A Judicial Dunce: SCOTUS

Byline: US Supreme Court gives the corporate personhood the right to buy elections, legally this time

[pic morethings.com, from Hee Haw tv show]

A bit of history: There once was a Scottish theologian of the High Middle Ages, JOHN DUNS, who became known as Duns Scotus, being that he was Scottish. His 'theologerising' left behind some important ideas on bits of paper. Unfortunately for him, the long-term effect was that his enemies made a mockery of him by equating:

Dunse (a follower of J Duns Scotus)= idiot

Nowadays, the word 'dunce' was written on dunce caps, in his honour. Back in the early 20th c., it was common for idiots to be put in the corner of a classroom, with the dunce cap festooned on their heads, for all to laugh.

So, I had to laugh when I discovered that the Supreme Court of the United States is widely referred to with this hillarious acronym,

SCotUS

Usually, with acronyms, 'of' & 'the' are not used, but

IF THE CAP FITS, WEAR IT.*

Allow me to explain:
the case that will forever be known as Citizens United, has given the extreme-right-wing side of the US Supreme Court the chance^ to open the doors for corporations to fund political campaigns as much as they want. So, every reasonable person sees this as legally wrong (based on the corporation=person myth), but also something which will allow corporations to take complete control of government in the US (which they have almost completed anyway). And, if it happens there, it can happen anywhere. They'll even find a way to use the WTO to enforce this worldwide.

Business=politics=trade=justice=hellonearth

Obama44 chose one Justice (a SCOTUS judge) last year, but since GWBush43 was the president who stacked the balance (out of 10 Justices) of things in favour of the loony-conservative-globalising-screw their human rights Justices, then, ultimately, the last and biggest dunce cap goes to him.**
[pic topplebush.com]

The US government has three branches:
the Executive (President), the Legislative (Congress)

and the Judicial (headed by SCOTUS).

If the first 2 cannot control the Idiot (SCOTUS), then the US government is a

NUTHOUSE.

IF THE SH*T FITS, WEAR IT***

-Costick67 (8^P

* paraphrasing 'Hee-Haw' tv show
^ look what SCOTUS did with the year-2000 federal elections. 'and the Winner...loses'
Daddy Bush stacked the Court for that one.
** He may indeed be functionally illiterate, or just a bad alcoholic.
*** 'Blues Brothers' movie
-checkitout on Wikipedia: 'John Duns Scotus', 'ACLU' 'corporate personhood debate' 'federal government of the United States' (sic)
-checkitout Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, on Alternet
"Why the ACLU Supported the Supreme Court's Shocking Assault on Free Speech"
[some quotations]
-Keith Olberman (MSNBC) called him (Floyd Abrams of ACLU) a "Quisling" for aiding and abetting this catastrophic confirmation of corporate 'personhood.'

-The ACLU has also defended the right of such loathsome haters as the Ku Klux Klan to gather and speak. In these and other such cases, the ACLU has been right, and has courageously paid a price.

-But perhaps the organization has confused those valid First Amendment cases with a Citizen's United decision perpetrated by the most virulent judicial opponents of individual speech in the history of the Court. In reference to this case the ACLU says it "has consistently taken the position that section 203 is facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment because it permits the suppression of core political speech, and our amicus brief takes that position again."

We respectfully -- but vehemently -- disagree. Simply put:

money is not speech, corporations are not people.

-Given the immense sums of cash these corporations have to spend, the Citizen's United decision is the equivalent not of guaranteeing individual Nazis the freedom to march, but instead of granting the Party itself the right to drive tanks down the street, guns ablazing.

It's not the same as giving individual Klan members the right to hold a rally, but rather for the organization to do public lynchings as part of a terror campaign aimed at taking tangible power.

-Nowhere in the Constitution do the Founders mention the word corporation. There were six of them (corporations) at the time of ratification, all strictly limited by state charter to where and what kind of business they could do. They bear scant resemblance to the multi-national behemoths we confront today.

-The moneyed power of these corporations and their access to the First Amendment through the myth of "personhood" has been the ultimate pox on American politics since the 1880s.

---end of text

what about 'the right to bear arms'? That's a good one, too.

also see my other stories on this: 'The Right Hireable...'

circle jerks have a good grip on it this time

coming soon , a discussion of how politicians and capitalists are destroying the political economy that they need to feed off of. You see, they're basically parasites, and I'll prove it. They need us to be willing victims, and for us to stay alive.
But, they're killing us off, financially.

