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Promoting fair trade and unexploited labour for Euro 2012
Leo, Śro, 2007-11-28 23:44 Świat | EnglishThe new InJustice Minister in Poland believes that prisoners are the answer for the labour shortage and high potential costs of building stadiums for the Euro 2012 championships.
It's not the first time that the issue of cheap labour has popped up in the debate of how Poland should go about preparing for the football competition. Importing Chinese workers has also been weighed into the equation - maybe a mixture of both will ultimately transpire.
Holocaust survivor and her Polish rescuer reunite - lessons for the present!
Leo, Nie, 2007-11-25 22:34 Świat | English
Golda Bushkanietz and her Polish rescuer, Irena Walulewicz, meet for the first time since 1943
Beautiful pictures arise every now and again depicting how humanitarian we can be when we bravely and nonviolently confront tyranny. Activists, including myself, have a tendency to whine about the world's woes a bit more than celebrate the good things humans do. So I find it healthy for me and I believe us all to remember the good we have done and continue to do, to celebrate our humanitarianism and learn valuable lessons from past protagonists of human resistance to oppression.
Immigrant Poles scapegoated and exploited - left, right and centre!
Leo, Nie, 2007-11-25 22:07 English | Prawa pracownikaAs I was browsing Polish news tonight on that time consuming masterful source of information, the internet, I came across a number of things connected to Polish migrants abroad. Beatroot's blog links to a Guardian article debunking common myths and scapegoating of Poles and their neighbours for Britain's woes.
Strike in Lomza highlights problem of privatization
Akai47, Nie, 2007-11-25 08:16 EnglishOn Thursday November 22, a wildcat occupational strike was held in the bus company PKS-Lomza. 200 of the 250 workers there went on strike. 50 workers who are part of Solidarność union were surprised by the action and didn't support it.
The workers protested against the dismissal of the director Adam Wykowski on Wednesday night. Workers striking on behalf of a fired director?
This is a fairly common thing in Poland, especially in state-owned enterprises where directors may represent one side or another regarding the issue of privatization.
Buy Nothing Day in Warsaw
Akai47, Nie, 2007-11-25 08:07 EnglishOn Nov. 24, a group of activists dressed like zombies invaded the super modern shopping mall called "Golden Terraces" in Warsaw for the annual "Buy Nothing Day" anti-consumerist action.
The activists brought a bullhorn with which they spoke about the action until eventually being chased away by security. (They went back to the mall a few minutes later only to give up the action after hearing how the head of security were threatening to fire the guards (employed by supershit firm Impel) for allowing such a breach.) During the action, leaflets were given out explaining the principles of Buy Nothing Day and also explaining the ideas behind different forms of consumer protest, including boycott of companies which abuse workers or have unhealthy practices and support of cooperatives, etc. etc.
The Origin of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Czytelnik CIA, Czw, 2007-11-22 10:55 EnglishThe Secrets of an Anti-Semitic Manipulation
It is the most celebrated -- and the most tragic -- of the falsifications of the 20th century, at the basis of the anti-Semitic myth of the "worldwide Jewish conspiracy." The text of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion now yields up its final mystery: a Russian historian, Mikhail Lepekhine, has established the identity of its author, thanks to the Soviet archives. His work permits one to understand why it was necessary to wait so long to know this epilogue: the forger, Mathieu Golovinski -- who accomplished his task in Paris at the beginning of the century for the French representative of the Czar's political police -- became a well-known Bolshevik after the Russian Revolution of 1917. . . . The discovery of this sinister historical thumbing of the nose permits one to fill in the last lacunae in the history of an imposture that, after having ravaged Europe, still knows a flourishing life in many regions of the world.
Shocked in Death, Shocked in Life: More Than a Taser Story
Czytelnik CIA, Czw, 2007-11-22 10:51 EnglishThe world saw a video last week of Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers using a Taser against a Polish man in the Vancouver International Airport in October. The man, Robert Dziekanski, died soon after the attack. In recent days, more details have come out about him. It turns out that the 40-year-old didn’t just die after being shocked — his life was marked by shock as well.
Congress Considers How to ‘Disrupt’ Radical Movements in the United States
Czytelnik CIA, Śro, 2007-11-21 22:21 EnglishBringing the War on Terrorism Home: Congress Considers How to ‘Disrupt’ Radical Movements in the United States
Under the guise of a bill that calls for the study of “homegrown terrorism,” Congress is apparently trying to broaden the definition of terrorism to encompass both First Amendment political activity and traditional forms of protest such as nonviolent civil disobedience, according to civil liberties advocates, scholars and historians.
The proposed law, The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (H.R. 1955), was passed by the House of Representative in a 404-6 vote Oct. 23. (The Senate is currently considering a companion bill, S. 1959.) The act would establish a “National Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence” and a university-based “Center for Excellence” to “examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism and ideologically based violence in the United States” in order to develop policy for “prevention, disruption and mitigation.”
U.S. soldiers' suicide rate explodes in 2005
Leo, Śro, 2007-11-21 01:38 EnglishThere is are many silent screams in the U.S. war of terror. War veterans are increasingly suffering in silence and self-inflicting wounds. Little is known, many want to keep it hush-hush, but the truth about suicides among those who have served in the military is beginning to transpire.
