-Caveat Lector-
RadTimes # 136 January, 2001
An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.
"We're living in rad times!"
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QUOTE:
"Samuel Johnson's saying that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels
has some truth in it, but not nearly enough. Patriotism, in truth, is the
great nursery of scoundrels, and its annual output is probably greater than
that of even religion. Its chief glories are the demagogue, the military
bully, and the spreaders of libels and false history. Its philosophy rests
firmly on the doctrine that the end justifies the means -- that any blow,
whether above or below the belt, is fair against dissenters from its
wholesale denial of plain facts."
--H.L. Mencken, 'Minority Report'
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How to assist RadTimes--> (See ** at end.)
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Contents:
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--A Call to Demonstrate on January 20
--Update from International Action Center [2 updates]
--J20 organizers expect thousands
--Eleven Reasons To Protest At Bush's Inauguration On Jan. 20
--Activists Step Up Plans For Inaugural Protest
--Kensington Welfare Rights Union To Protest At Inauguration
--Conservatives make plans for inaugural mobilization
Linked stories:
*Black bloc goes to the Coronation
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Begin stories:
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A Call to Demonstrate on January 20
On January 20, the day of George Bush's inauguration, activists from around
the country will be converging on Washington, DC, to let him know that we
won't go back to the politics of the Reagan era and that he does not have a
mandate for his policies attacking poor and working people. We should all be
there.
The organizers of J20, as the protest is being called, state: "We are
protesting the inauguration of a president elected through an
exclusionary political system that is more beholden to corporate interests
than the people.... This historic election exposes the fundamental problems
of the US electoral process. We call on all people to join the global
movement for political, social, and economic justice."
"If there was ever a time for a million people's march, the time is now,"
the civil rights leader Ron Daniels added. "Black civil rights/human rights,
political, civic, labor and religious organizations and grassroots groups
need to launch a unified effort to mobilize millions for democracy."
In addition to raising concerns about the violation of civil and voting
rights in this election, protestors can let the incoming administration know
that we will not stand for any restrictions on women's access to abortion,
the further expansion of prisons and repressive crime laws, the use of the
death penalty, limits on the rights of workers to organize, attacks on gays
and lesbians, scapegoating of immigrants, or sanctions on Iraq.
Details on the protest can be found at:
<http://www.inaugurauction.org/>.
Howard Zinn
David Barsamian
Michael Albert
Noam Chomsky
Barbara Ehrenreich
Katha Pollitt
Norman Solomon
Edward S. Herman
Robert W. McChesney
Frances Fox Piven
Gwendolyn Mink
Saul Landau
Brian Tokar
Margaret Randall
Laura Flanders
Mark Weisbrot
Doug Dowd
et al
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Update from International Action Center regarding January 20th
Counter-Inaugural Demonstration [# 1]
31 Dec 2000
NEW NEWS AND MOBILIZATION UPDATE
We have distributed more than 50,000 flyers for the January
demonstration. We have another 50,000 flyers and several thousand
more posters that will be going out in the next week. The combination
of mass organizing (directly outreaching to working class communities
with leaflets, stickers, posters) and a high level of media coverage have
contributed to a surge in this mobilization.
The IAC web site and linked sites (mumia2000.org) has experienced an
unusually high volume of visits. People have been downloading the flyer
(from the mumia2000.org site) and reproducing it with a local address
and phone contact.
Official organizing centers that are arranging transportation for local
people have now been established in nearly 40 cities (see IAC web site
for listings.)
We are also producing a new piece of literature in bulk entitled:
"Eleven Reasons to Protest Bush's Inauguration on January 20." This
will be produced as a brochure for mass distributions and literature
tables (see following email).
UPDATE ON TACTICS
We have applied for permits for January 20th in four areas - along the
route of the Inaugural parade.
The reasons we have applied for the permits are to allow for the
participation of the maximum number of people who agree with the
demonstration's goals. We have the right to assemble and exercise
basic free speech prerogatives. The inauguration is a "public event"
and Pennsylvania Avenue is not the private property of those who
support the death penalty and admire George Bush and his right-wing
policies.
It frequently takes weeks to be notified that a permit has been secured.
Of course, the police would be glad to grant permits for areas far away
from the inaugural route. But we know that thousands of people are
coming to demonstrate AT THE INAUGURATION, not in some remote
location.
