisation.

Parliament’s echoing of the official discourse only added to Port Saidi distaste for the Brotherhood, which did not receive Port Saidi support in presidential elections. In the midst of this past week’s Port Said protests and deaths, Morsi travelled to Germany; to many, this is symbolic of his disregard for the situation.

But Port Said had not always been a neglected city. During the Nasser era, Port Said was central to national pride. Port Saidis were known for their popular armed resistance of the 1956 tripartite aggression on Egypt. Port Saidis were virtually cut off during the attacks, left to defend themselves.

Residents would gather in cafés to listen to the radio, which broadcast expressions, widespread support for the city and its people. Port Saidis sacrificed tremendously and repeatedly rose to resist as the 1967 invasion of Egypt put the city on the front lines of an Israeli occupation of Sinai.

The city’s culture remains marked by its long years of resistance. Throughout the ongoing revolution, protesters have sought strength from this culture. Graffiti in the vicinity of Tahrir Square illustrates Canal city figures, with arms and radio in hand, while traditional Port Saidi music has been popularised as wider segments of society can now relate to the sense of resistance and sacrifice which mark the tradition.

As martyrs continue to fall in Port Said, in Tahrir and across the country, the Morsi government is quickly losing legitimacy. Its complete disregard for protests which at their core are driven by calls for justice, the same calls of the uprising which toppled a regime and ultimately brought Morsi to power, is a dangerous decision. The Port Saidis, a people characterised by their resilience, may just be the ones to take the ongoing Egyptian revolution into its next phase.

Sarah Mousa graduated from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2010, and was a 2010-2011 Fulbright Scholar in Egypt. She is currently a graduate student at the Center of Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.

Related articles:

Strike Updates: Iraq http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/strike-updates-iraq/

Strike Updates: Egypt http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/strike-updates-egypt/

Syrian Revolution or CIA coup? http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/syrian-revolution-or-cia-coup/

US Central Intelligence Agency trains, arms anti-Syria death squads http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/us-central-intelligence-agency-trains-arms-anti-syria-death-squads/

Special Forces Unconventional Warfare Manual 2010 http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/10/29/special-forces-unconventional-warfare-manual-2010/

Strike Updates: Syria http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/strike-updates-syria-61711/

George Soros Color Revolutions World Order http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/george-soros-color-revolutions-and-the-new-world-order/

Strike Updates: Saudi Arabai http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/strike-updates-saudi-arabai-61711/

Strike Updates http://generalstrikeusa.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/strike-updates/

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

This event was organised by Merseyside TUC to discuss the practicalities of organising for a general strike. It followed the motion passed at TUC Congress in October 2012, instructing the TUC to look at “coordinated action where possible with far reaching campaigns including the consideration and practicalities of a general strike.”

The Merseyside conference was organised around a motion moved with good humour by Mark Hoskisson, secretary of Liverpool Trades Council. Tellingly, once the national TUC had seen the Merseyside motion on a general strike, funding for the event was refused.

A good contribution was heard from John Hendy QC, who advised the unions on strike laws and the use of human rights laws to possibly overcome the problem. Workshops took place with international speakers from Portugal and Spain, and a stark warning not to allow what has happened in Europe to happen here. The dreadful attacks on the working class there due to austerity measures demonstrating that “we are paying for the banksters’ mess.”

Some desperate stories emerged. A woman in Greece had given birth in the street as she didn’t have the 800 Euros needed to pay for health care, reminding us that we let our NHS be destroyed at our peril. Doctors and nurses who are giving medical care for free in Greece are doing so knowing it is illegal, a clear case of where individuals have chosen to put the law second to the needs of the people.

The rise of the far right was also discussed something we must stop in its tracks by challenging and educating at every opportunity.

There were also workshops on legal issues, the public sector (which of course I attended) and rank and file / trades council issues.

There was talk of demonstrations at town halls, as well as of unemployed and disabled groups joining pickets lines. There was a call from Unite general secretary Len McCluskey for trade unionists to pay a levy of maybe £2-5 a month towards a strike fund so we could call a section of the workforce out on strike who could paralyse the country and still get paid!

An insightful contribution was made regarding how women are being disproportionately affected by the cuts and a reminder to support International Women’s Day on March 8th.

