>______________________________ > >ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN >News * Analysis * Research * Action >______________________________ > >- AFIB No. 253, June 4, 2000 - > >FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL! >FREE LEONARD PELTIER! >FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS & PRISONERS OF WAR! > >When the Menace first emerged in the twenties, the reds were attacked as >godless, bestial, dirty, and depraved practitioners of "free love," lusting >to "nationalize" American womanhood like their Bolshevik counterparts in >Russia. This moral condemnation of the enemy was reinforced by a crusade to >purify the national consciousness: the standard of the "American way of >life" was raised to resist the onrushing Asiatic hordes as we confronted >their materialism and atheism with our idealism and spirituality. Those who >were unfit for the "American way of life" were, of course, "un-American" -- >a term replaced in the forties by the equally foggy "subversive." While >this purely moral assault gave way to a more directly political attack, it >was never wholly abandoned. The dichotomies of depravity and innocence, >atheism and religious faith, were renewed in the fifties, most notably in >the political sermons of John Foster Dulles. Both godlessness and moral >depravity continued to be heard as battle-cries in the speeches of J. Edgar >Hoover, and not only in the speeches; the documents of the late sixties >dealing with counterintelligence programs (COINTELPROs) assume that >immorality is a handmaiden of radicalism. -- Frank J. Donner, The Age of >Surveillance: The Aims and Methods of America's Political Intelligence >System [New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1980] pp. 15-16. > >* * * > >Contents: Number 253 > >1. THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES [Canada]: USA: Torture >State. >2. WORKERS WORLD NEWS SERVICE [US]: FARC Web Server Shut Down by UC-San >Diego. >3. LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE [US]: After 24 Years of Imprisonment, >Leonard Peltier will be Reviewed for Parole. >4. REFUSE & RESIST! [US]: Stop the Attacks on the Movement for Justice for >Mumia Abu-Jamal; Take Action to Support Judy Kissinger. >5. AN PHOBLACHT/REPUBLICAN NEWS [Ireland]: Loyalists Terrorise Portadown >Cross-Community Event. >6. ANTI-FASCIST ACTION [UK]: Gerry Adams Speaks Out on Asylum Seekers. >7. PAN-AFRICAN NEWS WIRE [US]: Pathfinder Bookstore Vandalized after Police >Brutality Forum. >8. COMITE PRO RESCATE Y DESARROLLO DE VIEQUES [Puerto Rico]: Report from >Vieques. >9. PINOCHET WATCH [US]: Pinochet Served Papers for Prats Case: Townley >Admits Detonating Bomb. >10. INSURGENCE RECORDS & PUBLICATIONS [Canada]: Angelic Upstarts Tour - >Postponed. >11. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Apartheid's Top Assassin Pardoned for More >Killings. >12. WORLD SOCIALIST WEB SITE [UK]: US Drug Czar Tied to Atrocities in Gulf >War. > >* * * > >THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES >Web: http://bethuneinstitute.org >Research Directors: David Lethbridge, [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Helmut-Harry Lowen, [EMAIL PROTECTED] >- May 2000 - > >----- >____________________________________________________________________ > >USA: TORTURE STATE >____________________________________________________________________ > >By David Lethbridge >http://www.bethuneinstitute.org/documents/usa_torture_state.html > >Among the key elements of any fascist state are the torture, terrorization, >execution, and mass imprisonment of its own citizens, most especially >members of the working class and of national minorities. > >Any analysis of the increasing fascist tendencies developing within the US >state as it moves towards global dictatorship, must take into account these >repressive measures visited upon its multiracial working class by the >combined apparatus of the police and judicial system. > >Amnesty International (AI), in a recent report to the United Nations >Committee Against Torture, outlined their concerns about what they called >"institutionalized cruelty" in the USA. They noted that while the US >government ratified the Convention Against Torture in 1994, it nevertheless >only agreed to limited compliance with the Convention. AI went on to point >out that the US government is reluctant "to adhere to international human >rights law and to accept the same minimum standards for its own conduct >that it so often demands from other countries." In a highly significant >move, AI called upon the UN Committee Against Torture to condemn >institutionalized cruelty in the USA. > >The USA has long been known to train police and paramilitary agents of >other countries in the use of torture technology. Techniques employed >within the USA itself have involved a wide variety of methods, including >the use of stun belts, restraint chairs, pepper spray, solitary confinement >and supermaximum and administrative maximum (ADX) prisons. > >Stun belt technology has been widely adopted by federal, state, and local >jurisdictions over the last decade, and is increasingly used as a method of >torture, as evidenced by the following two examples: > >Ronnie