I recently read on the Irish anti-war movement site that a five-month CBS News investigation has discovered data showing a startling rate of suicide amongst war vets in the U.S. 6,256 committed suicide in 2005 alone. That's about 120 people a week.
CBS Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian have done an extensive report on the issue.
“I just felt like this silent scream inside of me,” said Jessica Harrell, the sister of a soldier who took his own life.
"I opened up the door and there he was," recalled Mike Bowman, the father of an Army reservist.
"I saw the hose double looped around his neck,” said Kevin Lucey, another military father.
"He was gone,” said Mia Sagahon, whose soldier boyfriend committed suicide.
Keteyian spoke with the families of five former soldiers who each served in Iraq - only to die battling an enemy they could not conquer. Their loved ones are now speaking out in their names.
More info.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main34964...
Poland kicks Belgian State-less ass in Euro 2008 Qualifiers
Leo, Nie, 2007-11-18 00:34 Świat | English
Poland have succeeded in qualifying for the Euro Football championships next year after their 2-0 defeat of Belgium in Chorzow tonight. So as the domestic hooligans are a little too happy to beat the livinG daylights out of anybody, how about the impact on the poor Belgians. Indeed, their loss couldn't have come at a worse time.
Belgium is an odd entity. It has survived on a shoestring for 45 years since the beginning of the E.U. project, steadily devolving into irrelevance. The lefty-leaning formerly prosperous Wallonia seems to have nothing going for it at the moment - except for Brussels, of course. On the other hand, the fascistic-leaning, lingua-Franca-hating (you could be lynched if you don't speak Dutch in some areas) Flanders region has the money, the confidence and the ever-increasing capacity to divorce it's unwanted siamese sibling.
Workers, Not Politicians, Will End This War
Czytelnik CIA, Pią, 2007-11-16 08:56 EnglishBuild Our Solidarity, Not Their Elections
Before bombs began dropping on Iraq, millions of us protested against the war. Today, the war is dismally unpopular and every day we learn of new atrocities being committed in our names. And all at the expense of the lives of U.S. soldiers, drawn heavily from the working class. Faced with this dire situation, leaders of the antiwar movement have focused on electing Democrats, lobbying Democrats, and calling on Democrats to impeach Bush. We reject this whole electoral strategy. It has not brought us any closer to stopping the war. Of the leading Democratic candidates for President, all plan on keeping U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely. It is clear to us that a new type of movement and strategy is needed, both to end the unjust wars in Iraq and beyond, and to work towards the liberation of all of us here in the U.S.A.
INSURGENTES against Venezuela´s constitutional reform
Czytelnik CIA, Czw, 2007-11-15 17:31 English* Various organizations and individuals within Venezuela, each with a history of social struggle and each bringing with them diverse proposals from the anti-authoritarian and critical left, have assembled in the space of INSURGENTES (INSURGENTS) to forge a position against the proposed constitutional “reform” offered by the republic’s President, Hugo Chavez Frias.
Venezuela: Interview with indigenous activist
Czytelnik CIA, Czw, 2007-11-15 13:16 Świat | EnglishAs part of the 2.300 delegates in the second Zapatista and indigenous community’s international reunion, which took place last July in Mexico, there was a small delegation from Zulia. Jorge Montiel and Diego, members of the wayuu community, delivered a truly important message: Venezuelan indigenous community’s situation is very different than the declared by the government people in Caracas. The message transmitted concerned the “zapatista” movement which, as previous declarations confirmed, started to consider in good terms the Venezuelan government actions. El Libertario talked about the experience with Jorge Montiel, member of the Maikiralasa’lii, which means organization who does not sell itself.
International Call for Action in Genoa
Czytelnik CIA, Czw, 2007-11-15 10:40 EnglishThe first phase of the trial against 25 comrades, who on the 19th, 20th and 21st July 2001 took part in the protests against the G8 in Genua, is drawing to a close. By asking for an overall sentence of 225 years, the Italian state aims at formulating a historical and political judgement
on those days, making some of us, scapegoats picked at random, pay the price of the terror those protests managed to strike into the powerful
of the Earth. However, in the current political phase, the repressive institutions also aim at conveying a precise signal to the potential
conflicting subjects, present and future, and to the movements which, through their opposition to the big public works, their fight against the precariousness of the employment and their defence and conquest of social spaces, have been gaining ground in the last few years.
Bolivian Anarchism and Indigenous Resistance: Interview with Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui
Czytelnik CIA, Śro, 2007-11-14 13:48 EnglishThe South American nation of Bolivia has filled the headlines of the global press with their fight against water privatization, struggle for nationalization of gas, non-compliance with free trade policies, and the election of South America’s first indigenous president, Evo Morales. These struggles are rooted in the long history of indigenous resistance to colonialism and imperialism in Bolivia. In an interview conducted during her recent stay in Pittsburgh, subaltern theorist, Aymara sociologist, and historian Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui discussed Bolivian Anarchism, the health benefits of the Coca plant, and the Cocaleros' (Coca Growers') fight for sovereignty.