| Progressive Calendar 06.25.06 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 15:24:41 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 06.25.06 1. GP auditor conv 6.25 9am 2. Pride parade 6.25 10am 3. Habitat/doc/play 6.25 12noon Duluth MN 4. Open internet 6.25 12noon 5. Social change 6.25 2pm Duluth MN 6. Indian uprising 6.25 4pm 7. Irish hunger strike 6.25 5:30pm 8. Green uprising 6.25 7pm 9. Somalia/TV 6.25 10:30pm 10. Anti-torture 6.26 11:30am 11. Vs Cheney/Bachman 6.26 5pm 12. Naral 6.26 6pm 13. Pentel/governor 6.26 7pm 14. Sustain/community 6.26-30 Stevens Point WI 15. Jan Lundberg - A call to action: the necessity defense 16. John Pilger - East Timor: the coup the world missed --------1 of 16-------- From: "Berger, Dave" <dberger [at] inverhills.mnscu.edu> Subject: GP auditor conv 6.25 9am The Green Party CC has decided to have the Special Endorsing Convention for State Auditor on the same day as the Pride Parade, Sunday, June 25, 2006. I will be sending out a media advisory a few days before indicating why we chose this day. Specifically, I will state that the other two candidates for this office have supported the Bachmann Amendment (Anti-Gay/Lesbian Marriage Amendment) in the past and that as a Green Party member I support equal rights for all people. In addition, how can one be an objective auditor if one does not support equal rights for everyone? The endorsing meeting will be held at Elliot Park on the edge of Downtown. Check in will be from 9am to 9:30am. The meeting will start at 9:30am. As far as I know, the meeting will only last an hour or so. We will be attending the pride parade after the meeting. We will also have a press conference at that time that includes other Green Party candidates. Please forward this announcement to anyone interested. Special Endorsing Convention for Minnesota State Auditor Sunday, June 25, 2006 Elliot Park Recreation Center (9am Check in) 1000 E. 14th St. Minneapolis, MN 55404 Phone: 612 370-4772 Fax: 612 659-0792 elliot [at] minneapolisparks.org (2 blocks South of the Metrodome) --------2 of 16-------- From: farheen [at] farheenhakeem.org Subject: Pride parade 6.25 10am That means it is time to hit the streets. Farheen Hakeem needs your help in order to help bring community voices to the County Board. Parade: PRIDE - Sunday June 25th: Meet on Washington Ave, where the parade will begin at 10AM. I need at least 10 people passing out stickers and two people with the banner! Please bring a friend as well. --------3 of 16-------- From: GibbsJudy [at] aol.com Subject: Habitat/doc/play 6.25 12noon Duluth MN After playing to packed house upon its debut last fall, you have another chance to see the production "Habitat." Habitat A documentary theater project written by Rachel Anne Johnson Habitat is an exploration of Home and issues regarding housing in Duluth. The script is composed of interviews with people in Duluth. The state of housing becomes a conversation among politicians, citizens and those struggling to find shelter. Sunday, 25th of June at Noon First Lutheran Church ELCA, 1100 E. Superior St., Duluth Free will offering at door. "Habitat" is being produced in conjunction with "Portraits of Home," a show of black and white photography exhibiting low-income housing situations in greater Minnesota. For more information, contact Rachel Johnson at 218-213-4058 or raeosun [at] riseup.net Judy Gibbs 728-9827 5875 North Shore Dr., Duluth, MN 55804 --------4 of 16------- From: Suzanne linton <bahiabaubo [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Open internet 6.25 12noon Activists meeting to discuss COPE 12:00 6-25 Taste of Thailand Restaurant 1669 Selby St. Paul (two block West of Snelling) We will brainstorm all the alternative solutions to this situation. We much insure that we have open access to the internet and cable t.v. [Rich scum are plotting how to steal everything from everybody; BushCo and PawlentyCo are in on it; the latest grab is for the internet; there is no limit to their insatiable greed. Why has society not devised a way to stop them? Is it willing to be squeezed to death? -ed] --------5 of 16-------- From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com> Subject: Social change 6.25 2pm Duluth MN Sunday, 6/25, 2 pm, Northland AntiWar Coalition hosts Alan Netland, Michelle Naar-Obed and Adam Ritscher speaking on "How to Make Social Change," Chester Creek Cafe, 1902 E 8th St, Duluth. mnsocialist [at] yahoo.com --------6 of 16-------- From: Chris Spotted Eagle <chris [at] spottedeagle.org> Subject: Indian uprising 6.25 4pm KFAI's Indian Uprising, June 25, 2006 Mother Earth is about to upchuck, badly, everywhere. Act now, before the tipping point! ANOTHER CAUTION ON GLOBAL WARMING by Mike Toner, Cox News Service, Minneapolis Star Tribune March, 2006. ATLANTA, GA. - Accelerated melting of polar ice sheets could eventually raise sea level as much as 20 feet -- enough to swamp coastal lowlands throughout the world. http://www.startribune.com/484/story/327204.html WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING? AARP Bulletin, June, 2006. The Earth's atmosphere is a thin outer covering that holds in carbon dioxide, other gases and a portion of the sun's rays, making it habitable. Al Gore and the people behind the film An Inconvenient Truth claim that our increased use of fossil fuels - coal, gas and oil - have so thickened the atmosphere that it is now trapping more of the sun's rays than the planet can safely stand. http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourlife/lights_camera_act_sidebar1.html?print= yes&print=yes LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACT! Former vice president and environmental activist Al Gore talks about global warming and his participation in the new film, An Inconvenient Truth by Phil Roura, AARP Bulletin, June 2006. http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/yourlife/lights_camera_act.html 12 STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TO CURB GLOBAL WARMING: 1. Replace regular light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs. One CFLB would save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. 