Human Rights

Popular Resistance Newsletter – Fighting Tyranny Of National Security State

October 18, 2013 Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Newsletter Criminal Justice and Prisons, Democracy, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights, NSA, Privacy, Surveillance

This week may be seen as a turning point in the fight back against NSA spying by creating new systems to overcome the surveillance state. There have been protests against the NSA’s spying program but they focus only on legislative solutions. While legislation is needed, many of the technological solutions lie within our own power and often merely require the government to get out of the way. President Obama’s independent commission is anything but independent. We are not going to get a “Church Committee” in the current Congress. The leadership of both parties and President Obama are too tied to the surveillance state – or, perhaps too afraid of it – to challenge it. The director of National Intelligence, James Clapper was not even reprimanded or forced to resign when he committed perjury before Congress about surveillance on Americans. Protests against the surveillance state continue to grow.

November 5th: One Million Masks, Expect Us – Anonymous

October 18, 2013 John Robles, www.voiceofrussia.com Resist! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Government, Human Rights

Although the clear goal of the march has not been announced, it is being held no doubt in support of victims of US oppression: such as Aaron Swartz, Julian Assange, Jeremy Hammond, Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, and everyone else who has been trampled on by authoritarian illegal governments while fighting for truth, justice, freedom of speech and the finer attributes that make us the civilized and beautiful creations that we all are. Well most of us. Anonymous is an inclusive force, so if on the 5th of November (remember, remember) you want to join forces in support of the fight against evil, check on the net for an activity near year, or plan your own. After all we are all Anonymous. Masks are optional. As the Knights of the Internet say: We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.

Peace Prize Winners to Putin: Release the ‘Arctic 30’

October 18, 2013 Jon Queally, www.commondreams.org Resist! Energy, Environment, Human Rights

An open letter signed by eleven Nobel Peace Prize laureates to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday is calling for the Russian government to immediately drop the piracy charges and release the 28 Greenpeace activists and two documentarians who were taken into custody last month in the aftermath of a peaceful protest against Arctic drilling off the Russian coast. The signatories, including Arch Bishop Desmond TuTu and US peace campaigner Jody Williams, called on Putin to treat the international crew—now known as the “Arctic 30”—in accordance with international law and warned against pursuing charges that would criminalize peaceful protest. "We, like millions of people around the world, are watching this case, eager to see Russian authorities drop the piracy charges, treat the 'Arctic 30' in accordance with international law, reaffirm the right to nonviolent protest, and rededicate efforts to protect the Arctic." —from the letter

Shutdown Solution: Opt Out Of Tyranny

October 18, 2013 David DeGraw, www.daviddegraw.org Create! Democracy, Education, Energy, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Government, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Poverty

The overwhelming majority falsely believes that we can’t create change, which is why we are in this mess. The mainstream media has propagandized most people into feeling like we can’t do anything to fix the problems we are confronted by. BULLSHIT!! We live in the richest, most technologically advanced society humanity has ever known. We don’t need the plastic puppet politicians anymore. They’re obsolete! It’s time for us to evolve society by starting our own autonomous local communities. Occupy inspired thousands of autonomous camps. What if we reestablished those camps as permanent Sustainable Autonomous Zones? There are already many intentional communities and collectives that are organically growing all over the place. Let’s learn from them. We’ve dedicated our energy to working on a plan to create a decentralized network of Sustainable Autonomous Zones so we can begin creating self-sufficient communities that can model new ways of living that make present ways of living obsolete.

Activist To Undergo “Forced-Feeding” In Solidarity With Guantánamo Prisoners

October 17, 2013 Jeremy Varon, www.witnesstorture.org Resist! Government, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Wars and Militarism

Andrés Thomas Conteris — on day 103 of a water-only fast — will undergo the nasal tube feeding. “Forced-feeding is torture,” says Conteris, who has lost 57 pounds. “I wish to make visible what the U.S. government is perpetrating against prisoners in Guantánamo and to remind the world that indefinite detention continues.” Conteris, age 52, has held nasogastric feedings at the White House, in Oakland,California, and at US embassies in Uruguay and Argentina. “The nasal tube feeding feels like endless agony,” says Conteris. “It feels like I’m drowning.” Beginning last February, more than 100 men at Guantánamo engaged in a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention. To try to break the protest, the US military subjected dozens of the hunger strikers to nasogastric force-feeding. “The case before the appeals court goes to the heart of the evil of Guantánamo,” says Witness Against Torture organizer Jeremy Varon, “as it argues that the purpose of force-feeding is to sustain an illegal and immoral policy of indefinite detention.”

