Archive
Those Who Make Peaceful Revolution Impossible, Make Violent Revolution Inevitable
These men do not make the mistakes, as they themselves are part of the same programs, they are disposable, usable and trash-able when they finish their mission.
We need to be vigilant of any actions that will come in the next few months, as the global awareness movement is taken new levels and so the Globalist Agenda. But as always We The People have the upper hand if we stay united.
There is nothing stronger than a United Family and in these volatile days we the “Human Family” needs to stay more united than ever to win the battle of the classes that has been waged against us.
And I m not talking in any socialist agenda or political agenda of any kind I m talking of the awareness that it is taking place in every block of society.
The main event during the period in which Murdoch asserted that the Arabs were trying to “overrun” Israel was the 1967 war. Zionism’s story of it, which the mainstream media still peddles to this day, is that Israel went to war either because the Arabs attacked first or were intending to attack. Both, the either and the or, are Zionist propaganda nonsense. It was a war of Israeli aggression. Opinion-Maker
“Muslims converts ” fueling the Muslim rage against the Jews. Cartoons enraging the Muslim religious faith.
The “Self Hater Jews” new term and its promoters working wonders in the social networks with their cheap hasbaras that can be smell miles away.
The invented wars that terrorized, murdered and put the last nail in the coffin of the middle east hard worked stability that devastated the region and inserted military opps all over the middle east.
All the Middle East Conflict Israel/Palestine used as convenience to keep the rage, the energies exhausted, to keep the people taking sides, while they are waging more wars, destroying our Earth, starving the world, wasting our natural resources. They are making us angry, they are steering our last fiber of patience, they are brewing the revolution that will put end to the American empire, they are making impossible the peaceful revolution, where we change the old world order for a new world order, where we all have fair share of our world, where we all enjoy Peace.
“Total Policing” And The Criminalisation Of Dissent
Posted on Akashma Online News
Posted by Marivel Guzman
12 November 2011
dis·sent (d
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The scale of the police operation mounted Wednesday against a relatively small and entirely peaceful protest against UK education cuts shows that the ruling elite is no longer prepared to tolerate any form of political and social opposition.
According to the varying estimates of the organisers, the media and the police, the deployment of 4,000 officers, many in full riot gear, represents a police-protester ratio of one-to-one or two-to-one.
New Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe described the protest as a test of his policy of “Total Policing.” This is what it looked like: London was placed on virtual lock-down, with all major roads along the march’s route blocked off by ranks of police, riot vans, mounted officers and ten-foot-high barricades.
Here To Serve and Protect: Law enforcement officials shall at all times fulfill the duty imposed on them by law, by serving the community and by protecting all persons against illegal acts, consistent with the high degree of responsibility required by their profession. Law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and maintain and uphold the human rights of all persons. Law enforcement officials shall not commit any act of corruption, abuse of power, or excessive force The term "law enforcement officials" includes all officers of the law, whether appointed or selected, who exercise police powers, especially the powers of arrest or detention. In countries where police powers are exercised by military authorities, whether uniformed or not, or by State security forces, the definition of law enforcement officials shall be regarded as including such services.
Marchers were met at the rail, underground and coach stations and handed an 11-page brochure, with the capitalized title “TOTAL POLICING” on the front and back. It warned that police would use section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 to search people and enforce the removal of masks.
The march was dragooned by ranks of police at the front, back and both sides along the three-mile route. Helicopters circled overhead, making extensive videos of those taking part.
In a further provocation, the march was stopped every ten metres, meaning that a three-mile route took three hours to walk. This periodic kettling enabled the police to go into the crowd at certain points, pushing and barging people in the hope of provoking a reaction.
A statement issued on the day warned that the planned rally at the London Wall had to end in less than an hour and the area had to be completely cleared in two hours. An attempt to set up a tent camp in Trafalgar Square, in solidarity with the Occupy protest at St Paul’s Cathedral, was cleared in minutes as police dragged away those involved.