2. Walk, bike, carpool or use public transportation. 3. Recycle household waste. You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. 4. Keep the tires on your car properly inflated to conserve gas consumption. 5. Use less hot water by installing a low-flow showerhead. 6. Adjust thermostats two degrees lower in winter and two higher in summer. This can save 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. 7. Unplug TVs, DVDs, stereos, cell phone chargers and computers when you're not using them. These appliances draw energy even when they are not in use. 8. Regularly clean or replace filters in air conditioners and furnaces. 9. Turn on dishwashers only when they are full. 10. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible. 11. Buy organic foods as much as possible and support local farm markets. 12. Keep your car properly tuned. THE FILM, INCONVENIENT TRUTH is now showing at: AMC Arbor Lakes 16 > AMC Eden Prairie Mall 18 > Kerasotes ShowPlace 16 - Inver Grove Heights > Landmark Lagoon Cinema > Marcus Cinema Oakdale > Regal Eagan Cinema 16 > UA Pavilion at Crossroads > White Bear Township Theatre > Willow Creek 12 Theatre At the very least, one should go see the film to be enlightened, then be proactive as a personal responsibility ed. * * * * Indian Uprising is a one-half hour Public & Cultural Affairs program for, by, and about Indigenous people broadcast each Sunday at 4:00 p.m. over KFAI 90.3 FM Minneapolis and 106.7 FM St. Paul. Producer and host is Chris Spotted Eagle. KFAI Fresh Air Radio is located at 1808 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis MN 55454, 612-341-3144. --------7 of 16-------- From: Lydia Howell <lhowell [at] VISI.COM> Subject: Irish hunger strike 6.25 5:30pm Join us in commemorating the Irish hunger strikers in music, words and dance 25 years later the struggle continues .... what is its relevance today? sunday june 25, 2006, 5:30-8pm at the Nickel Joint, 501 Blair Av StPaul (2 blocks E of Dale) Featuring The Biddies And Trial Ro Crua (Dance, Traditional Music) Bill Conlan And Bill Watkins (Songs And Reminiscences) Adam Coolong Of The Wild Colonial Bhoys (Songs) John Concanon And Kathy Luby (Poetry) All Ages Welcome -- Free Admission -- Donations Accepted Sponsored By Minnesotans For A United Ireland For Information, Call 651-645-9506 [For disinformation, call 888-555-bush] --------8 of 16-------- From: Dave Bicking <dave [at] colorstudy.com> Subject: Green uprising 6.25 7pm The next meeting of Mpls Green Uprising is this Sunday June 25. I am going on vacation, so instead of being at my house, it will be at the home of Farheen Hakeem. Details: Sunday, June 25, 7pm, at Farheen's home: 4827 4 Av S Mpls. A couple blocks east of I-35W, south of the 46th St. exit. Since last meeting, we have been following the stadium process at City Hall and at the Hennepin County Board. Both have now started the implementation process, and both have appointed their representatives to the powerful Ballpark Authority. [Note: Pawlenty appointed the governor's two representatives yesterday, giving the full complement of 5 members. See StarTribune story: http://www.startribune.com/462/story/512590.html ] There are still some important steps in the stadium process that we should plan for: a) Continuing to monitor the County Board actions, and working with the two most committed opponents on the Board, Commissioners Steele and Koblick. We are coordinating some strategy with them. The county will be holding public hearings during the week of August 21st, and they will take the actual vote to implement the tax, sell the bonds, and build the stadium, sometime in September. That gives us some time to prepare. b) Working toward accountability: finding and helping the candidates who can defeat at least the worst of the stadium supporters, on the County Board, and in the State Legislature. c) Trying to get more cities and towns in Hennepin County to pass resolutions against the stadium tax. Our allies on the County Board say that this would help strengthen their hand. d) Monitoring the actions of the Ballpark Authority. It would also be very important to research more about the people who have been appointed: their history, their connections, and any conflicts of interest. From what I can see, these have been very bad appointments that will put the public at far greater risk for excess costs and unanticipated obligations during the next 30 years. Meanwhile, as we get a bit of a breather from the recent hectic pace of stadium developments, we should not lose sight of other issues. We should talk more about strategy to work together with and strengthen the local and state-wide Green Party campaigns. Especially critical will be gathering the signatures for ballot access - all need to be collected between July 3 and July 18! The city is continuing its process for choosing a new police chief. I'll try to find out more about that. Also, the CRA review process is continuing - Cam Gordon is on that panel. In addition, the mediation process, the PCRC, appears to be breaking down. What can we do to influence all of these critical processes? Police brutality remains one of the most important issues for citizens of Minneapolis, and I feel