Israeli/US Aggression and Occupation in Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq: Teach-In
queer-j brad,

The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of San Diego sponsored a teach-in on July 27 to provide background to the recent attack on Lebanon, the escalation of attacks on Gaza, and the continuing occupation of Palestine, Iraq and now southern Lebanon. Six speakers discussed the historical and political context, the resistance, the human experience of occupation, and international law: Nasser Barghouti (moderator), Doris Bittar, Farid Abdel-Nour, Nadia Keilani, Marjorie Cohn and Jonathan Graubart. Audio Duration: 1:38:40, with partial transcript. A question and answer period followed. Audio Duration: 1:03:40.

"Imagine if the I-5 was bombed and I-805 and the I-15 and the depots of fuels and half of the gas stations of San Diego were bombed. Then imagine if one third of our hospitals had been destroyed. We have no electricity, no water and 800,000 of San Diego residents were forced to flee, go somewhere, inland maybe. Then you would get to understand the situation in Lebanon."

"As an artist, I have gathered many photo essays that document how individuals resist, often through creative acts, like Haldia at the Bourj al Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut, whose camp now is surrounded by rubble, built her entire home with mortar, cinder blocks, and river rocks from Nabitieh... There are many forms of resistance, and all can be legitimate... For the ordinary person, Hamas and Hezbollah crush the walls of a demented and bigoted logic, whatever else you agree or disagree about their philosophy."

"Stability has historically has been usually brought about by barbarism and brutality...The reason Middle East politics is so complicated is that is usually hanging by thin delicate threads that connect different communities with each other... The reason the Middle East is unstable is that there hasn't been that kind of brutality in its history... I'm afraid that this administration takes this cruel truth not as reminder not to overvalue stability, not as a reminder of how cruel it is to merely pursue it. They take it as a prescription for what to do."

Prior to 1991, our first attempt to destroy Iraq, Iraqi women had equality in education and health care. They had the most progressive human rights in the region and they were the first Arab women to hold high positions in academia, government and law. Before the US invasion, they constituted 40% of the public sector work force and they made up 20% of Iraq's Parliament. In the U.S. Congress, only 15% of it is made up of women... Today an Iraqi woman walking alone in the street is asking to be killed, raped or kidnapped... I asked Iraqis if they had a message for the American people. None of their messages was without an expletive..."

"Bush could stop Israel in its tracks with a snap of his fingers. But why would he? Israel is doing his bidding. Redrawing the map of the Middle East to facilitate U.S. domination. Bush began that task with Iraq, and Israel is following suit with Palestine and Lebanon... The United States loyal and consistent support for Israel's policies to the tune of more than 3 billion dollars in aid per year has enabled Israel government to conduct a war of terror against the Palestinian and Lebanese people."

"These can be subject to great debate in the specifics, but a number of the Israeli actions defy any sort of debate. Certainly collective punishments, which is a pretty explicit effort to impose massive desperate conditions on the civilian population until they give in, is no question illegal. Certainly causing massive displacements, the attack on the power plants, even the United Nations, which is fairly diplomatic about this, has called these war crimes."

"About forty years ago, 1967, in six days the Israeli army destroyed the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, occupied all of the Sinai strip, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, killed thousands of soldiers in those Arab armies, all in six days. Today after 14 days of punishing bombardment of Lebanon, the Israeli army has not been able to progress more than 10 km into Lebanon."

