Focus on Palestine: Hungerstriking for Dignity - published by GYBO (Gaza Youth Breaks Out)

Mahmoud Sarsak

Our brother and son, Mahmoud Sarsak, is a 25 years old professional footballer from Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, today entering his 74th day of hunger strike. We ask you to support Mahmoud and his demand for fair treatment. Your voice can contribute to saving his life and to a little victory against injustice.
Mahmoud has been imprisoned by Israel for the past three years, after being arrested by the Israeli military on 22nd July 2009 at the Erez checkpoint in Gaza while on his way to join the Palestine National Football team for a match in Balata refugee camp in the West Bank.
After his arrest he was transferred to Ashkelon prison where he was interrogated for 30 days, before being given a detention order on 23rd August 2009 under Israel’s “Unlawful Combatants Law”. Addameer, the Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights group, state that “in practice, the Unlawful Combatants Law contains fewer protections for detainees than even the few that are granted under administrative detention orders in the West Bank”, and allows the Israeli state to hold Palestinians from Gaza for indefinite periods without charge or trial.
Mahmoud started a hunger strike on 19th March 2012 to protest being held without charge or trial, demanding to be informed of the reasons for his three year detention and to be allowed to defend himself, as is his most basic right under international law. After starting his hunger strike he was transferred to Naqab prison on 8th April and then moved to solitary confinement at Eshel prison. On 16th April he was transferred to Ramleh prison hospital as a result of his deteriorating health. He is now on his 74 day of hunger strike, an extremely dangerous milestone that could see his death at any moment.
He is one of over 4400 Palestinians held in Israeli jails in violation of Articles 49 and 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids the transfer of occupied peoples (Palestinians), to the territory of the occupier (Israel). Grave breaches of these Articles are considered war crimes in international law.
For us it is unbearable to see Israel has been awarded the hosting of the UEFA Under 21s football championship in 2013 and gears up to participate in the London Olympics, while it routinely arrests, tortures, imprisons and kills Palestinians, including football players, without consequence. This is not fair play. Sports should show solidarity.
As Mahmoud’s family, we call on all people of conscience to demand his immediate release, and to pressure governments and international organisations to force Israel’s compliance with the most basic standards of international law. In particular we ask fellow football players and athletes to speak out in support of Mahmoud – don’t be silent when Israeli cruelty and arbitrariness has destroyed the aspirations of a rising athlete and keeps thousands under inhumane conditions in their jails. We ask sports teams and anti-racist fan clubs to organize in support of Mahmoud and all the other Palestinian political prisoners. Your voice can contribute to saving his life and to a little victory against injustice.
It is time to end Israeli crimes carried out with impunity, and to demand the release of all Palestinians held illegally by Israel, including the other Palestinian prisoners who, along with our beloved Mahmoud, striking for their dignity and freedom.

Support Khulud Badawi - AIC Alternative News

Support Palestinian UN employee Khulood Badawi, currently under attack for expressing a personal opinion on her own Facebook page.

 

Khulood Badawi is a field worker with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), documenting  human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. No one has ever questioned the professionalism of Badawi’s work in OCHA.

Khulood Badawi was also a political activist, dedicated to the defense of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, as well as a feminist. Due to her work in OCHA, she has carefully refrained from any public political activity, a choice that definitely was not easy for her.

For several days now, Khulood is the target of an organized campaign aimed at pushing her out of OCHA, as well as delegitimizing all Palestinian employees in the UN agencies. The pretext for this campaign against Khulood Badawi is a blog on Israel’s recent aggression against the Gaza Strip that she published on her private Facebook page.

Needless to say, working within these UN institutions are many Israeli Jews who advocate pro-Israeli political opinions, and no one challenges their right to work there, as long as these opinions are expressed outside the framework of their UN work and in their personal capacity.

Every person for whom freedom of opinion is important must stand by Khulood Badawi and her right to express herself on her personal Facebook page. Every person who cares for human rights must denounce the racist campaign against Khulood Badawi.

