-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 202 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send $$ to RadTimes!! --> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --Mexican Indians To Protest Modified Indians' Rights Law --Quebec Legal Defense Fund --May Day protest turns violent --Hate Squad --Who's minding the hospitals? --My Story of Quebec City by Starhawk --iRobots spy on children --Journalist Killings Up in 2001 =================================================================== Mexican Indians To Protest Modified Indians' Rights Law Mexico City, Apr 27, 2001 (EFE via COMTEX) -- The National Indigenous Congress (CNI), which comprises most of Mexico's 56 Indian ethnic groups, called for demonstrations throughout the country on Friday to protest the Indian Rights and Culture Law passed by the Senate and sent to the floor of the lower house for final passage. CNI leaders told reporters at a press conference that next Tuesday, which is Mexico's Labor Day, they will hold demonstrations throughout Mexico to push back a law that "legitimizes the strategy of ethnic genocide that the Mexican government's indigenous policies have historically employed." On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed the Indian Rights and Culture Law, with some modifications made to the text drafted by the congressional peace commission for Chiapas in 1996. Passage of the law represents one of the demands made by the CNI and the National Zapatista Liberation Army (EZLN) for the resumption of peace talks with the government. The Indians' rights groups have established two other conditions: the dismantling of a certain number of military bases in the state of Chiapas and the release of Zapatista prisoners. The CNI said Friday that the new text does not recognize the territories that belong to the indigenous peoples and ignores their right to use and enjoy the natural resources on their lands. Also, the modified text reduces indigenous autonomy to a municipal scope. The CNI announced that in addition to the demonstrations, which will begin on May 5, they will initiate a process of "recuperation of lands" in different areas of the country. The state-run National Indigenous Institute (INI) added their support to the CNI, saying that the legislation passed by the Senate does represent a step forward. The leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) echoed the Indian groups' concerns on Friday and expressed reservations about the measure. =================================================================== Quebec Legal Defense Fund From: "Shawn Ewald" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I have verified with the Quebec Legal Collective that the address below can receive checks from outside of Canada. The previous fundraising info I sent out had information for electronic funds transfers (which is much more common in Canada than the US). Please send what you can. There are people in jail right now who are being presented as the "leaders" of the demonstrations in Quebec City, despite the fact that there were no formal leaders for the demonstrations. They are being charged with conspiracy and other very serious charges that could result in prison sentences of many years. Send a cheque, made out to CASA, and indicating on it "fonds de defense", to: Le Maquis C.P. 48026 110 Boul. René Lévesque Québec, PQ G1R 2R5 Canada =================================================================== May Day protest turns violent http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/dynamic/news/story.html 01 May 2001 Anti-capitalist rioters went on the rampage tonight as London's May Day protest finally escalated into violence. As darkness fell, a group of hard core demonstrators turned their attention to the busy and unguarded Tottenham Court Road area. Militant anarchists intent on violence broke away from peaceful demonstrators and left a trail of destruction. More than 20 shopfront windows on the road were smashed with rocks and other missiles, including those of Bank of Scotland, Abbey National, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank, Coffee Republic and Habitat. The rioters also attempted to set fire to a Tesco store on nearby Goodge Street. Staff were in the store at the time. One said: "I was working downstairs when the manager told us to stay down because the shop was being attacked. "We stayed down for about 20 minutes and then they said we should all go because we were being evacuated." Scotland Yard said about 50 to 60 of the protesters contained in the Oxford Circus area had broken away into Oxford Street at about 8.30 pm. "They regrouped very quickly and overturned a car. They tried to set fire to Tesco's in Goodge Street," a spokesman said. He added: "Some of those were arrested. Tension in the area remains high." Nearby Goodge Street tube station was closed by British Transport Police after the attack and Tottenham Court Road tube was also reported to be shut. The number of arrests is believed to have risen above 50, many for possessing weapons, including lock-knives and screwdrivers. Scotland Yard said about 200 to 300 protesters were still in the Oxford Circus area, where they had been penned in by riot police for about seven hours. The majority had been dispersed. Earlier in the day, more than 5,000 protesters packed the capital's streets and were involved in a series of skirmishes with up to 6,000 officers, many of them in riot gear. At least one police horse