The highlight of Conference was an extremely well received, cracking, passionate and committed speech from PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh, recognising the attacks on the working class for what they are – political attacks – and a call to action. We must build confidence amongst members and the working class to unite and take action. Strike, demonstrate, resist, challenge.

The overwhelming sense I got was of a definite shift towards direct action as a way of fighting back. The conference was a call to be braver, a call to take the kind of stand our forefathers and mothers took, a call to take action that can win.

The motion was unanimously carried.

—

The text of the motion, reproduced from here, is as follows:

1. This AGM of the North West TUC notes the decision of the 2012 full TUC congress to call on unions to begin a discussion on the practicalities of organising general strike action against the austerity policies of the current Conservative/Lib Dem Coalition government.

2. This AGM further notes the overwhelming popular support for the idea of holding a general strike expressed by the hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on the TUC’s March for the Alternative on 20 October 2012 in response to call for a show of hands in favour of such action by the General Secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey.

3. This AGM also notes the historic organisation of a Trans-European general strike against austerity on 14 November 2012. Millions of workers across Europe – and especially in Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain – joined together in strikes and demonstrations to oppose the continent wide assault on public services, jobs, wages and working conditions.

4. This AGM believes that in the light of the above sentiments in favour of national and international general strike action – sentiments which will grow as the attacks become sharper in the year ahead – mean that it is time to turn words into action and begin the process or organising a general strike.

5. This AGM urges other regional TUCs and the national TUC to endorse the call from this meeting for the naming of a day in Britain for a general strike of all TUC affiliated unions.

This AGM proposes concretely that:

• Each affiliated union sponsors a NW TUC leaflet and helps distribute it to every branch and workplace explaining the impact of the government’s austerity measures on the whole working class and the need for the whole working class to unite in strike action against these attacks
• That the NW TUC through its press and publicity department launches a media wide publicity offensive calling for the day to be named — ideally we should aim for 1 May – International Workers Day
• That the NW TUC press and publicity department starts a Facebook/Twitter/Youtube campaign putting the same basic message – name the day for a national general strike
• That individual unions in the region convene emergency meetings of the appropriate bodies to plan a detailed campaign in their unions and major workplaces putting the case for a general strike with speakers enlisted to address branch meetings, workplace mass meetings and town/city wide public meetings in advance of co-ordinated ballots
• Once the date has been named, each major town and city a convention of delegates from all affiliated unions should be called and hosted by the relevant Trades Councils ensuring that such action is co-ordinated and united. Action should consist not only of strikes, pickets and demonstrations but of a range of trade union and community cultural activities showcasing the alternative the unions offer to the policies of austerity
• The Executive must also call for this action to be publicised across Europe so that the possibility of a second historic international general strike being organised can placed on the agenda of ETUC and the European Union Federations.

I am also aware of the “welfare visit” defense being circulated by PCS’s defenders. I don’t know whether this defense has originated from within PCS, but as the union’s never contacted me with an explanation for its actions I’ve no idea what their defense/justification is. I would encourage all the PCS folks who’ve contacted me to share their disgust at their union’s behaviour to ask for an explanation. And if someone could share that explanation with me I’d be much obliged. 

One night in October I was awakened near midnight by the police, who told me they had come to ask me some questions relating to my “criminal Facebook posts”. They proceeded to question me very aggressively about my activities as convenor of DPAC Caerdydd, a Disabled People Against Cuts direct-action campaigning group in Cardiff.

The full complaint to South Wales Police over the incident was published by the political blogger Tom Pride, and the police’s actions attracted a great deal of condemnation from MPs, Welsh Assembly members, the disability activism community and the wider Left, and there was much concern about whether the police were deliberately targetting disability activists.

But it turned out that the police had been set on me by none other than PCS, the trade union that has been in the vanguard of the fight against the ConDem government.

No. I couldn’t believe it either. Let me try say that again. PCS set the police on me for organising a peaceful direct-action campaign against the Welfare Reforms.

Cheers comrades.

PCS also made a complaint to my own union, UCU, of which I am Wales vice chair. UCU knew that PCS were intending to set the police on me before the arrival of South Wales Police at my door. And yet no-one in UCU deemed it necessary to inform me that (a) PCS had made a complaint of a very serious nature against me, and (b) that they had also gone to the police.

Cheers comrades.