Supporters of the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest take part in a mass meditation on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP
The effort by a group of electricians—striking against management threats to cut their wages by up to 35 percent—to join up with the student protest was similarly met with police violence. The electricians’ march was encircled so they were virtually imprisoned. When some tried to break away, riot police waded in with batons and knocked workers to the ground. Police were reportedly armed with stun grenades. Names and addresses were taken under the authority of Section 60 of the Public Order Act.
The Unite union encouraged workers to march to parliament for a lobby of MPs. This sparked shouts of “We want to march with the students!”
As the march set off, hundreds of electricians marched towards Fleet Street where they broke through police lines. Police then drew batons and contained a section of the workers.
Before the march, the commander in charge, Simon Pountain, told a press conference that the use of water cannon was not planned, but plastic bullets had been authorised—the first time ever in England.
Rubber-bullet injuries induced by MA/RA 88 bullet
Over 450 letters were sent out warning anyone arrested in connection with previous public order offences that a repeat offence would lead to arrest and trial “at the earliest opportunity.” Many of these letters were sent to people with no previous convictions, pointing to the existence of a police database of those whose sole “crime” was to have engaged in a previous protest.
In an article reprinted in the Police Oracle, the Guardian’s crime correspondent blithely described the pre-authorisation of baton rounds and the sending of threatening letters as nothing new. “What is new,” she said, was the decision by Pountain to make this public.
On 09 November 2011, Baton rounds and public order policing
Metropolitan Police Service officers are deployed to facilitate peaceful protests and that is the aim today. A range of tactics are available to us if there is criminality and violence associated with the event, including the authority to deploy baton rounds in extreme circumstances – however at this moment in time there is no intention to deploy baton rounds.
Officers policing the route will not be armed with baton rounds. These are carried by a small number of trained officers. This is a tactic which has always been available to deploy in the most extreme circumstances.
To give context to their use, the MPS had authority to use baton rounds during the disorder this summer but did not do so. This tactic requires pre-authority, and would take time to deploy, and is one of a range of tactics we have had available for public order, and not used, in the past.
Authorisation for baton rounds was given during the summer rioting in Britain’s cities, she said, and “perhaps less well known… they were also authorised for use during the student demonstration against cuts a year ago.”
The police are also to be given additional powers, she noted, by Home Secretary Theresa May, whereby a “police superintendent will be able to clear the public out of a specific area during a demonstration—a power not available since the Riot Act was removed from the statute book in 1973.”
Last October’s student protest saw over 150 arrests, both during and after the event. This summer’s riots—provoked by the police killing of an unarmed man—were followed by over 2,000 arrests and over 11,000 prosecutions with long custodial sentences handed out for the most trivial offences.
A similar picture is repeated internationally. Wherever workers and young people seek to protest the imposition of savage austerity cuts, they are met with brutal repression.
In Greece, for example, the October 20 general strike protest was attacked by 15,000 riot police and Syntagma Square was flooded with tear gas. In the United States, the Occupy Wall Street protests spread nationally after two weeks in large measure in response to the October 1 arrest of 700 protesters—almost one-third—of those demonstrating on the Brooklyn Bridge. Since then, various local police forces have mounted attacks using riot gear, tear gas and other weapons, bringing the national total of those arrested to over 3,000.
Observations of a Jailed Journalist A journalist reporting on the Occupy Wall Street protest is arrested for doing his job. He documents several cases of excessive police force, including police pepper spraying women who were already restrained behind a barrier. This is a symptom of the ills of our society. Until we can act civilly towards each other we cannot affect true social reform. We lose when the people in power, in this case the police, can use any means to achieve their goals.
The resort to repressive measures is a measure of the extreme polarisation between the classes.
In Britain, the Riot Act now being cited was originally drafted in 1714, making rioting punishable by death. This was reduced to transportation for life in 1837.
Its most famous usage was in the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, in Manchester, when a cavalry charge against 80,000 protesters demanding parliamentary reform and relief from crushing economic hardship killed 15 and injured 700.
