--- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- **WIN A TRIP TO HAWAII** Every time you send a FREE ZingCard from now until September 11, 2000 you will be entered to win a trip to Hawaii. http://click.topica.com/aaaayzbz8SnrbAjwjxa/Zing ------------------------------------------------------------ __________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 25 August 2000 Vol. 4, Number 69 (#460) __________________________________________________________________________ Labor Protests Action Alerts: Benefit For MoMA Strikers , New York City, 30 Aug 00 -- 8:30 PM MPLU (press release), "Missouri Prisoners Labor Union Calls Boycott on Colgate/Pamolive, Endorses Boycott Against Marriott Group" Rightwing Quote of the Week: American Family Association, "About Prayer At Football Games," 23 Aug 00 What's Worth Checking: 20 stories -------------------------------------------------------------------------- LABOR PROTESTS: Benefit For MoMA Strikers New York City 30 Aug 00 -- 8:30 PM A terrific triple bill of musical artists has stepped forward to help raise badly needed funds for the MoMA strikers. Please join us on Wednesday, August 30 for an evening of music and fun. All admissions will go directly to the strike fund. TONIC presents A Benefit for the MoMA Striker Hardship Fund, MARC RIBOT and members of LOS CUBANOS POSTIZOS, with an unplugged set by KIRK KELLY and the savant-garde sounds of KRAKATOA in concert AUGUST 30, 8:00 p.m. at TONIC, 107 Norfolk Street, near Rivington Tickets $18. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. <http://www.tonic107.com> Proceeds from the evening will benefit the MoMA Striker Hardship Fund. The Fund helps pay emergency medical, utility, and rent bills for striking employees of the Museum of Modern Art, who have been out for 4 months. If you can't come but want to support the strikers, send your check to Local 2110/MoMA Striker Hardship Fund, 113 University Place, 5th floor, New York, NY 10003. (212) 387-0220 - - - - - Missouri Prisoners Labor Union Calls Boycott on Colgate/Pamolive, Endorses Boycott Against Marriott Group MPLU (press release) The Missouri Prisoners Labor Union (MPLU) called a boycott of Colgate/Palmolive last month, in response to the continued harassment of Jerome White-Bey, MPLU president. White-Bey has served several moths in the hole for refusing to cease organization and the promotion of the MPLU, and as a few few weeks ago, prison guards at the Missouri Department of Corrections continue to physically harass and threaten him. The MPLU's demands are as follows: 1) The establishment of a minimum wage for prisoners comparable to workers on the outside of the wall, 2) abolition of forced labor and abuse by the authorities of the Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC), and 3) support of a Bill of Moratorium on all executions in the state of Missouri. The MPLU argues that the chilling effect of the death penalty is the worst of the many forms of coercion used to scare prisoners from standing up as workers. The MPLU is a legally chartered union by the state of Missouri, but has not thus far been recognized by Colgate (who contacts labor to the Missouri DOC) nor the DOC. The IWW General Assembly will also consider resolutions in support of the MPLU and the boycott over Labor Day weekend. The Seattle IWW endorsed the MPLUs struggle for recognition in October of 1999. The Missouri Prisoners Labor Union also announced on August 14th that it was formally endorsing an international boycott initiated by Prison Moratorium Project against all products-services produced either directly or indirectly by Sodexho Marriott Services (SMS). On March 28, 1998, the French multinational Sodexho Alliance (SA) took over the North American operations of Marriott Management Services from the Marriott Group. The merger made the new corporation, Sodexho Marriott Services (SMS), the largest institutional provider of food services in North America, with $4.5 billion in annual revenues. As of the most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filings, Sodexho currently holds investments totaling 11% in Prison Realty Trust/Corrections Corporation of America the leading investor in the world's biggest for-profit prison company. Corrections Corporation of America has a well documented history of abusing Prisoners . At a CCA facility in Tennessee, prison officials delayed taking a pregnant woman to a hospital, allowing her to suffer for 12 hours until she died from an undiagnosed complication. The Colorado ACLU filed suit against CCA's private prisoner transport company on behalf of a woman who claimed that members of the all-male transport crew sexually assaulted her repeatedly during her five-day trip from Texas to Colorado. Missouri