Please sent emails in support of Khulood Badawi to the following Jerusalem-based UN officials:

-          Richard Miron
Chief Public Information Officer
mironr@un.org

-          M. Ramesh Rajasingham, Head,OCHA - occupied Palestinian territory

-          E-mail: rajasingham@un.org

-      Amanda Pitt, OCHA NY:

Email: pitta@un.org

-            Hayat Abu Saleh
Email : abusaleh@un.org

APIC(APICONG)URGES ALL ASSOCIATES, FOLLOWERS AND READERS OF THIS BLOG TO SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN  IN SUPPORT OF KHULUD BADAWI.

Statement on Syria and Speech, March 2012

Bismillahi-rahmani-r-rahim,
Bismi'l Ummah wa-sh-sha'b,
Bismi'l haqq qa'l adhala,

Let me state frankly that no one has anything to gain from a long-term destabilisation of Syria.
This both government and opposition need to understand and make the primary consideration in all their actions.

The protracted bloodshed that has been going on for one year and remains unabated is weakening not only the Syrian nation but the Middle East. It is bringing the Imperialist world system craving for the earth and the gas and oil of Syria closer to its aim of staging an invasion, the meticulously planned, systematic invasion of yet another Middle Eastern country, Iraq style, Libya style, Afghanistan style.

The video I am going to present to you now, a release of the US military intelligence for internal purposes, demonstrates concepts and techniques of infiltration that remain at the heart of US foreign policy, which impressively shows how little has changed in the decades since. Note well that government and opposition, technically, are interchangeable, as are some of the circumstances on which the film proceeds. The 'New Age' is a myth. The 'New Policy' is a myth. So is the legend of globalisation. It is the same brute, ageold system of oppression within, aiming to silence the voice of those violated by the most massively injust and inhumane social order the world has known, and of ruthless aggression without, with the aim of colonising new markets, that has formed the core of capitalist economy and politics ever since capitalism entered the stage of history.



The full force of infiltration and systematic destabilisation is applied to those states and political forces that form an obstacle to the endeavours of western capitalism at its neo-liberal, neo-Imperial stage. Attesting to this is the continued economic and political sabotage of states like Cuba and Iran, the continued pressure to revaluate the national currency applied to China, the attempt at NATO expansion in the Caucasus, the conversion of the Arab uprisings into "the Arab Spring", institutionalised by the Imperialist powers to reach their goal of overthrowing the Syrian and Iranian government, while easing their access to the resources of countries like Lybia and appropriating the disgruntled intelligentsia in countries like Egypt so as to advance, through their corruption, to a de-facto control of their governments.

A revolution is not made by the intelligentsia. A revolution is made by the peasantry, the proletariat, the working masses. If these have no voice, the revolution is voiceless. It is a grey matter; a vacuum. And wherever there exists such a vacuum, the agents of US and global Imperialism slip in.

This is the complication with the Arab uprisings, and this is the source op their corruption. To those who dream of a white collar revolution, I say: there is no such thing. The revolution is cotton, not silk, and silk it will never be.

But what revolution are we talking about? There is no revolution.
Will there ever be one? If you want it, there will. And if the world is to survive this century, there must.

As it is, the West stands at the doorsteps of Syria, and Syria is desending into chaos. Whose interests does that serve? A simple question. And so is the answer. Let us call, therefore, for an immediate cessation of hostilities on all sides. In the interest of national unity. In the interest of national souvereignty. In the interest and the wider Middle East. In the interest of all those who stand united against the Imperialist threat to global peace and stability. The ultimate aim of the White House and its vassals and allies, is not Syria but Iran. In this, they seek to unleash a nuclear war. This is a concern that goes beyond all parties and poltical affiliations. Do we want the world to be turned into Hiroshima? Do we finally want to allow the human species to wipe out itself?
No threat to world peace emanates from Iran. It is the capitalist and Imperialist powers whose desparation over the lethal crisis of their system, whose ruthless greed and utter indifference to what happens tomorrow, to what comes after them, that is confronting the world with the bestial threat of a nuclear holocaust. It is the Imperialist governments that are the worst enemies of their people.

Syria is a gateway to this aggression. It must be closed.