If a parasite destroys its host, the parasite also dies.

I use the term 'circle jerks'* rather than 'co-conspirators' because the criminals here don't need conspiracies. They, firstly, have all seen the Star Wars/Trek Nazi evil guys who get together, sing 'Lilly Marlene' and laugh at how they're going to screw the world.
The Masters of Industry couldn't live with themselves if they did that.
These guys are more like :
WINK-WINK-NUDGE-NUDGE-KNOWHATIMEAN?EH-EH?
SAY NO MORE! FL*&^^K THE POOR!

Tony: "I got revenge on one bunch of towelheads by screwing another"

Byline: Iraq Inquiry

ex-PM Blair thinks nothing of
killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and a few British soldiers

Soldiers' parents cry, say nothing, throw nary a shoe.
scoreboard
Tony: one
Parents: nowt

As with every inquiry, it's all in the response.
The erratic response to a terrorist hit on a superpower, not the UK though.
You can't be a superpower and stand there after a bunch of irregulars boink you on the nose.
You have to respond with deadly force. Kick Ass!
Revenge is sweet, and consequence-free, if you cannot be stuffed into a jail.

More Chilcott Inquiry , coming soon.
For now, a few sage words on war from one of the Panelists:

a Mr J. Rotten, of Lyddon, Pimpleshire

-Costick67 (8^P

who the hell is Thomas Frank?

Well, I found out about him through Alternet. He was talking to Bill Moyers on PBS about the hell that is the day-to-day running of the US government, which is being dismantled and privatised. I wouldn't care, but they're exporting this crap, especially through the IMF. Rich oligarchies running all the important Western countries are eating this stuff up like GM maize. May their kids have two heads... each.

Anyway, his style seems, at first to be too wordy and too erudite, which is a problem, because we need FIRE AND BRIMSTONE from OUR side, for a change, BUT if you watch this video, you'll see that he's a good researcher and his concepts are among the clearest on the 'Correct' side of the political picture. I wouldn't say 'liberal' because

to have liberal politics, you need liberal politicians.
They're as dead as the dodo.

You and I are just talking and worrying about the stuff which might eventually

return us to the Middle Ages,

serfdom and mandatory church sermons on Intelligent Design,

in lieu of school lessons,

because the Ministry of Education of Country X is bankrupt.

I especially like Frank's responses to the vox pop questions at the end. A real down-to-earth beer drinker.

Watch for now, if you've got 50 minutes, and I promise I'll write some good sarcastic crap on the material that this video uncovers. I'm sure I'm not the first, but I mentioned in many stories that, since Communism was defeated, democracy has been back-sliding into 19th century-type exploitation and political corruption. Frank mentions many aspects of this. Get your popcorn and watch.



-Costick67 (8^P
spread the word

How you say, 'Haiti is screwed' in Haitian patois?

"Nous sommes tous fuqques", me thinks.

I really don't want to sh*t on the telethon parade for Haiti, but the place is suffering from a bad case of voodoo politics. Why is it that the media, who love to cover UP bad practice, mentioned that for the FIRST 7 DAYS of the disaster, the airport was full of food, the media had meals, but the Haitians were left on the street with no food support (I don't know about medical or disaster relief)?

I truly hope the money that the middle classes of the world pledge actually gets sent somewhere near Haiti, because a whole bunch of rich actors and minstrels gave their time, for free. Usually, the cash loses its way. I wish it weren't true.*

Anyway, back to that voodoo thing. Now, we all know that Billie Clinton repealed the now-famous Glass-Steagal act, an action which has since opened the financial gates of hell. So, I'm actually glad that he was strapped to the iron maiden for spunking on his intern.

Anyway, where was I?

Oh, ya. In the video that George Clooney used to get you all wet about loosening the purse strings included good old Billie. Unfortunately, he let slip some key words which are like sonar to vampire bats, the blood-sucking bats here being the IMF.
He said something to the effect that Haiti will be rebuilt with better infrastructure, A DIVERSIFIED ECONOMY, MORE FREE TRADE AND FOREIGN INVESTMENT. Unfortunately, those are the exact reasons why Haiti has no infrastructure and is poverty-stricken. Foreigners have been sucking all the value out of Haiti's public money and services, and holding the citizens to ransom.* The earthquake has only been a respite in the otherwise full-time screwing of this country.
This is why Haiti has never been allowed to raise its collective head since the Duvalliers regime was kicked out. They traded a native slave-owner for the international slave-driver, the IMF. Any Haitian politician who dared to talk about the people's interests was fed to the maddening crowd, and shot or pissed on, or both.
And Billie is one of their spokesmen. The IMF's, silly.

You were moved by the plight of the Haitians because you're human. Globalisers are remarkably lifelike, but not human, in the most important sense.

The history of Haiti is actually one of human striving. It was the first place in the 'New' World where the slaves revolted successfully.
Now, this country has lost over 100 000 people because nobody can defend them and their country from exploitation.

UPDATE: Haitians have sussed out the international community, which doesn't care about them, and started building their own homes: Paisley Dodds (Associated Press) "Haitians rebuilding without help"

-Costick67 (8^(

* check out how those same globo-clowns took charge of Bolivia's public water provider and made it illegal for Bolivians to harvest rainwater or well water. Bolivians revolted, but the globos (Bechtel) took their payoff and ran. For a second there, they were the Gods of Water.

checkitout: 3 stories
1
-American Red Cross (ARC) scandal with scammed money: Alternet- Devona Walker
"In Haiti Relief Skirmish: Stop Bugging Wyclef and Look at the Red Cross"
[some quotations]
"But in its aftermath (of 9-11) some of the organization's (ARC) internal issues came to light. It was revealed that hundreds of millions of dollars donated to the ARC to aid survivors and their family members were actually used on Red Cross operating expenses, try to plug a funding gap."
"...the agency (ARC) who has received the lion's share of relief funds for Haiti, about $147 million..."
2

-The Right Testicle of Hell: History of a Haitian Holocaust

Blackwater before drinking water

by Greg Palast for The Huffington Post from: http://www.gregpalast.com/

Just in!
Our plea to send medicine to a friend's father in Haiti was answered by Democracy Now! producer Sharif Abdel-Kouddous who will make the delivery in Port-au-Prince. Apparently DN, unlike the US government, doesn't require armed "Security" to save lives.

1. Bless the President for having rescue teams in the air almost immediately. That was President Olafur Grimsson of Iceland. On Wednesday, the AP reported that the President of the United States promised, "The initial contingent of 2,000 Marines could be deployed to the quake-ravaged country within the next few days." "In a few days," Mr. Obama?

2. There's no such thing as a 'natural' disaster. 200,000 Haitians have been slaughtered by slum housing and IMF "austerity" plans.

3. A friend of mine called. Do I know a journalist who could get medicine to her father? And she added, trying to hold her voice together, "My sister, she's under the rubble. Is anyone going who can help, anyone?" Should I tell her, "Obama will have Marines there in 'a few days'"?

4. China deployed rescuers with sniffer dogs within 48 hours. China, Mr. President. China: 8,000 miles distant. Miami: 700 miles close. US bases in Puerto Rico: right there.

5. Obama's Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, "I don't know how this government could have responded faster or more comprehensively than it has." We know Gates doesn't know.

6. From my own work in the field, I know that FEMA has access to ready-to-go potable water, generators, mobile medical equipment and more for hurricane relief on the Gulf Coast. It's all still there.

3
Benjamin Dangl:

http://www.alternet.org/world/145279/us_corporations,_private_mercenaries_and_the_imf_rush

_in_to_profit_from_haiti%27s_crisis

The Right Hireable Prime Minister, Wally Mart

[pic - Copyright Mike Peters]

Byline: Congressman Prophet says 'Politicians will be elected directly by corporations'

This news is fresh from the US, the cultural leader of the world. Everything new and American is adopted around the world, as you know.
Example: the US legal 'system' fraudulently made the concept "corporation=person" a part of legal precedent (see prior story). Now, it doesn't even have to use the IMF, World Bank or the UN to enforce this, worldwide. It's a de facto law which will soon allow companies to fight for their 'human rights'.

you know? starving, disenfranchised companies
can't live forever in tin shacks in illegal shanty-towns,
ignored by the government. Don't you know that?
Humans? that's another story for some wanker to
cry to you about. Fl%^&k 'em all.
Ingrates!

Anyway, the corporation has taken the next step and has wangled its way into American political campaigns. I know. You're thinking 'every politician is bought and paid for, and I don't care what the funding laws say. Corps get their man, every time.' Well, it gets worse, mate.
Thanks to a Supreme Court decision on a 'campaign' film that slagged off Hillary Clinton, 2 years ago, the court had a chance to make precedent again (consult a lawyer).
Instead of limiting political media campaigns funded by groups, corporations and glee clubs,
it opened the barn door, REAL WIDE, Cletis.

Didn't even ring the doorbell.

So, the eternal whiner, Senator Grayson of Florida says that, thanks to the 'law', politicians will soon be elected directly by the corporations whose advertisements they'll wear on their suits, like a NASCAR or F1 driver.

This, is Senator Citgo:

The Member for M&Ms:
[its the brown M&Ms: a minority district]

The Representative from Ay!Caramba:
["Mr. Speaker, my honourable Member is chafing." xD]

Next week: the new book by Evan De Bollox called

"I, Corporation",

a science fiction story where a benevolent corporation,
which runs a utopian country,
metes out justice through its metrosexual android robot, Gearbox. Who's the man, now, eh, James Cameron?
It's the future of democracy, if it hasn't already been shot to hell.

-Costick67 (8^P

Film critics think that a robot is a brilliant metaphor for a corporation: automatic, inflexible, thoughtless, naturally sociopathic.

fotos from:
fotosearch.com
coxnewsweb
usatoday
fantasiawear
fotosearch

checkitout: [comments- Costick67]
GRAYSON CONDEMNS COURT RULING

January 21, 2010 11:51 AM

(Washington, DC) – In a 5-to-4 decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that corporations have the "right" to spend an unlimited amount of money to influence and manipulate federal elections. The decision overturns more than a century of law and precedent. Rep. Alan Grayson (FL-8) immediately condemned the decision. "This is the worst Supreme Court decision since the Dred Scott case," Grayson said. "It leads us all down the road to serfdom." [I loves serfing. Hang ten. People, that is.]

The court decision completely ignores the likelihood that corporations will spend money to elect officials who will do their bidding, and punish those who won't. It allows unlimited election spending by all corporations, even foreign ones. "The Supreme Court has decided to protect the rights of GE, Volkswagen, Lukoil and Aramco, at the expense of our right to good government," Grayson added.

Congressman Grayson was in the courtroom when the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision. Grayson circulated a petition yesterday, saying: "Unlimited corporate spending on campaigns means the government is up for sale, and that the law itself will be bought and sold." Within hours, more than 10,000 people had signed the petition. Rep. Grayson delivered those petitions to the Court this morning.

Rep. Grayson also has introduced five bills, the Save Our Democracy package, in anticipation of the Supreme Court's ruling. When he introduced the bills, Grayson said, "if this goes unchallenged, then you can kiss your country goodbye."

Today, Rep. Grayson called for immediate action on his Save Our Democracy bills. "If we do nothing, then before long, there won't be Senators from Oklahoma or Virginia, there will be Senators from Citibank and Walmart. Maybe they will wear insignias on their $500 suits, like NASCAR drivers do."

Grayson urges people to contact their Senators and Representatives, and urge support for the Save Our Democracy bills.

from : http://grayson.house.gov/2010/01/grayson-condemns-court-ruling.shtml

p.s. here's a nice little review of how sold-out the US government is, from Thomas Frank. I wonder how low long this can last. It must be destroying the country. Worse yet, I think they're doing a good job of exporting this gutting of the last thing protecting people from slavery, a proper government: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcEBg8aUtRE&feature=player_embedded

The Fat Cats' Den of Inequity

Byline: The business model of sell or die, of power and desperation, is being brought to everyday life as ordinary people struggle to keep going

[The Dragon's Den is a British show where brave people pitch their ideas to four ridiculously successful businessmen, in the hope that one or more will fund their idea]

In the Fat Cats' Den of Inequity,

politicians and businessmen sit in judgement of people*
who are just trying to find enough work
to have money
to eat and keep warm.

Show 1
Respect for working overtime

A young office worker approaches the Fat Cat panel and meekly asks a question:
Steve Karoshi: According to the EU law, we're not supposed to work more than 48 hours a week. I just wanted to know whether hourly-paid workers like me can get time-and-a-half for overtime hours and holidays. I mean, it's easier to pay me extra than it is to hire another worker, and I'm willing to work hard.

Fat Cat Pete responds:
I'm going to crush your union.** You're a Postie, right? You're screwed. We're privatising you***, ya lazy pillock. Who do you think I am? Maggie Thatcher? You're lucky you have a job. By the way, we don't have many holidays anyway. We've got BANK holidays. Not the same thing, you see?
Where's that Russian oligarch gone to? I gotta kiss up to him...regularly. If you'll excuse me.

Even the Fat Cats have daddies. More next week. Stay tuned.

-the above is a fictional story, mostly.

-Costick67 (8^P
* I've put them together because they're the tag team of people-screwers
** he actually did say that and it was printed in the media. checkitout
*** they've been trying

fotos (in order) from:
fotosearch.com, 38 degrees.org

One education system for sale- CHEAP

This will be story about a country that I've seen from up close for over a decade now. I formulated some opinions about schools, and they've been verified lately.

What if you had a good public education system and decided to destroy it through cuts, bureaucracy and privatisation of educational delivery? What would the motivation be?

Only the permanent social stratification of that society would be a logical goal from what I've seen. It's a long-term class war wherein the government seems to want to cut off its own nose to spite its face. One of the richest countries in the world has little manufacturing, not because of a lack of brains, but because most kids can't get a good education.

When your country is falling down to the bottom of the OECD's 30 Western countries, wouldn't you be trying to sort a few things out? Well, I know a country which isn't.

Their literacy stats are horrible. Their graduation rates are horrible. All they seem to do is pull rabbits out of hats to distract the media and the part of the public without kids. Parents can't help but know what's going on.

Case in point:
The solution to the bad school stats was to blame the 'crappy old school buildings' that previous administrations had built, and, the schools' administrators. These are being replaced. While they were at it, the government decided to let their business buddies build and run the new-fangled schools. These are the new ACADEMIES.
Perfectly good buildings were scrapped, students were moved to new architecturally-brilliant buildings, built by corporations with some of their own cash, but largely with government money (read: loans). These academies were even allowed to ignore school-board regulations and teach whatever bullcrap they wanted.
They put forth a beautiful picture, Bella figura as the Italians say. But, the truth was rather bruta.
Most of them are falling short of expectations, both educationally and financially. Apparently, some of them have resorted to withholding promised investment, leaving the government holding the bag.

My limited experience of the history of British schools has shown me a few things, but I lack enough knowledge to recommend answers, beyond the obvious stuff.

As the maudlin, old-fart Pink Floyd video says, 'we don't need no education'. They're double-negativing away, but describing what I've heard was a horrible system, in some parts, where teachers broke down and beat students. I don't know how widespread it was, but it didn't stop until the '70s.

Now, the shoe is on the other, younger, foot. School kids are out of control, and are being encouraged to be so. I don't know if this still stands, but a few years ago, I heard that students who have actually struck a teacher are not only kept in school, but kept in class. Why would an education system, especially one run almost directly by the national government, encourage students to beat teachers? It is well- known that

new teachers average about 5 years at work
before running away, screaming.
The system is even paying a large proportion of new teachers
to go through a year's training.

I've seen it myself, albeit only a few times. The teachers visibly shake during lessons, because they can't reign in students. They often spend their breaks chain-smoking.
Teachers and administrators are kept onsite until the evening filling in paperwork, so that the government can control data and thus misrepresent results and foster divisions (the reporting of racial incidents is particularly funny because schools reporting zero-problems are inspected and berated.). Somehow, the government avoids

getting trashed over this

downgrading of so many children's futures
in this game with few winners.

Alas, I guess they were unable to fool the OECD.

It has been my opinion for 7 or 8 years that this deep-sixing (as we call it) was being done by the government itself in order to keep the poor poor, and to keep the (white-collar) middle classes paying 7000 pounds a year for private education, even if it means taking out loans. You see, it's good for the economy if people spend (same modus operandi in Health). Meanwhile, politicians disproportionately send their kids to private education because they came from those ranks, or because the populace is paying politicians so much money as to make this possible.
Unfortunately, the rich in this country are unable or unwilling to pull the country out of the doldrums. They're comfortable & lazy. Therefore, the government is throwing the country down the crapper.

more later

-Costick67 (8^P

checkitout:
Education Guardian 1 Dec 2009 stories:
-The case of the missing students- Andrew Mourant
-'A ludicrously expensive con-trick'-Warwick Mansell
Guardian, 1 Dec 2009 story:
Lost youth-UK plummets in education table for teenagers- Rachel Williams
Young people in the UK are among the least educated in the developed world, tumbling down the tables since the mid-1990s, according to analysis released today.

Among countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), only Turkey and Mexico have a smaller proportion of 15- to 19-year-olds in education, the University and Colleges Union (UCU) said.

In 1995, the UK was ranked 19th among the 30 countries, with 72% of the group still at school, college or university. But by 2007, it had slumped to 26th place, overtaken by countries such as Portugal, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece. Figures for Japan and Canada were not available in the most recent set of data, which was for 2007.

A similar story is seen in the proportions of those aged 20-29 in education, where the UK fell from 15th in the table to 25th, with 17%.

The UCU said Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Slovenia, Israel and Russia were performing better than the UK, with higher, and still-increasing, proportions of young people in education.

Britain now risked being overtaken by the few countries still below it and being seen as "the poor man of the developed world, ill-prepared for life in the new knowledge economy", if urgent action were not taken.

The UCU's general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: "This shocking analysis brings home just how much the UK has to do if it wants to remain a key player in the new global knowledge economy.

"We cannot rely on our proud history when it comes to educational achievement or innovation.

"We have to face up to the fact that we cannot remain a first-world country with third-world levels of participation in education. Other developed countries are pulling away from us, and the developing nations are catching up and looking like they will overtake us.""The figures should worry us all. Sticking plaster policies from parties looking for votes just will not do."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills said further and higher education was of crucial importance to the government.

She added: "We now have the highest ever rate of 16- to 18-year-olds participating in education or training (79.7%), more people than ever in our history are now attending university (1.92m), and the number of adults participating in further education stands at over 3.7m in 2008/09. We are proud of this record, but far from complacent.

"We remain committed to a world-class skills base by 2020 and have challenging targets in place to achieve that."

---end of story

would you lend 100 billion to a communist?

Would you change someone's religion or beliefs in order to make money off them?
What would happen if they, in turn, were conning you? Who's the fool?

For those of us who know some of the basics of Islamic beliefs regarding interest and banking, it was no surprise that the government of Dubai racked up debts in the corporation it started, and then tried to wash their hands of that debt. Some say it's as high as 120 billion bucks.

Before I realised what was going on, I had seen them build some stuff which made my jaw drop. Islands shaped like the globe (below), as a housing development, another island project that looked like a palm (below). The biggest hotel in the world (below). A Formula one race, which is not a cheap venture, even before you pay off Bernie Ecclestone.
So, I figured, in my rose-coloured glasses Western view of the world thought that they had oil money otherwise they wouldn't have done it, or been allowed to do it. Actually, they don't. Other parts of the UAE do, but not Dubai.

who would lend a corporation 120 billion?
Here's where the con job comes in. Perfectly sensible banks, whatever that means in the age of derivatives, were throwing billions at a corporation in the expectation/assumption that, if everything went tits-up, the Dubai government or the Abu Dhabi oil money would pay off the debts. Now, what do we know about 'assumptions'? Well, they were mostly wrong about the Oily backers. Until recently, Dubai was ducking and weaving, and shuttling back and forth to the Oily Kings, until finally Abu Dhabi gave them what amounts to, for them, an elasticated roll of cash, 10 billion.

Can you imagine those banks, like the usual, suspect British suspect banks, trying to seize assets IN DUBAI! No chance of that. The Dubai corporation does have assets in the West, like airlines, which can be seized. Let's see how this plays out.

[pic-building for sail, cheap]
[pic- fan me, I'm broke]
[pic- the world of debt]
[pic- non-Muslim hotel guest]

Anti-apartheid rally in L, 2nite

I was at an anti-apartheid rally tonight at the School of Oriental and African Studies in downtown London.
present were :
Ronnie Kasrils - former minister in Nelson Mandela's ANC government and anti-Apartheid activist

Bongani Masuku - International Secretary Cosatu - the SouthAfrican trade union federation

George Mahlangu - Campaigns Coordinator, Cosatu - the South African trade union federation

They had some interesting things to teach the audience about what's right for the whole world, and how peaceful resistance to human rights abuses is the way to go.

Terry Brotherstonee General Council of the Scottish TUC union. Check their plain, clear and decisive investigation of the situation on the ground in the W.Bank & Gaza Str. (below, including some Banksy art.)

Yasmin Khan Senior Campaigns Officer for War on Want. She said that the main cause of poverty is war. What a surprise. If you're willing to kill your victims with guns, then starving them should be easy.

Prof Steven Rose. A declared non-self-hater (I heard him say so), from BRICUP.

Mr. O. Barghouti - Campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

(Palestine)

He had stories of how people are being starved and deprived of water, and other, lesser, human rights violations. It's pretty ugly hearing about these kinds of things going on in our day. It's interesting to see how many UK institutions (unions, government, media) are complicit in this "slow genocide".

-These speakers'll be in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow soon.

-Costick67 (8^P

checkitout:

bricup.org

bigcampaign.org

palestinecampaign.org

spread the word