The Aamer Appeal To Stop Force-feeding In Guantanamo

October 17, 2013 Palina Prasasouk, www.opednews.com Resist! Government, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights

Lawyers for Shaker Aamer , the last British resident in Guantanamo Bay have filed an appeal in the case of Shaker Aamer vs. Barack Obama, a case that was first filed in June 2013 to halt the force-feedings of hunger strikers Aamer, Ahmed Belbacha, and Nabil Hadjarab. This is one of four consolidated appeals, one for each of four detainees, with Aamer's being the lead case, which, if won, could end all force-feeding in the prison, a rare victory in the twelve years that Shaker Aamer has already lost. Shaker Aamer is one of 164 detainees currently in Guantanamo Bay, and one of 84 detainees cleared for release. He has been cleared since 2007 by a military review board and again by President Obama's inter-agency Guantanamo Review Task Force in 2010.

UN Rapporteur: Canada Faces Crisis In Situation Of Indigenous People

October 16, 2013 James Anaya, www.firstpeoples.org Educate! Human Rights, Indigenous Rights

But despite positive steps, daunting challenges remain. From all I have learned, I can only conclude that Canada faces a crisis when it comes to the situation of indigenous peoples of the country. The well-being gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in Canada has not narrowed over the last several years, treaty and aboriginals claims remain persistently unresolved, and overall there appear to be high levels of distrust among aboriginal peoples toward government at both the federal and provincial levels. Canada consistently ranks near the top among countries with respect to human development standards, and yet amidst this wealth and prosperity, aboriginal people live in conditions akin to those in countries that rank much lower and in which poverty abounds. At least one in five aboriginal Canadians live in homes in need of serious repair, which are often also overcrowded and contaminated with mould. The suicide rate among Inuit and First Nations youth on reserve, at more than five times greater than other Canadians, is alarming.

FBI Manipulating Grand Juries To Intimidate Political Dissidents

October 15, 2013 Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, FBI, Human Rights, Police abuse

Grand juries have been a tool in the FBI's arsenal of intimidation and information-gathering tactics for decades. They were a hallmark of the Red Scare, COINTELPRO, and more recently the Green Scare, in which animal rights activists and environmentalists have been branded “eco-terrorists” by law enforcement. Over the past year grand juries have seen a resurgence as the FBI has cracked down on radical communities. Koch's case was preceded by a high-profile grand jury in the Pacific Northwest, where four people from Washington and Oregon were imprisoned for refusing to testify.

We Want Freedom: Black Panther Party Founded Today In 1966

October 15, 2013 Staff, www.popularresistance.org Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Education, Health Care, Housing, Human Rights, Police abuse, Racism, Wars and Militarism

"On October 15, 1966 the Black Panther Party was founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in response to rampant police brutality in Oakland. While ultimately decimated by state repression the Black Panther Party during the late 1960s and early 1970s was one of the leading organizations in the United States advocating not just for black liberation, but for socialism and social justice more generally. Below is the 1972 Ten Point Program of the Black Panther Party. Dealing with issues of racism, police brutality, access to healthcare, housing, education, prisoners' rights, and US "wars of aggression" it is stunning how much of their platform remains relevant today."

Activists Chain Themselves, Challenge Immigrant Crises

October 15, 2013 Andrea Germanos, www.commondreams.org Resist! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Deportations, Human Rights, Immigration

Immigration reform activists chained themselves outside a detention facility in Arizona on Monday continuing of a campaign of civil disobedience that calls for an end to inhumane incarceration and deportations that plague the current national immigration system. The action targeted the Corrections Corporation of American (CCA)-owned Eloy Detention Center and was part of the NotOneMoreDeportation campaign, a collaborative project of theNational Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). The Obama administration has deported a record number of people, and Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the NDLON, says this is a "human rights crisis." “I know Republicans are blocking immigration reform but it’s President Obama who has the power to stop deportations,” Alvarado told NBC Latino. “If they did it with the students, now they can do it with the parents.”

