Anarchoblogs in English

SOASOASOASOASOASOA
Prisoners of Conscience‏
You can jail the resisters... but you can't jail the resistance! .

The four courageous advocates who took action against the School of the Americas this past November are in sights of the U.S. Government.

Nancy Gwin, a peace activist from central New York, reported to Danbury Federal Prison in Connecticut. Gwin will serve 6 months in federal prison for her nonviolent action to protest the School of the Americas. Gwin said the school's closure would send a powerful message to Latin America. "To say, 'We are closing this school to make an equal relationship with you,'" she said. "It's a small step, but it says we're looking for a new future."

As Gwin reports, the fate of Michael Walli, remains unclear. Walli also participated in the action with Gwin and told Magistrate Faircloth that if he was released he would not return voluntarily to Columbus for trial this past January 25th. Faircloth issued a bench warrant for Walli's arrest and this past Tuesday, March 2nd, Federal Marshalls knocked on the door of Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington D.C. to take Walli into custody. After being held in the D.C. jail for three days, Walli was released on his own recognizance by D.C. Federal Judge Facciola. He was asked to return to court on March 12th to decide whether or not he will be transferred to Georgia to appear in front of Magistrate Faircloth. Faircloth is responsible for the harsh 6 month prison sentences of the other three advocates.

Franciscan Catholic Priest, Fr. Louis Vitale, was recently transferred from a county jail in Cordele, Georgia to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. It is likely that Vitale will continue to be transferred, during his sentence, until he reaches a Federal Prison on the West Coast.

Ken Hayes, an SOA Watch National Council member, has also heard from the federal government and is scheduled to report to prison on March 16th. Hayes, 60, is a long-time peace and justice activist from Austin, Texas and a leader in the local Austin SOA Watch group.The action of the SOA Watch 4 gives us hope and inspires us to do all we can to close the School of the Americas once and for all.

"WAR is BUSINESS" New ONLINE Canadian resource‏:
"WAR is BUSINESS" A new ONLINE RESOURCE for Canadian activists, researchers and the media

Read it now ---> http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/64/64.htm

Few Canadians know much about this country's war profiteers, or the billions in military technologies that they export to dozens of countries at war. Between 2003 and 2006, Canadian war industries exported at least $7.4 billion in military hardware to 62 countries with troops fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and elsewhere.

And, the Canada Pension Plan forces us to invest in many of the world's largest weapons manufacturers. Taxpayers are also complicit in the immoral business of war, because -- for many decades -- Canadian governments (Liberal and Conservative) have transferred billions in publicly-funded corporate welfare to this country's most profitable arms exporters.

Learn about Canada's war industries, what they produce, where it is exported and how the government is aiding and abetting the whole sordid process. Find out about the government-funded lobby group that represents 700 Canadian war industries and their huge arms bazaar, called CANSEC, which is returning to Ottawa municipal property, June 2-3, 2010.

"CANSEC: War is Business," is the latest 50-page issue of Press for Conversion!, a magazine published by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT).

This new resource -- including all of the articles, photos, graphics, cartoons, tables and charts focusing on Canada's major role in the international arms trade -- is NOW ONLINE:

http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/64/64.htm

If you haven't already SUBSCRIBED, please consider doing so! http://coat.ncf.ca/support_us/subscribe.html

Thanks for supporting COAT's efforts!

Cheers,

Richard Sanders

Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)

Editor, Press for Conversion!

P.S. Dozens of previous issues of COAT's magazine are also online -- full text -- at COAT's website:

HAITI:

Four of COAT's publications focus exclusively on Canadian complicity (and particularly CIDA's despicable role) in backing the 2004 coup that overthrew Haiti's elected government and imposed a brutal dictatorship:

**Lies without Borders: How CIDA-funded 'NGOs' waged a propaganda war to justify Haiti’s 2004 coup

**Putting the Aid in Aiding and Abetting: CIDA's Agents of Regime Change in Haiti's 2004 Coup

**CIDA's Key Role in Haiti's 2004 Coup d’état: Funding Regime Change, Dictatorship and Human Rights Atrocities, one Haitian 'NGO' at a Time

**A Very Canadian Coup d’état in Haiti: The Top 10 Ways that Canada’s Government Helped the 2004 Coup and its Reign of Terror

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Environment Spending Dwarfed by Rising Defence Budget:

Read the media coverage of the new report that appears in more than 30 newspapers across Canada:Ottawa Citizen Canwest News Sun Media

I want to let you know about a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives by Rideau Institute senior adviser Bill Robinson.

