November 14th, 2005

Please forward to anyone who might be interested!

CAMPUS ANTIWAR NETWORK

* NATIONAL DAY OF COUNTER-RECRUITMENT * December 6, 2005
http://www.campusantiwar.net

ENDORSED BY: Cindy Sheehan, Pablo Paredes, war resister; David Airhart, Iraq War vet and Kent State student facing expulsion for peaceful counter-recruitment; Tariq Khan, George Mason University student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; Charles Peterson, Holyoke Community College student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org; Traprock Peace Center; Anthony Arnove, editor, Iraq Under Siege and co-editor with Howard Zinn, Voices of a People’s History of the United States.

* Say No to the Solomon Amendment!

Campus Anti-War Network is calling for actions around the country to show the federal government that they cannot intimidate schools for kicking out military recruiters. On December 6, the Supreme Court will hear the FAIR v Rumsfeld case (brought by several universities), which will decide whether schools can ban military recruiters wihout losing federal funding. Currently, the Solomon Amendment allows the government to cut off federal funding from schools that ban military recruiters. This policy forces schools to accept military recruitment, even though the military’s anti-gay “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy violates university anti-discrimination policies.

* Bring the movement for COLLEGE NOT COMBAT to a recruiting station near you!

On Dec 6, when the Supreme Court hears FAIR v Rumsfeld, students will hold protests at military recruiting stations across the country, including in San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York City, and many other cities. In Washington, D.C., a press conference and demonstration will take place outside the Supreme Court.

This action comes amid increasing revelations of the horror of the Iraq occupation. Recent video footage shows that the US used chemical weapons (white phosphorus) in Fallujah, laying bare the lies about “weapons of mass destruction.” Occupation is not liberation. On December 6, we refuse to let the military recruit young people to kill and die in a war based on lies.

December 6 is also the one-year anniversary of Navy petty officer Pablo Paredes’ refusal to board his ship in protest of the war, which sparked a national campaign that displayed and strengthened the growing refusal of soldiers to fight this war. Recently, the counter-recruitment movement won a victory in San Francisco, where 60 percent of voters approved a proposition to oppose military recruiters in schools and support scholarships to counteract the poverty draft, which targets the poor, and people of color.

Let’s mobilize on Dec 6 to counter the military’s ability to wage its illegal war and to support the right of universities to oppose military recruiting on their campuses.

Say No to the Solomon Amendment! COLLEGE NOT COMBAT! TROOPS OUT NOW!

We welcome all organizations to endorse this day of action or to sponsor it with us. If you want to endorse, or you want to organize an action in your area, email recruitersout@yahoo.com and check out our website at http://www.campusantiwar.net

Ashley Smith
ashley05401@yahoo.com



Join CINDY SHEEHAN, HOWARD ZINN, DAHR JAMAIL, war resisters PABLO PAREDES and CAMILO MEJIA, Progressive Democrats of America director TIM CARPENTER, Iraq Vets Against the War & Campus Antiwar Network member DAVID AIRHART, and many more in supporting this day of counter-recruitment action on December 6! (Full endorsement list below.)

* NATIONAL DAY OF COUNTER-RECRUITMENT *

December 6, 2005

Campus Antiwar Network - http://www.campusantiwar.net

* Say No to the Solomon Amendment!

Campus Anti-War Network is calling for actions around the country to show the federal government that they cannot intimidate schools for kicking out military recruiters. On December 6, the Supreme Court will hear the FAIR v Rumsfeld case (brought by several universities), which will decide whether schools can ban military recruiters wihout losing federal funding. Currently, the Solomon Amendment allows the government to cut off federal funding from schools that ban military recruiters.
This policy forces schools to accept military recruitment, even though the military’s anti-gay “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy violates university anti-discrimination policies.

* Bring the movement for COLLEGE NOT COMBAT to your town!

On Dec 6, when the Supreme Court hears FAIR v Rumsfeld, students will hold protests at military recruiting stations, federal buildings and school administrative offices across the country, including in San Francisco, Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New York City, and many other places. In Washington, D.C., a demonstration will take place on the steps of the Supreme Court.