In Glasgow, on Black Friday 1919, riot police and 10,000 troops were despatched against workers campaigning for shorter work hours. Black Friday took place in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, day that John Reed died in 1920, at a time when Britain’s elite feared a “Bolshevist uprising.” The fact that similar powers are being enacted today, first covertly and now amid official fanfare, should be a warning to the working class in Britain, Europe and internationally.
Today, the vast majority of economic experts — both on the Left and on the Right — have come to the conclusion that Greece is insolvent. It just cannot realistically repay its overwhelming debt while the economy keeps contracting as a result of the brutish austerity measures that Ackermann and Trichet have been prescribing.
Today, a fabulously wealthy oligarchy dictates all aspects of social life in pursuit of ever-greater personal enrichment. Under conditions of worsening economic crisis, this translates into demands for cuts and austerity for millions, for which there is no possibility of securing a democratic mandate.
This determines the moves by bourgeois governments around the world to enact measures characteristic of a police state and, in Greece, the threat of a military coup.
Revolution is coming. A new fiscal, economic and political order will be established. And given what you see about the world around you, the corruption, the fraud, the crimes…do you see any way around this? I want to see corrupt politicians and businessmen in handcuffs, making a long and painful perp walk. I want to see power returned to The People.
The response of workers and young people must be the building of a mass socialist movement and the adoption of a revolutionary perspective for a truly democratic and egalitarian society, based on the expropriation of the oligarchy and the organization of production to meet the social rights of all to education, health care, housing and a well-paid job.
Chris Marsden
More On Global Protests…
Sacrament California:By Kevin Kearney,12 November 2011
Sacramento—the state capital of California and the home of Democratic Governor Jerry Brown—has spearheaded efforts to criminalize the Occupy protests over the last month.
Just days after 700 anti-Wall Street protesters were trapped on the Brooklyn Bridge by the New York Police Department and arrested, officials in Sacramento, California quickly followed suit, initiating the first arrests of Occupy protesters on the West Coast.
First police action against Occupy Canada movement—more planned:By Carl Bronski,11 November 2011
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, police in London, Ontario forcibly evicted several hundred supporters of the Occupy Canada movement who, two weeks ago, established a tent community in that city’s Victoria Park.
The mass eviction, staged in the dead of night, was the first such police action in Canada against the Occupy movement. It came during the same week that mayors and police chiefs from municipalities across the country began to publicly issue eviction threats against the Occupy encampments that have sprung up in at least twenty cities from coast to coast.
A Simple List of Demands for Global Dissenters; We The People
Posted on July 05, 2011 by Marivel GuzmanOriginal Work of Martin Truther
WE, THE PEOPLE, of this beautiful, delicate, blue-white planet called Earth, have finally had enough stupidity and corruption from our leaders and the controllers behind them. We hereby resolve to end the destruction of the natural world, the daily poisonings of and violence against humanity, the ridiculous lies, abuse of authority and constant wars that have become the seemingly unstoppable and unquestionable backdrop of our lives for the past few generations. We hereby reject all of that.
We will no longer allow ourselves to be coerced into operating the dysfunctional mechanisms of our culture that keep average people enslaved to systems beyond their control—systems that not only have ceased to be beneficial, but are actually actively destructive of ourselves and our fellow citizens to such an extent that we’re moved by an enlightened sense of self protection to reform or destroy the mechanisms that oppress us.
From now on, we absolutely refuse to cooperate with injustice in any form. We are educating each other and actively disabusing ourselves of concepts and disinformation that, in the past, have been forms of mental slavery by which we’ve unknowingly participated in our own oppression.
We claim the rights of self-determination, food, shelter, health care, freedom from poisoning, and freedom from destruction of our natural habitat because habitat is the source of our well-being and to compromise our biosphere is to reduce the planet’s carrying capacity and thus, in a very real and measurable way, habitat destruction is, inevitably, murder. In the ecological version of the game of musical chairs, every missing chair means another chalk outline on the ground.
In the past, we’ve been manipulated into fearing and murdering each other by greedy leaders who’ve sought to increase their personal power at the expense of others’ lives. We recognize and affirm the common bonds of humanity between all peoples—as well as our common cause, which is to liberate ourselves from being controlled—economically, culturally, psychologically and coercively—by the global elite.