Prisoners Labor Union-National Communications Officer (and fellow worker) Michael Lee stated " The entire history of private prisons is rife with abuse. Staff tends to be poorly trained, morale low due to substandard wages, [and] minimum standards of service provision mandated by the constitution are often ignored." "This situation directly causes Prisoner abuse to rampage within every private facility." He went on to state, "It is the use of Prisoner labor at slave wages which is very disturbing, for it attacks the standard of living which organized labor has fought so hard to attain." Student activists at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA, successfully pressured the administration into dropping a contract with Marriott, after revealing Marriotts substantial holdings and profiteering in the prison industry. This is a victory in the continuing resistance and public campaign against the proliferation of the prison system in the US, both private and public. It is also a victory for prison workers, in that the bottom line of a corporation that profits from the prison industry is now being effected. To write in support of MPLU members directly, contact: Jerome White Bey #37479 (MPLU President); Potosi Correctional Institution; Rt. 2 Box 2222 (3a-46); Mineral Point, MO 63660; Bruce Cummings #36911 (National Representative) Jefferson City Correctional Center; P.O. Box 900; Jefferson City, MO 65102; Sheik Mark Moor-El #990115 (National Coordinator); Jefferson City Correctional Center; P.O. Box 900; Jefferson City, MO 65102. Letters must be addressed exactly as printed here, or they may be rejected by the DOC. To contact the MPLU office on the outside, write: Michael Lee, National Communications Officer, National Communications Office, Missouri Prisoners Labor Union, <http://www.angelfire.com/sc2/mplu> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 2435 E. North St. PMB 255; Greenville, SC 29615 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATES TO LATEST READINGS: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEB SITES OF INTEREST: Ireland and the Spanish Civil War -- No Pasaran! <http://members.tripod.co.uk/spanishcivilwar/> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOOK REVIEWS: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- REAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: It's from the rightwing authoritarians and always has been -------------------------------------------------------------------------- RIGHTWING QUOTE OF THE WEEK: For those who believe that fascism is only a thing of the past [The AFA is not, technically, fascist. But the post is of interest over the issue of clerical fascism. About Prayer At Football Games American Family Association 23 Aug 00 The American Family Association is urging students and spectators to join in reciting the Lord's Prayer at football games during the upcoming season. The association says that this is one way students can exercise their freedom of religion. AFA is encouraging those who desire to participate to simply recite the Lord's Prayer immediately after the national anthem is played. "Of course we know the ACLU will go beserk," said Donald E. Wildmon, president of AFA. "But on the other hand, there is no way the Supreme Court can stop this because it is simply individuals participating on their own without any leader." In addition to this AFA Action Alert that has grown to over 12,000 participants, Wildmon says that the AFA will promote the effort on our American Family Radio Network ( www.afr.net ) which has over 200 stations across the nation. "The constitution says that Congress shall not prohibit the free exercise of religion. This is a form of that free exercise, albeit a symbolic one," Wildmon said. Those who do not desire to participate do not have to do so, he said. He said that he does not know what kind of response there will be to the suggestion, but he would not be surprised should it be widely accepted. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT'S WORTH CHECKING stories via <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/story6/> Dennis B. Roddy, Post-Gazette Staff Writer, "W. Va. town left looking for answers after killing of gay black man," 12 Jul 00, "A rural county seat spent an unquiet evening as ground zero in the debate over hate crimes last night as nearly 1,000 people turned out to protest the murder of an openly gay black man and noisy counter-demonstrators held up Day-Glo signs, one declaring that the murdered man is in hell." <1701.txt> Reproductive Freedom Taskforce of Refuse & Resist!, "Vancouver Abortion Provider Stabbed: Attacks on Providers Continue on Many Fronts," 12 Jul 00, "The Reproductive Freedom Taskforce of Refuse & Resist! is angered