We are proud to join the fight against anti-gay discrimination in the military. We also believe that recruitment for the war in Iraq has no place in schools. Our action comes amid increasing revelations of the horror of the Iraq occupation. Recent video footage shows that the US used chemical weapons (white phosphorus) in Fallujah, laying bare the truth about exactly who is using “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq. Nobody should have to take part in this to pay for school! On December 6, we refuse to let the military recruit young people to kill and die in a war based on lies.

December 6 is also the one-year anniversary of Navy petty officer Pablo Paredes’s refusal to board his ship in protest of the war, which sparked a national campaign that displayed and strengthened the growing refusal of soldiers to fight this war. Recently, the counter-recruitment movement won a massive victory in San Francisco, where 60% of voters approved a College Not Combat proposition to oppose military recruiters in schools and support scholarships to counteract the poverty draft — which targets the poor and people of color. Today, with the Bush administration in a growing crisis and expanding calls for immediate withdrawal, we want to spread the “College Not Combat” movement across the country!

Let’s mobilize on Dec 6 to counter the military’s ability to wage its illegal war, support the right of universities to oppose military recruiting on their campuses, and bring the troops home from Iraq!

Say No to the Solomon Amendment!

COLLEGE NOT COMBAT! TROOPS OUT NOW!

Organized by the Campus Antiwar Network - http://www.campusantiwar.net - RecruitersOut@yahoo.com

ENDORSED BY:

ORGANIZATIONS: Bay Area United Against War; Bloomington Peace Action Coalition; the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors; Central Vermont Peace and Justice; the City of Berkeley, CA, by unanimous vote of its city council; Cities for Peace; Free Palestine Alliance; International Action Center; International Socialist Organization; Justice in Palestine Coalition; Mid-South Peace and Justice Center; Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center; Peninsula Raging Grannies; San Juan Peace Network; Stop the War Coalition (UK); Texans for Peace; Traprock Peace Center; Youth Against War and Racism

INDIVIDUALS*: AHMED SHAWKI, editor, International Socialist Review and member, steering committee, National Council of Arab-Americans; ANTHONY ARNOVE, editor, Iraq Under Siege; BONNIE WEINSTEIN, Bay Area United Against War; BRIAN WILLSON, member, coordinating Committee, Humboldt Bay Veterans For Peace, and Commissioner, Arcata City Nuclear Free Zone and Peace Commission; CAMILO MEJIA, war resister; CARL WEBB, war resister; CEYLON MOONEY, co-coordinator, Wheels of Justice Tour, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; CHARLES JENKS, Advisory Board Chair, Traprock Peace Center; CHARLES PETERSON, Holyoke Community College student assaulted for peaceful counter-recruitment; CHARLIE JACKSON, co-founder, Texans for Peace; CINDY SHEEHAN, mother of U.S. soldier killed in Iraq, who camped outside Bush’s Crawford ranch to hold him accountable; DAHR JAMAIL, writer; DAVID AIRHART, Iraq war veteran and Kent State student who beat expulsion charges for peaceful counter-recruitment; DAVID ROVICS, progressive songwriter and musician; DAVID SWANSON, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org; DAVID ZIRIN, author, What’s My Name Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States; DENNIS KYNE, Gulf War veteran and activist; DIRK ADRIAENSENS, coordinator of SOS Iraq and member of the Executive committee of the Brussells Tribunal; FRANCES CROWE, founder of Northampton Draft Information Center in 1968 (she counseled over 2000 young people on the draft) and co-founder of Traprock Peace Center and Western Mass AFSC; HOWARD ZINN, author of People’s History of the United States; M. JUNAID ALAM, co-editor of LeftHook.org; KATHY KELLY, Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; LINDSAY GERMAN, convenor, Stop the War Coalition (UK); MICHAEL LETWIN, Co-Convener, NYC Labor Against the War, and Former president, UAW Local 2325; NATYLIE BALDWIN, Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center; NORMAN SOLOMON, author and syndicated columnist; PABLO PAREDES, war resister; PALOA PISI, publisher of Uruknet (Italy); PAT ELDER, co-founder, DC Anti-War Network; PHIL GASPER, Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame de Namur University in California; RANDY KEHLER, Vietnam War draft noncooperator, long-time peace activist/war-tax refuser, former national coordinator, Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, co-founder and first Director of Traprock Peace Center; RANIA MASRI, writer and researcher; SHANNYN SOLLITT, Peace Activist/Educator -NetWorks Productions; SHUJAA GRAHAM, exonerated Death row prisoner, anti death penalty activist; TARIQ KHAN, George Mason University student assaulted and arrested for peaceful counter-recruitment; THOMAS F. BARTON, publisher of G.I. Special; TIM CARPENTER, director of Progressive Democrats of America; TODD CHRETIEN, author of Proposition I/College Not Combat ballot initiative in San Francisco; WARD REILLY, South East National Contact - Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, Baton Rouge *All affiliations are for identification purposes only

