English

Barack Obama is recognized to be a person of acute intelligence, a legal scholar, careful with his choice of words. He deserves to be taken seriously - both what he says, and what he omits. Particularly significant is his first substantive statement on foreign affairs, on January 22, at the State Department, when introducing George Mitchell to serve as his special envoy for Middle East peace.

Mitchell is to focus his attention on the Israel-Palestine problem, in the wake of the recent US-Israeli invasion of Gaza. During the murderous assault, Obama remained silent apart from a few platitudes, because, he said, there is only one president - a fact that did not silence him on many other issues. His campaign did, however, repeat his statement that "if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that." He was referring to Israeli children, not the hundreds of Palestinian children being butchered by US arms, about whom he could not speak, because there was only one president.

On January 22, however, the one president was Barack Obama, so he could speak freely about these matters - avoiding, however, the attack on Gaza, which had, conveniently, been called off just before the inauguration.

Stop forced evictions and further death in South Korea

In South Korea, 5 people died while protesting against an imminent forced eviction

1. Summary of the Incidence

At 6 a.m. on 20th January, people who were asking for solutions to avoid
eviction in February in Youngsan-Gu, Seoul lost their lives as a
consequence of violent oppression from the police. A 1500 strong police
force was dispatched to disperse about 50 protesters. The police actions
taken toward these protesters were similar to those taken in times war.
Less than a day after those facing eviction started protesting and
without further conversations or an effort to discuss the issues, the
government dispatched a special police force and staged an anti-terror
operation. After the police entered the building where the protesters
were, a fire broke out and the circumstances became dangerous. However,
without taking any safety measures, the police proceeded with the
operation which resulted in the death of 5 protesters and 1 police officer.

"Anti terrorism has nothing to do with "terrorism". This is actually a political policy aimed at wiping social rebels out by force. That is why whe have to support the lately arrested rebelliouses" Eric Hazan

What is terrorism ?

Interesting question. Actually, there is still no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. According to wikipedia : "Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated
for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants." The word, and concept of "terrorism", appeared in France after the 1789 revolution. In fact, the new state was using the Guillotine to get rid of all kinds of opponents. The semantic root of "terrorism" is from a way of govern, using fear to keep control on people. From a way to keep and protect the state, it went later a
tool to call into question the power. Let's say that is a tool, a nasty political tool.

Eleven days after the 15-year old boy Alexandros Grogopoulos was killed by a police bullet in Athens, I decide to travel to Greece. The following article is no news, nor is it an analysis of the news. It is an attempt to create more understanding of the inner workings of the uprising, the sociopolitical and cultural climate in which it took place and the movement behind it.
It does not attempt to give an objective representation of the uprising instead it is written from a highly subjective perspective and a compilation of interviews I held with people from the anarchist/ anti-autoritarian movement in Thessaloniki.

On Jan. 24, about 200 opponents of the so-called "Gowin Bill" protested in front of the Polish parliament, the Sejm. The Gowin Bill is yet another attack on reproductive rights, this time aimed at in vitro fertilization.

A few months ago, the scummy PR machine of the ruling Civic Platform were claming that "Civic Platform wants in vitro readily accessible". Nothing could be further from the truth. The bill prepared by Jaroslaw Gowin, in essence would make in vitro practically impossible.

Gowin's Bill contains many scandalous ideas. According to it, women would not be able to use sperm from anybody other than her husband and would not be able to use eggs from anybody but herself. It wouldn't allow women to freeze sperm or eggs, meaning that if a woman's in vitro did not succeed with one treatment, she would have to undergone hormonal therapy again to harvest more eggs and undergone the in vitro itself again - a painful procedure. In vitro fertilization should only be available to married couples and women under 40.

200 workers recently dismissed from Thomson in a Warsaw suburb occupy factory in the hopes of getting promised compensation.

Thomson factory in the Warsaw suburb of Piaseczno produces TV glass (screens and tubes). A few years ago, the Indian firm Videocon purchased all of Thomson's TV glass factories. Videocon planned to restructure the company and introduce LCD production in Piaseczno. Of course it also wanted to move large parts of production to other countries and integrate with its glass panel production in India.

Today was picket organized by ZSP at Nestle headquarters in Poland. The protest was in solidarity with Jacek Kotula, dismissed unionist from Alima-Gerber company, owned by Nestle Corporation. Kotula was illegally dismissed because of his fight for protecting rights in the Rzeszow baby food factory and because of his opinion that Nestle should buy fruit from local farmers at decent price. Kotula is fighting for return to his job. Monday is court case. ---- Picketers went to Nestle corporation today as people were leaving work. There was talks about worker rights in Nestle, leaflets for employees. Police tried to stop a couple of people from going near the building but they moved too fast and once in front of building, they didn't want to make scene. Many guards locked doors of buildings and protected that only employees can go out, nobody in.

This is not first protest made against Nestle in Warsaw. They have bad record, the broke promises to some workers in other companies, they made big reductions to increase the profits and they don't tolerate the unionists who speak out. They made a big problems a few years ago at Goplana factory. We remember about Goplana, we know about the struggles of the workers and unions in Nestle in other countries.