the Green Party has a real obligation to stand up for people's rights. Along those same lines, there is an excellent conference coming up this Wednesday: Call to Justice Conference regarding crime and punishment and racial disparities. Racial disparities in arrests, convictions and incarcerations have much to do with other aspects of racism in this city: the disproportionate numbers of blacks and other people of color with criminal records is a huge factor in job and housing discrimination. The conference is on Wednesday, June 28, 8am - 4:30pm at MCTC. Full info at: http://www.crimeandjustice.org Positions are open on the Mpls Ethical Practices Board, deadline for application Friday, June 30. For more info contact Cam Gordon at 612-673-2202. Also, applicants are being sought for two open positions on the MN Pollution Control Agency's (MPCA) Citizen's Board. Annie Young has more info, or I could forward the info to you. It would be excellent to have Green-friendly representatives on both! Are you interested, or do you know someone? I believe a friend of mine will be at the meeting to give a brief report on developments in the East Phillips neighborhood, and to solicit our support and involvement. Dave Bicking 612-276-1213 --------9 of 16-------- From: Ahmed A <ata200221 [at] msn.com> Subject: Somalia/TV 6.25 10:30pm Guest of this Week, Professor Ali Galaydh 'Events in Somalia" Dr. Ali Galaydh a professor at U of M Humphrey Institute and Former Prim Minister of Somalia Will address the new events in Somalia " Should we fear political Islam" Ahmed Tharwat/Host BelAhdan with Ahmed Arab Americans TV show Airs on MN Public TV Ch17 Sundays at 10:30pm And every Tuesday at 6:30pm ET on National TV/ Bridges TV Channel 578 on DISH Network --------10 of 16-------- From: Bernice Vetsch <bernice [at] mnseniors.net> Subject: Anti-torture 6.26 11:30am The Center for Victims of Torture will have two events next Monday, June 26, the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. Their announcement card reads: Join CVT in a celebration of hope and healing and take a stand against the U.S. use of torture. --June 26 at 11:30am, State Capitol Rotunda, St. Paul. Speakers and music will help us mark this day in support of torture survivors. --June 26, 5pm, tree planting with messages of hope at Minneapolis Healing Center, 717 E. River Road, Front Lawn --------11 of 16-------- From: runrundan <runrundan [at] yahoo.com> [Subject: Vs Cheney/Bachman 6.26 5pm] Subject: Dick Cheney here for Bachmann fundraiser June 26 Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser on [Michele] Bachmann's behalf on June 26, according to an invitation to the event obtained by The Associated Press. A Republican donor who received the invitation shared it with the AP on the condition of anonymity. Neither the White House nor Bachmann's campaign has been willing to discuss the visit over the past week. The invitation says Cheney will appear at the home of William and Karen Hawks on the shore of Lake Minnetonka, [* 3465 County Road 44, Minnetrista 55364.] It gives guests the choice between a $250 per person reception or a more intimate reception and photo opportunity with Cheney for $1,000. [Gosh, it's so hard to choose. Both? -ed] * http://tinyurl.com/eud23 (page 79) http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/14801896.htm --- From: "rhalfhill [at] juno.com" <rhalfhill [at] JUNO.COM> Subject: Vs Cheney/Bachman 6.26 5pm The demonstration to protest Vice President Dick Cheney's appearance at a fundraiser for anti same sex marriage crusader Michelle Bachman will be on Monday, June 26 at 5:00 P.M. in front of the Federal Courthouse. The Federal Courthouse in in downtown Minneapolis on 4th Street between 4th and 3rd Avenues behind City Hall (the Gothic Monstrosity that looks like something out of The Castle of Otronto.) The new location is on a well traveled route that will be visible to the crowds just getting off work. The demonstration being in front of the Federal Courthouse provides the connection to Vice President Cheney. On the other hand, even people with cars have told me that the Excelsior home of William and Karen Hanks where Cheney will be appearing "is too far out." Too few people have expressed interest in helping organize the demonstration to make it feasible to organize car caravans to transport people out there. The Secret Service will almost certainly not let demonstrators get within sight of the fundraiser and, even if it were feasible to obtain the help of any of the legal rights organizations on such short notice and even if they won a court decision in favor of our right to demonstrate within a reasonable distance, any court decision is likely to come down a year or two after the fundraiser. When I previously reported that a group of "affluent suburbanites" was organizing a demonstration from pontoon boats on the lake, I may have given the impression in my haste to write the original notice that I was critical of the suburbanites. That was not my intention. People are subject to criticism on the basis of the political positions and actions they take, not on the basis of how much money they have. But most of us cannot afford to engage boats to demonstrate from and the spaces on the boats are already filled. The people organizing the boat demonstration are not even sure if the Secret Service will let them into the bay that William and Karen Hank's house fronts on where the fundraiser will occur. So all in all, the Federal Courthouse location provides a much better chance for a successful demonstration. Already, the two people who had told me the Excelsior demonstration was "too far out" have told me that they can come to the