We welcome all organizations to endorse this day of action and/or organize with us. If you want to endorse, organize an action in your
area, or learn about the action nearest you, email recruitersout@yahoo.com and check out our website at

Campus Antiwar Network - http://www.campusantiwar.net

Ashley Smith
ashley05401@yahoo.com

Jordanien: CIA und GID http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21353/1.html

Luckily for U.S capitalism both the U.S. anti-war movement and the established labor organizations do not think that there is any relationship between the oppression of the Iraqi workers by the War on Iraq and the oppression of U.S. workers. Whew U.S. capitalism would sure be in a lot of trouble if the anti-war movement and the workers struggles in the United States began to UNITE. What if ant-war demonstrations/rallies were combined with STRIKES and shut downs and work stoppages in vital sections of the United States economy (the ports and harbors of the United States for instance)? How about an anti-war movement that shut down the U.S. harbors, the rail heads, the busses and the taxi system? The workers are generally ready to do that but for some reason the U.S. anti-war movement does not want to do work stoppages and STRIKES against the War on Iraq. Why? Why aren't anti-war actions include work stoppages and STRIKES in addition to the marches, holding ups signs and listening to speeches that the anti-war movement does at this time? The port truckers and the bus drivers (well a dissident section of the bus drivers at any rate) and the taxi drivers are ready to talk to anti-war movement activists but so far few anti-war activists have been willing to put in the time to talk to the port truckers, the bus drivers and the taxi drivers. Maybe it is time to start talking and to start to UNITE.

Jim DeMaegt


Strikes Multiply Amid Increase in Labor Fights
By KRIS MAHER
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 15, 2005

The number of work stoppages in the U.S., including strikes by unions and management-sponsored lockouts, is on the upswing as tensions rise between workers and companies that are seeking to cut wages and benefits.

The trend extends beyond the troubled auto and airline industries, as continuing strikes by telecom workers at Sprint
http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=fon
Corp. and machinists at Boeing
http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=ba Co.'s rocket division attest. Last week, graduate teaching assistants at New York University walked off the job and musicians at Radio City Music Hall remain locked out by Cablevision Systems
http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=cvc Corp. Unions representing copper workers at Asarco LLC, meanwhile, finally reached a tentative agreement with the company to end a four-month strike.

It remains to be seen if a surge in strikes will exacerbate labor's battered image, experts say. At a time when many workers question the relevance of unions in a mobile service economy, such increases could reinforce stereotypes of militant industrial workers. And yet, workers could be drawn to unions willing to strike to resist cuts to health-care benefits, in particular.

"A strike is a dangerous thing in terms of public relations," says Gary Chaison, a labor expert at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Unions are presented with the opportunity to demonstrate strength, but if they lose, strikes can "point out tremendous weakness," he said.

Work stoppages, including both strikes and lockouts resulting from deadlocked negotiations and other labor disputes, are up 14% this year, according to Bureau of National Affairs Inc., a Washington, D.C., publisher of legal and regulatory information. There were 231 work stoppages initiated through the end of August, compared with 202 in the same period last year, with the vast majority being strikes. The group tracks work stoppages at companies of all sizes mainly from government reports, union publications and news reports. (The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by contrast, only tracks work stoppages involving 1,000 or more employees.)

The United Auto Workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the Service Employees International Union, the International Association of Machinists and the United Steelworkers of America have all engaged in more work stoppages through August than they had last year, according to BNA data. The Teamsters were involved in 47 work stoppages through August of this year, far more than any other union, up from 38 the prior year.