We’ve have enough talk—the carefully crafted and framed phraseology of the marketing focus groups and public relations propagandists who translate the will of the ruling class into digestible sound bites designed to delay real action until we’ve forgotten what we were asking for or have given up hoping and sunk into despair. It is time for our leaders to act—to lead or get out of the way or be trampled as we ourselves rush in to fill the vacuum of true leadership that plagues our world.
We make the following demands—
1.- Immediate and complete nationalization of all privately-owned central banks which are today in possession of the stolen wealth of nearly all the world’s nations and the legacies of our ancestors which rightfully belong to all humanity and not to a few petty thieves in suits.
2.- A global jubilee—forgiveness of all national debts and return of authority to issue currency to public agencies of legitimate governments.
3.- Cessation of all hostilities and wars, including, but not limited to the United States’ unconstitutional wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as well as acts of war in many other countries.
4.- Immediate re-deployment of all military personnel to protect their legitimate leaders from the likely violent backlash of vested, special interests against the demands outlined in this document.
5.- The appointment of a corps of special prosecutors, investigative journalists and historians to investigate the allegations of whistle-blowers in many countries to get to the truth behind various assassinations, plane crashes and other probable covert false flag attacks against the public and some late, but great, leaders, and to imprison those responsible where appropriate.
6.- The strengthening and reform of the IAEA to conduct immediate omnilateral and coordinated dismantling of all nuclear weapons on Earth (and in space, to the extent there may be covert space-based nuclear weaponry).
7.- The immediate shutdown of all nuclear power plants within range of earthquake, tsunami or flooding hazards and a rapid phase out of all nuclear and fossil-fuel power plants.
8.- An immediate “Apollo Project” scale global renewable energy infrastructure initiative to create jobs and energy security in all communities by hiring people to build wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, methane and/or other novel non fossil-fuel, non-nuclear energy systems.
9.- A global initiative to build solar distillation and desalinization plants to produce pure water for drinking, cooking and intensive agriculture, aquaculture and hydroponics. Designs will utilize a high percentage of recycled glass and metal.
10.- High speed rail systems everywhere to capitalize on the most efficient form of land transportation.
Bicycle lanes in all cities and towns to facilitate both health and efficient transportation.
High-tech gigantic sailing ships for efficient ocean-transport and global distribution of goods without significant use of fossil fuel except near port, if necessary.
11.- Electric and fuel-cell cars to run on hydrogen produced and stored from renewable generating plants.
12.- World-wide cessation of corporate personhood.
13.- Food freedom and land reform so that people willing and able to farm natural crops organically have the opportunity to do so for themselves, their families and friends and for the public. Food freedom will be understood to include the right to consume raw foods, including dairy, juices and other oft-attacked health practices.
13.1 Immediate cessation of growing and destruction of GMO crops and livestock everywhere and the release of suppressed data regarding the hazards of these so-called life-forms.
14.- The cessation of all federal and state interference perpetrated on medical marijuana growers, distributors, doctors and patients so that people have unfettered access to this remarkably effective and natural drug that protects and restores the nervous system, has been shown to cure cancer in a large number of cases and which is beneficial for anxiety and pain management.
15.- The cessation of all federal and state interference with those who would grow industrial hemp for paper, food oil, textiles, natural plastics to name but a few of the many beneficial uses for the non-psychoactive strains of this remarkable plant.
16.- Forgiveness of all college student loans and related educational debt and full funding of public education from Kindergarten through college (including vouchers for home-schooling at a rate lower than public systems, but workable for parents dedicated to home schooling.
17.- A national health care system not owned by big pharma interests so that costs can be a small fraction of today’s health costs once economic incentives for healthier eating habits are in effect and research showing the effectiveness of alternative natural health practices and the destructiveness of many conventional health treatments are revealed.