Federal Courthouse demonstration. So come one, come all. And it is not just the issue of same sex marriage. Anyone who wants to protest against any of the many other harmful policies of the Bush/Cheney Administration and the Republicans is more than welcome to participate too. Bring your own signs. I will be carrying a sign that asks "How Can You Defend Marriage By Barring Some People From Marrying?" But I am unable to make all the signs for a whole demonstration. Be creative -- I mentioned my sign only as an example. Come up with your own wording and issues or honor us with you own presence and participation if you'd prefer not to make a sign. [I like "Scum rises to the top" -ed] --------12 of 16--------- From: Bonnie [at] mnwomen.org Subject: Naral 6.26 6pm Monday, June 26 - Wednesday, June 28: NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota mailing party. 6-9 PM. Email volunteer [at] prochoiceminnesota.org --------13 of 16-------- From: Ken Pentel <kenpentel [at] yahoo.com> Subject: Pentel for governor 6.26 7pm You are invited to the next Ken Pentel for Governor planning/volunteer meeting. The goals of this meeting are to continue to add organization, creativity and excitement to our goals for a healthier world. Your help is needed to make this happen. Agenda: --Assess progress in campaign --Prepare for petition drive to get on the ballot.(Contact Danene to help:pro826 [at] aol.com) Monday, June 26 7pm Painter Park Rec. Center, 3400 Lyndale Ave. S. Minneapolis Contact: Ken (612) 387-0601 For those in greater Minnesota, let's organize. Please call or e-mail. Going deep-green statewide. Ken (612) 387-0601 DONATIONS People can send donations to: Ken Pentel for Governor, PO Box 3872, Mpls, Mn 55403 First $50 is refundable. (If not yet used in 2006.) LISTSERVE If you want support the campaign, and help with organizing-get on the Ken Pentel for Governor listserve by contacting Aaron at: aaronklemz [at] yahoo.com --------14 of 16-------- From: Gena Berglund <genab61 [at] mindspring.com> Subject: Sustainable communities 6.26-30 Stevens Point WI http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/GEM/EMSU/index.htm 4th international conference on environmental management for sustainable universities Transforming ideas into action: building sustainable communities beyond university campuses University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point Stevens Point, Wisconsin, USA June 26 - 30, 2006 This international conference is hosted by the Global Environmental Management Education Center (GEM), a center within the College of Natural Resources at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Building on the work of earlier EMSU conferences, participants in the 2006 event will focus on transforming ideas into action and building sustainable communities beyond university campuses. The conference is *targeted for* a broad audience from university, *business, government and non-government organizations.* --------15 of 16-------- A Call to Action: The Necessity Defense Written by Jan Lundberg Culture Change Letter #132 - June 13, 2006 http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=58&Itemid=2 Earth's climate may be spinning out of control due to greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in extinction rates not seen for possibly tens of millions of years. Why? Great numbers of humans have recently become habituated to technological convenience. Despite such an obvious truth, the reality has been successfully packaged and sold as progress for all too many of us, included the "educated." There is practically no leadership to address the climate crisis to get at root causes. Fortunately, this is being addressed by the Peak Oil movement which recognizes the urgent need to cope with "energy descent." Meanwhile, most unfortunately, the funded environmental movement keeps pushing a half-baked technofix-approach for both global warming and to replace petroleum. If governments protected our long-term interests, drastic action would be taken immediately. Such as: a plan to counter global warming would include the armies of the world being deployed to plant trees. This would be only marginally successful in many areas because of climate distortion and depleted water supplies due to overpopulation and mismanagement. But it would be worth the effort if all-out reforestation were combined with defending life's diversity. The bought-and-paid-for federal, state and local governments in the U.S. and elsewhere prevent even the most sensible, easy changes to start moving away from destructive fossil fuel use and deforestation. For example, there could be a quick conversion of two-way streets into one-ways that rely on fewer lanes. This would cut down on driving and pollution for two reasons: (1) space would be freed up for bike lanes or bike paths, sidewalks, buses and light-rail, and (2) whenever a lane for cars is removed, car traffic is reduced on such a road as the lane is given over to other modes of transportation. Additionally, some paved land could be reclaimed for planting fruit trees. Don't hold your breath for such programs. But it may not take long to see $10-a-gallon gasoline and - far more frightening - sudden and extreme food shortages. These are the main shocks that will change our ways. Planning and implementing wiser land use will be tough in future due to lack of resources, but the longed-for "political will" will finally be there. Soon we will have to cease competing for the best spot at the pig-out trough for dwindling oil. China is getting increased attention from the oil-jazzed White House. World politics and additional conflict through heightened, deadly competition are