Hawkins, a defendant on trial, was subjected to an eight-second >50,000 volt electric shock from a remote control stun belt in open court on >the order of the judge, in order to shut him up. > >Perry Connor, an inmate at a so-called "supermaximum" prison in Virginia, >was severely beaten in the genital area and repeatedly electroshocked by >prison guards until he lost control of his bowels. He was then forbidden >from showering for six days. > >Special restraint chairs have also been introduced in the police and >judicial system. Monitoring agencies have noted that increasing numbers of >deaths have been associated with this device. One example among many: James >Earl Livingston, mentally ill at the time of his arrest, died after being >pepper-sprayed and left in a restraint chair. > >Pepper spray has long been used by police to disperse political >demonstrators. More recently, however, liquid pepper spray has been swabbed >directly onto the eyes of non-violent protestors during anti-logging >demonstrations, and has been similarly used on other political protestors >under incarceration. > >The use of solitary confinement in prisons can also serve the purposes of >torture and has been especially applied to political prisoners. In the >maximum security Louisiana State Penitentiary, at Angola, three members of >the revolutionary Black Panther Party have been held in solitary >confinement for 28 years. They have been sentenced to life without parole >on framed-up murder charges and prison officials have condemned them to >permanent solitary confinement. > >Supermaximum and ADX prisons are designed to separate and isolate >prisoners, often in special isolation cells. In these cells, extreme >separation leads to the psychological torture of sensory deprivation. >Prisoners spend upwards of 23 hours a day in such cells. ADX prisoners are >especially vulnerable to beatings and chemical restraint. > >Torture is common in the US police and prison system. Its use is common >knowledge among the poorer strata of the working class, among people of >color, and among militant and revolutionary groups. The function of torture >is precisely to terrorize these communities and organizations into >submission. If it is true that the US state uses racism to divide the >working class, it is also true that the US state uses torture to terrorize >the working class. > >The ultimate form of torture in the US state is execution. Guided by an >utterly cynical and contemptuous attitude toward human life, the ruling >class - through the agency of its judges and prosecutors - have sought to >execute over 6000 men and women since the US Supreme Court reinstated the >death penalty in 1976. And again, overwhelmingly, the victims of the >barbaric practice of state execution are drawn from the ranks of ethnic >minorities and the most impoverished strata of the working class. >Alarmingly, but not surprisingly, the rate of executions has continued to >increase since the 1996 Effective Death Penalty Legislation was passed. So >common have executions become that they are now rarely reported in the mass >media. > >How many of the executed have been innocent? How many have, therefore, >simply been murdered by the state on the basis of their color or their >class? It is impossible to know since the deliberate withholding of >evidence, or the coercion or encouragement of false testimony is widely >practiced by the state. > >Rolando Cruz was convicted of the murder and rape of a ten year old girl >and sentenced to death. After 12 years in jail, a police officer who had >provided crucial evidence acknowledged that he had lied under oath. >Prosecutors had known for ten years that another man had confessed to the >crime. > >Anthony Porter, with an IQ of 51, was only two days away from execution >when he was released from death row as a result of the investigative work >of journalism students. Police officers had coerced false testimony from >witnesses in order to gain a conviction. > >Black revolutionary leader Geronimo Ji Jaga spent 27 years in prison, >deliberately framed by prosecutors for a murder which he did not commit. >Under different circumstances he could easily have been executed. Today, as >the reign of judicial terror is stepped up, he almost certainly would be. > >But torture is only a single expression of the repressive, racist, and >class oppressive nature of the US legal system. Street level police >brutality has become so widespread that demonstrations against it are >occurring with regularity in many US cities. In New York, a series of >lethal shootings of people of color has resulted in a wave of >demonstrations that has not yet crested. Deadly force is used routinely in >working class and ethnic neighborhoods. In Los Angeles, police officers >have admitted to "hunting parties" during which African-Americans or >Latinos have been randomly targeted and murdered, and false evidence then >planted to implicate the victims. Police departments are becoming >increasingly militarized. Prisons are being built in record numbers. The >USA has more citizens, per capita, in prison than any other country in the >world. > >If the US state is to rule the world for the benefit of its capitalist >class, it must