was injured. Scotland Yard said a man suffered head injuries when he was hit by flying debris near John Lewis department store on Oxford Street. He was said to be in a stable condition at St Mary's Hospital. Two police officers were injured. One received a minor back injury and was treated at the scene while a second officer was taken to hospital. London Ambulance Service said 29 people were admitted to hospital, mostly suffering from minor injuries. Three with more serious head injuries were taken to University College Hospital. The scenes in London mirrored similar protests across the world, including Berlin, where bonfires were lit on the streets and barricades erected to fend off police. Outside London, two people were arrested during a small anti-capitalist demonstration in Bristol and about 60 protesters held a march in Manchester. In Glasgow, 400 demonstrators gathered for a carnival style protest. The London protests, under a broad banner of anti-capitalism, began in carnival style with mass cycle rides through the streets and chanting. But the atmosphere turned sour after a large group gathered in Oxford Street at the climax of what the organisers called a game of May Day Monopoly, based on the board game's locations. Officers exchanged blows with demonstrators at several points around Oxford Circus and by 5 pm, 29 people had been arrested, including eight from Denmark, Poland, Belgium and the United States, Scotland Yard said. Scotland Yard admitted officers temporarily lost control of the crowds after protesters managed to break through police lines in Oxford Street at about 4 pm. Police came under a hail of wine bottles, beer bottles and sticks as demonstrators attempted to surge forward into Regent Street. One man was seen being led away with blood pouring from his head while police videoed and photographed protesters. Fifteen activists, masked by Balaclavas, stormed a Sainsbury's store screaming anti-capitalist chants while others hurled concrete slabs at police. As police contained the crowd at Oxford Circus earlier in the afternoon, helicopters hovered overhead. A hardcore group made an unsuccessful attempt to break down boarding covering the windows of the Niketown store. One protester was spotted dancing on the roof of a bottle green Jaguar car as police in riot gear looked on in Great Castle Street, off Regent Street. There were also clashes between police and protesters in Market Place and in Cavendish Square and smoke bombs were used in Regent Street by some demonstrators. Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Mike Todd said a number of protesters had come to the capital intent on violence. Schools and a library in Westminster were closed and dozens of businesses lost millions of pounds after being forced to shut. Several bridges across the Thames were closed to pedestrians in an attempt to prevent more demonstrators converging on the city. Chairman of Metropolitan Police Authority, Lord Harris, said the violence had "marred" the day of protest. "Disruptive and threatening behaviour by a minority of people bent on aggression and mindless acts of thuggery has marred the day's events that started out as peaceful and good humoured," he said. He commended the Metropolitan Police for their handling of the event, saying: "I believe struck they right balance between facilitating peaceful demonstrations and deterring violent disorder. "The police tactic of containment in and around the flashpoint of Oxford Street to avoid serious injuries to innocent people and damage to property proved to be the right one." London Ambulance Service said that 28 people were treated for their injuries. =================================================================== Hate Squad <http://www.reason.com:80/0104/ci.cf.hate.html> By Charles Paul Freund REASON * April 2001 Concern about "hate crimes" is resuscitating the Chicago police department's long-dormant Red Squad, an intelligence unit that specialized in infiltrating, harassing, and gathering intelligence on political groups. Since 1981, Chicago's cops have been under a consent decree that greatly limited such activity: They couldn't start spying on a group until they had evidence that a crime was likely to be committed. But in January, reports the Chicago Sun-Times, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals untied the Chicago cops' hands by modifying that decree. The court ruled that threats from "terrorists" and "hate groups" presented a greater danger than police harassment and spying. "If the investigation cannot begin until the group is well on its way toward the commission of terrorist acts," it declared, "the investigation may come too late to prevent the acts or to identify the perpetrators." The decision was written by Judge Richard Posner, the court's chief judge and the author of last year's controversial study of the Clinton impeachment, An Affair of State (see "Sex, Economics, and Other Legal Matters," page 36). Posner's ruling was hailed as a victory for Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley Jr., who has long argued that the 1981 consent decree needed modification. While a police spokesman termed the decision "a tremendous victory for common sense," the American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling "a significant setback." Police will again be able to amass databases on groups whom they think might commit terrorist acts and hate crimes, though a city official has claimed in the Sun-Times that