The incoming Bush administration and the police agencies are
functioning in tandem. They hope that a large number of people will
not turn out to protest the president-select.
We are at the beginning or early stage of a new movement for social
justice. The political establishment, over the past year, has embarked
on a strategy of trying to sabotage this movement by means of physical
repression and demonizing demonstrators in the mass media. The goal
is to scare away and intimidate potential supporters of the movement.
The Bush administration and the police realize that the January 20
demonstration has enormous potential and that people are mobilizing
all over the east coast and midwest to come to Washington.
The police are trying to create a climate of fear around the
demonstration. Again, they are attempting to portray the
demonstrators as "violent." Thousands of people who are angry about
racism, the death penalty, Mumia Abu-Jamal's case and racist
disenfranchisement should not feel like they are risking life and limb
simply to express their First Amendment rights. We are telling
everyone to repudiate this calculated scare campaign by the police.
Every profound social movement has encountered a similar problem,
including the civil rights and anti-war movement of the 1960's. The
labor movement's efforts to unionize the unorganized always encounter
the problems of intimidation, fear and disinformation. If the movement
reacts with confidence, maturity and determination these problems can
be overcome.
The best, and only, answer for our new movement is to mobilize larger
and larger numbers from the population who reject racism, voter
disenfranchisement, capitalist globalization, the US war machine,
sexism, homophobia and the wanton disregard of the environment. The
corporate elite has the money and police power behind them. But our
movement speaks for the tens of millions of working people, of
oppressed people - of the disenfranchised - who have no stake in the
current system.
Can we do it? Can we make January 20th another stepping stone
toward the creation of a genuinely mass movement? That is up to each
and every one of us. The goal now should be to organize, organize and
organize. Our power is in the people, the mobilized people! This is
what imbues us with optimism and provides a compass for all of our
strategies and tactics.
P.S. - We will keep people posted on the status of the permits,
logistics, housing, etc. in the next week. In terms of securing our
permits, we are being assisted by an extremely able legal team. are
confident that our rights will be upheld. In the meantime, let's stay
focused on mobilizing the largest possible number of people so that the
January 20th counter-inaugural demonstration reaches its potential.
International Action Center
web: <http://www.iacenter.org>
----
Update from International Action Center regarding January 20th
Counter-Inaugural Demonstration [# 2]
January 05, 2001
The Partnership for Civil Justice—the DC-based attorneys who are
representing the International Action Center and other
protesters—have sent a letter to DC Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey,
United States Park Police Chief Robert E. Langston, National Park
Service Director Robert Stanton, and United States Capitol Police Chief
James Varey.
The legal team is insisting that people who oppose the Bush
administration have the right to express their opinion, to obtain permits
and to demonstrate their point of view in the area of the inaugural
event. The letter to the police requests specific information and
clarification on outstanding issues related to permits and police conduct
on January 20. The legal team has given the police agencies until the
close of the business day Monday, January 8, to respond.
Let us be very clear on our goal in this endeavor: We intend to obtain a
permit so that thousands of people can participate in a mass rally on
January 20. We are launching a campaign to uphold our rights that will
use all available legal avenues as well as public pressure.
The IAC will be giving everyone a comprehensive report on the status
of the permits, outstanding legal issues and other tactics at our
upcoming Regional Organizers Meeting on Tuesday, January 9. It will
be held at 6:30 pm at Local 169 UNITE union hall, 33 W. 14th St. in New
York City. It is very important for everyone who can to attend this
meeting.
The police officials have been attempting to create a climate of fear
and confusion to deliberately dissuade thousands of people from
demonstrating at the Bush inauguration. The police agencies have told
the media that they intend to set up check points along the inaugural
route. This is precisely the tactic that the pro-Bush forces used in
Florida: setting up check points outside voting booths, especially in
African American and Haitian communities.
After having disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters in the general
election, the Bush administration wants to disenfranchise thousands of
protesters who want to exercise their First Amendment right to say
"NO" to the death penalty, racism and racist disenfranchisement, and to
raise other issues.
We are confident that we can defeat what has been a systematic level
of intimidation. To succeed, the IAC and it allies to employ every
means at our disposal. We will pursue every avenue available to us.
This is because we believe that the highest priority is to make sure that
thousands and thousands of people come to Washington, DC on
January 20.