The report shows that Canada’s rising National Defence spending is $21.185 billion in 2009-2010, making Canada’s rank 13th highest in the world, and 6th highest among NATO’s 28 members, dollar for dollar.

Bill Robinson says the rise in defence spending is an indication of the government’s priorities. “Government spending on National Defence is twenty times that of federal Environment Department spending,” said Robinson. By comparison, the Department of the Environment was allocated only $1.064 billion.

The report, “Canadian Military Spending 2009,” notes that Department of National Defence spending has increased by 9.6% over last year, or $1.8 billion. ”The government could have doubled its planned multi-departmental spending on climate change initiatives this year had it not increased military spending by that amount,” added Robinson.

Canada has spent $23.1 billion in successive increases to National Defence spending since the outset of the Global War on Terror in 2001 (calculated by comparing spending to date above the 2000-01 budget). Roughly half of that amount has been spent on the Afghanistan war.

In historical terms, military spending today has surpassed Cold War spending in 1989 by 22%, and Canada is committed to increased spending under the Conservative government’s Canada First Defence Strategy.

“If the extra $130 billion to $155 billion that Canada will spend over the next 18 years as a result of its post–Cold War military budget buildup were spent instead on aid, it would be enough to nearly triple Canadian development assistance over that period, enabling us to meet and even exceed the 0.7% target and to provide additional resources for climate change aid,” said Robinson.

“Canadian Military Spending 2009” is published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Bill Robinson is a defence analyst and senior adviser of the Rideau Institute.

In peace,

Steven Staples,

Ceasefire.ca

The following is a very special appeal for an American of conscience who has claimed sanctuary in a Canadian Church. I urge not just my Canadian comrades to support him. That much is obvious. I also urge our American comrades to do the best they can for this "good man".YES, such a campaign is "very liberal", but it is not from the perspective of the individual involved. this guy has come up here to escape killing Innocent people out in Iraq and Afghanistan. I don't expect my general readers to believe in political rhetoric, either that of the average leftist or my nutty comrades. Or my own for that matter. All that I would ask is that you consider the following appeal for a man who does not want to be a murderer and support him. This is plain language. Here is the story and appeal.

USA/CANADA: War resister Rodney Watson in church sanctuary in Canada
2009 US war resisters Rodney Watson decided to seek sanctuary in a church in Vancouver, Canada, rather than face deportation to the United States to face desertion charges. Rodney Watson, who is originally from Kansas City, Kansas, enlisted in the US Army in 2004 for a three-year contract with the intentions of becoming a cook since he wanted to serve the troops in a non-combat capacity.

I n 2005, he was deployed to Iraq just north of Mosul, where he was put in charge of searching vehicles and Iraqi civilians for explosives, contraband and weapons before they entered the base. He was also expected to “keep the peace” by monitoring Iraqi civilians who worked on the base and fire his weapon at Iraqi children who approached the perimeter.

After his first tour was over, Watson was informed that he was instead being Stop-Lossed as the Army intended to have him serve beyond the date of his contractual obligation with the military. On two-week leave, he decided not to return to his base at Fort Hood, Texas, and instead fled to Vancouver, B.C. in 2006, where he lives with his Canadian born partner and their infant son.

In a September 2009 press conference, Watson - who is African-American - described his experience in Iraq, “I witnessed racism and the physical abuse from soldiers towards the civilians. On one occasion, a soldier was beating an Iraqi civilian, calling him a sand-nigger and threw his Qur’an on the ground and spit on it. The man was unarmed and he was just looking for work on the base. He posed no type of threat. He was beaten because soldiers brought their personal racist hatred to Iraq.”