the police will still not be able to use such intelligence to harass or intimidate dissidents. Officials also argue that the current Chicago police force is younger and "better educated" than the cops of 20 years ago. The ruling may offer a lesson in the malleability of police restraint. Over the past century, police have at various times been allowed to infiltrate and gather intelligence on a series of groups perceived as special threats, from anarchists to Bolsheviks to black nationalists to Old and New Left radicals, only to have such police activities later condemned and "regretted." The rhetoric of the "special threat" has in recent decades encompassed potential domestic terrorism, and now it focuses increasingly on perpetrators of "hate crimes." According to the Sun-Times, Mayor Daley focused his campaign to change the consent decree on such crimes, citing in particular a gunshot attack last fall against a local rabbi, and the menacing of Jewish pedestrians in the city, who were reportedly targeted by slingshot. =================================================================== Who's minding the hospitals? <http://www.populist.com/01.9.hospitals.html> by SAM URETSKY The Progressive POPULIST May 15, 2001 -- Volume 7, Number 9 You've heard there's a shortage of nurses. That's bad. What you may not have heard is that there's a shortage of just about every other healthcare profession, that it's going to get worse before it gets better, and that it looks as if the only thing that will relieve the problem in the short run has already been done. According to the Journal of Public Health Dentistry (September 2000), 25% of the population living in rural areas has no dentists or primary care physicians readily available. The Associated Press reports a shortage of radiologists in Massachusetts so severe that it's leading to deaths because there's a shortage of physicians who can read an x-ray accurately. MSNBC reported that by the year 2020, the United States will have a 20% shortfall of nurses. The Department of Health and Human Services reported that in 1998 there was a national shortage of 2,700 pharmacists, and this grew to 7,000 by the year 2000. Hang on, there's more. These needs estimates are based on population figures from the official census, which admits to an undercount. The issue of providing a more accurate count became a political issue. The Republicans opposed statistical corrections because the uncounted people were more likely to be poor, which means they would be most likely to be Democrats. These people may not be counted now, but they'll be counted when they turn up in Emergency Rooms in a few years. In other words, as bad as the projections are, they're probably underestimates. More? There's a decline in applications to nursing and pharmacy schools which is likely to make the shortage worse. Applications to medical schools remain high, probably because the salaries are still high, but physicians' job satisfaction levels are declining, and the profession isn't as attractive as it used to be. The Journal of Dental Education reports that there are 400 unfilled faculty positions in dental schools, and these vacancies will have to be filled before more dentists can be trained. Not only are we losing the healthcare professionals that we'll need in a few years, we're losing the ability to replace them. As the Baby Boom generation marches inexorably towards the age of high blood pressure, arthritic joints, reading glasses and removable dentures, it looks as if the only good advice is to take a book with you to the Doctor's office. You'll have a long wait. Then, consider that there are an estimated 40 million Americans without health insurance of any type. These people aren't using the healthcare system unless it's absolutely essential, and that reduces the projections of need. But the uninsured, like the uncounted, are getting older, and once they qualify for Medicare, it's safe to assume they'll put even more pressure on a system that's already in disarray. So far, we've been able to make do by shifting over some professional functions to technicians or less skilled professionals. The reason there isn't a severe shortage of physicians is that some of the functions once performed by an MD are now assigned to physicians' assistants, nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, and in some cases, pharmacists. Tasks that were once performed by nurses are now done by nurses' aides, and pharmacists have the assistance of pharmacy technicians. Computers have made things faster in a lot of professions, and these methods have all helped. In addition, hospitals have sent recruiters all over the world to find nurses and physicians to fill open slots in American hospitals. This has been an effective method for keeping the shortages down in the richest nation in the world, but don't ask about the impact on healthcare in other countries. The issue gets down to money. Nobody wants to pay. Insurance companies want to make a profit, so they put the squeeze on providers, whether that's a hospital, physician, or clinic or chain drug store. Since the insurance companies are big, they have a lot of leverage, and can threaten to take their patients someplace else. Even the biggest hospital is tiny compared with a modest insurance company. Hospitals met these pressures by cutting back on staff, freezing salaries, and generally folding up like a piece of tissue paper. In constant dollars, nursing salaries haven't changed