The right-wing Bush administration would like to guarantee that the
next four years will be ones with no protests against racism, the death
penalty and war. But that is a fantasy because our movement is going
to grow.
International Action Center
<http://www.iacenter.org>
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J20 organizers expect thousands
International Action Center Press Release
January 5, 2001
Press Contact: Brian Becker, Larry Holmes
(212) 633-6646
JANUARY 20 COUNTER-INAUGURAL ORGANIZERS EXPECT
THOUSANDS TO PROTEST BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S
RIGHT-WING POLICIES
RACIST DISENFRANCHISEMENT OF VOTERS, THE DEATH
PENALTY, NEW TRIAL FOR DEATH ROW INMATE MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL WILL BE CENTRAL THEMES OF PROTEST
The International Action Center (IAC) reports that more than
40 cities are organizing buses and car caravans to bring
demonstrators to the Washington DC counter-inaugural
demonstration on January 20. More than 450 groups and
prominent individuals have endorsed the call to action.
The demonstration will assemble on January 20 at 14th St. and
Pennsylvania Ave. NW at 10 am.
The lawyers for the International Action Center and other
protesters sent a letter to the chief of the Washington DC
police force, the U.S. Capitol Police and the National Parks
Service insisting that people who oppose the Bush
administration have the right to express their opinion, to obtain
permits and to demonstrate their point of view in the area of
the inaugural event. The police agencies, working in tandem
with the new Bush administration, are deliberately trying to
dissuade the public from attending this mass demonstration.
As a result of the pressure campaign, the police agencies
have finally scheduled a meeting to discuss permits on
Tuesday, January 9.
"We intend to obtain a permit so that thousands of people can
participate in the mass rally on January 20. The inaugural
event and Pennsylvania Avenues between the Capitol and the
White House are not the private property of those who
support the death penalty and oppose affirmative action. WE
have a right to demonstrate and thousands will. January 20
will be remembered as the next step in the evolution of a new
movement for social justice. This movement fights on many
fronts, but the underlying issue of racism is a central theme,"
according to the IAC.
For a list of the organizing centers in the 40 cities, a complete
endorsers list or to obtain more information about the
demonstration, including a new brochure entitled "Fourteen
Reasons to Demonstrate Against the Bush Administration," go
to the IAC web site at <www.iacenter.org>.
International Action Center
web: <http://www.iacenter.org>
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Eleven Reasons To Protest At Bush's Inauguration On Jan. 20
On Saturday, Jan. 20, 2001, thousands of people will march and rally to
protest at George W. Bush's inauguration in Washington, D.C. and San
Francisco. We will be demonstrating against the incoming Bush
administration and its racist, sexist, militaristic, anti-labor and pro-big
business policies. Bush claims to be a "compassionate conservative,"
but his real "compassion" is reserved for the giant pharmaceutical, oil,
banking and other corporations.
We call for a profound social transformation, to a society where
people's needs come before profits, where every person has the right
to a good-paying job, decent housing, healthcare, education, childcare
and a clean environment. We cannot rely on the Democratic Party --
Clinton led the charge in demolishing social welfare programs, bombing
Yugoslavia and keeping the deadly sanctions against Iraq -- or on the
corrupt corporate elections.
Only a mass people's movement can bring real change, as has always
been true. Jan. 20 can be an important step in building this movement,
one which links together workers, students, people of all nationalities,
women, lesbians, gay men, bisexual and transgendered people,
immigrants, the disabled, seniors and youth.
There are many reasons to join the Jan. 20 Counter-Inaugural protests.
Here are a few:
1.) Bush will become President only due to massive racist
disenfranchisement and voting fraud. Not only in Florida, but across the
country, African American votes were disproportionately thrown out.
Hundreds of thousands of potential voters, especially in Black, Latino,
Native American and poor white communities, have been permanently
disenfranchised (forbidden to vote) for ever having been convicted of a
felony. In predominantly African American neighborhoods from Atlanta
to Chicago to Miami, outmoded technology and intimidation led to votes
being disqualified 20-25 times as often as in adjoining white suburbs.
Afraid to be accused of rocking the boat, the pro-system Democratic
Party leadership refused to raise the issue of racism during the re-
count process.