The recent upswing is "a sign of frustration, almost to the point of desperation," says Prof. Chaison of Clark University. "For many workers there's no alternative. They feel that they were badly beaten up in past negotiations or that companies are making tremendous demands on them."

Many labor leaders said the strikes have been effective, pointing to the more than 18,000 Boeing machinists who recently renegotiated a more favorable health-care benefits package after striking.

More major unrest could be on the horizon. Some analysts predict the showdown between the UAW and Delphi Corp., which is seeking sharp cuts in union pay, health-care benefits and pensions, could culminate in a strike -- potentially crippling auto plants that depend on steady supplies of Delphi parts.

The vast majority of the more than 20,000 contract negotiations each year result in new contracts. Yet the increase in strikes is a stark turnabout from the steady declines of recent years. Labor experts attributed the drop to the difficulty of waging successful strikes as the percentage of union workers at many workplaces declines, and as companies increasingly hire replacement workers to thwart strikes.

Despite media focus on strikes in ailing industries, the increase in strikes could also partly be driven by the improved economy, since unions often view strikes as a more effective threat when companies are faring well and labor markets are tight. "Strikes tend to rise during economic expansions rather than contractions in the economy," says Joseph Tracy, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

But others, including union leaders, argue that the increase indicates the harsher negotiating climate. "Employers are taking a much harder bargaining position, and that's naturally going to be met by an elevated level of worker militancy," says Ron Blackwell, chief economist for the AFL-CIO. "Given what we see going on this year, you have to expect the level of strike activity would increase."

At Sprint, union members said that after absorbing rising health-care costs for several years, they are unwilling to accept concessions when the company is profitable. "If they can prove where they're hurting, we might be able to help them out," says Eddie Hicks, president of Communications Workers of America local 3871 in Bluff City, Tenn., where about 300 workers have been on strike since Oct. 10.

A total of roughly 500 workers, mostly technicians, remain on strike at Sprint, though the company says it has reached tentative agreements with two of four striking bargaining units. Sprint spokeswoman Debra Peterson said the company is asking striking unions to accept conditions that already apply to the vast majority of its employees, including many union-represented workers. "We believe that we are offering a very competitive compensation and benefits package for our employees," she says.

While several recent high-profile strikes have failed, including at Northwest Airlines
http://online.wsj.com/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=nwac , where the company hired replacement mechanics to keep operations running, that may not deter frustrated workers, several labor experts said.

The aggressive public-relations tactics of unions that broke away from the AFL-CIO this year -- including the SEIU, Teamsters and Unite Here -- to create a rival labor federation called Change to Win Federation, could carry over into increased strikes at companies that can't easily bring in replacement workers, says Richard Hurd, a professor of labor studies at Cornell University. "Is this an aberration this year or is it going to be sustained?" he asks. "If defensive strikes are effective at holding onto benefits," work stoppages could well increase next year.

The breakaway unions say they left the AFL-CIO because they wanted to devote more resources to organizing new members for more aggressive campaigns. "There have been efforts in a number of industries by employers to take a hard line unnecessarily. Unions are fed up with it," says Bruce Raynor, president of Unite Here, a Change to Win union that represents 450,000 mostly hotel and apparel workers. "Unions are in a fighting mode."

Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com

The British Medical Journal recently featured an editorial on the bird flu in which they state the following:

The lack of sustained human-to-human transmission suggests that this AH5N1 avian virus does not currently have the capacity to cause a human pandemic.

Theoretical Speculation

While they do go on to say the virus could mutate with a influenza A virus and has the potential to acquire the means for rapid human to human transmission, it does not have this ability now; the preparation and warnings are entirely about a theoretical speculation.

No Lawsuits or Compensation Allowed

Meanwhile, the Bush administration's proposed $7.1-billion pandemic flu plan seeks broad restrictions on lawsuits against producers of vaccines and antiviral drugs, and makes no mention of how those injured or killed by adverse reactions could be compensated.