I’m not sure which is more unforgivable. That PCS set the police on me as a means of shutting down a line of argument they didn’t like, or that my own trade union colluded in this.

Because of UCU Wales’ concerns about the possible damage my disability activism may do to our relationship with PCS, I have agreed to stand down as convenor of the disabled-people’s movement in Wales and have no further involvement in disability activism. This does not appear to have been sufficient reassurance that I will not get up PCS’s nose again, as I have been manoeuvred out of the Wales Vice Chair position. I will have no further role in UCU Wales.

Cheers comrades.

Keeping a promise to a policeman

South Wales Police have a disastrous track-record when it comes to the policing of peaceful protest. And it is undeniable that there are very serious problems with regards the way the police across the UK handle complaints or are held to account for their actions – one only needs to remember Ian Tomlinson and Mark Duggan.

But in this case, South Wales Police turned out to not be the Bad Guys. The offices who arrived at my door that night handled things appallingly – but they were being used as pawns to further a political objective, namely shut up that annoying campaigner who’s criticising us. They were acting on information given to them by PCS: a cynical use of comments extracted from a lengthy and highly adversarial Facebook comment thread and taken completely out of context, that I was a “threat” to DWP employees.

The South Wales Police’s handling of my formal complaint against them has been outstanding. I am fully satisfied with the steps that will be taken to ensure that the officers in question understand why their conduct on the night (and subsequently at protests when I was identified and labled a “ringleader” of protests I had not organised) was unacceptable. The Chief Constable will be sending out a brief to all officers about their duties to facilitate peaceful protest by disabled people against the DWP’s barbarity, with particular reference to facilitating lawful protest and campaigning activities carried out by those of us with mental health conditions.

While there were failings on the part of the police (not insignificant failings – and they had consequences in terms of the impact on my health), these failings are minuscule compared to the disgraceful roles played by PCS and UCU in this saga. In addition, in complete contrast to PCS and UCU, the police’s handling of my complaint against them has been simply outstanding.

I really appreciate the amount of time they took to deal with matters and to really listen to me with compassion, and their willingness to acknowledge that the officers’ conduct fell short, and their bending-over-backwards to address my concerns.

I therefore wish to set the record straight publicly by publishing the letter below to the inspector who dealt with my complaint against the South Wales Police, and will ask Tom Pride to update the original blog post accordingly. In the letter below, names have been removed.

Dear Inspector X,

I apologise for my long delay in responding to you. I am happy to sign off the paperwork and confirm that I agree for South Wales Police to resolve the complaint through Local Resolution, with the steps you outline in the document you sent me with regards the advice that will be given to the officers concerned.

The reason for my delay in responding to you is that I have come upon more information about the original report made to the police that led to the incident of October 26^th. This information raises further matters which need resolving and which I need to bring to the attention of the police. I am unsure how best to take these matters forward. I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you again to discuss these matters and the issues they raise, and to explore the options available to me to proceed.

I now know why the police were approached with regards the concerns that I was a danger to DWP staff, and I also now know who raised these concerns.

In terms of Who: I have been informed by my own trade union, UCU, in which I hold office as Wales Vice Chair, that it was the trade union PCS that approached the police with a concern that I presented a danger to DWP employees.

In terms of Why: there were no reasonable grounds for PCS to genuinely believe I was a danger to their members working in the DWP. The decision to go to the police was a political decision, namely to do with the internal politics within PCS, and was motivated by a desire to shut down legitimate debate about PCS’s campaigning priorities with regards opposing the Welfare Reforms. The South Wales Police had no option but to act on the information presented to them by PCS. The police were used as a tool in pursuit of a political objective by an internal political faction of the union, namely to shut down criticism (through intimidation) that by refusing to engage with the disabled-people’s anti-cuts movement in Wales (of which I was the leader) PCS was breaching its own DWP Group Conference motions and policy, and was failing to take seriously the deaths of 73 disabled people a week that are dying after having their benefits stopped.

I therefore believe that those who made the decision to set the police on me acted maliciously and are guilty of wasting police time.