since 1992, but the work load, based on hospital admissions, has increased by 12 to 25% since 1996. Hospitals have dealt with the nursing shortage by increasing case loads and requiring mandatory overtime. Nurses have dealt with these working conditions by finding other jobs. There were other forces at work as well. Conservatives tend to use personal wealth as a measure of personal worth, and it didn't take long for the message to get around. In a society that measures personal worth by net worth, all at current market prices, a successful day trader is worth more than a nurse. In the past, women were restricted to the professions of nursing and education. This led to a large pool of qualified professionals, and allowed salaries to be kept low. As career opportunities expanded, women opted for better paying occupations, creating a shortage, while salaries in nursing and related fields failed to follow the laws of supply and demand. Economic planners simply assumed that healthcare professionals would be willing to work for their current salaries and wouldn't jump ship to find other occupations, and that somehow, people who graduated college summa cum laude couldn't see that an MBA is worth more than an MD. Hospitals, the largest employer of nurses and a major employer of other health professionals, have been starved by frozen Medicare reimbursement rates. The Bush budget does project increases in Medicare spending, but these are based on constant costs per patient and increased case loads. There is no provision for making working conditions more attractive, or luring people back into the healthcare professions. The Bush budget will give the average millionaire a savings equivalent to the annual salary of a registered nurse but offers no benefits to nurses. Even if there were enough money available to improve working conditions and make healthcare professions more attractive, there is a time factor. It takes four years to train a nurse, six years to train a pharmacist, and seven years, plus a residency, to produce a qualified physician. Start a catch-up program now, and that's how long it will take to show any results. So far, there's no evidence of the sort of reconsideration of social values that would make the healthcare professions more desirable occupations than dealing in bonds and commodities. As long as we hold onto this sort of value system, the enrollment rates in schools offering training in health professions will continue to decline. Right now, there's concern about whether there will be any money left in the Medicare trust fund to pay the bills as the baby boomers age. It may be even more relevant to ask if there will be anybody sending in the bills to be paid. --------- Sam Uretsky is a pharmacist who writes on health issues from Long Island, N.Y. =================================================================== The Bridge At Midnight Trembles My Story of Quebec City By Starhawk Under the freeway, they are drumming. Clad in black, hooded in sweatshirts, they pick up sticks and beat on the iron railings, on the metal sculptures that grace this homeless park, on the underpinnings of the overpass that links the lower town to the upper levels of Quebec City. They are mostly young and they are angry and jubilant, dancing in the night after two days on the barricades. From above, the cops fire volleys of tear gas. It billows up in clouds and drifts down like an eerily beautiful, phantom fog, but the dancers keep on dancing. The sound and the rhythm grows and grows, a roar that fills the city, louder than you can imagine, loud enough, it seems, to crack the freeways, bring the old order down. The rumbling of the rapids as you approach the unseen waterfall. A pulsing, throbbing heartbeat of something being born. A rough beast, not slouching but striding toward Bethlehem, in solidarity and pride. A carnaval, a dance, a battle. Images of war: the tear gas clouds, the spray of the water cannon, the starbursts of exploding gas, and yes, the rocks and bricks and bottles. No one has come here expecting a safe or peaceful struggle. Everyone who is here has overcome fear, and must continue to do so moment by moment. In the chaos, the confusion, the moments of panic, there is also a sweetness, an exuberance. Spring after winter. Freedom. Release. The rough tenderness of a hand holding open an eye to be washed out from tear gas. The kindness of strangers offering their homes to the protestors: come up, use our toilets, eat these muffins we have baked, fill your bottles with water. We are the Living River: a cluster within the action that sometimes swells to a couple of hundred people, sometimes shrinks to fifty. Our core is made up of Pagans, who are here because we believe the earth is sacred and that all human beings are part of that living earth. Many of us have known each other and worked together for years: others are new, drawn together from outlying places by the internet and the organizing. One woman has brought her teenage children: our oldest member, Leah, is eighty-four. Our goal is to bring attention to issues of water, we say, although our true goal is to embody the element of water under fire. We carry the Cochabamba Declaration, which was written by a group of people in Bolivia who staged an uprising to retake their water supply after it had been privatized by Bechtel Corporation. They wrote: The Cochabamba Declaration: "For the right to life, for the respect of nature and the uses and traditions of our ancestors and our peoples, for all time the following shall be declared as inviolable rights with regard to the uses of water given us by the earth: 1) Water belongs to the earth and all species and is sacred to life, therefore, the world's water must be conserved, reclaimed and protected for all future generations and its natural patterns respected. 