2.) Gov. Death is moving to Washington. As governor of Texas, Bush
presided over more executions -- 152 -- than took place in the other 49
states combined during that time. The death penalty is racist and anti-
poor -- it must be abolished. On Jan. 20, we will call for freedom for
death row activist, author and prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, Native
American leader Leonard Peltier, and all political prisoners. Bush and
his chief law enforcement official, Attorney General-designate John
Ashcroft, are rabidly pro-execution. Ashcroft has also been posed as a
glorifier of the Confederate slaveowners during the Civil War in recent
news articles. He has a warm relationship with the infamously
reactionary Bob Jones University, which has banned interracial dating
and which last year awarded Ashcroft an honorary degree. Ashcroft is
also on record opposing all government-funded drug treatment
program, calling people trapped in drug addiction "the lowest and the
least." How "compassionate" can you get?
3.) We must mobilize now to defend women's right to choose. The
new Bush administration is anti-women and anti-choice. Women's right
to abortion and birth control, was won in the streets and it must be
defended in the streets. Bush and his Attorney General John Ashcroft
are both on record as favoring a constitutional amendment banning
women's right to choose. Bush and Ashcroft are "pro-life," but only until
birth, after that they're "pro-death." (See point #2). Ashcroft is
opposed to abortion even in cases of rape, incest or where a woman's
life is in danger.
4.) We need funding for universal healthcare, free education,
affordable housing, heat and light, childcare and union jobs, not for the
Pentagon. In the richest economy that has ever existed, the basic
needs of the entire population could easily be met. Instead of going to
meet human needs, however, hundreds of billions of dollars annually
are spent on destructive and wasteful militarism. The U.S. already has
a bigger military budget than the rest of the UN Security Council
combined. Now, Bush wants to vastly increase military spending
including building the so-called "National Missile Defense System"
(NMDS). The NMDS is really an offensive, rather than defensive,
system, and is an essential element in a first-strike nuclear war
strategy. The Pentagon, which has spent a mind-boggling $4 trillion on
nuclear weapons to date, has always refused to renounce the first-
strike use of nuclear weapons. A major obstacle to nuclear war has
been the fear of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD): the idea that if
one country launched its missiles, it too would be destroyed by a
nuclear counter-attack. The appeal of a "missile defense system" to the
nuclear war strategists in the Pentagon is that the NMDS could shoot
down most of the incoming missiles, thus making it feasible to launch a
first-strike nuclear war. This horrific plan would mean hundreds of
billions in new profits for the military-industrial corporations, while
threatening the whole world with destruction. Both Bush and his new
Secretary of Defense (War) Donald Rumsfeld are ardent supporters of
NMDS.
5.) The genocidal sanctions on Iraq must be ended. New Secretary of
State Colin Powell, in his first speech, talked of "re-energizing the
sanctions on Iraq." The sanctions/blockade has already taken more
than 1.5 million Iraqi lives, half of them children under the age of five.
Powell, Vice President Dick Cheney, James Baker and other George W.
advisors launched the Gulf war 10 years ago during the regime of
George Bush I. Clinton carried on the sanctions and bombing
throughout his eight-year term, and now the new Bush team wants to
further step up the war against Iraq.
6.) Stop U.S. intervention in Colombia & all of Latin America. The
incoming Bush national security team wants to escalate U.S.
intervention in Colombia beyond even Clinton's Plan Colombia. And it's
not just Colombia -- there is also the threat of wider intervention in
Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Mexico and Argentina, where people
are rising up against the domination of the IMF, World Bank and U.S.
corporate domination. We must act now to stop a new Vietnam War in
Latin America.
7.) The incoming Bush administration is filled with viciously
homophobic bigots who want to turn back the clock on gains won by
lesbians, gay men, and bisexual and transgendered people. Bush is
allied with the bigoted religious and non-religious extreme right who
want to deny equal rights to lesbians and gay men, and force them
back into the closet.
8.) The Forty Years War against Cuba must end. Bush, like the nine
presidents before him, wants to turn Cuba back into a colony of the
U.S. as it was before the 1959 revolution. It is time to end the blockade
and aggression against a small neighboring country and let Cuba live in
peace.