of concern, but is the solution on "the highest levels" being left to fossil fools? - "[W]e need to expand sources of supply" of oil, according to Robert Zoelick, the State Department's deputy secretary and point man on warning China's leadership. Actually, Mr. Zoelick, we need to cut oil use and energy use generally and see how we may help the rest of the world do the same. Global oil production is peaking, and the climate cannot take any more abuse. Mainstream coverage of the climate crisis is not yet getting down to brass tacks. Ideas that would make a big difference are suppressed, such as giving up one's car and doing without the extra plastic bags we grab to toxify our environment. Therefore, it comes down to either a grassroots movement to implement such changes for sustainable living, or just waiting for petrocollapse or something equally sweeping. Let there be a call to action for everyone to consider immediate direct action on behalf of the world's climate. If a small percentage of people actually do it, this would bring the polluting economy to a grinding halt. Due to the nature of our Humpty-Dumpty infrastructure and lack of self-sufficiency, global economic collapse will be permanent. The cheap oil to fuel the scope and levels of today's trade is already mostly gone, and so a new economics and politics will emerge. Granted, a message or goal that would sacrifice industry as we know it - along with the global economy - is an impossible message or goal for the present powers that be. This does not mean the idea is premature, except in terms of widespread acceptance. To decide if there really is a choice anymore between sitting on our hands, while allowing the techno-dominators to forever adjust the controls of the Titanic, or embrace a cultural revolution to abandon the fossil-fueled road to hell, we must analyze any reforms of the system as to their effectiveness and not just for their politically doable attributes. This call to action suggests that the special times we live in demand that we address "the impossible": Do we pull the plug on an apparently essential source of survival, the present economy? For some, that dependence does not apply so much. Whose ox would be gored? Is it possible for a small minority of people to change the course of history? It has happened over the millennia. Yet, the resistance to change and the powerful inertia of the status quo may mean we can only wait for modern society to be hit hard by petrocollapse or climate change, and then see the economy and social-political system rapidly unravel. Why is there so much acquiescence to the killing of our biosphere? One explanation is our mental condition as people far from free: The idea that we are slaves does not quite ring true to those who don't see employers, for example, as slave owners. But when we see society as the slave master, then we are indeed slaves. How we free ourselves of dominant society may seem an insurmountable question, but it is already practiced by some and could be done by millions tomorrow. In so doing, the machinery of climate change would be monkey wrenched: peacefully and in everyone's interest but for the few who cannot see beyond their gold-encrusted noses. As Culture Change readers know, my prediction is for an "Ecotopian" outcome in many parts of the ravaged industrial world that will feature bioregional economies and political independence. If it were not for the alarming pace of climate change, one could wait for the terminating of industry's altering of our precious world, through inevitable petrocollapse. But the race between complete climate disaster and petrocollapse seems to be getting closer and closer in favor of the climate's collapse. To at least make the race a tie, there is scientist James Lovelock's warning of permanent devastation through warming aided by the cessation of industrial soot in a cloud that is temporarily keeping some solar heat out (the "global dimming" effect). There is no doubt that "economic activity" such as fossil-fueled manufacturing is the greenhouse problem, and that a strong enough downturn in business-as-usual gives the Earth's ecosystem a reprieve from the onslaught of climate-changing gases. Industry is to blame, but who is stopping industry? Only a madman would, but madmen would rather babble on the street in rags. (Maybe they know something we don't know.) The economy is going to collapse anyway, as it depends on infinite growth even in the face of certain and devastating energy shortage in the near future. The trouble is, as mentioned, the Earth's climate is careening out of control and we cannot delay in saving it if we can. There is also the moral imperative, as the polar bears and walruses should not drown and be driven extinct by our trips to Walmart to buy electronic crap shipped around the Earth. The gravity of climate change is not felt by those who remain ignorant of positive feedback loops for accelerating warming. Just as critical and little-known, unfortunately, is that the 50+ years lag time of greenhouse gases' effect on the global climate means the already strong manifestations of climate distortion -- rapidly intensifying -- are in large part from what industrial society was doing up until World War II and shortly afterwards, because of the role of the oceans. The ecosystem is no longer simply under attack by civilization, technology and overpopulation. Earth is being killed. As folksinger U. Utah Phillips says, "The Earth is not dying. It is being killed. And those killing the Earth have names and addresses." However, it is you and me doing the killing as well, not just "them." And you and I can set out to stop greenhouse-gas emissions right