ensure that its own multiracial, multinational working class >is terrorized into acquiescence. More and larger prisons must be >constructed. Progressives, militants, and revolutionary leaders emerging >from the people must find themselves behind bars, or others must find them >buried behind the prisons. Torture and execution must certainly be >increased. > >Can the US state succeed in its plan of global domination, with the >accompanying necessary repression at home? The future depends entirely on >the ability of the working class everywhere to organize to defend its >rights and to defeat the increasingly fascist state forces that would >enslave them. > >Copyright 1998-2000 The Bethune Institute for Anti-Fascist Studies. All >rights reserved. > >***** > >AFIB Editor's Introduction: The decision by UC-San Diego to shut down the >Burn! web server affects a wide range of radical, revolutionary and social >justice groups. The University's cowardice in caving-in to pressure from >far-right Colombians is having a negative effect on this publication, >Antifa Info-Bulletin, on AFIB's sponsoring organization, Antifa Forum, as >well as those of our international co-thinkers, the International Militant >Anti-Fascist Network: since UCSD's decision to pull the plug on Burn! our >web pages have disappeared. At a critical time when the US government is >planning a massive intervention into the Colombian civil war, it is hardly >a coincidence that Burn! has been censored. I strongly urge all AFIB >subscribers to write Carol Padden, Chair of the Department of >Communications (see below) to protest their outrageous censorship against >the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), as well >as against antifascists and antiracists everywhere! An injury to one is an >injury to all! > >WORKERS WORLD NEWS SERVICE >E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Web: http://workers.org >- Sunday, 4 June 2000 - > >----- >____________________________________________________________________ > >FARC WEB SERVER SHUT DOWN BY UC-SAN DIEGO >____________________________________________________________________ > >The Burn web-server based at the University of California at San Diego has >been shut down as the result of a campaign by right-wing Colombians. The >Burn server hosted the web site of the FARC, the major left-wing guerrilla >organization in Colombia. It also hosted web sites dedicated to the >Zapatistas in Mexico, a variety of other revolutionary groups around the >world, and a number of progressive/radical groups in the U.S. that would >otherwise not have a presence in cyberspace. It is a vital resource for >many activists and organizers. > >A statement from BURN! had this to say: > >"BURN! has survived many attempts at censorship since we came online in >March 1993. About 2 weeks ago, the Colombian Right began an organized >campaign to get the UCSD communication department to shut us down. They >have succeeded for now, as the chair of the department, Carol Padden, has >ordered our machine disconnected. > >"We believe she can be influenced (obviously!!) and we are asking for >letters and phone calls to the chair of the department, Carol Padden, to >express dismay at her willingness to aid attempts to censor dissenting >voices, and pointing out the value to academics and others of the web pages >and mailing lists on burn. If BURN is to survive, we need to be twice as >loud as the Right!!" > >Please take a minute to drop a note or make a call to the head of the UCSD >Communications Department and request that they reverse this decision. > >Carol Padden, Chair >Department of Communication, >0503 UCSD >9500 Gilman Drive >La Jolla, CA 92093 >phone: (858) 534-2843 >e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >SAMPLE LETTER > >I'm very concerned about your decision to shut down the BURN! web-server. >It is my understanding that you have submitted to the demands of right-wing >Colombians who disagree with some of the material hosted on Burn. > >No media source should submit to that kind of censorship, but especially an >academic institution. Many University of Minnesota students rely on >resources, like those on the Burn server, to access information about the >social conflicts in Colombia, Mexico, and elsewhere. > >Specifically, the site that Burn hosted for the FARC (Colombian guerrilla >organization), should not be kept off the web because of pressure from >those who oppose them. The FARC is recognized by most nations in the world >as a legitimate "belligerent force," meaning they have a legitimate >political claim and the right to have diplomatic relations with the world, >on par with organizations like South Africa's African National Congress >under apartheid. > >Moreover, the FARC is a significant force that is shaping the history of >Colombia, and Sout h America. Students of Latin America, political science, >peace studies and related areas will benefit greatly from access to >information directly from the FARC about their plans for Colombia, and, for >example, the peace process there. > >I urge you to act QUICKLY to put the BURN server back on-line. > >***** > >LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE >P.O. Box 583 >Lawrence, KS 66044 >Tel: 