2) Water is a fundamental human right and a public trust to be guarded by all levels of government, therefore, it should not be commodified, privatized or traded for commercial purposes. These rights must be enshrined at all levels of government. In particular, an international treaty must ensure these principles are noncontrovertible. 3) Water is best protected by local communities and citizens who must be respected as equal partners with governments in the protection and regulation of water. Peoples of the earth are the only vehicle to promote earth democracy and save water." The Declaration is the alternative. Itıs what we are fighting for, not against. Our goal is to bring it into the Congress Center, declare the FTAA meeting illegitimate because it is not supported by the people, and suggest they begin negotiating to protect the waters. Failing that, we will get as close as we can, and declare the Declaration wherever we are stopped. As we are mobilizing, our friends in Bolivia stage a March for Life and Sovereignty, which is violently repressed. Oscar Olivera, one of the framers of the Declaration, is arrested, charged with treason, but then released. As we are tear gassed, so the March is tear gassed, again and again. In Bolivia, two people die, one asphyxiated by the gas. In Quebec, there are near deaths, a man shot in the trachea by a rubber bullet, asthma attacks from the tear gas, a finger torn off in the assault on the fence. In Sao Paolo the youth blockading the Avenida Paulista are brutally attacked and beaten. One of our friends is hospitalized with a broken wrist. Our River has banners and flags and blue cloth suspended on poles and blue costumes and water songs. In theory the action is divided into zonesa green zone for nonarrest, safe actions; a yellow zone for nonviolent, defensiveı actions; a red zone for confrontational actions. In practice, aside from two designated green areas, no one knows exactly where these zones are or what they are supposed to mean. Anyway, weıre the blue group, something outside of the plan. We are prepared to be nonviolent and confrontational. However, many of us are ten to twenty years older than the average protestor, most of us are women, and for many of the group, this is their first action ever. Some of us are prepared to go over the perimeter, if the chance arises, to risk arrest and physical confrontation. Others are not. So the river has four streams within it. Each will follow a flag of one of the elements. The green Earth flag will always make the safest choice in any situation. The blue Water flag will rally those willing to take the greatest risks. The red Fire and yellow Air flags will support the blue but not directly risk arrest. Affinity groups may stay together to follow one flag, or decide ahead of time how they will split when a moment of danger comes. Each person in the river has a buddy, someone they always keep track of, so that no one can get lost. Our scouts, Charles, Laura and Lisa, run ahead and check routes, come back and report or phone in. At times, the river is able to stop and make a choice collectively about what to do. At other times, it is impossible to meet or even hear each other, and the flag bearers decide. Friday afternoon. The River has spiraled at the gate at Rene Levesque, where the night before the Womenıs Action hung our weavings. As we wind up the circle, beginning to raise the power, Evergreen comes up to me with a man in tow who is decked in the Cuban flag. He is part of a small group of indigenous people who have been holding a vigil at the gate, and our group is so metaphoric, (and we never quite got the signs made that said clearly what we were doing) that somehow he has gotten the impression that we are for the FTAA. We are singing, "The river is flowing," and he is from Honduras and his land is flooded from ecological breakdown and hurricane Mitch, and the only way we can demonstrate our solidarity, he says, is to join him in his chant. "Why not?" I shrug and we begin to chant in Spanish and English, "El pueblo, unido, jamas sera vencido!" "The people, united, will never be defeated!" The shout has a rhythm of its own, an angry and hopeful power. We dance on down to St. Jean Street, singing, "Fleuve, porte moi, ma mere tu restera, Fleuve, porte moi, vers la ocean." The news comes from our scoutsthe CLAC march has reached the gate weıve just left, and the fence is already down. I literally jump for joy. Quickly we regroup, and the blue, red and yellow flags decide to head back up for the gates. We move up the street, stop in an intersection. Our scouts are ahead of us, checking out the side streets. We make a circle, begin to sing, "Hold on, hold on, hold the vision until itıs born." We begin a spiral, start to wind the power up, and suddenly I know clearly that we need to move up the hill, into the battle. I look at Wilow, our Blue flag bearer, who smiles because she knows what Iım thinking. We nod, and she waves the flag. We advance forward. Up to Rene Levesque, into the avenue and out in front of the theater, singing and drumming. We receive cheers"Hey, itıs the River." Closer