18.- Restoration of the Bill of Rights – freedom to assemble (without a parade permit!), freedom of speech (with “fair use” for commentary and historical limits on patents and copyrights to ensure that after a sufficient time all works become public domain), freedom of religion (even if practicing the religion requires one to refuse to participate in killing of humans under any circumstances—such as paying taxes to fund the war machines), … and more.
19.- Restoration of freedom to build and live in an owner-designed and owner built-home, especially if it is off the grid so that the owner’s decisions affect no one besides themselves.
20.- The cessation of income taxes in favor of pollution taxes (to be paid to and used by local governments), wealth taxes (capital gains and stock transaction fees).
21.- The elimination of all electronic voting machines in favor of highly redundant and transparent systems utilizing multiple, independent optical scanning vote counters, web confirmation and paper ballots suitable for supporting instant runoff voting (aka preference voting) so that third parties have a fair chance to emerge.
22.- Disclosure of all UFO and ET-related information currently being held by numerous governments.
23.- Disclosure of any and all covert government programs that directly or indirectly impact the health and/or well-being of fellow citizens.
24.-Complete preservation and restoration of all internet freedoms.
25.-Wide scale aggressive cultivation of plants to sequester carbon and help to bring global warming under control (alongside efforts to phase out fossil fuel use).
26.- Disclosure of any atmospheric geo-engineering programs (including alleged “chem-trails” and cessation of spraying any and all toxic materials.
27.- Investigation and prosecution of CIA drug traffickers and other government agents involved in illegal activities.
28.- Investigation and prosecution of CIA personal involved in flag operations around the world and at home, that rendered false positive
for imaginary and invented terror cells.
29.- The dismantling of NATO, UN and any other globalists entities that sole purpose is to centralize power and control the world.
30.- The introduction of a program of re-learning for Army and police personal to be re-educated in their role to serve society and protect humanity.
To be continued… Feel Free to summit your demands to be added
Meet the Peace Activists – Non-Violent Movement has started an invisible Revolution
Posted on June 30, 20 by Marivel Guzman, US and Omar Karem, Gaza
The Non-Violent Movement started by the conscience objectors of the world, the peace and social activists of the world has started an invisible revolution. One revolution that can not be stopped, because can not be seen, can not be attacked with soldiers or guns.
This revolution is the revolution of the ideas, the evolution of humanity where we the people have finally awaken, we can not be duped, lied or entertain with cheap propaganda any longer. We the people are shaping now our reality. We have taken the lead of the affairs of our world, we are walking the path to peace, using Non-violent channels. The governments of our countries are trying their best tactics, intimidation, false accusations incarcerations , and some other methods known too well from our history books, but they know that no matter how much they exert their power over some activists at the end we win.
We have the examples of the heroes of our time; Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Gandhi, John Lennon, Rachel Corrie, Vitorrio Arrigoni and hundreds other around the world that were physically terminated, their message was not stopped with their departure, their message got stronger, it took life in its own, the governments know that once the wheels of revolution are in motion nothing can stop them. And with the peace movement shaping our world in a direction that they did not imagined, they are using their last cards. Now we can not stop we are the precursors of this invisible revolution, be proud of your role in these changing times, be ready.
I know many has asked the same question, when confronted with our new reality, they think that back in the 70’s during the Vietnam war the anti-war grass movements and the many individuals such singers and writers, did not achieved their goal. I say that we live in a different moment in time, first and all we are more mature as a society, the movements are unstoppable, we count with channels that our peace activists of the 70’s could never dream off will exist, we have them, we are using them and we know the tremendous reach of these channels, the Internet has open the doors for us to Unite and get stronger, where our message travel with the velocity of the light.
It is our duty to help our brothers. Enough of waiting for our leaders to “Do” anything, they have never have our best interest in mind.
Thank you all for your participation in this humanitarian mission that is a mission of Love.
It is not easy to embark in this process of peace, it’s not easy to leave your comfort zone and go to the unknown, but we find inner energy and courage to count ourselves in the every growing number of compassionate humans that we are. One day the world will flourish with peace all over, and the men and women that made it possible is you, the world citizen, part of the same family. With your simple thought of justice and peace for all
U.S. BOAT TO GAZA
The Audacity of Hope will sail as a human rights mission to help end the illegal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza.