Click here for audio

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Civilian Resistance in Lebanon
SDIMC 101,

Leaving from Martyr's Square in Beiruit, Lebanon on Sat Aug 12 7AM local time, a civilian convoy is to bring supplies such as medicine, food, water to beleagured civilians in the south who are being victimized by the bombing of Lebanon. This movement is being started because no one else, nation or international body, is acting to help these people. By spreading word on the convoy, this will draw international attention to Israel's reaction to the convoy as they risk being shelled en route. Subsequent actions will culminate in an August 19 civilian march to reclaim the South.

lebanonsolidarity.org

UPDATE
radioActive sanDiego's dj lotu5 interviews Ali from lebanonsolidarity.org, who is currently in Beiruit and is about to embark Saturday morning on a civil caravan to the south of lebanon to take supplies like food and water.
Click Here to Listen

Don't forget -- Occupation is a Crime from Lebanon to Iraq to Palestine Protest - Saturday, August 12, NOON Big Fountain at Balboa Park - March to 6th and Laurel

Press Contacts:
Rasha Salti, +961 3 970855
Huwaida Arraf, +961 70 974452
Samah Idriss, +961 3 381349
Wadih Al Asmar, +961 70 950780

If you are outside Lebanon and want to sign up and join the convoy, contact Adam Shapiro at: adamsop@hotmail.com

Links: IMC Beirut | IMC Israel | IMC Cyprus | Internation Middle East Media Centre | Palestine News Network | Electronic Intifada | Electronic Lebanon | Palestine Blogs | Tadamon


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San Diego Indymedia August Events
sdimc volunteer,

Monsterous neocons, bloodthirsty imperialists, hateful bigots, fascist war criminals, the inhuman prison industrial complex, greedy capitalists and lying corporate media aren't taking August off, so neither are we.

SDIMC 101
Learn How to Be the Media, Cover an Event, Compose a Story, Post to SDIMC Website, Participate in SDIMC.
Wed August 9, 7-9PM FREE

Open Hack Nite
ACTIVISTS, HACKERS, and ARTISTS get together, share, teach and learn tech skills. This month: intro to Ruby on Rails web design software and DIY music videos.
Wed August 16, 8-10PM FREE

SDIMC Film Nite
Berlusconi's Mousetrap. This film chronicles the massive anti-G8 protests in Genoa, Italy and the violent response of the Italian Prime Minister.
Wed August 23, 7PM $3-$5 donation requested.

All events at Voz Alta, 1544 Broadway, one block from City College, downtown San Diego.
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Bay Area Queers: Cancel World Pride
QUIT! Palestine,

QUIT! (Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism) condemns the decision by Jerusalem Open House and other promoters of World Pride Jerusalem to go ahead with the planned week of international pride events scheduled for August 6-12, despite Israel's ongoing assault on civilian communities in Lebanon and Gaza.

"While members of the Lebanese queer group Helem are turning their community center into a shelter for refugees, their counterparts in Jerusalem are preparing for a film festival and beach party," said QUIT member Kate Raphael. "What is the message that this sends to the world about what our community cares about?" "Instead of being visible in Jerusalem, partying during an ethnic cleansing, we must be visible in the movements in our home countries calling for freedom and justice for all people."
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Minutemen Swarming San Diego Day Labor Sites
Diane,

The Minutemen, the Citizens' Brigade, and other related groups are swarming day labor sites through out San Diego County, and they've become increasingly aggressive. They harass and abuse workers, both physically and verbally, chase away employers, harass customers who patronize businesses near the day labor sites, and threaten bystanders. Here are photos of 10 of the 20+ Minutemen and Minutewomen who frequent the day labor site near Home Depot on Fairmount Avenue (San Diego). Minutemen are at the site every Saturday and Sunday.
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SANTIAGUITO PRISONERS DENOUNCE ATTACK BY GUARDS
Resistencia, Radio Pacheco,

This letter from political prisoners arrested at Atenco and held at Santiaguito prison tells of a recent attack on a compañero by a guard. It is followed by an urgent appeal for solidarity from compañeros who are maintaining an ongoing sit-in outside the prison.

WE DEMAND:
1. the immediate presence of human rights organizations and collectives that can enter the prison, press charges, and physically evaluate our compañero.
2. that the prison guards not leave until our compañero has identified the guard in question and pressed charges against him for violating the protective order, a judicial resolution.
3. the immediate resignation of the prison Warden and the Chief of Internal Security due to the fact that they have permitted the aggression and covered it up.
4. that the General Director of Prisons of the State of Mexico resolve this problem because it is beyond the scope of the Warden of this prison, given that he is protecting the guard and probably ordered the aggression.