now. One attempt to deal with the emergency was offered in 2003: The Global Warming Crisis Council. The role and operation of the Council seemed of interest to a large internet audience, but material support was lacking and all we managed to do is establish the listserve gwcc at riseup.net [send an email to wsb70 [at] comcast.net to join]. Laws such as trespass for tree-sitting (e.g., Julia Butterfly at L.A.'s South Central Community Farm) have started to be broken to defend the climate - not to terrorize, but to nonviolently prevent the terror of climate disaster - in the spirit of having to break some eggs for the sake of an omelet. Is that how far we have sunk to assure a livable future? The very thought of uncivilized behavior that does not wait for the next several elections to give Tweedle Dee a chance to compromise less than Tweedle Dum is enough to give up on the concept of nice society. There are many activities that should be called eco-terrorism, such as wasting energy (be it legal or not). Some would say a freeway with its pollution is a creation of eco-terror. Small tiny eco-terror crimes (misdemeanors?) might be the neglect we commit when we leave lights on needlessly or buying a new appliance to cheer us up. But just because we think we need light or some appliance, does this hurt the environment any less? What has been called eco-terrorism has been also described as environmental activism: burning SUVs. It is eco-terrorism, just as many polluting actions (for whatever purpose, can one say?) constitute eco-terrorism. Burning a car for whatever reason can't help Mother Nature. The government happens to be selective on what it calls eco-terrorism (never the legal corporate pollution), but this is all semantics and does not seem to lead people to higher consciousness or helpful action to defend the Earth and its climate. The accusation of eco-terrorism is currently being leveled at several activists in Western states, even though almost everyone involved is apparently nonviolent or simply targeted to perhaps stifle activism in the direct-action environmental movement (e.g., Greenpeace, Earth First! and many smaller groups). What's crazy is that some material things are deemed to be "above the Earth" in terms of a right to use them (e.g., engaging in fossil-fueled foolery, while Rome burns). The Necessity Defense Acting in self defense by stopping climate destruction is probably going to be affirmed as acceptable to some jury, provided the jury acts as it really can and ignores the judge, as is really legal. Besides juries being misinformed and intimidated, one problem is that judges almost always deny the use of The Necessity Defense, a neglected pillar of the nation's justice since common law. However, The Necessity Defense is used effectively here and there (read on). Immersed as I was for years in the details of stopping pollution, and later in the details of discovering and promoting sustainable living, I am not alone in wondering today how no one seems to acknowledge the elephant in the room known as climate destruction. The average person everywhere knows by now it is real, and the only difference of opinion is how much help "the scientists" can be. Still, hardly anyone does anything to stop one's own arguably criminal conduct. Anyone using a television or other energy-dependent contraption is not innocent in our collective crime. Is it a whole culture - the dominant one - that is guilty, or is humanity a plague upon Gaia? Students in the U.S. today are pathetically apathetic, gutless and weak minded; they basically limit their politics to school-government elections. The young people mainly just want their techno-goodies such as cellular phones and other junk for the landfill. They don't even care much about their health. In the "radical" U.C. Berkeley neighborhood, the closer a restaurant is to campus the less likely it is to serve brown rice, while restaurants in the rest of Berkeley have enough old hippies to justify including it on the menu. The state of the environmental movement is as disappointing as the nonradical mood of today's students. The funded environmental movement - the groups with staffs and budgets for major advertising and other projects - has not been participating in the Peak Oil awareness movement. Instead, the funded environmental groups' response to oil war and petroleum's toxic, climate-changing role in our imperiled world is a technofix of renewable energy. This is because curtailment of energy use is not a fundable approach, and the funders would object that massively cutting consumption threatens their Wall Street holdings. The funded environmental movement fails to face the threat of industry seriously when their solution is a slightly cleaner version of business-as-usual. An example of this is the JumpStartFord campaign. Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange and The Ruckus Society want people to demand that Ford Motor Company clean up its gasoline-guzzling ways by offering consumers "zero emission vehicles" and "petroleum free" engines. However, these attributes are impossible and the campaigners know it. Rather than put energy into fighting road construction and other paving, or creating a campaign for car-free living, these groups pretend that cars of any propulsion mode won't still kill pedestrians, passengers, and animals in the way. (That's almost half a million U.S. citizens per decade and one million animals a day on U.S. roads.) These groups know that: car dependence causes more urban sprawl characterized by asphalt paving; asphalt, tires and plastics in cars are petroleum that so-called zero-emission vehicles need, and most of the air pollution