Let us call upon the Syrian goverment to reform not only policies and articles of the constitution but to reform the Baath Party as a whole. Let us call upon the Syrian government for an immediate end to the repression of the Communist Party and for its inclusion in a government of national unity. Let us call upon the Syrian government for the immediate release of all political prisoners. Let us call upon the Syrian government and the government of national unity to be formed to take firm steps toward the effective exclusion of all Taliban and Al Qaeeda-like forces from every position of political influence and decision-making, for these are the most powerful agents of US Imperialism, as are the Gulf monarchies and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Let us call upon the Syrian opposition not to tolerate such forces in their ranks. Let us call upon the Syrian opposition to put the greater interest of the Middle East before their own immediate interests. To allow the powers of neo-liberal colonialism and Imperialist darkness to advance unresisted means to sacrifice mankind. It means to sacrifice human culture and civilisation to barbarism. It means to sacrifce the most precious treasures of the human mind, the human intellect, the human heart, to the barbarity of the darkest age this world has ever seen.

Let us call upon the people of Syria and the peoples and nations of the East to raise the sacred torch of Al Andalus to illuminate the night!
Let us call upon all conscientious powers and upon all men and women to whom the peace of the world, the welfare of their children and the highest endeavours of the human soul have a meaning, to form an axis of resistance, an axis of humanity, against Imperialist dehumanisation and slaughter for profit.

The agents of Imperialism take on different disguises. If they appear in a religious disguise, let this not confuse you. Their "religion" is nothing but a colonial game; a conjurer's trick. They commit abominations no religion would ever allow. God has spewed them out of HIS mouth and disowned them. Those who follow them, follow them into the Fire of Hell. And hell can be very earthly.

Do not be confused by those who appear in the disguise of demockracy (and this is not a spelling mistake). No regime is more absolutist and more totalitarian than the capitalist regimes: the dictatorships of the multi-national combines, the dictatorship of "the market" over the human soul and over human livelihood. Every TV commercial, every advertisement, every news and enterainment programme is a propaganda tool of this dictatorship, in whose name the most unspeakable atrocities are committed on a daily basis, until they have become trivial, until they have become part of our thoughts and dreams, until they have become "values" that have perverted every human value, until we no longer notice our complicity in the crime.

Humanity in its entirety lives, rises and falls, in the veins of every single one of us. Let it rise in our hearts and let us raise it, with the tenderness, the care, the caution and the passion with which one raises a child. It is our survival and the survival of the human species. It is our path and our light. It is our Badr and our Uhud. It is our Karbala in whose garden sings, flower-like, the blood and the wisdom Ali, Hassan and Hussain. It is our question and our answer on the day when judgement shall be passed.

Muhammad A. Al Mahdi, March 2012

Israel strikes Gaza, killing 11, injuring 16 - Omar Ghraieb, Gaza Times

What mainstream media wouldn’t tell you or give you details about:

Gaza, March 10, Gaza witnessed a sleepless night after a continuous series of air-raids performed by Israel’s different warplanes (Apache, Drones, and F16s). It started on March 9, 5:00 pm, when Israeli warplanes targeted a blue car in a populated area. The blue Opel became a little box of steel, completely burned and blown into little shrapnel. It happened in Tal Al Hawa, Western Gaza, and caused the death of Zuheir Qaisy, Secretary-General of the Popular Resistance Committees and Mahmoud Hanini, freed prisoner in Shalit swap deal, originally from Nablus. A third passer-by was critically injured.

(To see pictures from this post, click here.)

Later that night, 8:30 pm, March 9, medics announced the death of Khaled Harara, 22, and Obaid Al Gharabli, 23, both belong to Saraya Al Quds, armed wing of Islamic Jihad after being targeted by Israeli warplanes. Medics announced the discovery of a third body in the same place, Hazem Qureqe’.

Israeli warplanes continued bombarding Gaza heavily till 2:30 am, March 10. No place in Gaza was safe, Israeli warplanes raided Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern Gaza, civilian houses, highly populated areas and highly trafficked crossroads.

Another 6 Gazans were killed by Israeli warplanes in different areas across Gaza:
Shady Sieqali, Fayeq Sa’d, Mo’tasem Hajjaj, Ahmed Hajjaj, Mohamed Al Mughari and Mahmoud Nejem. Most martyrs were members of Saraya Al Quds, Islamic Jihad. Local resistance in Gaza retaliated and showered nearby Israeli settlements with homemade rockets.

Some of the areas that were targeted by Israeli warplanes: Beit Lahyah, Shuja’yah, Sudaneyah, Maqousi Towers, Palestinian Legislative Council, Rimal Area, Tal Al Hawa, Yarmouk Street, Rafah, Khan Younis and other different areas.