to the gate, the cops are firing tear gas at the crowd. Young men run out of the crowd, shadows in the fog, and throw them back. The gas billows up and is blown back onto the police lines. We are still able to breathe, and sing, so we start a spiral. The circle grows: other people join hands and dance with us, moving ever closer to the gate, not running away, not giving ground. All along it has been hard to decide what the action of this direct action should be. Now we all see that the fence is the action. Challenging it, pulling it down, keeping up the pressure on the perimeter, refusing to go away, demanding to stay and be seen and heard. We spiral and dance, the drums pounding against the thunder of the projectiles as they shoot tear gas canisters overhead, laughing with the sheer liberation and surrealism of it all. Until at last one shot lands close to us, the gas pours out and engulfs us in a stinging, blinding cloud, and we are forced away. Down the hill we stop, wash out our eyes, rejoin the red and yellow flags. We help other people who also need their eyes washed. I am grateful for the training Laura gave usgrateful to remember that I can breathe through the tear gas, though it hurts, to know how to wash eyes properly, how to rinse my throat, spit, rinse, spit before drinking. We decide to flow on, to the blockade on the Cote dıAbraham a few blocks away. A couple of young people beg us to stay, to go back up the hill, and Iım tempted. They want the energy we bring, and they feel safer when weıre there. But we hear that the Cote dıAbraham gate could also use some energy, and the mission of the River is to flow, so we go on. We could use ten, a hundred Rivers. The gate at the cote dıAbraham is a stageelevated above the lower city, it closes off one of the main thoroughfares where three highways converge. A crossroads. We can look out over the lower city and the faraway hills where a red sun is about to set. When we arrive, the energy feels fragmented. Some people are drumming and dancing, others milling around, some tossing things at the police lines behind the fence, others just not quite knowing what to do. We synch to the beat of the drummers and begin a circle that grows and grows. Three or four hundred people are holding hands when we begin to spiral. The drummers move into the center and we wind and wind the spiral until the chant gets lost in the drum jam beat. Behind us, Donna has moved over to the fence and is scolding the police, especially the one woman among them. "How can you do this? Youa woman! A Canadian! What are you thinking of!" The area has been so heavily gassed that many of us canıt stay long. The energy peaks, not into a cone of power but into a wild dance. Our scouts report that riot cops are massing down the street, heading toward us to clear the area. I ask the drummers to stop for a moment so we can inform people but they just shrug, so what?ı They wonıt let a little thing like a police attack interrupt their music. The river flows on. Behind us, we can look back and see the spray of the water cannon, arching high in the air, filled with light like a holy and terrible rain that plays upon the black figures who hold their ground below.. Saturday morning: About twenty of us gather in the house where weıre staying. Everyone is braver than before. I am awed. Some of us have been activists for decades, and carry into the actions a slow courage that has grown over many, many years. But some of our people have made that internal journey in one night. All along Iıve been carrying a feeling of responsibility for these new people. I know they are all adults; they have made their own choices with their eyes wide open. But still, I know that many of them would not be here in this place of danger if I hadnıt urged people to come. And itıs one thing to decide, in the safety of your home, to go to a demonstration. Itıs another thing to face the reality of the chaos, the tear gas, the potential for violence. I am here, I have done my best to inspire and encourage other people to be here with me, because as scared as I might be of the riot cops and the rubber bullets, Iım a thousand times more scared of what will happen if we arenıt here, if we donıt challenge that meeting going on behind these walls. Even if the river seems placid, I can hear the roar of the waterfall in my ears. In the beauty of the woods, in the quiet of the morning when I sit outside and listen for the birdsong, in every place that should feel like safety, I know by the feel of the current that we are headed for an irrevocable edge, an ecological/economic/social crash of epic dimensions, for our system is not sustainable and we are running out of room to maneuver. The mostly men running the governments and the corporations and the economic institutions of the world seem incapable of grasping reality: that nature is real, and has limits and needs of her own that must be respected; that neither human beings nor forests nor oil reserves can be endlessly exploited without causing great damage to the world, that the basic life support systems of the planet are under assault. In the meeting we are protesting, the Congress protected by the fence and the wall and the riot cops and the army, they are planning to unleash the plundering forces and remove all controls. Water, land, forests, energy, health, education, all of the human services communities perform for each other will be confirmed as arenas for corporate profit making, with