The Facebook quote that PCS cited in their complaint against me (that perhaps if more disabled people were to go set themselves alight in front of DWP staff, that might facilitate PCS taking the plight of disabled people more seriously) was taken completely out of context: it was an expression of exasperation that came at the end of a lengthy thread in which disabled activists were being given a really hard time by elements of the ultra-left for campaigning against the DWP (which is felt by some to be an attack on PCS – disabled people are being accused by some elements of the ultra-left of “dividing the working class” and “attacking rank and file workers” for campaigning against the Welfare Reforms, because it is felt by some that focusing on what’s happening to disabled people will take PCS’s focus away from leading the build-up to a general strike).

PCS had absolutely no grounds for their “concern” that I was a risk to DWP staff:

1. As the convenor of the disabled-people’s anti-cuts movement in Cardiff I always made it very clear (there’s plenty of evidence of this on Facebook) that we never target individual DWP staff. I had on several occasions had to stop disabled people from targetting DWP staff (slashing tyres, bullying DWP employees on Facebook, etc) and I’ve twice had to spend an entire night talking a desperate disabled person out of going down the Jobcentre the following morning and committing suicide in front of DWP employees in some horrific fashion.

2. I repeatedly made the above very clear in the same Facebook thread in which I made the exasperated and furious comment that it would need disabled people to go set ourselves alight in front of jobcentre staff before PCS would take our plight seriously. It is very clear to anyone reading the thread in its entirety that my comment was an an expression of exasperation against those who were accusing disabled people of “dividing the working class” by distracting PCS from its job of leading the build-up for a general strike.

3. Our Facebook forum contained some 700 members, mainly disabled people whose lives are being destroyed by the DWP, but also all of the PCS reps in South Wales who’re on Facebook, including most of the PCS Wales Council and PCS Wales Office staff. The forum was used by many disabled people to sound off, and we frequently had to deal with very desperate people expressing very desperate views about the DWP and its employees. The PCS officers and officials were well aware of the numerous times I articulated the principles in point 1 above. Many disabled people made far worse comments about DWP staff, and far more overt threats against them (which I dealt with robustly), than I did in the comment PCS cite in their complaint against me.

4. My commitment to ensuring that DWP employees are not targetted, as well as being well-documented on Facebook and elsewhere, was also well known to the PCS Wales office. I met with them in September to discuss the campaign and to impress upon them that while the DWP was a legitimate target for peaceful direct action (given that it is the arm of the state that is responsible for the deaths of 73 disabled people a week), we were in no way targetting DWP employees and would make that very clear to all our activists and supporters. I asked PCS at that meeting to phone me on my mobile at any time of night or day should any disabled person threaten or attack DWP employees so that I could persuade the person concerned that there are more constructive ways to protest. People are desperate: hundreds of thousands of disabled people are having their lives destroyed by the DWP and 73 of us are dying every week after our benefits are stopped. People are understandably being driven to desperate acts. But such individual acts of desperation are negative and destructive; it is the aim of the disabled-people’s anti-cuts movement to channel such energies into more positive and constructive forms of protest, namely peaceful direct action.

5. Earlier in October the PCS Wales General Secretary, Mark Serwotka, was the invited speaker at a Merthyr Tydfil Trades Council meeting, the president of which is a senior PCS officer on the PCS Wales Council and TUC Wales General Council. Serwotka had to return to London that same night and there was no convenient train from Merthyr to Cardiff. So during the planning of the meeting, I was asked if I would mind giving Serwotka a lift from Merthyr to Cardiff [in the event I didn't need to do so as an alternative was found].

If PCS officers were willing to entrust their General Secretary to me for a 30-mile drive from Merthyr at night and alone, it is ludicrous for them to claim that less than 3 weeks later I’m such a threat to the safety of their members that it justifies involving the police.

6. The disabled-people’s anti-cuts movement in Wales had only been formed in August, but by October it was the most high-profile of all the disabled-people’s anti-cuts groups in the UK, carrying out high-profile direct-actions on a weekly or fortnightly basis. The Welsh movement also had the most challenging attitude to PCS, and was becoming increasingly vocal in its criticism of PCS Wales for failing to engage with the disabled-people’s movement in Wales and for breaching its own conference policy and motions with regards campaigning against the Welfare reforms.