Letters Detail Punitive Tactics Used On Guantánamo Hunger Strikers

October 15, 2013 Mark Townsend, www.theguardian.com Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights, Torture, Wars and Militarism

The US military secretly used a variety of tactics to break the resolve of the Guantánamo Bay hunger strikers, including placing them in solitary confinement if they continued to refuse food, newly declassified interviews with detainees reveal. One prisoner also said that the last British resident held inside the camp,Shaker Aamer, had been targeted and humiliated by the authorities to the point where it became impossible for the 44-year-old to continue his protest. The US military recently announced the end of the six-month mass hunger strike among detainees at Guantánamo Bay. But human rights groups argue that such proclamations are disingenuous as at least 16 inmates are still force-fed daily, and two are in hospital. One detainee, 42-year-old Syrian national Abu Wa'el Dhiab, reported that the Extreme Reaction Force team, the camp's military riot squad, would "storm" Aamer's cell five times a day in an attempt to crush his resolve during the strike.

American Prisoner Marks Ninth Year In Iraqi Jail

October 14, 2013 Aisha Maniar, www.popularresistance.org Educate! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Human Rights

Once a month, on a Saturday afternoon, Narmeen Saleh and her eight-year old daughter, Zeinab, hold a solitary, silent protest outside the US Embassy in London, calling for the release of their respective husband and father, Shawki Ahmed Omar who, this month, marks his ninth year of detention without due process in an Iraqi jail. In October 2004, Mrs. Saleh, who was pregnant at the time, and her husband were seized by force by American soldiers at the home of a relative in Baghdad. The couple was taken to the Camp Nama detention facility near Baghdad Airport, where they were held and tortured. Mrs. Saleh, who is Iraqi, was released after 16 days, but her treatment took a toll on her pregnancy: Zeinab, who has never met her father, was born with cerebral palsy. Mrs. Saleh managed to leave Iraq after continuing threats to her and her family in 2006, and came to Europe.

SNCC: The Importance of its Work, the Value of its Legacy

October 14, 2013 Charles Cobb, www.sncclegacyproject.org Strategize! Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Human Rights, Racism

Other movements gained strength from the pool of ideas found in SNCC: Chicano farm workers, who were facing sheriffs and going to jail in the late 1950s, invited SNCC workers to help with their efforts in the late 1960s. Discussion of sexism and women’s rights within SNCC, as well as SNCC’s real life examples of empowered, respected women who led local movements and held key positions in the organization, encouraged and reinforced a burgeoning feminist movement. But more than anything else, the SNCC legacy is found in the veterans, many of who have continued to work for “a more perfect union.” Five SNCC veterans have been recipients of MacArthur Foundation Genius awards. Former SNCC communications director Julian Bond became board chair of the NAACP. Former SNCC chair John Lewis is now serving his 11th term as congressman from Atlanta’s 5th congressional district. Across the country, and especially in the south, SNCC veterans are influential leaders and activists. Once young and mentored by “elders” who had long labored in the fields of social change, SNCC veterans now continue that tradition and are now, who “they” were. Ella Baker’s words best define this legacy: “We who believe in freedom cannot rest.”

Immigration Reform Activists Recently Arrested In DC

October 14, 2013 Esther Yu-Hsi Lee, ww.thinkprogress.org Uncategorized Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Health Care, Human Rights, Immigration

At the Camino Americano: Rally and March for Immigrant Dignity and Respect on Tuesday, October 8, 2013, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other House members, including two House Republicans, spoke about the need for immigration reform that includes a pathway to eventual citizenship. Eight House Democrats were arrested in a show of solidarity. ThinkProgress also interviewed a few civil disobedience protesters who were identified by red armbands. When asked why they were willing to risk arrest, they all stated that it’s the right thing to do. Here are their stories.

Indigenous Rights Protesters Clash With Police At Anti-Columbus Day Demo

October 14, 2013 Jacob Chamberlain, www.commondreams.org Resist! Human Rights, Indigenous Rights, Police abuse

Over 15,000 protesters gathered in Santiago, Chile on Saturday in an anti-Columbus Day demonstration to demand improved indigenous rights and a return of ancestral lands—521 years after Columbus began the European invasion of the Western Hemisphere. The protest was organized by the country’s largest indigenous group, Organización Mapuche Meli Wixan Mapu, "who have been in a long struggle with the government over ancestral land taken from them during colonization," Al Jazeera America reports. "We have nothing to celebrate” read a press release by Mapuche. Police turned water cannons on the protesters and dispersed the crowd after several protesters had thrown rocks at the police. The ongoing fight for indigenous land rights heated up on Wednesday, Santiago Timesreports, when a major police operation arrested 8 Mapuche activists as Chilean security forces cleared indigenous occupants from disputed land.

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