785-842-5774 >E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Web: www.freepeltier.org >- Wednesday, 31 May 2000 - > >----- >____________________________________________________________________ > >AFTER 24 YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT, LEONARD PELTIER WILL BE REVIEWED FOR PAROLE >____________________________________________________________________ > >Contact: >The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee: Gina Chiala, co-coordinator >785-842-5774 > >What: Press Conference >When: June 12, 2000 from 3:00pm - 4:00pm >Where: Leavenworth, Kansas: The Lincoln Room of the Ramada Inn (3rd and >Delaware) > >Who: Former US Attorney General, Ramsey Clark; Attorney Carl Nadler; >Attorney and Renowned Human Rights Advocate, Jennifer Harbury; Amnesty >International USA Director, Curt Goering; LPDC Spokesperson, Jean Day; >Leonard Peltier's grandchildren, Alexandra and Cyrus Peltier, and >representatives for the National Council >of Churches, the Assembly of First Nations, and the National Congress of >American Indians. > >Why: Native American Leonard Peltier will be reviewed for parole on June 12 >at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. Amnesty International, who considers >Peltier to be a political prisoner, will attend the hearing in person to >ask the Commission to set Leonard Peltier free. The National Council of >Churches, the National Congress of American Indians, the Assembly of First >Nations, and Peltier's family will also be asking the Parole Commission for >Leonard Peltier's release. > >Peltier underwent his first full parole hearing in 1993, at which point the >Parole Commission denied his release far beyond what their guidelines >recommend, and set his next full hearing for the year 2008. However, the >Commission is required to hold subsequent hearings every two years in order >to determine whether there are any circumstances that warrant a change in >their original decision. On June 12, Peltier's attorneys will tell the >Commission that there is no justifiable reason to continue Peltier's >sentence, and the Commission's original decision to deny him parole was >based on error. > >The Parole Commission originally denied Peltier parole based on their >finding that he "participated in the premeditated and cold blooded >execution of those two officers." However, the Parole Commission has since >said it "recognizes that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any >direct evidence that [Peltier] personally participated in the executions of >the two FBI agents." Leonard Peltier, who has served over 24 years of his >sentence and has maintained a good behavior record during his >incarceration, has been eligible for release for over nine years. > >Thousands have written to the Commission in support of Peltier's release. >Additionally, several Native organizations and communities are submitting >parole plans offering Peltier work and housing. On June 12, a parole >examiner will hear the case and make an initial recommendation as to >whether or not the Parole Commission should grant Mr. Peltier a date to be >released. Thousands will await the results. > >Call the White House Comments Line Today! >Demand Justice for Leonard Peltier! >202-456-1111 > >***** > >REFUSE & RESIST! >305 Madison Ave. Suite 1166 >New York, NY 10165 >Tel: 212-713-5657 >Fax: 212-822-8535 >E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Web: http://www.mojo.calyx.net/~refuse >- Friday, 2 June 2000 - > >----- >____________________________________________________________________ > >STOP THE ATTACKS ON THE MOVEMENT FOR JUSTICE FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL >____________________________________________________________________ > >Source: C. Clark Kissinger, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >JOIN CLARK KISSINGER IN FRONT OF THE U.S. PROBATION OFFICE, TUESDAY >MORNING, JUNE 6, 9:00-10:00 AM; 111 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn >(2, 3, 4, 5, N, R, to Borough Hall/ Court Street) > >Demonstration and press briefing on the attacks on Mumia activists, with a >message from Clark's attorney Ron Kuby. Join with Clark and his fellow >defendants Frances Goldin and Mitch Cohen. > >June 6 is "D-Day" for Mumia activist and author, C. Clark Kissinger. He has >been ordered by the U.S. Probation Officer Eric J. Macolino to turn in >forms reporting on every aspect of his life at 10:00 am. Come Tuesday >morning and hear Clark's response! > >Clark has been ordered to report all persons he has had contact with who >have a criminal record, list all clubs and organizations he belongs to, and >report all details of where his money comes from and how it is spent. > >Clark has also been ordered to surrender his passport, to not associate >with any convicted felon (i.e. Mumia), and not leave New York City and Long >Island without permission of his Probation Officer. > >These conditions are similar to those placed on "banned persons" in >Apartheid South Africa years ago. Their goal is to stop the political >activity of Clark, Frances, and the others given the outrageous sentence of > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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