and saddened but not surprised by the latest attack on an abortion provider. Dedicated provider Dr. Gary Romalis was stabbed in the back Tuesday in the lobby of his medical building in Vancouver. He is in stable condition at this hour and is expected to fully recover. The attacker, described as a hooded white man in his twenties, fled the scene and is still at large. Abortion providers across the US and Canada have been alerted, and have been advised to take extra security precautions." <1702.txt> "From The Wilderness", "Moorer Deposition In 'Tailwind' Suits Confirms Allegationsof Sarin Use Against Vietnam Defectors, POWs -- Incriminates CIA, Kissinger," 24 Jun 00, "'From The Wilderness' has obtained the January 17 deposition of retired Joint Chiefs Chairman, Admiral Thomas Moorer taken in connection with a series of civil suits filed in the aftermath of 1997 and 1998 CNN reports relating to a series of 1970 CIA directed missions known as "Tailwind." Those missions, as originally, and apparently accurately, reported by CNN involved the use of the poison nerve gas Sarin to kill American defectors in Laos. The Moorer deposition not only confirms all of the aspects of the original CNN broadcast, it also suggests that former CNN Producers April Oliver and Jack Smith may have actually understated the extent of Sarin Gas use by U.S. forces under CIA control during the Vietnam war." <1703.txt> Robert L. Jamieson Jr. and Hector Castro (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), "Another racial incident preceded Ocean Shores stabbing death," 12 Jul 00, "Three days before Chris Kinison was fatally stabbed in a racial fracas involving two Asian men in Ocean Shores, he joined his friends as they taunted a group of Asians visiting the seaside resort town. On July 1, outside the Shores Mall, Kinison's friends confronted the group from Seattle as they left a kite store and walked to their cars, police said. Jennifer Kalaw, who was among the visitors targeted at the mall that day, said that the group of men swore at them and made references to 'white power'." <1704.txt> via the Mexico-U.S. Border Program of the American Friends Service Committee, "$15,000 REWARD OFFERED $15,000 Reward Offered For information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shooting and beating of migrant workers in San Diego," 12 Jul 00, ""To send a message to "immigrant bashers" that they will be brought to justice, Latino leaders plan to announce on Thursday that they and Crime Stoppers are posting a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for assaults and injuries to migrant workers at a Carmel Valley encampment July 5th. They will be joined at a 12 p.m. press conference by representatives of the Anti-Defamation League, who are matching the original $5,000 reward, San Diego Councilman Byron Wear has committed another $5,000, making for a reward total of $15,000." <1705.txt> Tom Baldwin (The Times [of London]), "Hague warned over support for racist groups," 13 Jul 00, "William Hague has been advised that the Tories could be squeezed at the general election because of a surge in support for racist right-wing groups. A senior Tory official said that recent attacks on the Government over immigration, and Mr Hague's promise to lock up all asylum-seekers on arrival, 'were in danger of legitimising extremist organisations such as the British National Party. ' Last week the BNP pushed the Tories into third place in a council election in southeast London. The previously marginal seat of North End in Bexley was won easily by Labour, which polled 44 per cent of the vote; the BNP took 26 per cent and pushed the Tories down to 23 per cent." <1706.txt> Helena Smith (The Guardian), "Threat to sell German assets in Greek war case," 13 Jul 00, "A court case over a Nazi massacre more than 50 years ago was raising heat between Greece and Germany yesterday after bailiffs acting on behalf of the victims started an attempt to seize German state property in Athens. The process has been approved by Greece's highest court, although a treaty was agreed by the two countries in final settlement of all claims in the 1960s. Under it, Germany paid Greece 115m deutschmarks (£38m at today's value) to compensate victims of the Nazi occupation between 1941 and 1944. Police were called to intervene on Tuesday when bailiffs walked in to the Athens building of the Goethe Institute - Germany's state-backed cultural arm, similar to the British Council - to start appraising the property with a view to auctioning it to pay those involved in the court case." <1707.txt> International Action Center (press release), "Victims of Police Preventive Detention Action Strand Trial In Washington D.C.," 18 Jul 00, "This Tuesday, July 18, victims of