Background: Global Indymedia Wikipedia
Recent: Zapatistas1 Zapatistas2 Infoshop
San Diego: La Otra Delete the Border o.r.g.a.n.i.c. collective
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Society and Ecology: Murray Bookchin Dies
Murray Bookchin repost - Anarchist Archives,

The libertarian socialist, anti-capitalist thinker, activist and founder of the Social Ecology school Murray Bookchin died on Sunday. See an obituary at nyc indymedia here.

From the Anarchist Archives, Bookchin's essay Society and Ecology:

The problems which many people face today in "defining" themselves are by no means personal ones. These problems exist not only for private individuals; they exist for modern society as a whole. We suffer not only as individuals from alienation and confusion over our identities and goals; our entire society, conceived as a single entity, seems unclear about its own nature and sense of direction. If earlier societies tried to foster a belief in the virtues of cooperation and caring, thereby giving an ethical meaning to social life, modern society fosters a belief in the virtues of competition and egotism, thereby divesting human association of all meaning--except, perhaps, as an instrument for gain and mindless consumption.

We live under the constant threat that the world of life will be irrevocably undermined by a society gone mad in its need to grow--replacing the organic by the inorganic, soil by concrete, forest by barren earth, and the diversity of life-forms by simplified ecosystems; in short, a turning back of the evolutionary clock to an earlier, more inorganic, mineralized world that was incapable of supporting complex life-forms of any kind, including the human species.

Whatever has turned human beings into "aliens" in nature are social changes that have made many human beings "aliens" in their own social world. The domination of the young by the old, of women by men, and of men by men. Until society can be reclaimed by an undivided humanity that will use its collective wisdom, cultural achievements, technological innovations, scientific knowledge, and innate creativity for its own benefit and for that of the natural world, all ecological problems will have their roots in social problems.
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Critical Mass or Critical Mob -- July Report
lghtslpr,

A group of people calling themselves San Diego Critical Mass rode through the streets of San Diego on Friday, July 28. The ride was characterized by self-focused jubilation, sexism, racism, danger, agression, hostile confrontations, and a police crackdown.

Although this ride resembles Critical Mass, I believe that ultimately it has little in common with the original concept of Critical Mass. The route is dictated by the same few, loud, controlling individuals, who also take every opportunity to spread out thinly and block motorized traffic, create violent confrontations with motorists, and invite crackdown from the police. The rides have nearly no outreach activity.

I can see that many cyclists enjoy themselves on the ride, and there is a palpable buzz among the cyclists. But the energy is one of self-focused aggression. Aggression for the sake of aggression. In other words, it's a mob. Its political philosophy mirrors that of the dominant US culture: Us-vs.-them, You're-either-with-us-or-against-us, Might-makes-right. There is no sense of outreach, sympathy, advocacy or democracy; little concern for safety; nor respect for all human beings. The ride is a Critical Mob, not a Critical Mass.

But I don't think it has to be that way.
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Bigots Bash Queers Outside SD Pride Festival
repost from planetout,

Three bigots attacked five queers with a baseball bat and knife following the corporate pride festival in balboa park saturday evening. Three queers were hospitalized, one with a fractured skull. Asshole in chief of san diego, jerry sanders, stated that the attack was "an isolated incident and clearly not the attitude of our citizenry." An easy statement for a white straight male lapdog of the elite jerk with a bodyguard to make. Any visible queer knows that the "citizenry" has little toleration for those who refuse to publicly assimilate to the heterosexual norm, except as oddball freaks for their occasional amusement.