9.) The Bush administration wants to speed up environmental
destruction for the sake of corporate profits. Under Gov. Bush, Texas
ranked 50th among states in air quality and 1st in toxic polluters, toxic
releases, carcinogens in the air and 13 other polluting categories. Bush
put polluting industry representatives in charge of the state's Natural
Resources Conservation Council (Texas' version of the EPA). Bush and
his new Interior Secretary Gale Norton want to open the Arctic National
Wildlife Preserve to oil drilling, just a hint of what is to come unless we
mobilize now. Norton advocates "self-auditing," meaning allowing
corporations to monitor themselves on whether they are meeting
environmental requirements.
10.) Support an independent homeland for the Palestinian people. The
U.S. has given Israel hundreds of billions of dollars in aid over the past
50 years, aid used to repress the Palestinians. The U.S. government
and Israel are acting as a team against the Palestinians. There will be
no peace in the Middle East until there is justice for the Palestinian
people.
11.) End U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico -- U.S. Navy out of Vieques! The
Bush
administration's plan for military expansion includes keeping the island of
Vieques as a bombing range. Many Puerto Rican people have been killed or
injured, and the environment and economy of Vieques have suffered
much destruction. Now is the time to support the Puerto Rican people
in their struggle to get the Pentagon out.
January 20th Counter-Inaugural Mobilization
International Action Center
web: <http://www.iacenter.org>
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Activists Step Up Plans For Inaugural Protest
By Elijah Crane
Jan. 11, 2001, Workers World
Activists ushered in the New Year by stepping up plans for
the Jan. 20 protest in Washington at George W. Bush's
inauguration.
With a new trial for death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-
Jamal and an end to the racist death penalty topping the
list of demands, the International Action Center initiated a
call for the upcoming demonstration long before the Nov. 7
election.
Since the election crisis, the burning issue for many of
those planning to participate in the Jan. 20 demonstration
is anger over the election fraud. Poor and oppressed people
who will be most affected by the decisions and acts of
George W. Bush were also the most affected by
disenfranchisement in the electoral process. And that is why
people will be traveling by the busloads, vanloads and
carloads to Washington on Jan. 20 to raise their voices on
Inauguration Day.
The inauguration protest will also demand an immediate end
to Plan Colombia. Other issues to be raised include
defending the Palestinian people from U.S.-backed Israeli
attack and occupation, lifting the U.S-UN sanctions against
Iraq, demanding the U.S. Navy out of Vieques, Puerto Rico,
and more.
The West Coast IAC is also organizing a protest in San
Francisco on Jan. 20. The demands are the same, and
demonstrators are expected to come from all over the region
to participate.
MEDIA COVERAGE
On Dec. 21, Brian Becker, co-director of the International
Action Center and a lead organizer of the Jan. 20
mobilization, was interviewed by Bernard Shaw on CNN. The
Rev. Walter Fauntroy also appeared on the show to talk about
plans for demonstrating on Jan. 20.
"We're going to assemble at the scene of the crime, the
Supreme Court," the Rev. Fauntroy said of plans for a
"shadow inauguration."
Becker told Shaw, "... We will have thousands of people
coming to Washington on January 20th to demonstrate against
the death penalty, which George Bush is a fervent supporter
of, and George Bush, as you know, has on his watch executed
more people than any of the governors of the states
combined.
"We'll also be demanding a new trial for the famed broadcast
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal and thirdly our demonstration
will focus on what we believe was the racist
disenfranchisement of mainly African- American and Haitian
voters in the state of Florida, which we considered to be a
conspiracy by the Republican Party to disenfranchise Black
people--a tradition in the South that has been revealed not
to have been from the ages past but lives on today."
Becker went on to say, "This demonstration is more than a
single event. A movement started last year in Seattle; it
was a movement for social justice. It was mainly young
people and it went to Washington, D.C. for protests against
the IMF and then to the conventions of the Republican and
the Democratic Party.
"Now, that movement is taking its next step. It's not only
protesting globalization, it's protesting the war against
poor and working people here and around the world. It's got
a special focus on racism, which is alive and well in the
United States. So we believe this will be, on January 20th,
not the beginning of the Bush period of racist reaction, but
the period of a new civil rights movement which this
demonstration on January 20th will signify."
When Shaw asked if protests would be peaceful Becker
responded, "Well, ... have the media ask the police, 'will
there be violence?' because it's the police who have the
guns and the clubs and the tear gas and who have acted
lawlessly in the past demonstrations in the past year. For
our part, our demonstration will be legal and orderly and
disciplined and loud, but we insist that our First
Amendments rights be upheld."