7. In addition to going to the police, PCS also made a complaint to my own union UCU. This is not the first time UCU has received a complaint from PCS in relation to myself: earlier this year [a senior elected officer] of PCS (of the same political faction as the faction that believes “the decks should be cleared” of other campaigning priorities to build for a general strike) made a complaint to UCU against me in my capacity as UCU Wales Vice Chair that was found by PCS to have been groundless and an inappropriate use of [PCS elected office] in order to make a political attack. The [PCS officer] was miffed with me because I had stopped her political party, the Socialist Party, from inappropriately – and in breach of UCU rules – using a UCU branch as a platform for political entryism. I was subjected to a good deal of bullying from Socialist Party full-time officials because of this, and the complaint to UCU by the [PCS Officer], who is a senior officer in the Socialist Party, was a political attack on me. I am giving you this example to show that political factions in PCS are not adverse to making malicious complaints against those they perceive to be their political enemies in order to achieve political objectives.

Therefore I believe that PCS had no grounds to go to the police, and I further believe that the action was malicious and an attempt to intimidate me (which was successful) and make my position as UCU Wales Vice Chair untenable (also successful) in order to shut down debate about the most effective way to campaign against the Welfare Reforms and legitimate criticism of PCS.

It is completely unacceptable that a trade union (or more correctly a political faction within a trade union) should seek to shut down legitimate debate and criticism by setting the police on a disability activist with no justification. I am also very aware of what a bad press South Wales Police have had as a result of this incident, which has received the scrutiny of the press and several AMs and MPs. While the officers handled the case badly, it is not true, as many initially believed, that the South Wales Police are trying to intimidate disabled activists. On the contrary, the South Wales Police officers who have dealt with our direct actions have overwhelmingly been outstanding, and have treated us immense compassion and sympathy, even when we have put them in some incredibly unpleasant positions, for example forcing them to arrest us and drag us out of roads during rush-hour traffic.

It is completely unacceptable that the South Wales Police are now widely viewed as oppressing disabled protesters when in fact they were simply used as a tool by a political faction of a trade union. This is particularly unjust given that many of our disabled activists have received much more compassion, sympathy and support for our cause from the police officers sent to deal with the chaos our direct actions cause, than we have from DWP staff and members of PCS.

I am anxious to set the record straight, and with your permission I would like to ask the political blogger Tom Pride to publish this letter to you (edited for anonymity) as an update to his post linked to here, and to send a copy of the letter to those MPs and AMs who offered to pursue the matter on my behalf.

http://tompride.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/police-question-disability-activist-about-criminal-posts-on-facebook-update/

The question I am now faced with is what do I do about the matters above. This episode caused me immense distress and impacted negatively on my health. It is intolerable that a political faction within a trade union should intimidate a disabled activist in this way simply because they don’t like the arguments her movement are articulating. I had hoped to address this matter through my own trade union’s democratic structures, to get UCU to fraternally, tactfully, and in the most constructive way possible, indicate to PCS that the intimidation of disabled activists in this manner is completely unacceptable. Unfortunately this option has been shut down by the UCU general secretary.

My only option therefore is to make a complaint to the police against those who initiated the matter with the police[*], on grounds that it was malicious. I would also strongly urge you to pursue a case of wasting police time against the perpetrators, and when I meet with you I will give you all the evidence I have at my disposal.

It is, however, very important to me to not cause trouble for PCS employees. I do not know who exactly from PCS went to the police, but the chances were that it was a PCS employee acting on the instructions of an elected PCS officer. It is the elected officers and the political faction they are a part of who are guilty of this cynical use of the police to intimidate me and shut down a line of argument they didn’t like which was gaining public momentum  not the PCS employee who carried out their instruction. Could you outline for me what the consequences would be for the person who went to the police initially should I make a complaint?

Please let me know when would be convenient for us to meet again. I am free all week this week.

I would like to say how impressed I am with the way my complaint over the conduct of the police officers has been handled. I very much appreciate the time you and your colleagues have put into investigating this matter. I also very much appreciate the way I was listened to, and the way all my concerns were taken seriously and addressed. As a trade union officer experienced in representing members in grievances, I can honestly say that the South Wales Police’s handling of complaints, and complainants, is considerably superior to the way complaints are dealt with in the workplaces I’m familiar with, and within our trade unions.

Yours,

Loony Lefty

[*] In the end, and after discussion with the police, I decided not to make a complaint to the police against PCS. As a trade unionist I do not feel it is appropriate to set the police on other trade unionists. Even when they do so to me.