Israel and armed Palestinian factions in Gaza, all denied the news about a cease fire so escalation is in the air.

http://gazatimes.blogspot.com/2012/03/israel-bombs-gaza-leaving-11-killed-16.html

No to Discrimination, No to cultural Chauvinism, No to Western cultural Dominance: Overturn the Headscarf Ban at the Olympic Games

في حين يتنافس منتخبات كرة القدم للتأهيل للأولمبياد هذا الصيف تم منع فريق النساء المسلمات من الفرصه لعرض مهاراتهن لمجرد اِرتدائهن الحجاب ( أو غطاء الرأس) في الملعب.

رفضت هيئة الاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم و هي الهيئة التي تضع القواعد لللاِختبارات المؤدية للأولمبياد تأهيل كل نساء الفريق الدولي الإيراني بعدما حاولن ارتداء الحجاب في مباراتهن التأهيلية. و تواجه اللاعبات اللاتي يخترن لبس الحجاب في فرق كل من الأردن و فلسطين والبحرين نفس المصير.

رهاف عويس و هي عضوا في هيئة كرة القدم الأردنية تعتقد أن منع لبس الحجاب يعني نهاية عمل بعض اللاعبات الصغيرات قبل أن يبدأ.و قد قدمت رهاف التماسا على الموقع Change.org مطالبة الاتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم أن يلغي الحظر المفروض على نساء كرة القدم اللاتي يرتدن الحجاب بعدما رأت منع تأهيل بعض اللاعبات الأردنيات لأنهن عبرن عن معتقدهن الديني. اضغط على الموقع لتأييد لاعبات رهاف الصغيرات و وقع هذا اللاِلتماس.

و تجادل هيئة اللاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم أن موقفها من منع غطاء الرأس هو لسلامة اللاعبات. ولكن اللاعبات الإيرانيات اللاتي منعن من التأهيل كن يرتدن غطاء مثبتا بقفل من الفالكرو والذي صمم خصيصا لمنع أي فرصة لإصابة الرقبة. فبالنسبة لللاعبات اللاتي اخترن لبس الحجاب لسبب ديني، منع لبس غطاء الرأس الجديد بالقفل الآمن ما هوا إلا تمييز واضح و صريح.

في أوائل هذا الأسبوع دعا رئيس الاِتحاد الكونفدرالي الاسيوى زانج جيلونج هيئة اللاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم أن تعيد النظر في منع غطاء الرأس في اجتماعه القادم في 3 مارس. و الآن الاتحاد الفيدرالي الذي يدير كأس العالم وله صوت في هيئة الاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم تجمع و يلح على هيئة اللاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم لتغيير هذه القاعده.

لزانج وقيادة الاتحاد الفيدرالي تأثير كبير في عالم كرة القدم ولذلك نعلم أن هيئة الاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم مهتمة بهذه المسألة. ولو تكلم عدد كاف من الناس بتوقيعهم لمبادرة رهاف فسوف تقتنع هيئة الاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم بأن الجماهير تريدهم أن يرفعوا الحظر على الحجاب وإزالة حاجز التمييز الذي يبعد بعض النساء من المنافسة في الأولمبياد.

اضغط على الموقع حتي توقع على مبادرة رهاف طالبا من هيئة الاِتحاد العالمي لكرة القدم أن ترفع الحظر على لبس الحجاب للاعبات كرة القدم اللاتى يرتدين الحجاب .

و شكرا لانك صانع للتغيير.