As a group of people who came from many countries and who took part in the
struggles in Greece over the past weeks, it is now clear to us that there
is no such thing as a "Greek problem", that the situation that sparked the
intense riots here is the same that the people are facing everywhere
abroad. The murder of Alexandros Grigoropoulos on December 6th was not the
source of this conflict, it only opened and made more clear a conflict
that was already ongoing not only here but everywhere around the planet.

Gaza is in flames. Its population terrorized by the incessant bombing if Israeli
warplanes against its public and residential districts and even its schools (3).
Countless of the Gaza Strip's mostly impoverished residents are dead, many of
these children, woman and the elderly. Many more Palestinians have lost loved
ones, have maimed, both physically and psychologically, and all are living
without access to basic necessities, water, food, medical care, etc. All of
this as the consequence of the largest military assault (codename: "Operation
Cast Lead") waged by Israeli armed forces since 1967 War against the Gaza Strip
and its approximately 1.5 million residents.

Seven Tadzhik construction workers were killed yesterday in Moscow when a fire broke out in an underground parking garage where they were being illegally housed. At least 20 other workers were caught in the blaze but were rescued.

Construction firms most often provide migrant workers with makeshift housing (such as containers or garages) in flagrant violate of health and safety regulations.

The workers said that over 100 people were living in the garage, below the 24-floor building site being constructed by the company MegaStroiPolis. There were kitchens set up there - often on gas tanks - and there were many dangerous heating devices which were used in subzero temperatures. The garage was otherwise not heated.

The site was supposedly "examined" by the official City Hall Committee for Construction Supervision on Dec. 26. No safety violations were found.

A call out for common actions against the construction of a new nuclear power station in Belarus. 26 April the day of Chernobyl nuclear accident.

Present-day Belarus is a post soviet country, on which territory a regime, police state in form and neoliberal in essence, fortified its position. For already 14 years the country is run by one and the same person Alexander Lukashenko, a populist at the beginning of his governing and openly pursuing antisocial reforms now.

The freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly is not about our country. These basic values as well as the political opposition are suppressed. Peaceful gatherings dispersions, political trials,
preventive detentions all this has become a norm of political practice in Belarus.

11 years ago today, on Saturday Jan. 10 1998, police killed a 13-year old boy in the city of Slupsk in northern Poland. The boy was murdered because he was among a group of people who decided to cross a red light.

After going to a basketball game, 13-year old Przemyslaw (Przemek) Czaja was in a crowd of hundreds of fans who were leaving the game. The large group of people decided to cross a street on the red light. The crowd was attacked by police. A cop struck Przemek on the head with his baton multiple times and was knocked unconscious. Despite the fact that the crowd demanded police call an ambulance, they did nothing and the boy died.

Leaflet produced by Brighton Solidarity Federation about the conflict in Gaza, for international solidarity with civilians in the middle-east – against all governments and gangsters.

One thing is absolutely clear about the current situation in Gaza: the Israeli state is committing atrocities which must end immediately. With hundreds dead and thousands wounded, it has become increasingly clear that the aim of the military operation, which has been in the planning stages since the signing of the original ceasefire in June, is to break Hamas completely. The attack follows the crippling blockade throughout the supposed 'ceasefire', which has destroyed the livelihoods of Gazans, ruined the civilian infrastructure and created a humanitarian disaster which anyone with an ounce of humanity would seek an end to.

A response to FBI informant Brandon Darby

By now many have heard the story of the activist Brandon Darby who was working for the FBI as an informant from within groups that protested the 2008 Republican National Convention. What makes this story different from dozens of others is that Brandon was not a cop, but an activist turned bad. Furthermore, he has unrepentantly tried to justify his treachery as some sort of "positive work" for peace.

Saturday 3 January 2009

Israel’s harshest assault on Gaza since 1967 - codenamed "Operation Cast Lead" - which began on Saturday morning and left over 250 Palestinians dead on its first day alone, was met with widespread condemnation around the world, including dissent within Israel itself.

Protest actions began already the day before Israel’s "Shock and Awe" aerial offensive, when activists demonstrated in the heart of Tel-Aviv, warning against the looming escalation and calling for peace talks with Gaza’s democratically elected officials. This demonstration, organized by the Coalition against the Siege on Gaza, was virtually ignored by the mainstream media.

On Saturday, December the 27th, as we learnt of the carnage and devastation Israeli warplanes inflicted that morning on Gaza’s already suffering, besieged population, AATW activists joined over a hundred angry protesters on a virtually-spontaneous demonstration in the city of Jaffa (many local residents have relatives in the Gaza strip, since a large part of Jaffa’s population were forced to flee to Gaza in 1948).

At the same time demonstrations broke out in dozens of cities and villages across the West Bank, as well as East Jerusalem, many resulting in clashes between Palestinian youth and Israeli troops. Later that evening, AATW took part in a thousand-strong, Arab-Jewish protest march through the streets of Tel Aviv, along members of other organizations. The protesters led an emotionally-charged, energetic march from the Cinemateque Square to the Ministry of Defense (video), chanting "the occupation is terrorism" and carrying signs such as "Israel’s ministers are war criminals". On the way, demonstrators were attacked without provocation by Israeli Special Patrol Unit backed by aggressive mounted policemen. Further clashes took place on the Ministry of Defense’s lawn, when anarchists knocked down security fences and attempted to block traffic on Kaplan Street. Six demonstrators were arrested, all of which were released by a judge the next day.