the mass arrest of 678 people on April 15 in Washington D.C. will stand trial. The defendants include Brian Becker, Co- Director of the International Action Center, George Vavatsikos, a Greek American activist and others. The defendants face 90 days in jail and fines if convicted of disorderly conduct. They were arrested last April 15 at a demonstration held in conjunction with the week of protests against meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington D.C." <1708.txt> Richard Ford (The Times [of London]), "Straw turns fire on racist English," 17 Jul 00, "Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, yesterday blamed the jingoism surrounding the British Empire for fuelling racism and English hostility towards foreigners. Football hooliganism and racism were largely caused by English people with a distorted view of their own nationality, he said. He contrasted English attitudes towards foreigners with the lack of hostility shown towards them by the Scots, Welsh or Irish." <1709.txt> Dennis B. Roddy (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), "Gag order issued in W.Va. killing," 13 Jul 00, "Prosecutors ended a four-hour hearing into the beating death of an openly gay black man by refusing to acknowledge the case even exists, and one lawyer said the judge presiding has issued a sweeping gag order on everyone involved. 'What hearing? I don't know what you're talking about,' said Judge Rodney B. Merrifield, as he took off the robes he wore in a locked courtroom where authorities had just discussed a murder case against two 17-year-olds accused of beating to death Arthur C. "JR" Warren Jr. Merrifield repeatedly cited West Virginia law that he says forbids any discussion of cases involving juveniles, but it was later learned he found probable cause to hold the two on the charges." <1710.txt> Richard J. Riordan (Mayor, Los Angeles), "A Fair Warning to All: Don't Disrupt Our City : Responsible demonstrators are fine, but police will respond firmly to troublemakers," 13 Jul 00, "When delegates converge on Los Angeles in August for the Democratic National Convention, their job will be to define the party's platform and choose their presidential and vice presidential candidates. Our job will be to ensure the safety and well-being of our city and the visitors and demonstrators who want to peaceably exercise their free speech rights during this convention. But fair warning to all: The police will get tough when confronted with lawlessness. They will protect against any group intent on shutting down our city." <1711.txt> CBC, "New threats against B.C. abortion providers," 14 Jul 00, "Someone is threatening doctors who provide abortions in the Vancouver area. An unidentified man called the Vancouver Province newspaper saying he was sorry he had failed to kill a local gynecologist he stabbed on Tuesday." <1712.txt> Jerry White (World Socialist Web Site), "Police, media smear Detroit man killed by security guards," 13 Jul 00, "In the aftermath of last week's demonstration by 7,000 protesters against the killing of a black worker by security guards at a suburban Detroit shopping mall, the police and local news media have worked in tandem to sway public opinion against the victim and his family. Frederick Finley, 32, died after he was assaulted on June 22 in a parking lot outside the Lord & Taylor department store at the Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn. Finley had come to the defense of his 11- year-old stepdaughter, who was being forcibly detained by five plain clothes Lord & Taylor guards for allegedly shoplifting a $4 bracelet." <1713.txt> San Francisco Chronicle (editorial), "Massacre in Colombia," 17 Jul 00, "Today, the village of El Salado is deserted. All of the town's 1,300 former residents have either fled or were killed in a grisly massacre four months ago. According to human rights reports, paramilitary death squad troops suddenly swooped into the village, turned a basketball court into a killing field, and began executing anyone they suspected of supporting leftist guerrillas. ... Is this what Americans want to support? Under the guise of expanding our war against drugs, Congress has committed $1.3 billion to aid the Colombian military in their so-called battle against drug traffic. But as this grim massacre reveals, what the Colombian army really wants to eliminate are not coca plants, but leftist guerrillas-and their sympathizers. ... Later, none of us will be able to say we didn't know." <1714.txt> International Action Center (press release), "Activists In New York City Disrupt George Vush, Say 'Not One More Lynching'," 15 Jul 00, "Today, two members of the International Action Center disrupted George Bush while 100 people demonstrated outside