شلبي و فريق

Mikis Theodorakis : An Open Letter on the Truth about Greece

There is an international conspiracy whose target is the complete destruction of my country. They began in 1975 aiming at Modern Greek civilization, continued with the distortion of our modern history and our national identity and they are now trying to eliminate us biologically as well through unemployment, hunger and impoverishment. If Greek people don’t rise as one in order to prevent them, the danger of Greece becoming extinct is evident. I place it within the next ten years. There will be nothing left of us but the memory of our civilization and our battles for freedom.
Until 2009, there was no serious economic problem. The major wounds of our economy were the enormous expenses related to the purchase of war material and the corruption of a part of the political and economic-journalistic sector.
For both of these wounds, foreigners are jointly responsible. Germans, for instance, as well as French, English and Americans, earned billions of Euros from annual sales of war material, to the detriment of our national wealth. That continuous hemorrhage brought us to our knees and did not permit us to move forward, while at the same time it made foreign nations prosperous. The same was true of the problem of corruption. The German company Siemens, for instance, maintained a special department for buying off Greek stakeholders in order to place its products in the Greek market. Hence, the Greek people have been victims of that predatory duo of Greeks and Germans, growing richer at their expense.
It is obvious that these two big wounds could have been avoided if the leaders of the two pro-American parties in power hadn’t been eroded by corrupt elements who resorted to excessive loans in order to cover the leakage of wealth (the product of the Greek people’s labor) into the hands of foreign countries, resulting in the public debt reaching 300 billion Euros, i.e. 130% of GDI (Gross Domestic Income).
Due to that confidence trick, the foreigners I mentioned before made a double profit: firstly from the sales of the weapons and their products. Secondly, from the interest on the money they lent to the governments and not to the people. As we have seen, the people were the primary victims in both cases. A single example should convince you: the interests on the one billion dollar loan that Andreas Papandreou received in 1986 from a big European country reached 54 billion Euros and was eventually paid back in … 2010!
Mr Juncker declared a year ago that he had realized the Greeks’ financial hemorrhage caused by the excessive (and compulsory) expenses in buying war materials exclusively from Germany and France. And he concluded that our sellers were leading us on a path to destruction. However, he confesses that he didn’t take any action in order not to hurt the interests of friendly countries!

In 2008 came the big financial crisis in Europe. It was therefore only logical that the Greek economy should be affected. However, our living standards, high enough for Greece to be ranked among the 30 richest countries in the world, remained unaffected. There was an increase, though, in public debt. But public debt doesn’t necessarily lead to financial crisis. There are big countries, like the U.S. and Germany, with debts amounting to trillions of Euros. The key is in economic growth and production. In that case, one can borrow from large Banks with an interest rate of up to 5%, until the crisis ends.