He has been living in refuge at the First United Church in Vancouver, B.C., since 18 September 2009. He was welcomed with open arms and publicly declared sanctuary on Monday. Sarah Bjorknas from the Vancouver arm of the WRSC notes that Watson was issued his deportation order before his case could be resolved through the courts.

Watson wishes to remain in Canada because of his objection to the Iraq War but his passion for his infant son remains the strongest pull.

At the press conference, Watson’s voice trembled, “I don’t want to be torn away from him. I want to be there for him during his first steps, every waking moment, I want to be there. And I know if I’m deported, it is to prison and I will not be able to see any of those moments for who knows how long, for God knows how long.” If convicted of desertion as a felony charge he will not be able to cross the border to visit his son.

War Resisters' International calls for letters of support to Rodney Watson:

Rodney Watsonc

c/o First United Church Mission

320 E Hastings St

Vancouver, BC V6A 1P4

Canada
War Resisters' International calls for letters of protest to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, demanding to halt the deportation of Rodney Watson and other war resisters to the United States

.Office of the Prime Minister

80 Wellington Street

Ottawa

K1A 0A2

Fax: +1-613-941-6900

A protest email can be sent at http://wri-irg.org/node/9046.
Andreas Speck

War Resisters' International

A few notes on sources. The Israeli anarchist group, from which one of the resisters comes from is the Anarchists Against the Wall. The War Resisters International and the War Resisters Turkey (website in Turkish) also supported the protest. Note the prominent role played by anarchists in the protest. Turkey has a vibrant and growing anarchist movement, very much unknown in the outside world because of the large language barrier.

On 30 October a group of Turkish antimilitarists gathered at the front door of Israel Consulate of Istanbul and declared their support to two Israeli conscientious objectors, Efi Brenner and Or Ben-David* who arrested last week for to object war politics of Israeli governments against Palestinian people. -- In the meeting that realized for the invitation of WRI (War Resisters’ International) a Turkish antimilitarist, Özgür Bircan also declared his conscientious objection. The members of LAF (Anarchist Activity Lycee), high school students same as Efi and Or, attended the meeting with the placards written “Reject! Resist! Refuse!” and “Do not go for service, do not shed your brothers’ blood”. ---- After reading the declaration of Shministim, Turkish antimilitarists said these briefly:

"We, the Turkish antimilitarists, with the invitation of WRI, gathered today to protest Israeli government and give our support to Israeli conscientious objectors Efi Brenner and Or Ben-David. As you know UN accused Israeli government and Hamas committing war crime at Gaza recently. Israeli conscientious objectors do not want to participate this crime. Wars are meant to be destruction for both humanity and nature and therefore we call all human beings not to go for military service and not to participate this crime.

Özgür Bircan, who declared his conscientious objection in the meeting, said these briefly:

I, Özgür Bircan, object wearing uniforms; taking and giving orders; to be obliged to ‘learn’ using arms; applying this ‘knowledge’ if required, on people whom I did not know and see before; and to be part of one of the ideal citizen formatting institutions of yours.

Blood thirsty masters of this world, we are expecting you to the front lines of wars. We, the conscientious young people of the world will not be the participants of your bloody wars, power struggles, we object wars and militarism. I object wars and militarism.

If we need to create heroes for ourselves, my heroes are these two teenagers who met confinement at their early ages since they refuse to be part of that ferocity in Palestine. They are the saints of modern world. Our hearts are with Efi, Or and the whole people objecting to participating in wars.

=====================================

* Of the Anarchists Against the Wall initiative

The following came to Molly's attention via the A-Infos website. It is originally from the Polish anarchist news site Centrum Informacji Anarchistycznej.

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On Oct. 21, US Vice-President Joe Biden visited Poland as part of a four-day visit to Central Europe and the Balkans meant to seal various sorts of military deals in the region. The Campaign Against Militarism protested during his visit with the Prime Minister.