Down with France’s colonial war in Mali! Solidarity with the Resistance! Let’s transform Mail into another defeat for imperialism!

Fight for a workers government based on the peasants and poor! For socialist revolution in North Africa and the Middle East!

1.                   French imperialism has started a new war in Mali – one of its former colonies in Western Africa. Since 10.1.2013 the “socialist” government of François Hollande has ordered its army to bombard the North of Mali and deployed 750 soldiers. The French intervention force should increase soon to 2.500 soldiers. British imperialism has already announced its readiness to support the French troops with its air force and the US will assist them too with its murderous drones. The Merkel government has committed special forces and tanks to the effort. Spain has committed troops we would say the EU has jumped in with both feet without polling the masses who they hope to distract from privations of record unemployment and austerity with “humanitarian” war hoopla! In addition, the bloc of Western African states, ECOWAS, plans to send 3.300 soldiers. Together with the Mali government’s army they want to crush the Tuareg and Islamist rebels and re-conquer the North of the country.

2.                   Let us spell out the truth: This is no “humanitarian” war – this is a reactionary colonial war! The real goal of French imperialism and its allies is to strengthen its control over Mali and the Western African region and to suppress the revolution which is sweeping through North Africa.

3.                   Mali and most of its 14.5 million people are living in extreme poverty which is mainly the result of imperialism’s control over the world economy and the super-exploitation by the multinational corporations. However, monopoly capital and imperialist power are greedy for the rich raw materials of Mali. The country is Africa’s third largest gold producer. It is also believed to be filled with oil and gas as well as uranium and phosphate. French imperialism already depends on Uranium from Tuareg populated areas in Niger, to sustain its “clean energy” solution while the local people must scrounge for cooking fuel/fire wood.

4.                   The Uprising of the Tuareg people in the North of Mali who are fighting for their own state Azawad has added another rebellion to the wave of revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East. Socialists support the struggle of the Tuareg people for national self-determination. We combine the support for the Tuareg’s national liberation struggle with the perspective of a “Socialist Azawad”.

5.                   Both in Mali as well as in the Tuareg areas, the way forward for the workers and peasants is to take power and to expropriate the multinational corporations (like AngloGold) and local capitalists without compensation.  For the control of all natural resources by the workers, expel the multinationals and their greedy managers!  For massive wage rise for the miners!

6.                We oppose bourgeois and petty-bourgeois forces like the Islamist Ansar al Din, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) as well as the bourgeois nationalist MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad) and the FLNA (National Front for the Liberation of Azawad). We call on the exploited of Mali and West Africa to militarily  defend ALL factions in the Tuareg  nationalist struggle against imperialism, the dictatorship and their African including Arab proxies. We also defend Asawad and the main Tuareg organisation MNLA from attack by the Islamist/Jihadist factions that seek to impose Sharia law in Asawad and the whole of North Africa.

The workers, peasants and poor in Mali need to organize independently in action councils (like the Soviets in Russia in 1917) and armed militias to fight for their own interests. The recent heroic workers struggle in Marikana in South Africa as well as the bold struggle of the armed workers and peasants in Syria fighting against the jackal Assad are inspiring examples of how we need to fight.

7.                   The French colonial war has again exposed the true reactionary character of the main forces of the French left. Holland’s Social Democratic government wasted no time showing its classical social imperialist colors complete with its “humanitarian” subterfuge, an old racist story the SP has been peddling since the 1890’s. The Communist Party (PCF) – a constituent party of the reformist European Left Party as well as of the Front de Gauche in France – expressed in their public statements to date that they “share the goals of the Mali government to defeat the Jihadist terrorists in the North”. These social-democratised Stalinists are cynically worried that the French intervention “might risk a war”, so they “request that the French authorities respond to questions posed by heavy military intervention” (Statement from 12.1.). In other words, they are true social-imperialists who implicitly support the war goals of its ruling class. The New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA)  adopts the classic centrist line of social-pacifism. They verbally “denounce this imperialist military intervention decided by Hollande”.  (Statement from 11.1.) However, they fail to support the rebels, i.e. those who are actually fighting against this imperialist intervention, nor do they call for the defeat of the French army.