That was exactly our position in 2009, when the government shift took place in November and G. Papandreou took over as prime minister. In order for the current opinion of the Greek to become clearer I cite two figures: in the elections of 2009 PASOK gained 44% of the votes. Today the polls give PASOK 6% of the public support.
Mr. Papandreou could have dealt with the financial crisis (which as I have said reflected the European one) by borrowing from foreign Banks under the usual interest rate of under 5%. If he had done that, there wouldn’t have been the slightest problem for our country. In fact, the opposite would have occurred; because we were on an economic growth path, our standard of living would certainly have risen.
However, Mr. Papandreou had already begun his conspiracy against the Greek people since the summer of 2009, when he secretly met with Strauss-Kahn, with the objective of driving Greece under the domination of the IMF. The information concerning this meeting was released by the former President of the IMF himself.
For the situation to reach that end, the country’s real financial status had to be distorted, so that foreign Banks would become nervous and raise the loan interest rates to prohibitive figures. That odious project began with the phony raising of the Public Deficit from 9,2% to 15%. For that felonious deed, the District Attorney, Mr. Peponis indicted Messrs Papandreou and Papakonstantinou (Minister of Finance) 20 days ago. What followed was the systematic campaign by Mr. Papandreou and the Ministry of Finance throughout Europe that lasted 5 months, during which they tried to persuade the foreigners that Greece was a Titanic about to sink, that Greeks were corrupt, lazy and therefore incapable of dealing with the country’s needs. After each of their declarations the interest rates increased, so that it became impossible for us to borrow any more, giving IMF and the European Bank the appearance of being our slavation, when in reality it was the beginning of our death.
In May 2010 a single Minister signed the notorious Memorandum, our complete subservience to our lenders. Greek law stipulates, in such situations, that the adoption of such an important agreement must be decided by three fifths of the Parliament. Therefore, in essence, the Memorandum and the Troika that essentially govern us today, operate illegally not only under Greek but also under European law.
By now since then, if the steps leading us to our death are twenty, we are already more than half way there. Imagine that with this Memorandum we concede to foreigners our National Independence and our National Property. That is, our harbours, airports, road networks, electricity, water supply, subterranean and underwater wealth, etc., etc. Add to that our historical monuments, like the Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia, Epidaurus and such sites, since we have waived all our legal defenses.
Production has come to a standstill, the unemployment rate has reached 18%, 80.000 shops have closed down, along with thousands of small businesses and hundreds of industries. In total, 432.000 enterprises have shut down. Tens of thousands of young scientists are abandoning the country, which is every day sinking into medieval darkness. Thousands formerly wealthy citizens are scavenging on rubbish heaps and sleeping on the pavement.
In the meantime, we are supposed to be surviving thanks to the magnanimity of our lenders, the Europe of the Banks and the IMF. In reality, every package deal which charges Greece with tens of billions of Euros is repaid in full, while we are burdened with new unbearable interest rates. And since it is necessary to maintain the State, the Hospitals and the Schools, the Troika is burdening the middle and lower economic strata of society with excessive taxes, leading directly to starvation. A famine took place at the beginning of the German occupation in 1941, with 300.000 people dead in a period of 6 months. Since then, the ghost of hunger is now returning to our defamed and unfortunate country.
If one considers that the German occupation cost us one million people dead and the total destruction of our country, how is it possible for us Greeks to accept Ms Merkel’s threats and the Germans’ intention to impose on us a new Gauleiter… This time wearing a tie…
And to prove just how rich a country is Greece and how hard working and conscious the Greek people (conscious of their Debt to Freedom and love of their country), I cite as an example the time of the German occupation from 1941 until October of 1944.
When the SS and hunger killed one million citizens and the Wehrmacht was systematically destroying the country, and stealing all its agricultural production and the gold from the Banks, Greeks saved the people from hunger by creating the National Solidarity Movement and a partisan army of 100.000, which tied down 20 German divisions in our country.
At the same time not only did Greeks manage to survive thanks to their hard work, but there was also a large growth in Modern Greek art -especially in literature and music- under the terrible conditions of the occupation.
Greece chose the path of self-sacrifice for the sake of freedom and simultaneously of survival.
That is when we were unnecessarily punished, and we responded with Solidarity and Resistance and we survived. Now we are doing exactly the same thing, with the certainty that the Greek people will be the ultimate victors. This is the message I am sending to Ms Merkel and Mr Schouble, declaring that I remain always a friend to the German People and a fan of their great contribution to Science, Philosophy, Art, and especially Music! And the ultimate evidence of that is probably that I have entrusted the whole of my musical work to two German Publishers, Schott and Breitkopf, who are among the greatest publishers of music in the world and my co-operation with them is extremely friendly.
They are threatening to throw us out of Europe. If Europe doesn’t want Greece to be a part of it, Greece, for her part, is 10 times more unwilling to be a part of this Merkel- Sarkozy Europe.
Today, Sunday February 12, 2012, I am about to take part in the demonstrations, along with Manolis Glezos, the hero who, in the past, took the swastika down from the Acropolis, signaling the beginning of resistance against Hitler, not only in Greece but throughout Europe. Today, our streets and our squares will be flooded with hundreds of thousands of citizens who will demonstrate their rage against the government and against theTroika.
I heard, yesterday, the banker-prime minister proclaiming to the Greek people that “we have reached point zero”. But who has led us to this ZERO point within two years? Those same people, who instead of having been imprisoned, blackmail the members of the parliament to sign the New Memorandum, which is even worse than the first one and which will be implemented by the same people following the same methodology which brought us to this point ZERO. Why? Because this is what the IMF and the Euro-Group dictates, blackmailing us that if we disobey, we will go bankrupt?This is a play of the theater of the absurd. All these parties who in fact hate us (foreigners and Greeks) and are the only ones responsible for the dramatic situation to which they have led our country, threaten and blackmail, aiming at continuing their devastating work, i.e. to lead us even beyond point ZERO, to our final elimination.
We have survived very difficult situations throughout the centuries and it is certain that if they lead us to the brink of death by force, Greeks will not only survive but they will be reborn.
At this point in time, I have devoted all my efforts to an attempt to dynamically unify the Greek people. I am trying to convince them that IMF and Troika is not a one-way street, that there is an alternative solution. And that solution is to radically change the course of our nation and turn towards Russia for economic co-operation and the setting up of joint ventures in order to exploit our natural wealth under beneficial terms that will safeguard our national interests.
As for Europe, I suggest we stop buying war material from Germany and France. And that we do everything in our power so that Germany pays back the war reparations they owe us and which currently amount to approximately -including the appropriate interest- 500 billion Euros.
The only force capable of effecting all these revolutionary changes is the Greek people, unified under a huge Front of Resistance and Solidarity in order to remove the Troika (the IMF and the European banks) from our country. At the same time all their illegal actions (loans, debts, interest, taxes, privatization of national wealth) should be considered as if they never took place. Naturally, their Greek partners, already condemned in our conscience as traitors, will have to be punished.
I am totally dedicated, body and soul, to this cause (the unification of the People in one Front) and I believe that I will be proved right in the end. I have fought, gun in hand, against Hitler’s occupation. I have experienced the Gestapo’s dungeons. I have been sentenced to death by Germans and have miraculously survived. In 1967 I founded PAF (The Patriotic Anti-dictatorial Front), the first resistance organization against the military junta. I fought underground, was caught and imprisoned in the junta’s “slaughterhouse”. Once again I survived.
I am today 87 years old and it is very possible that I will not live to see the salvation of my beloved country. But I will die with a clear conscience, because I will continue doing my Duty towards the ideals of Freedom and Justice until the end.
Athens, 12.2.2012