The U.S. Boat to Gaza Campaign is collecting thousands of personal letters to the people of Gaza from people like you in the U.S., in an act of friendship and solidarity. These letters will be carried as our cargo on the U.S. Boat to Gaza when it sets sail in June 2011 in the next International Freedom Flotilla “Stay Human”.
Interview with Chris Hedges, author, journalist and former New York Times Middle East Bureau Chief. During fundraising cruise in the New York City harbor on August 5th to raise funds for a U.S. ship to join the next International Flotilla to break the blockade of Gaza.
Hagit Borer (right) moved from Israel to the United States to study in 1977. She became an American citizen in 1992 and is currently a professor of linguistics at USC and a passenger on the Audacity of Hope. She self-identifies as an Israeli Jewish American. Yesterday the LA times published an Op-Ed by Borer titled “Getting on board with peace in Israel” in which she shares some experiences of her youth growing up in Jerusalem as well as reflecting on Israel today.
Here’s a brief segment:
A soldier helped me sneak into the Old City. Snipers were still at large and the city was closed to Israeli civilians. By the Western Wall, a myth to me until then, the Israeli army was already evicting Palestinian residents in the dead of night and demolishing all houses within 1,000 feet. Eventually, the area would turn into the huge open paved space it is today, a place where only last month, on Jerusalem Day, masses of Israeli youths chanted “Muhammad is dead” and “May your villages burn.”
It is a different Jerusalem now. It is not their Jerusalem, for it has been taken from them. Every day the Palestinians of Jerusalem are further strangled by more incursions, by more “housing developments” to cut them off from other Palestinians. In Sheik Jarrah, a neighborhood built by Jordan in the 1950s to house refugees, Palestinian families recently have been evicted from their homes at gunpoint based on court-sanctioned documents purporting to show Jewish land ownership in the area dating back some 100 years. But no Palestinian proof of ownership within West Jerusalem has ever prevailed in Israeli courts. Talbieh, Katamon, Baca, until 1948 affluent Palestinian neighborhoods, are today almost exclusively Jewish, with no legal recourse for the Palestinians who recently raised families and lived their lives there.
In his speech on Jerusalem Day, Yitzhak Pindrus, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, assured a cheering crowd of the ongoing commitment to expanding the Jewish neighborhood of Shimon Hatzadik, as Sheik Jarrah has been renamed.
every single one of these people on the audacity of hope has a personal story of what drove them to break the blockade.
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Passenger Robert Naiman talks about why he is going aboard the US Boat to Gaza with the Stay Human Flotilla at the end of the month.”I am the Policy Director of Just Foreign Policy (www.justforeignpolicy.org), which works to reform U.S. foreign policy to reflect the values and interests of the majority of Americans so the U.S. complies fully with international law and supports peace, diplomacy, and negotiated resolutions of conflict.. The blockade of Gaza violates international laws and norms in regards to collective punishment against a civilian population—a crime in which the U.S. is complicit. Furthermore, the U.S.-led diplomatic embargo of Hamas is an obstacle to Palestinian self-determination as well as a just and lasting negotiated resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’m also concerned that the present U.S. policy could lead to yet another war in the region. I’m participating in this mission to call attention to the suffering faced by the civilians in Gaza under the blockade and to press for change in U.S. policy on the conflict.”
Kathy Kelly, 58, co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, (www.vcnv.org) a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare. Since May of 2010, she traveled to Afghanistan four times, with delegations intent on learning more about conditions faced by ordinary people in Afghanistan, a country afflicted by three decades of warfare. Voices for Creative Nonviolence has been working closely with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in search of non-military solutions to end the war. In 2009, she lived in Gaza during the Operation Cast Lead bombing. She was also in Lebanon during and after the 2006 Israeli assaults on southern Lebanon.