---- Before the protest, one activist accidentally met Biden on the way to an announced trip to the monument of the Heros of the Warsaw Ghetto and came within arms reach of the VP with a banner reading "No Patriot Missiles". Poland is trying desperately to obtain Patriot Missiles. Previously the US had offered its ass-licking ally only training versions of the missiles, without any real warheads.

---- Upon arrival at the Prime Minister's Office, the police, secret service, etc. etc., tried to detain the first protester and claim that there could be no protest.

The person naturally refused to be led to the police wagon and journalists became interested in this action. When more people arrived, the police tried parking police vans in front of the protesters, which, although a decidedly modest group of people, were apparently not to be shown to the US Vice President or the media. The police also tried to block the banner, but one person jumped out around them with another banner. All the time the police were harassing and trying to block the protesters, which pissed one journalist off so much that he called the police headquarters complaining. Journalists also had reasons to be pissed off: the government announced that yes, they can go to a "press conference" with Mr. Biden - but nobody would be allowed to ask any questions.

And there are lots of questions to be asked. Nobody knows much about the SM3 IB, the version of anti-ballistic missile which Poland may receive sometime after 2018 since it is still in testing. Nobody knows about the warheads on the ten Patriot missiles Poland is supposed to get (at a cost of 300 million dollars for just the missiles) or what exactly the US soldiers at the military base scheduled to open next year in Poland really will be doing. And nobody knows for sure what America's missile defense plans in the region really are.

Eventually the cops had to leave the protesters alone.

In the meanwhile, the case of some people arrested in Slupsk in March 2008 after a demonstration against the planned missile shield is finally in court. So far, people are only denied the charges; witnesses will be heard next week.

The Campaign Against Militarism strongly protests against the location of Patriot and SM3 IB rockets in Poland. All of these rockets, regardless of their kind, are instruments of war and imperialist politics. War is killing in the interest of governments, power elites and business. In wars the ruling classes always win, and normal people always lose.

The military policy of the USA has for a long time rested on the promotion of the arms industry, to profit corporations. Wars are conducted ensure corporate profit, foreign governments are overthrown for the same reasons. The Polish government, supporting the military adventures of the ISA like the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq often says outright that they are in it for the profit (for example for contracts in Iraq), or for strengthening their relations with the USA. We oppose Poland's participation in these criminal campaigns,

No to Polish and American Imperialism!

No to Pro-War Manipulation!

No War for Profit!

No More Hate Wars!

Campaign Against Militarism

Contributions by Tariq Ali, Peggy Mason, Walter Dorn, Stephen Cornish, Murray Dobbin, Linda McQuaig, and others

I am very pleased to tell you that a new book is available that examines positive alternatives to the terrible war in Afghanistan.

My co-editor, Lucia Kowaluk, and I asked writers and experts from across Canada to give us their analysis of the war, and suggest how Canada can best work to bring peace to this troubled country.

The result is Afghanistan and Canada: Is There an Alternative to War? (Black Rose Books, 2009).

I have signed several copies, which I want to make available to you.

I know that you will enjoy the contributions by Michael Neuman, Murray Dobbin, D’Abord Solidaires, John W. Warnock, Tariq Ali, Échec à la Guerre, Stephen Cornish, Linda McQuaig, Ira Basen, Ligue des droits et libertés, Richard Preston, Cheshmak Farhoumand-Sims, Asad Ismi, Rose Marie Whalley, John Foster, A. Walter Dorn, Pierre Beaudet, Claude Castonguay, Richard Preston, Peggy Mason, and many others.

We have opened a section of Ceasefire.ca called Ceasefire.ca Gear, where you can pick up great other great books, Ceasefire.ca pins, and even campaign tools.

I hope you enjoy it.

In peace,

Steven Staples, Ceasefire.ca

P.S. If you live in the Ottawa region, we are hosting a book launch on Friday, October 2. Please join us.