PROTEST GROUPS HOLD NEWS CONFERENCE
Earlier in the day on Dec. 21, Becker joined with
representatives of the Justice Action Movement, Independent
Progressive Political Network, the National Organization for
Women and others for a news conference in Washington. The
event was aired on C-Span.
At that news conference, Becker said that the IAC was there
to send a message to Police Chief Charles Ramsey and all of
the other police officials in the city of Washington and the
federal government that "this demonstration will not be
marginalized. It will not be put off into some protest pit
far away. It will not be made invisible because of police
policy. We will not be intimidated by ... police spying and
surveillance."
Becker then explained that protesters have a constitutional
right to demonstrate and will not stand for another act of
preventive detention like the one that took place in
Washington during the April 2000 protests against the
International Monetary Fund.
He also said, "In spite of this level of intensified
repression by the police ... thousands will make it clear to
the whole world that Pennsylvania Avenue on January 20th is
not the private property of those who believe in the death
penalty, of those who support an electoral process dominated
by banks and corporations."
UPDATE ON ORGANIZING EFFORTS
A statement issued by the IAC on Dec. 30 asserts that "the
best, and only, answer for our new movement is to mobilize
larger and larger numbers from the population who reject
racism, voter disenfranchisement, capitalist globalization,
the U.S. war machine, sexism, homophobia and the wanton
disregard of the environment.
"The corporate elite has the money and police power behind
them. But our movement speaks for the tens of millions of
working people, of oppressed people--of the disenfranchised--
who have no stake in the current system."
The statement also notes that 40 organizing centers around
the U.S. are mobilizing for Jan. 20 in Washington.
Organizers have already distributed more than 50,000
leaflets for the Jan. 20 demonstration. Another 50,000 will
be passed out over the next few weeks.
Another key tool in organizing for Jan. 20 has been the
Internet. Through the IAC Web site and the Mumia2000.org
site, organizers are able to connect with centers in their
area, download leaflets for local distribution and find out
the latest news.
A "J20action" list serve at www.egroups. com currently
involves nearly 350 people from around the U.S. and Canada
who are planning to participate in the demonstration. Both
the East and West Coast centers are utilizing the list
serve.
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Kensington Welfare Rights Union To Protest At Inauguration
Thu, 04 Jan 2001
From: Kensington Welfare Rights Union <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
KWRU PLANS ON PROTESTING THE INAUGURATION OF PRESIDENT BUSH
IN DC ON JANUARY 20
The Kensington Welfare Rights Union is organizing a
delegation to attend the protests of the Presidential
Inauguration in Washington DC on January 20.
Buses are leaving the KWRU office in Philadelphia (2825
North 5th Street) at 6:30 am on January 20th. Or, you can
join us in DC. Exact location we are meeting will be
announced closer to the date. If you are interesting in
joining us, please call our office at 215/203-1945 or email
us at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>.
KWRU members will be participating in the protests as human
rights monitors. We want the world to know that
President-Elect Bush, as well as Wisconsin Gov. Tommy
Thompson (who Bush has named to head the Department of
Health and Human Services) are human rights violators.
Thompson's shredding of the social safety net in the name of
"welfare reform" in Wisconsin was the model for the national
"welfare reform" law of 1996. Bush whole-heartedly supports
these policies, which are among the most regressive laws of
this century.
Since January of 1996, over 2.1 million families (6 million
individual recipients) were forced off of welfare. One
third of those who left welfare are unable to find work, and
report no earnings at all. The average yearly earnings of
people who left welfare range from $2,980 to $13,444, well
below the poverty level. Half say they worried that food
would not last until the end of the month, or report
skipping meals in the last year.
Welfare reform also affects the wages of already low paying
jobs. Among the lowest third of jobs in the labor force,
welfare reform is projected to cut average wages by 11.9%,
from an average of $7.19/hour before workfare to $5.47 after
workfare.
America has the highest poverty rate and the largest
disparity between rich and poor of any industrialized
nation. All of this is happening amidst a booming economy
and unparalleled abundance in our country.