all of our efforts to regulate the damage undermined. And I am here because I am inspired by the incredible courage, the energy, the commitment of the mostly young people in this struggle. And because I have felt, all along, a vortex of forces converging on this time and this place, and that a cadre of Witches is just what is needed to work those energies. And what I hear from my friends now confirms my feelings. "I know, now, why you do this." "This is what we have been training for, all these years." "This action itself is a training ground. Weıre just beginning." We circle, sing, raise power, and make our decision. We will go to the labor march, whose leaders have planned to walk safely away from the wall. But we will join the groups that plan to break off and return to challenge the perimeter. Saturday afternoon: I am standing in the alley with Juniper who has never been in an action before and with Lisa who has been in many. There is an opening in the wall, but the riot cops stand behind, defending it, their shields down, impermeably masked, padded and gloved and holding their long sticks ready to strike. Willow moves forward, begins to read the Cochabamba Declaration. The cops interrupt, shouting something, and move out from behind the fence. Their clubs are ready to strike: one holds the gun that fires tear gas projectiles and points it at us. Lisa and I look at each other, one eye on the cops, the other on the crowd behind us. "What do we want to do here?" she asks me. The cops begin to advance.. "Sit down," someone calls behind us, maybe someone we ourselves trained to sit in this very situation. We sit down. The cops tense. Juniper begins to cry. I am going to tell her she doesnıt have to be in the front line, but she smiles through the tears and says, "It only gets good when you start to cry," and I know that nothing could make her leave. We are holding hands. I consider whether we should link up, make a stronger line. We pass the Cochabamba Declaration back to someone who speaks French and begins to read it out loud. I pass my drum back, hoping one of my friends will pick it up. I see one of the cops slightly lower his baton. Another wavers: their perfect line now shows some variation. They are beginning to relax. A rock sails out of the crowd behind us, flies over our heads and lands at the copsı feet. In a second they are on alert, moving toward us. "NOOOOO!" the whole crowd behind us cries in one outraged voice to the thrower of the rock. "Peace!" they call out to the cops, raising their arms and flashing peace signs. In the front line, we are still, holding hands, waiting. Breathe and ground. The cops slowly relax again. From behind, someone passes up flowers. Heather brought them in the morning, saying she wanted to do something nonviolent, give them to the police. I remember thinking that hers was an idea so sweet that it belonged in some other universe than the one I anticipated being in that day. She had not looked too happy when I explained that we intended to follow CLAC and the Black Bloc up to the perimeter. "People might think weıre supporting them," she said. "Well, we are supporting them," I explained. At least, for some of us thatıs what we feel called to doto be right up there with them in the front lines, holding the magic, grounding the energy, not preaching about nonviolence but just trying to embody it. Now Heather and her flowers are here. Lisa gets up, holding out her hands to the cops in a gesture of peace, and attempts to give them the Declaration. I watch, holding my breath, ready to back her up if they attack. "We canıt take it," one of them whispers to her through clenched teeth. She lays it at his feet. A young man comes forward, lays down a flower. A woman follows with another. Somehow, in that moment, it becomes the perfect gesture. Everyone relaxes. After a time, we decide to make our exit. The River must flow on. Others move forward to take our place. We snake back to the intersection. Behind us, the young men of our cluster are helping to take down the fence along the cemetery. We begin a spiral in the intersection: masses of people join in with us. From a rooftop above, two of the local people shower us with confetti. We dance in a jubilant snow. The power rises, and as it does an absolute scream of rage tears out of my throat. Iım drumming and wailing and sending waves and waves of this energy back at the Congress Center, and at the same time we are dancing and confetti is swirling down while behind us the tear gas flies and the fence comes down. When we stop, a woman comes up with news. The only way to be heard in the din and thunder is for the cluster to repeat each sentence. The news becomes a chant: "Iıve just heard," "IıVE JUST HEARD!" "That so much tear gas," "THAT SO MUCH TEAR GAS!" "Has been blown back into the Congress Center," "HAS BEEN BLOWN BACK INTO THE CONGRESS CENTER!" "Theyıve had to close down the meetings for two hours." "THEY"VE HAD TO CLOSE DOWN THE MEETINGS FOR TWO HOURS!" We erupt in cheers. In front of the gate on St. Jean Street, five young men and one woman stand, their backs to the massed groups of riot cops behind the barrier, their feet apart, one arm up in a peace sign, absolutely still in the midst of of chaos, unmasked, unprotected, in a cloud of tear gas so strong we are choking behind our bandannas. We file behind them, read the Cochabamba statement, and then flow on. They remain, holding the space as their eyes tear, steadfast in their