caused by cars is not out of the tailpipe (due to the energy involved for mining the car components and the manufacturing process). The JumpStartFord campaigners have been told these things by Culture Change and Ecocity Builders, but the response has been obfuscation and lip service as the deep issues are not addressed. So, when the heads of environmental organizations are for cars (as well as bikes and trains, admittedly), and they justify the construction of parking garages as long as they have "green" features, we see a "disconnect from reality" or intellectual dishonesty. A call to action would involve reinventing environmentalism. In truth, it is up to everyone to get active and stop murdering the Earth's biosphere. Parking garage construction takes place in the most "progressive, green" cities in America's "Ecotopia" region: Berkeley, Eugene and Arcata. On March 13, the Eugene City Council voted to construct another downtown parking garage that nearly one hundred citizens actively opposed in person with comments and pleas. Two council members who voted for it are some of the most knowledgeable people in city government on the topic of Peak Oil. Is there unlimited time to do more education and campaigning to get more reasonable and less "influenced" pro-polluting business council members elected? When the U.S. Democratic Party tries to gather support by referring to Tom DeLay's "dirty money," this ignores the fact that corporate funding of Democrats means money as dirty as that going to Republicans in greater quantity. We are all complicit in killing the Earth's biosphere, but there are those who refuse to see. Specifics on The Necessity Defense The Necessity Defense is oft referred to in the example, "One may go upon the land of another to extinguish a fire and avoid being found guilty of trespass." Four elements that the law would require to allow the use of necessity defense arguments in court are: 1. A defendant was faced with a choice of evils and chose the lesser evil. 2. A defendant reasonably anticipated a cause-and-effect relationship between his conduct and the harm avoided. 3. A defendant acted to prevent imminent harm. 4. There were no legal alternatives to violating the law. For the climate's physical defense, one could be (1) choosing the evil of stopping a driver from using a vehicle by disabling it, so as to prevent a great evil of climate destruction, (2) knowing that he or she anticipated the certain stoppage of pollution from his or her conduct, (3) acted to stop the harm caused by the vehicle because just talking or writing about it were too slow, and (4) there was nothing else but to violate the law that says a driver's ignition keys cannot be seized and dropped down the nearest storm drain. This approach could be used in much larger actions involving the citizenry. And, until the Bill of Rights is further eviscerated, there is a non-legalistic but Constitutional approach that could involve many in challenging the global warming machinery of industrial, corporate government: Challenging government and the global economy If a grassroots movement swelled to sufficient numbers of protesters, civil disobedience and nonviolence could challenge business-as-usual. Picture the next climate-change caused disaster that alarms and angers a large number of people. Picture them mobilizing in numbers similar to the February 15, 2003 demonstrations against the impending invasion of Iraq. If when arrested for "failing to disperse" (or other unconstitutional order), they engaged in noncooperation and did not sign a ticket or in any other way acknowledge jurisdiction, they could demand under habeas corpus to be taken to a magistrate immediately or to be set free. Although the government does round up people and violate their rights, as happened at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, enough people to be dealt with can blossom into greater numbers of participants and supporters than the authorities can handle. In such situations unprecedented social and political change is possible. Gandhi led people in their own self interest to save their economic viability, whether it was for their obtaining salt or for weaving their own textiles. Nonviolence was coupled with noncooperation in order to defeat the racist empire of exploitation, the British. Today, people who are engaged in crimes against the climate prefer, in effect, to commit violence and cooperate with the enemy, even when the violence is in effect directed at ourselves and the enemy is the dominant culture of exploiting nature to death. Most likely, a public brainwashed to consume and to believe its nation is the apex of a great thing called civilization will do nothing different until forced by changing circumstances. Hunger in the belly, or the prospect of it from lack of fuel, may always disturb the population more than the repeated instances of coastal cities being flooded. However, people tend to follow compelling leaders or a mass of citizens addressing urgent conditions, as public action can be contagious and exhilarating. This Call to Action points to the need to act in the face of certain, proven threats to our individual and common survival. The things that one can do individually or in affinity groups or municipalities are unlimited, if climate protection and closer communities become the urgent goals of our time. If getting arrested is not one's cup of tea, there is always the subversion of the global pollution economy through maximizing local self-sufficiency. We are running out of time and it may already be too late for the climate and nature as we have known them. The planet will endure, but biological evolution is being