8.                   We call upon the international workers movement to mobilize against the imperialist intervention in Mali!  We call for the defeat of the imperialist troops and the allied Mali government army! In the tradition of the Communist International in Lenin’s time and Trotsky’s Fourth International we support the military struggle of the colonial people against the imperialist forces and their allies without supporting in any way the politics of the Islamists and bourgeois nationalists. Let’s transform Mail into another defeat for imperialism!

9.                   We call the international workers movement – especially in France – to mobilize for protest actions against the colonial war in order to undermine the government’s war efforts. For demonstrations and strikes against the imperialist war! Transport workers: refuse to do any work which supports the French military efforts!

10.               The activists of the Revolution in North Africa and the Middle East must see the struggle against the imperialist intervention in Mali as part of their struggle. The workers and popular struggles in Tunisia against the Ennahda government and in Egypt against president Mursi, the heroic Palestinian resistance against the colonial settler state Israel, the heroic Revolution of the Syrian workers and peasants against the murderous Assad regime – they must be combined with the anti-imperialist resistance in Mali into a single wave of permanent revolution leading to working class power and the establishment of a Socialist Federation of Workers and Peasant Republics in North Africa and the Middle East. To succeed in this task we need to build new revolutionary workers parties and a new World Party of Socialist Revolution.

* Down with France’s colonial war in Mali!  The wealth of the Sahara must be made to serve the people not imperialism its  corporations or the IMF.

* For the defeat of the imperialist troops and the allied Mali government army!

* For the military victory of the rebels against the French/government and-coalition troops!

* For the right of national self-determination of the Tuareg people in the North  of Mali including the right to form their own state! Tuareg people live and migrate across modern borders. We defend Tuareg national rights over those of the nation states carved out by imperialism and the Tuareg’s right to migrate freely.

* No political support for Islamism and bourgeois nationalism!

* Break with imperialism – for the expropriation of AngloGold without compensation! For nationalization of the mines and all natural resources under control of the working class! For massive wage rise of the miners! For a joint fight with the miners of Lonmin against the imperialists and for workers control!

* For international solidarity against the imperialist intervention! For anti-war actions by the French, European and US workers movement!  Defend class war prisoners and those who take direct action against of imperialism’s war machine.

* For a workers and peasant government in Mali! For expropriation of the multinational corporations and the local capitalists without any compensation! For socialist revolution in Mali and the whole of North Africa and the Middle East!

In 127 years, they had never done this before. The Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission reversed a decision and fired a police officer. The reversal followed a week of protests by community groups and leaders. But why they did it — to correct themselves in response to public outrage — raises a broader question: when should citizens have the right to fire a police officer?

Here are the facts. On September 22, 2011, Officer Richard Schoen stopped Jeanine Tracy, because she made a sudden lane change without the proper signals. She was handcuffed for disorderly conduct and driven to District Seven police station. During the ride, she cursed, spat at the car’s partition, and stomped on the backseat. When they arrived at the station, she did not get out. With his left hand, Schoen grabbed her shirt. With his right hand, he punched her repeatedly in the head. He grabbed her by the hair, dragged her out of the car, threw her on the ground, and struck her with his knee. These are the facts and we know they are facts, because there is video from the squad car’s dashboard camera.

Here’s what happened next. Schoen was fired on May 1, 2012, because he violated the department’s code of conduct. That code says a police officer must use the minimum force necessary to accomplish his or her purpose. But the story doesn’t end there. Schoen had been a police officer for nine years. He had a positive record, and only praise from superiors. Before he joined the MPD, he gave ten years of his life to military service. So, when he appealed the case to the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, they held a two-day hearing. On December 3, the Commission reinstated him, deciding sixty days without pay was a better punishment.

Here’s what the community thought. Three days later, at least a hundred people showed up at the Commission meeting to protest the reinstatement. Audience members said they wanted both the chief and the mayor removed from the Commission. Some held signs that said the MPD supports violence against women. Occupy the Hood, Urban Underground, and ABE (All Black Everything) organized community protests. Some marched to the home of Mayor Barrett — who saw the protest from a distance and drove away. The NAACP Milwaukee and county supervisors stood with the community. County Supervisor David Bowen wrote, “The commission’s inability to make sound and responsible decisions to protect the public enables officers who choose to violate the rights and humanity of city residents.”