- From 1996 — 2003, Voices activists formed 70 delegations that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kathy and her companions lived in Baghdad throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing. She was sentenced to one year in federal prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites (1988-89) and spent three months in prison, in 2004, for crossing the line at Fort Benning’s military training school. She and her companions at the Voices home/office in Chicago believe that non-violence necessarily involves simplicity, service, sharing of resources and non-violent direct action in resistance to war and oppression.
Ken Mayers was commissioned as an officer in the United States Marine Corps upon his graduation from Princeton in 1958. He resigned that commission at the end of 1966 in disgust with American foreign policy and returned to the University of California at Berkeley where he earned his Ph.D. in Political Science. His doctoral dissertation was a policy analysis of minority business enterprise. He has been a peace and justice activist ever since, at the same time progressing through four successive careers. He taught political economy at Bennington College for six years, then worked in an interdisciplinary “skunk works” at Digital Equipment Corporation for 13 years followed by eight years as an independent consultant. For the past 12 years he has been the director of member relations for two international professional alliances. In the early 1980′s he and his late wife founded the Bennington VT chapter of the Beyond War Movement. In 1986 he joined Veterans for Peace (VFP) and in 2002 he founded the Santa Fe Chapter of VFP. He served on VFP’s national board of directors from 2004 to 2009, including five years as national treasurer. In December of 2009, Ken was part of the international Gaza Freedom March that got stuck in Cairo and protested in Tahrir Square and other Cairo locations for a week. He is currently a member of VFP’s Israel-Palestine Working Group. Ken is a fourth generation American of Jewish descent (non-practicing). His mother’s extended family lost at least 17 members in the holocaust. Ken is convinced that the Israeli government has learned the wrong lessons from those tragic years. He wants to demonstrate to his Palestinian brothers and sisters that even someone in his situation supports their desire for freedom. Since the government of Egypt turned him back from Gaza a year ago, he is determined to try again now.
Dear Online Activist Friends-Share Everything
Posted by Marivel Guzman
Original post by Vahid Razavi
On October 15, 2010
Dear online activist friends,
Social and Peace Activist, author Vahid Razavi
I would like to share with you my views on privacy and activism in the age of social media. As you are well aware, information about you; such as present location, bank account, health records, credit and driving history, as well as your online habits, emails and phone calls are monitored for the sake of companies and governments.
If you have taken a stand in a protest, placed phone calls to the Middle East, have Middle Eastern name you might as well consider your privacy out the door.
The whole notion of privacy in this digital age is misguided since governments and corporations systematically track, index, log and analyze user behavior. If you are not prone to risk and want to protect your identity, use a false name and a false picture profile and information.
That is the best way to hide your online identity. Even that does not protect you. For example if you use Skype or make a transaction at online bank to check your statements from the same machine that you used to log into your fake profile. The fake profile can be now be linked to your real identity.
This article is not about privacy but to encourage you to participate not just in your own circle but in the large circle of opposing views and positions. I will give you an example. As you are aware, for over the past two years I share articles that my team and I have written about business or social issues on my Facebook’s wall. I have open friend policy because I want our message of peace, tolerance and sustainable business practices to reach a large audience. At the same time, I am part of the Republican party, the Democratic party and moveon.org etc. I make an active decision to share information and blog posts on various groups in LinkedIn, for example the chamber of Commerce, an organization that I find myself on the complete opposition to.
Guess what happens when I post an article to one of the groups that share the opposite values that I have? They get all worked up! They start posting and calling me names etc. Frankly I do not care about that. My business and money does not come from the Chamber of Commerce or the Republicans or Democrats. I am not on any ones payroll except my own but it gets under the skin of these groups. It pisses them off like no tomorrow. I am proud of that. They devote precious time posting articles and time trying to convince themselves that they are still in the right. I just wish sometimes my activist friends expand the circle of friends and work on the larger population to sell ideas to the masses.
I am not asking you sacrifice your perceived privacy. I am asking you to get involved even if it is under a different profile name and join these groups so that we can influence its members and the actions of these groups.