The United States signed the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights in 1948. This document guarantees the human rights
due to every human being, including food, housing, and
living wage jobs. Welfare reform violates articles 23, 25
and 26 of the UDHR. (Follow this link to find out more:
<http://www.kwru.org/ehrc/wahr.html>)
For information about the economic human rights petition we
have filed before the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights against the United States government for violations
against the poor, see <http://www.kwru.org/updates/12-11-00.html>
---
CONTACT INFO:
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
web: <http://www.kwru.org>
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Conservatives make plans for inaugural mobilization
<http://www.washtimes.com/metro/default-20011422140.htm>
By John Drake
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
January 4, 2001
A coalition of conservatives is mobilizing to support President-elect
George W. Bush on Inauguration Day while radical anti-establishment
activists are planning demonstrations.
"I think we will present a real contrast from a bunch of kids all
dressed in black who dislike America, what the country stands for, and
are waving big puppets," said James Parmelee, a conservative rally
organizer who lives in Fairfax County, Va.
The Northern Virginia Republican Political Action Committee, a network
of conservatives, has momentum from rallies it staged in Florida and the
District during the five weeks of legal wrangling after the presidential
election. The independent grass-roots group is not affiliated with
Mr. Parmelee, the group's chairman, said conservatives from across the
country will converge on the District of Columbia to "provide a
counterbalance to the leftists and the media attention they will get
against George W. Bush."
"We're not professional protesters. We don't travel from Seattle to
Washington to protest," he said. "We're from Middle America, with all
ages and all races of people who support the democratic process."
Meanwhile, the Justice Action Movement (JAM), a key group organizing
anti-Bush demonstrations, was scheduled to meet last night to plan
tactics for Jan. 20. Many JAM activists participated in anti-World Bank
rallies in the District in April and anti-World Trade Organization
protests in Seattle in1999.
Plans by anti-establishment activists and liberals such as Al Sharpton
and Jesse Jackson have motivated conservatives to counter their rallies,
Mr. Parmelee said.
Final plans are not in place, but conservative organizers likely will
stage a counterprotest near Mr. Sharpton's "shadow inauguration" at the
U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 20, Mr. Parmelee said.
As for anti-establishment radicals, "if they resort to doing some of the
things they were doing in Seattle, I'm not sure how our folks would
react," Mr. Parmelee said. "I'm not sure they're going to get away with
that.
"We just want to get out there and express our support for George W.
Bush and [Vice President-elect] Dick Cheney, and let America know we're
behind them," said Mr. Parmelee.
He has teamed up with other conservative groups, Loud Citizen and Free
Republic, to prepare counterprotest tactics, transportation and housing
for supporters coming from across the country.
Taking a cue from their counterparts on the fringe, the conservatives
are using the Internet for their plans, including some
countersurveillance.
On <www.loudcitizen.com> , several persons posted messages of concern about
anti-inauguration protest plans already circulating in cyberspace.
Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said additional groups
create a potential for confrontations, but he doesn't anticipate any
big problems.
"Certainly, any time you have groups and countergroups, the potential to
have something happen is always there," Chief Ramsey said.
"This, however, becomes more complicated because you'll have so many
people there to observe the inauguration, and [protesters] can move
about and not be recognized," the chief said.
Based on how protesters for Vice President Al Gore and Mr. Bush
conducted themselves during rallies after the election, Chief Ramsey
said, "I don't think there's going to be a clash between the two groups.
We'll just have to deal with it as it comes along and not get in the
middle of it unless it's necessary."
The conservative rallies won't bother the anti-establishment activists,
who plan to put 10,000 demonstrators on the streets, said Adam
Eidinger, a local JAM spokesman. "We're going to try to avoid those
people," he said. "That's the best thing we can do.
"Our problem is with George Bush and the Republican administration.
We're going to send a message to them, and to the members of Congress.
We want action, not lip service. They need to work on these issues," he
said.
Yet Mr. Eidinger suggested that conservatives might provoke a
confrontation. "If they touch any of us, they will be committing
assault, and they know that. And we expect the police to enforce the
law," he said.
Liberals, such as Mr. Sharpton, also said they are not worried about
the conservatives. "They are of no concern to me at all," Mr. Sharpton
told The Washington Times in a telephone interview yesterday.
"They're the ones who don't want me to be heard," he said. "If they want
to march, they're welcome to it. We'll have enough numbers there to make
our message heard, and we'll see what they're numbers are."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linked stories:
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Black bloc goes to the Coronation
<http://www.infoshop.org/coronation.html>
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