silence, their courage, and their power. When the Bay Bridge fell in the last San Francisco earthquake, we learned that structures resonate to a frequency. A vibration that matches their internal rhythm can bring them down. Beneath the overpass, they are drumming on the rails. The city is a drum. Massive structures tremble. And a fence is only as strong as its point of attachment to its base. =================================================================== iRobots spy on children GILC Alert Volume 5, Issue 3 May 4, 2001 Who wants an android to spy on their kids? That's what some people are wondering with the introduction of iRobot. This device, according to the manufacturer, is a "multi-purpose home robot that can be controlled from anywhere in the world." iRobot includes a live-action camera and microphone mounted on a six-wheel chassis. Images and sounds collected by the robot are then broadcast along the Internet by wireless. Computer users can control this device through their web browser. The entire package is being marketed as a way for parents to monitor their children, but is also being supplied to the United States Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency (DARPA) and various corporations for surveillance purposes. The company has conceded that personal web cameras "could lead to situations where we are being monitored 24 hours a day, and privacy is a thing of the past. For example, if you wanted to be able to see what was going on at your house, you would have to install and wire cameras in every room. That's a lot of cameras, and for your family, it means never knowing if you are being watched or not." Curiously, the company claims this privacy problem does not apply to its product because "iRobot-LE(tm) is not a web cam," despite later assertions such as: "iRobot-LE is a serious appliance that can bring the power of the Internet out of the study and into the kitchen or living room when you are at home." Indeed, the corporation also admits through its privacy policy that it uses digital information files known as "cookies" to track users and places the burden on consumers to opt-out of its data collection system. The iRobot privacy policy is posted at http://www.irobot.com/privacy/privacy.asp Further company information on iRobot is posted at http://www.irobot.com/ir/ir_not.asp See Peter H. Lewis, "Remotely interesting," Fortune, Apr. 2, 2001 at <http://www.fortune.com/indexw.jhtml;jsessionid=I1YMXDJQHAFBYQAMEHTSFFSABQQ4KIV3?doc_id=200978&channel=artcol.jhtml&_DARGS=%2Ffragments%2Ffrg_morestories.jhtml.1_A&_DAV=artcol.jhtml> Read Eric Auchard, "I Spy," Reuters, Apr. 17, 2001 at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/spycameras010417.html =================================================================== Saturday, May 5, 2001 Journalist Killings Up in 2001 http://www.latimes.com/wires/winternat/20010505/tCB00V4555.html BRUSSELS, Belgium--The first months of 2001 have seen an increase in killings of journalists around the world, the International Federation of Journalists reported. In a statement released late Friday, the group said 21 journalists and media staff had been slain this year. It did not give the figures for this period last year. "Journalists are still suffering routine violence in the line of duty," the group said. "Too many of these attacks take place with impunity. The authorities must act now to bring those responsible to justice." The latest victim was Colombian television reporter Yesid Marulanda, gunned down May 3 - the day celebrated as World Press Freedom Day. The organization also identified journalists slain in Mexico, the Philippines, Paraguay, Indonesia, Estonia, Kuwait, Kosovo, Thailand and Bangladesh. Among the journalists killed this year was Kerem Lawton, 30, an Associated Press Television News producer, who was slain March 29 during a mortar attack while he covered the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers along Kosovo's border with Macedonia. The Brussels-based IFJ is the world's largest journalist organization, representing 450,000 media professionals in over 100 nations. Its yearly report released in December said 62 journalists had been slain in the line of duty during 2000, with Colombia and Russia the most dangerous countries. =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ====================================================== "The world is my country, all mankind my brethren, and to do good is my religion." -Thomas Paine ====================================================== " . . . it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds . . . " -Samuel Adams ====================================================== "You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no results." -Gandhi ====================================================== "The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable." -H.L. Mencken ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ **How to assist RadTimes: An account is available at <www.paypal.com> which enables direct donations. If you are a current PayPal user, use this email address: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, to contribute. If you are not a current user, use this link: <https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=resist%40best.com> to sign up and contribute. The only information passed on to me via this process is your email address and the amount you transfer. Thanks! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