The Commission decided to reconsider. On December 11, they reconvened. They still had to resolve a central challenge. How do you weigh a positive record of service against a very serious conduct violation? Citing Schoen’s counsel, the Commission wrote that he “was out of control… really, only a matter of seconds.” The Commission also noted that they “see no affirmative desire on Schoen’s part to cause injury — angry and uncaring, yes, but not deliberately sadistic.” But ultimately they concluded that Schoen should be permanently discharged. In addition to the seriousness of the violations, they felt Schoen “failed to accept responsibility” since he maintained that his actions — the grabbing, the punching, the dragging, and the kneeing — were not inappropriate.

A willingness to protect is noble. So when should we refuse it? In the case of Officer Schoen, Milwaukee citizens decided they did not want his protection — that his proven capacity to do harm undermined his proven capacity to do good. Even so, the case is still not over. Schoen will appeal to the Milwaukee Circuit Court. We can expect the court will review the policy violations and the disciplinary response. But they should also consider whether the citizens of a community have the right to fire a police officer — and choose who will protect them. What ensures our safety is not only more who are willing to protect, but also fewer who are willing to harm.

Neither City councils or state legislatures seem willing to act, it is left to the people to bring justice! We have given them every benefit of the doubt, every chance to reform, we can not in good conscience continue to wait and hope. The time is now, we must act.

We need a three complaints and you’re out. The government is not the solution they have become the problem.

           

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Psyclone is a novel with a difference. Its function is to connect people with information that is being kept from them. It achieves this not only through the novel itself, which is packed with little-known, suppressed, and censored information, but also through an 85-page appendix that provides the reader with all the research and data sources used by the author. A dedicated website serves as an additional appendix and hosts streaming video content from a variety of radical and contemporary filmmakers and journalists.

The information in Psyclone can be grouped into Problems and Solutions. There are various groups and individuals out there who are doing an excellent job of raising awareness about the various problems we face. Knowing how things got to the state they’re in, the players in the game and their strategies is essential. Psyclone doesn’t stop there and presents scientifically tried and tested technology and techniques, and leading-edge thinking that have the potential to stimulate a radical shift individually, socio-politically and globally, and ‘quantum-jump’ an evolutionary advancement throughout the human race.

The following is a list of some of the content keywords considered for inclusion in the novel’s metadata:

Psychological Operations/PsyOps, Revolution,General Strike,Conscience Campaign, Freedom Fighters,Conscious Evolution,Human Potential, Civil Disobedience, Lawful Rebellion, Life After Death, Mind Control, Out Of Body Projection, Remote Viewing, Resistance, Suicide Bombing, Telepathy, Terrorism, Torture, War, Resistance, Cognitive Dissonance, Surveillance Self-Defence, War Profiteering, DU/Depleted Uranium, U.S. Drug Trafficking and Paedophile Prostitution, Vaccination Dangers, Mobile Phones, Celldar, Echelon, Martial Law, Grand Chessboard, London Bombings 7th July 2005, Urban Guerrilla, Global Financial Meltdown, Synthetic Telepathy, Mind Control, ID Cards, Internet Threats, Psychological Freedom, Civil Disobedience, Prozac, ADHD, Ritalin, Motionless Electromagnetic Generator, Microchips, Silver Colloid, Fluoridation, Education, Operation Paperclip, Milgram experiment, Zimbardo experiment, Shock Doctrine, Mammograms, Scalar Technology… 

As I said, a novel with a difference. Another difference is that since its release, as well as the hardcopy which has been available through most usual (and a few unusual!) channels, Psyclone has been made available by its independent publisher free in a variety of ebook formats. The reasoning behind that is the primary aim of the book, which is to connect people with important information, not making money.

The new ebook-only edition has consolidated Psyclone’s function as a unique reference resource. The main difference between the 1st and 2nd editions is the presence of footnote reference numbering throughout the body text. The numbers are active hyperlinks which link to the relevant entry in the comprehensive appendix database. Each entry features a URL to an external datasource where readers can find additional and supporting data. The high level of interactivity that this enables is the essence of the Psyclone project. Psyclone is participatory. Being a spectator is no longer an option with a future. The future is in our hands.

The free download offer ends Friday.

Click here for the PDF

All formats are available through The Centre of the Psyclone

Mobilize all of labor to defend Longshoremen!