Occupy Wall Street - A snapshot of the Occupation Movement

          OCCUPY WALL STREET - THE 99%


Muhammad A. Al Mahdi: "In the subconscious current of the events, there are occasional signs of growing social awareness. As protests are held in all parts of the Western world, these currents are bound to gain ground and become solid."

The following update presents a snapshot of the current trends in the occupation movement and the different perspectives of participants and observers.

1) Occupation Live:

A local activist states that "serious lack of real political analysis by the folks who've stepped up to lead this thing and have consolidated their power since, has created an almost surreal environment of incredibly mainstream premises and very active silencing of radical voices and dissent. This has led to massive alienation and marginalization of not just radical voices but also of people of color. Right now these marginalized individuals have begun to organize in an attempt to decide where to from here. Each occupation is different. To say they are all this or that is not correct. There is also a tendency that those who are putting the public face of these occupations are not always the true representatives of that occupation nor it's true ideological representatives. There are serious class and gender power issues here around the utilization of media promoting these occupations. At least the occupation here is not revolutionary at all. They've occupied a park in front of city hall! And the cops have not cracked down under orders not to, so it's created a real false sense of security and harmony which has led to a real conservative and politically moderate tendency to become the dominant discourse. Last night they even left the park to let the city clean it because it had gotten dirty! The cops said move and let the cleaners clean this place or we'll arrest you...so they moved."

• 2) The Facts behind “Occupy Wall Street”    -       Article by Adrian Boutureira
  
  The 99 %- Economic Apartheid Truths Behind a Catchy Slogan
  
  US household wealth median net worth (net worth is assets minus debt) even after the bubble bust in 2009, was: $113,000 for whites, $6,300 for Hispanics and $5,600 for Blacks. In 2002, it was $134,000 for whites, $18,300 for Hispanics, and $12,100 for blacks.
  
  Moreover, about a third of black (35%) and Hispanic (31%) households had zero or negative net worth in 2009, compared with 15% of white households. In 2005, the comparable shares had been 29% for blacks, 23% for Hispanics and 11% for whites.
  
  When we mobilize to occupy this, that, or the other across the nation these economic apartheid realities will not be absent in the power dynamics of those involved in the organizing...
  
  What one might aspire to have a particular occupation demand or accomplish as a young African American, and what tools and actions one might be prepared to utilize to attain these objectives as such, might not at all be what a young white person might be prepared to support in response to the protection of his or her own class interests...
  
  Leadership, therefore, must be closely monitored, not just for diverse racial composition, but for proven critical political analysis when executing said leadership under still entrenched and dominant paradigms of economic and racial oppression in our society.
  
  Middle and upper middle class whites' calls to reform a system which is now too negatively affecting them, could easily be seen as another way to call for protecting and safeguarding some of the same historical system processes, structures and institutions which have oppressed working class and people of color for centuries. While calls for radical change challenging the nature of the historical injustices of the system as a whole, most often led by people of color and the poor, sound to affluent whites as a dangerous threat to their blatant but now a little shaken historical race and class privilege and supremacy...Thus their need to silence these voices. These radical, disruptive, divisive voices stepping up to the General Assembly microphone and proposing all sorts of radical aberrations...Silence them at any cost. It is not what WE, the REAL 99% want...These "movement hijacking" voices must be undermined and demonized, lest affluent whites loose control of the dominance of the occupation's discourse...
  