erased as the Earth's geological evolution is in reverse with today's quantities of carbon and other greenhouse molecules entering the atmosphere. Climate stories' links: "Extreme global warming likely by end of century" mongabay.com news.mongabay.com/ "Meltdown fear as Arctic ice cover falls to record winter low" www.guardian.co.uk/ Further reading: James Lovelock's Gaia's Revenge: www.climateark.org Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotopia Earth First! Journal: earthfirstjournal.org Legal arguments for using The Necessity Defense: www.trosch.org/ Amy Carter, Abbie Hoffman and other defendants used "the defense of necessity: the necessity of stopping covert actions of terrorism" by U.S. govt. in Nicaragua. See old.valleyadvocate.com/ The Cuban 5: www.mtholyoke.edu The QB6: www.transalt.org/ --------16 of 16-------- East Timor: The Coup The World Missed By John Pilger June 23, 2006 ZNet Commentary http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-06/23pilger.cfm In my 1994 film Death of a Nation there is a scene on board an aircraft flying between northern Australia and the island of Timor. A party is in progress; two men in suits are toasting each other in champagne. "This is an historically unique moment," effuses Gareth Evans, Australia's foreign affairs minister, "that is truly uniquely historical." He and his Indonesian counterpart, Ali Alatas, were celebrating the signing of the Timor Gap Treaty, which would allow Australia to exploit the oil and gas reserves in the seabed off East Timor. The ultimate prize, as Evans put it, was "zillions" of dollars. Australia's collusion, wrote Professor Roger Clark, a world authority on the law of the sea, "is like acquiring stuff from a thief . . . the fact is that they have neither historical, nor legal, nor moral claim to East Timor and its resources". Beneath them lay a tiny nation then suffering one of the most brutal occupations of the 20th century. Enforced starvation and murder had extinguished a quarter of the population: 180,000 people. Proportionally, this was a carnage greater than that in Cambodia under Pol Pot. The United Nations Truth Commission, which has examined more than 1,000 official documents, reported in January that western governments shared responsibility for the genocide; for its part, Australia trained Indonesia's Gestapo, known as Kopassus, and its politicians and leading journalists disported themselves before the dictator Su-harto, described by the CIA as a mass murderer. These days Australia likes to present itself as a helpful, generous neighbour of East Timor, after public opinion forced the government of John Howard to lead a UN peacekeeping force six years ago. East Timor is now an independent state, thanks to the courage of its people and a tenacious resistance led by the liberation movement Fretilin, which in 2001 swept to political power in the first democratic elections. In regional elections last year, 80 per cent of votes went to Fretilin, led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, a convinced "economic nationalist", who opposes privatisation and interference by the World Bank. A secular Muslim in a largely Roman Catholic country, he is, above all, an anti-imperialist who has stood up to the bullying demands of the Howard government for an undue share of the oil and gas spoils of the Timor Gap. On 28 April last, a section of the East Timorese army mutinied, ostensibly over pay. An eyewitness, Australian radio reporter Maryann Keady, disclosed that American and Australian officials were involved. On 7 May, Alkatiri described the riots as an attempted coup and said that "foreigners and outsiders" were trying to divide the nation. A leaked Australian Defence Force document has since revealed that Australia's "first objective" in East Timor is to "seek access" for the Australian military so that it can exercise "influence over East Timor's decision-making". A Bushite "neo-con" could not have put it better. The opportunity for "influence" arose on 31 May, when the Howard government accepted an "invitation" by the East Timorese president, Xanana Gusmão, and foreign minister, José Ramos Horta - who oppose Alkatiri's nationalism - to send troops to Dili, the capital. This was accompanied by "our boys to the rescue" reporting in the Australian press, together with a smear campaign against Alkatiri as a "corrupt dictator". Paul Kelly, a former editor-in-chief of Rupert Murdoch's Australian, wrote: "This is a highly political intervention . . . Australia is operating as a regional power or a political hegemon that shapes security and political outcomes." Translation: Australia, like its mentor in Washington, has a divine right to change another country's government. Don Watson, a speechwriter for the former prime minister Paul Keating, the most notorious Suharto apologist, wrote, incredibly: "Life under a murderous occupation might be better than life in a failed state . . ." Arriving with a force of 2,000, an Australian brigadier flew by helicopter straight to the headquarters of the rebel leader, Major Alfredo Reinado - not to arrest him for attempting to overthrow a democratically elected prime minister but to greet him warmly. Like other rebels, Reinado had been trained in Canberra. John Howard is said to be pleased with his title of George W Bush's "deputy sheriff" in the South Pacific. He recently sent troops to a rebellion in the Solomon Islands, and imperial opportunities beckon in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and other small island nations. The sheriff will approve. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments
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