Yesterday's Wired magazine does an excellent review of detailing why this plan will fail. They conclude:

"...it will take at least five years to create enough manufacturing capacity to reach that goal. Then it will take another eight months to create a new vaccine that combats the specific strain that would be killing people. In other words, it would be 2011 at the earliest before every American could be vaccinated against a bird flu pandemic."

The other, even more serious shortcoming of the plan is that it would protect vacine producers and distributors except in cases of "willful misconduct," a term to be defined later.

Lawsuits Not An Undue Burden

Bush has called "the growing burden of litigation" one of the greatest obstacles to vaccine production. But critics have pointed out that lawsuits against vaccines are relatively rare; a recent study of the subject found only ten lawsuits related to flu vaccine over the past 20 years.

British Medical Journal October 29, 2005; 331(7523): 975-976

Los Angeles Times November 4, 2005 SOURCE:
http://www.mercola.com/2005/nov/15/finally_medical_journal_admits_the_truth_about_bird_flu.htm


ECOTERRA Intl.

Propaganda Matrix
by Jeffrey Tucker

11/10/05

As part of this plan, there is a website, pandemicflu.gov, which is also a helpful link if you haven't so far believed a word you have read. Here you can click around and find the Mother of All Flu Reports: The National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. Be assured that 'the federal government will use all instruments of national power to address the pandemic threat.' That includes FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security, and a hundred other concrete palaces in DC...

http://propagandamatrix.com/articles/november2005/101105Fowl.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe
by staff

11/14/05

People in the custody of the federal government should not be without basic human rights. The Senate needs to rescind its vote last week that would prevent 750 so-called 'illegal combatants' at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from appealing their imprisonment in federal court. ... US troops are fighting to safeguard the United States, with its guarantees of personal liberty, not to have civil rights limited in the name of national security. Habeas corpus is a venerable principle of Anglo-American law under which prisoners can challenge their status in court. Congress has the power to limit it under extraordinary circumstances. The early phase of the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus to maintain Washington's lifeline to the North, met that criterion. The war on terror, for all its importance, does not...

http://tinyurl.com/bf4gb


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Washington Times
by Nat Hentoff

11/14/05

Since I am not a member of the Senate Judiciary committee, I have taken the uninvited liberty to suggest a series of questions during the confirmation process of Judge Samuel Alito that bear on Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter's assertion that this nominee for the Supreme Court respects long-range Supreme Court precedents. During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus, and after the fact, got Congress to agree. ... [I]n a landmark decision in 1866, Justice David Davis declared the imprisonment was unconstitutional because the civilian courts were still open. He ruled: 'The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. The Government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence.' Does Judge Alito agree, even in this war against terrorism, that the Constitution must be strictly constructed?

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20051113-112008-9702r.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Prospect
by Michael Tomasky

11/14/05

Watching and reading George W. Bush's Veterans' Day speech last Friday confirmed my belief that it's a good thing Karl Rove wasn't indicted. If this is the best these people can do, Rove is doing Bush a lot more damage from his White House office than he would as an indictee. The speech was humiliating to Bush and the United States of America on so many levels that I don't even know where to begin. OK, actually, I do. I'll begin with the outright lie. My critics, Bush whimpered, 'are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.' No such thing ever happened. That bipartisan investigation ... is ongoing right now. ... The probe is finally proceeding -- but it sure hasn't 'found' anything. There is no other way to interpret Bush's sentence: It is a direct, unmediated, Nixonian lie. What kind of pathetic man would utter such a lie on Veterans' Day, when over 2,000 U.S. soldiers have died?

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10618


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Salon
by Joe Conason

11/15/05

I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby may have taken the perp walk for the Bush White House, but he will never walk alone. As the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney considers his options -- including possible cooperation with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald -- friends of the administration are rallying to his side. Unlike his old boss Cheney, the indicted Libby lacks the millions of dollars needed to mount a proper Washington scandal defense, but evidently he will have no trouble attracting the assistance of right-wing operatives, administration aides and Republican lobbyists. Actually, someone who personifies all those categories and more has materialized to mastermind the Scooter Libby defense committee, with promises of financial assistance and supportive publicity... [subscription or ad view required]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2005/11/15/libby_defense/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp