Monday
Farewell Facebook (Short film about Digital Suicide)
Ok, I know, I could get a full screen if I would put this youtube thing on the social network site. Money rules the world.
Thursday
DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE DEMANDS RELEASE OF ALL ARRESTED
PRESS STATEMENT 21.06.2001
Democratic Alternative condemns the actions of the police in Gothenburg.
"We cannot accept that the police shall be able to disrupt peaceful demonstrations" says Eirik Eiglad, the international secretary of Democratic Alternative.
What was planned to be large-scale demonstrations against the European Union and the power of the market ended up as a large-scale demonstration of the police's contempt for democracy. The planned protests in Gothenburg ended with random harassment of demonstrators and passers-by, brutal police violence and extensive mass-arrests - as well as three young citizens getting shot by the police!
Democratic Alternative is a radical organization with groups in several Nordic countries, and we had many activists engaged in the protests, counter-conferences and discussions that filled Gothenburg.
On the basis of our own experiences and others accounts we consider it obvious that the police in Gothenburg had carefully planned to carry out a non-compromising policy. "The police did not allow for dialogue or peaceful protests", Eiglad continues.
The peaceful demonstrations were disrupted by continual police provocations. Protesters were arrested and harassed for no reason. Many was even taken into custody because they were walking on the wrong street or sleeping at the wrong school. Eiglad says "the police showed a complete contempt for fundamental political rights".
Nonetheless it was obvious that when police kept away and let the protesters arrange their demonstrations in peace, song, dance and slogans filled the streets - not the chaos provoked by the police. Of this reason Democratic Alternative consider Gothenburg a victory. "The fact that so many thousands demonstrate against the market and the power elites despite the harsh reactions of the police is definitely an important victory".
In the months and years to come we will continue to highlight the unjust and undemocratic Europe designed by the elites. "But this victory must not lead us to forget those still imprisoned".
Therefore Democratic Alternative demands:
* Unconditional release of all arrested. We demand that all charges is immediately dropped.
* The establishment of an independent commission that can analyze the events in Gothenburg.
* Compensation for everyone that was taken into custody, deported or arrested.
* Official apology from the responsible powers. We also demand that all those responsible for the police actions the immediately must be removed from their posts.
Democratic Alternative will contribute in working for the release of all those who are still arrested, and the dropping of all charges. "Now all citizens must step forward to defend our democratic rights" Eiglad concludes.
Democratic Alternative condemns the actions of the police in Gothenburg.
"We cannot accept that the police shall be able to disrupt peaceful demonstrations" says Eirik Eiglad, the international secretary of Democratic Alternative.
What was planned to be large-scale demonstrations against the European Union and the power of the market ended up as a large-scale demonstration of the police's contempt for democracy. The planned protests in Gothenburg ended with random harassment of demonstrators and passers-by, brutal police violence and extensive mass-arrests - as well as three young citizens getting shot by the police!
Democratic Alternative is a radical organization with groups in several Nordic countries, and we had many activists engaged in the protests, counter-conferences and discussions that filled Gothenburg.
On the basis of our own experiences and others accounts we consider it obvious that the police in Gothenburg had carefully planned to carry out a non-compromising policy. "The police did not allow for dialogue or peaceful protests", Eiglad continues.
The peaceful demonstrations were disrupted by continual police provocations. Protesters were arrested and harassed for no reason. Many was even taken into custody because they were walking on the wrong street or sleeping at the wrong school. Eiglad says "the police showed a complete contempt for fundamental political rights".
Nonetheless it was obvious that when police kept away and let the protesters arrange their demonstrations in peace, song, dance and slogans filled the streets - not the chaos provoked by the police. Of this reason Democratic Alternative consider Gothenburg a victory. "The fact that so many thousands demonstrate against the market and the power elites despite the harsh reactions of the police is definitely an important victory".
In the months and years to come we will continue to highlight the unjust and undemocratic Europe designed by the elites. "But this victory must not lead us to forget those still imprisoned".
Therefore Democratic Alternative demands:
* Unconditional release of all arrested. We demand that all charges is immediately dropped.
* The establishment of an independent commission that can analyze the events in Gothenburg.
* Compensation for everyone that was taken into custody, deported or arrested.
* Official apology from the responsible powers. We also demand that all those responsible for the police actions the immediately must be removed from their posts.
Democratic Alternative will contribute in working for the release of all those who are still arrested, and the dropping of all charges. "Now all citizens must step forward to defend our democratic rights" Eiglad concludes.
Wednesday
Monday
Adorno and poetry after the war
"The critique of culture is confronted with the last stage in the dialectic of culture and barbarism: to write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric, and that corrodes also the knowledge which expresses why it has become impossible to write poetry today." Theodor W. Adorno, 1949
Thursday
Belgian sexual abuse scandals include longest-serving bishop and Belgium's new Primate
“The longest-serving bishop in Belgium resigned Friday after admitting to sexually abusing “a boy in my close entourage” many years ago, becoming the latest cleric to quit in a spreading abuse scandal.”
New York Times
More..
“A member of the public who was sexually abused by a priest in his youth has accused Belgium's new Primate, André Léonard, of failing to intervene.”
Belgian television channel VRT
More..
New York Times
More..
“A member of the public who was sexually abused by a priest in his youth has accused Belgium's new Primate, André Léonard, of failing to intervene.”
Belgian television channel VRT
More..
Two human rights activists killed in Oaxaca, Mexico
I'm in solidarity with the Finnish Communalists, who seem to have lost a friend (and he was much interested in Communalist ideas). His name is Jyri.
“Two human rights activists were shot and killed in an ambush in southern Mexico as they tried to deliver food and supplies to a town being harassed by armed groups, authorities said on Wednesday.
Beatriz Carino, the Mexican director of the rights group CACTUS, and Finnish human rights observer Jyri Antero Jaakkola died when gunmen attacked a convoy of some 30 rights workers on Tuesday, local attorney general Maria de la Luz Candelaria said.”
Source : The Washinton Post, more info here.
“Two human rights activists were shot and killed in an ambush in southern Mexico as they tried to deliver food and supplies to a town being harassed by armed groups, authorities said on Wednesday.
Beatriz Carino, the Mexican director of the rights group CACTUS, and Finnish human rights observer Jyri Antero Jaakkola died when gunmen attacked a convoy of some 30 rights workers on Tuesday, local attorney general Maria de la Luz Candelaria said.”
Source : The Washinton Post, more info here.
Sunday
40 Years of Earth Days
By Brian Tokar
The 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day is upon us, and many seasoned environmentalists are nostalgic for the heady days of the 1970s, when 20 million people hit in the streets and eventually got Richard Nixon to sign a series of ambitious environmental laws. Those laws managed to clean up waterways that were turning into sewers, saved the bald eagle from the ravages of DDT, and began to clear the air, which in the early 1960s was so polluted that people were passing out all over our cities.
More...
The 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day is upon us, and many seasoned environmentalists are nostalgic for the heady days of the 1970s, when 20 million people hit in the streets and eventually got Richard Nixon to sign a series of ambitious environmental laws. Those laws managed to clean up waterways that were turning into sewers, saved the bald eagle from the ravages of DDT, and began to clear the air, which in the early 1960s was so polluted that people were passing out all over our cities.
More...
Tuesday
A short review of "The Anti-Jewish Riots in Oslo"
I like the fact that this book of Eirik Eiglad contains enough nuances and is well documented. For those who want to know more about conflicts in the Middle East and the way people in Europe are reacting to it, this book is a must-read.
Even Leftist journalists often know little about the things that are happening in the Scandinavian Left or in the circles of ultra-authoritarian people living there, and with this book a part of it becomes more clear.
That's good, because when some people read much about countries like France or Germany in the newspapers, often they already start to think that they are enough informed about the situation in Europe to have good opinions about it. It's not true, and the things happening in the north of Europe are just as much important.
With anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe (Hungary now for example), this book comes at a good moment. The opinions of Eirik Eiglad on this matter are often original and contain apt writing. If you thought you would find enough information about all of this in newspapers, at indymediasites, in Socialist, Marxist or other Leftist journals, think again because it's not true.
Ask for this book in your local bookshop or buy it at the internet.
Even Leftist journalists often know little about the things that are happening in the Scandinavian Left or in the circles of ultra-authoritarian people living there, and with this book a part of it becomes more clear.
That's good, because when some people read much about countries like France or Germany in the newspapers, often they already start to think that they are enough informed about the situation in Europe to have good opinions about it. It's not true, and the things happening in the north of Europe are just as much important.
With anti-Semitism on the rise in Europe (Hungary now for example), this book comes at a good moment. The opinions of Eirik Eiglad on this matter are often original and contain apt writing. If you thought you would find enough information about all of this in newspapers, at indymediasites, in Socialist, Marxist or other Leftist journals, think again because it's not true.
Ask for this book in your local bookshop or buy it at the internet.
Saturday
Mexico and rebellion
Militia men from the Mexican revolution
Zapatista women
Emiliano Zapata and Ricardo Flores Magón
Siqueiros mural with Magón, Proudhon and Kropotkin
Friday
Murray Bookchin and trotskyism
Murray Bookchin had a teenage admiration for Trotsky because he "stood alone against Stalin" in 1937. Bookchin about that time : “Apart from a small number of anarchists and independent leftists, relatively few American radicals knew about Kronstadt or Bolshevik atrocities against anarchists.”
Source : here
Some texts that make it clear that social ecology and trotskyism don't go well together at all :
"Listen, Marxist!", by Murray Bookchin
"Bookchin's Originality", by Janet Biehl
Saturday
Social Ecology and class struggle
Many libertarian socialists make the mistake of thinking that social ecology is also about not being interested in class struggle. Here are two texts (with several mistakes being made in them) which make it more clear why they are not always that much interested in social ecology:
Anarchism, Class Struggle and Political Organization. By Tom Wetzel, July 2009 and a less recent text : Radical Ecology and Class Struggle: A Re-Consideration. By Jeff Shantz.
Anarchism, Class Struggle and Political Organization. By Tom Wetzel, July 2009 and a less recent text : Radical Ecology and Class Struggle: A Re-Consideration. By Jeff Shantz.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)