Additionally we can all do many things that do not cost money and yet has a big impact. Do you know that Google/Facebook/Bing all provide coupons for first time users of the advertisement networks? If you do not have an ad network account it is easy to start one. Check it out. Create an advertisement network account and use one of the first 50 dollars or first 75 dollars ads are free coupon. Find an article or an organization you want to promote. Decide on the keywords (simply pick your cause as the keyword) Place your ads for that organization. When you reach the 75 dollar mark disconnect the ads. You did not pay a dime and was able to advertise on a network for a cause you backed.
The goal is to encourage folks to reach outside of the circle of friends and leverage social media and the web as the people’s media. The point is that too many activists remain stuck within the orbit of like minded people. While having a community is important, we often neglect the middle of society. Many people work too much, if they are lucky to have a job. They are worried about their bills, their health care expenses, their mortgage and rent payments, their families. Many of them share the same concerns and have the same anxieties as we do. They don’t have the time to explore the social and political issues in depth. They turn on the local news, watch CNN or Fox for an hour or so. Many of them simply read the free morning newspapers handed out to commuters which do not provide comprehensive analysis. This is the social layer that we as activists must reach. History shows that all social and political changes have occurred only when the broad middle of society participates. Yes, the movements are often started with small groups but they have succeeded by communicating and connecting with the larger members of society. The Civil Rights movement started with a small church in Alabama and spread across the country bringing supporters from the mainstream. The same occurred with the LBGT movement. What started as a minority movement has become mainstream. Had Blacks only confined their struggle for equal rights to themselves, it’s unlikely that any advances would have been made. Had only gays and lesbians struggled alone, it’s unlikely that their legal rights would have been recognized and their struggle continues. It’s imperative that activists reach out to the mainstream. It’s the only way to effect the social and political changes we desire. Failure to do so will result in our permanent marginalization.
That’s my two cents.
Peace.
Vahid
Too Small for social change?...Not at all
Mr. Razavi Iranian-American author of The Age of Nepotism has traveled extensively to Iran and the Balkans. He is an expert in the subject of Iran and US politics. As CEO of BizCloud company, Mr. Razavi develops the organization strategy and manages the company’s sales, engineering Marketing and day to day operations.He brings to the position more than thirteen years of sales, operations and customer service experience in the software and customer service industry.
Akashma Online News 
thank you Hagit Borer
Crew member Yonatan Shapira talks about why he is going aboard the US Boat to Gaza with the Stay Human Flotilla at the end of the month.
I was a captain in the Israeli Air Force and a Black-Hawk Pilot until 2003 when together with other pilots I initiated the pilots’ letter and refused to take part in the crimes of the occupation. Today I am a member of Boycott from Within, a group of Israeli citizens who are actively supporting the Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. I have a Master degree in Peace and Conflict Studies, I facilitate dialogue groups and volunteer as a sailing instructor for children with disabilities. I’ve been sailing since I was a child and in September of 2010 I was a crew member on the Jewish boat to Gaza that was intercepted by the Israeli Navy. I work as a commercial pilot in the US and am still dreaming to be a musician.
Hedy Epstein was born in Germany in 1924. She was 8 years old when Hitler came to power in 1933. In 1939, she left on a Kindertransport (children’s transport) for England. Her parents and other family members perished during the Holocaust. After World War II she returned to Germany and worked as a research analyst at the Nuremberg trial of the Nazi doctors who performed medical experiments on concentration camp inmates.
Epstein came to the U.S. in 1948, and quickly became involved in civil rights, human rights and peace related issues, both professionally and in her personal life. In 1989, she visited Guatemala, Nicaragua and Cambodia as a peace delegate. Since 2003, she has visited the Israeli occupied West Bank five times, and has made four attempts to visit Gaza by land and sea. She has written and traveled extensively in the U.S. and Europe to speak about social justice issues, with an emphasis on the Israel/Palestine issue. In 1999, her autobiography — “Erinnern ist nicht genug” (Remembering is Not Enough) was published in German, in Germany.
Epstein will be on the U.S. Boat to Gaza, part of Flotilla 2, her fifth attempt to reach Gaza.