as the Conservative Party held a $500-per-plate lunch. This demonstration followed one Monday in Baltimore, where activists remained vigilant in protest of Bush's execution of Shaka Sankofa (Gary Graham)." <1715.txt> Anti-Fascistisk Aktion-Stockholm, "Bjorn Soderberg's Murderers Sentenced," 14 Jul 00, "The three nazis who murdered the Swedish syndicalist activist Björn Söderberg have been sentenced in the High Court of Svea in Stockholm. The sentence is of such a nature that it is not expected that the Swedish Supreme Court will review the case in an appeal attempt. Two nazis hae been sentenced for the murder, Hampus Hellekant and Björn Lindberg-Hernlund. Both have received 11 years imprisonment, which is five more years than they received in the lower court decision which they appealed. Jimmy Niklasson, who was the get-away-driver has been charged as an accomplish to murder and has received 3 years imprisonment." <1716.txt> Charles Bremner (The Times [of London]), "France accepts guilt for wartime anti-Semitism," 17 Jul 00, "France's efforts to atone for its wartime persecution of Jews was raised to a new level yesterday when the country marked its first "national day in memory of the racist and anti-Semitic crimes of the French state". The day was promulgated by parliament last week to coincide with yesterday's annual commemoration of the Vélodrome d'Hiver roundup, in which Paris police, following the orders of the Nazi occupiers, detained 13,000 people and herded them into a city stadium. Only 2,000 people survived their subsequent deportation to Nazi death camps. The 1942 operation, which marked the start of mass deportations that claimed 76,000 victims, has come to symbolise the evils of the anti-Semitic policies adopted by the puppet government of Marshal Philippe Pétain." <1717.txt> Project Censored, "Ralph Nader, Walter Cronkite On Witness List; Fired Journalists Stand Up To Media Empire; Whistleblower Case Is First Of Its Kind," 14 Jul 00, "While an increasing number of Americans suspect mainstream news organizations sometimes twist the news, two veteran investigative journalists say they are ready to prove in court how Fox television managers and lawyers at WTVT Fox 13 in Tampa ordered them to deliberately distort news reports and then fired them for resisting those directives. The landmark whistleblower lawsuit is believed to be the first time any journalist has ever filed a claim against his own news organization and offered evidence of behind-the-scenes manipulation of the news. When the trial begins next Monday, reporters Jane Akre (pronounced A'-cree) and Steve Wilson say they will show exactly how Fox hired them and advertised their reputations for hard-hitting investigations but then folded and pressured them to slant a story in favor of an advertiser...." <1718.txt> Mike Henderson (Reno Gazette-Journal), "ccused bombers choose prison over trial," 14 Jul 00, "Five men have pleaded guilty to November's firebombing of a Temple Emanu-El Synagogue in southwest Reno, and foor face up to 40 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's office said Thursday. The pleas came Wednesday night on the eve of what was to be the first in a series of trials in which the men described as self-avowed skinheads were charged with acts including committing a hate crime, Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said. The five young men from Nevada and California were accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail Nov. 30 at the Temple Emanu-El Synagogue." <1719.txt> Angie Gaddy (Spokane Spokesman Review), "Police prepare for Aryan Nations trial: Members of both sides of the case have received death threats," 14 Jul 00, "Kootenai County and police officials are bolstering security for an August trial that will pit the Aryan Nations' leader against an attorney whose goal is to bankrupt the racist organization. Victoria Keenan and her son, Jason, allege in their civil lawsuit that members of the Aryan Nations fired shots at them while they were outside of the compound in July 1998. The seven-day trial, expected to garner national attention, is set to begin Aug. 28 at the Kootenai County Courthouse. Police are concerned about how many and what types of people will attend." <1720.txt> * * * * * In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. __________________________________________________________________________ FASCISM: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction) - - - - - back issues archived via: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/> --- Sponsor's Message -------------------------------------- Get email and like it! Upgrade your brain with informative newsletters from IDG. 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