  Understanding and internalizing revolutionary solidarity through commitments to first and foremost deconstructing not just class and race, but also all other systems of oppression in this occupation is the only sure pathway towards the formation of true alliances against all of the injustices of capitalism, historical and present, not just against those being experienced now by the white middle class after their college and retirement funds were gutted by the very policies and institutions they benefited from and supported for decades.
  
  What is Wall Street? Columbus was Not Wall Street? The genocide of Indigenous People and the raping of this land is not Wall Street? The disproportionate toxic burden of communities of color in the East Side is not Wall Street? Brutal gentrification is not Wall Street? Is this what some whites in the occupation want to believe when they said the Indigenous Day March was a hijacking of "THEIR" movement? I ask you why do they want or need to believe this so badly?
  
  Is this, and all other entrenched disconnects from the true race and class faces of capitalism's historical brutality so important for so many Austin whites in this occupation to adhere to truly out of a fear of divisions? Or is is maybe out of a fear that by establishing these true historical links, a completely different approach would be required for how we all look at the leadership composition of this so-called movement for change, and at how its present political premises and strategies are in reality being guided and informed by a desire to defend the bruised privilege of affluent whites and not by a desire for real revolutionary change?
  
  REAL radical movements demand critical and revolutionary thought and analysis, not the call for the perpetration of our privilege and supremacy enshrouded in catchy, but false slogans.
  
  Never again without us!

3) W. van Wijk, an international observer, warns against a split of the movement on ethnic lines:

"A revolutionary change demands a revolutionary party under proletarian leadership. It seems to me that the 99% movement is very broad and should stay that way and discussions should be promoted as the way forward, but splitting the movement on a racial basis seems not progressive to me. Black and white workers, together, should fight exploitation and the divide-and-rule policy of their capitalist rulers. They should unite in the struggle against the extra suppression of people of colour and women.

I wish you much wisdom."

4) Observers from Detroit state that their initial impression of the Occupation movement was that of "an elite thing, concerned with safeguarding upper class privileges, nothing to do with working class interests or people of color" and involving, among other none too progressive organisation, forces such as the Tea party. They emphasise that it is "not people of color, who are splitting the current movement."


5) Wall Street after a Month of Protests    -    Article by L.I.

For nearly a month, the Occupy Wall Street movement has been active and protesters are still camping out in cities and parks around the USA. The movement has become widely spread across the United States as it promotes marches in and through cities. 
After being ignored initially, the Occupy Wall Street movement has finally attracted the American media. However, Americans are feeling betrayed as their voice is marginalized and government is not responding to their calls, but is resorting, instead, to manipulating the social, political and ethnic diversity of the various groups that constitute the movement, which is lacking unifying factors, as well as agreement on basic issues. The traditional privileges, both socially and economically, of Americans of European descent are playing a key role in these tactics of infiltration and division. The threat of a split along ethnic lines is seen, by many observers, with great concern, as the current movement, they state, was “very broad and should stay that way, while discussions should be promoted as the way forward, but splitting the movement on a racial basis seems not progressive ... Black and white, European and non-European workers, together, should fight exploitation and the policy of divide-and-rule. They should be united in the struggle against the extra suppression of people of colour and women. These problems should be approached with perseverance, patience and wisdom.”

Whole families with children have joined the movement to demonstrate their conviction that the results will determine these children's future and thus, the future of generations. According to a poll conducted by Time Magazine, 54% of Americans approve of the protesters. 
After occupying Zuccoti Park for the last four weeks, protesters were asked to leave so the park could be cleaned up. However, they refused to do so, fearing that this would signify the end of the protest, as many of them pointed out that it would be fatal to trust the authorities in such situations. Although the movement has not produced any concrete results so far, it is indeed having a significant impact on American culture and public life. 
Americans are demanding social and economic justice in their country, as all indicators are pointing to the worse and unemployment keeps growing. They are still waiting for reforms, which may be hard to realize within the neo-liberal framework. Until then, Americans will continue to see the American dream being turned into a nightmare by the economic system.