The Zapatista Subcomandante Is Not Coming to Speak, but to Listen, “to the Simple and Humble People who Struggle”

By Al Giordano | Narco News | September 19, 2005

After 22 years living clandestinely in Mexico’s southernmost and poorest state of Chiapas, Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos is coming out to the rest of the country: Unarmed and alone, he will visit all 31 Mexican states and the Federal District of Mexico City. His six-month investigative mission – “to listen to the simple and humble people who struggle” – begins on January 1, 2006.

Multiple sources | September 15/16, 2005

The canadian government sez that their JTF-2 military hitsquad is in Afghanistan 'protecting the Free World from terrorism'. But we should all know that they're really there honing their skills and practicing to kill canadian workers should those dare to raise their heads and fists up to the bosses.

A series of short articles from mostly bourgeois sources.

INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL ON HAITI to be held on S23 (September 23) in Washington D.C. the day before the giant anti-war rally.

[img_assist|fid=44|thumb=1|alt=guantanamo] 13 September 2005, AP (via Al-Jazzera)

Nearly 40 more detainees have joined a hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp for terrorist suspects, bringing the total to 128. Eighteen prisoners have been hospitalised, including 13 who are being tube fed, said spokesman for the detention centre Captain John Adams on Tuesday.

By Rupert Cornwell | The New Zealand Herald | September 13, 2005

Washington - The Pentagon has drawn up a new strategy, built on the 2002 "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive military strikes, that would allow the US to make first use of nuclear weapons to thwart an a WMD attack against the country.

According to the Washington Post, one possibility is an enemy that is using, or "is about to use" weapons of mass destruction against US military forces or civilian population.

...Remember Neil Bush, and how he was implicated in the Savings and Loan (S&L) scandals, where innocent Americans' bank accounts were emptied out by tycoon investors, and the Feds just looked the other way? Or how about George Bush Sr.'s little "October Surprise?" That was the first time we saw the Bush family implicated in an illegally rigged election. And how about that farce of an election we saw GWBush rigging, with brother Jeb, and daddy Bush's old friend Rehnquist handing Little Georgie the reins? Remember the Iran-Contra affair? George Sr. was right in the thick of it. And remember, George Sr. was also the DIRECTOR of the C.I.A. before rigging his vice-presidency by seemingly making deals with Iranians to hold the American hostages longer than needed, so they could be released at the exact HOUR of the Reagan/Bush inauguration. And do not get me started on the Weapons of Mass Destruction or the heartless massacre of Americans on American soil, over money, class, and race, that happened after Hurricane Katrina....

On September 11th of 1973, General Augusto Pinochet installed himself as dictator after leading the US-supported military coup that overthrew the government of Chile.

By ERIC MARGOLIS - The most important news from Iraq last week was not the much ballyhooed constitutional pact by Shias and Kurds, nor the tragic stampede deaths of nearly 1,000 pilgrims in Baghdad.

The U.S. Air Force's senior officer, Gen. John Jumper, stated U.S. warplanes would remain in Iraq to fight resistance forces and protect the American-installed regime "more or less indefinitely." Jumper's bombshell went largely unnoticed due to Hurricane Katrina.

By Lucinda Marshall | 02 September, 2005 | Countercurrents.org

For the last four years, the anti-war movement has been seriously handicapping itself with its 'We support the troops but we're against war' mantra of qualified dissent. Initially, the phrasing of this message was a reflexive attempt to fit into the context of pro-militarism created by the Neocon spinmeisters who quickly established a flag-waving, 'Support our troops' litmus test in the aftermath of the tragedies of September 11th.

Wanting to avoid being branded as un-American traitors from the get-go, the left promptly started couching their verbage in the newly minted criteria for patriotism. Unfortunately, that line of thinking is still alive and well today and has become a serious detriment to bringing an end to the agenda of empire.

Martyrdom has always been a foundation of the Shia Muslim faith. But yesterday's tragedy gave it new meaning: possibly as many as 1,000 men, women and children were killed when they fell from a bridge over the Tigris river in Baghdad, apparently fearful that a suicide bomber had been let loose among them.

About two thousand people converged in Crawford yesterday for the "Cindy Doesn't Speak for Me" rally. "Gold Bless America, God Bless the Troops, and God Bless President Bush" was the theme of the day. Favorite chants included, "Cindy Go Home!" and "What's Our Exit Strategy? Victory!" Many of the speakers were AM radio talk show hosts from across the country.

Larry Neumeister | Associated Press

NEW YORK - A judge refused to dismiss a church's lawsuit alleging that a Canadian energy company aided genocide in its pursuit of oil in Sudan, despite efforts by the United States and Canada to stop the suit.

In the lawsuit, Talisman Energy Inc., a Calgary-based oil and gas producer, is accused of such crimes as ethnic cleansing, killings, war crimes, confiscation of property, enslavement, kidnapping and rape in Sudan.

If you had any doubts that the New Democratic Party deserves the title 'party of parliamentary cretinism', just read this article.

And so forget the NDP. Permanently. The sooner a large part of the canadian Left loses its delusions about this thoroughly bourgeois "workers'" party, the better. A real mass workers' socialist party and movement is what is desperately needed, more than ever.

This analysis describes the canadian angle on the descent of the anglo "Commonwealth" countries into open imperialist threat to the rest of the world (think of Oz imperialism in the Pacific) -- here, based on the recent statements of General Rick Hillier, Chief of Defence Staff.

I refuse to mindlessly give support to anyone who joins, or works for, the U.S. Military and their local subsidiaries, the police. I also refuse to support any child molesters...On today's ABC News, I actually saw parents who called themselves anti-war activists, trying to justify their own son's joining the military (and dying in the military now) as his own "free choice" that had to be "respected." Well, now they know how the parents of suicide bombers working for the Taliban feel. M.L.King, Jr., among others, have said that at a certain point, silence is criminal, and that silence is an active lie. We are at that point right now in world history.