It's time for us queers to stop paying assimilationist protection money to the corporate-controlled mobsters, who will allow the bigots to do just enough damage to scare us into submission, and instead take responsibility for our community's own protection.
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Queer Pride Events in San Diego
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

San Diego held its 37th annual LGBT [Queer] Pride celebration July 28-30, and while most of the speeches, parade floats and festival booths were assimilationist, parts of the celebration did hearken back to the radical, liberationist roots of Queer pride. Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, dominated the July 28 rally, though his sermon-like speech which opened the July 28 pride rally was nearly equaled by the heartfelt poem read by San Francisco-based Queer African-American rapper Juba Kalamba as a memorial to his friend, AIDS activist Rocky Williams, who committed suicide July 24 after he became homeless when he could no longer afford San Francisco's astronomical rents.
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Tijuana Report On the Edge: Juarez Femicides
Yolanda,

Between 70 and 80 people were in attendance at the Teatro de la Casa de la Cultura in Tijuana for Steev Hise's film On the Edge: The Femicides in Ciudad Juarez.

Lourdes Diaz, Director of Tijuana’s Women’s Municipal Institute gave the introduction. After the film about 80% of the audience stayed for over an hour of discussion with Steev Hise and Mrs. Sara Ruiz, moderated by Carmen Valadez of the Feminist Binational Collective.

Mrs. Ruiz’s daughter Sarita was abducted, assaulted and thrown from a moving car last December on to the streets of Tijuana by Pueblo Amigo, about four blocks away from the San Ysidro Port of Entry. She died six days later. Mrs. Ruiz carried out a 9-day hunger strike in June and says many mothers whose daughters have been victimized are afraid to speak out and have asked her to carry on for them also.

Majority awareness and actions are needed to halt and stop the spread of out-of-control atrocities. As evidenced by the reception of the screenings in San Diego and Tijuana this last week, On the Edge is an important step in this direction.
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Juarez Femicides Film Screening
queer-j brad,

For more than a decade, the cities of Chihuahua and Juarez, near the US-Mexico border, have been killing fields for young women, the site of over 400 unsolved femicides. Despite the horrific nature of these crimes, authorities at all levels exhibit indifference, and there is strong evidence that some officials may be involved. Impunity and corruption has permitted the criminals, whoever they are, to continue committing these acts, knowing there will be no consequences.

A significant number of victims work in the maquiladora sector - sweatshops that produce for export with 90% destined for the United States. Despite the crime wave, they offer almost no protection for their workers.

Small advances in the struggle for justice are due to the perseverance of victims' families who cannot be silenced despite the efforts of state and federal authorities to keep them quiet. Often grassroots groups work in a climate of threats and defamation by government officials for making one simple demand - STOP THE FEMICIDE!

On Wednesday, 26 July, SDIMC, in collaboration with the Young Adult Mystery Squad and Voz Alta, showed two documentaries concerning the situation in Juarez at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Hillcrest: On the Edge, by Steev Hise, and The Mothers of Juarez, by Zulma Aguiar. Steev Hise introduced the films and answered questions following the films. Audio Duration: 1min 50sec, 1min and 27min 50sec.

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THE DEATH MARCH-DEL MAR'S RACE TO DEATH
Janice Jordan-P&F Gubernatorial Candidate,

Today the Del Mar Racetrack should be called the Death Mar Racetrack. In 1998 at least nine horses died during the summer racing season and at that time the track was blamed for the fatalities, calling the "course's surface deep and even". (The Independent, London, August 19, 1998) Since the racing season began this year (less than three weeks ago) 7 horses have died, and it appears no one in charge at the racetrack can offer an explanation for the high number of deaths. What can you do?
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U.S. weapons for Israel in San Diego
Marjorie Cohen - reposted,

On Friday morning, as I traveled north on Interstate 5, I passed two tractor-trailers heading south toward the 32nd Street Naval Station in downtown San Diego. Each vehicle carried about 10 unmarked bombs; each bomb was approximately 15 feet long. Two military helicopters hovered low above each tractor-trailer, providing overhead escort.

I wondered where these bombs were headed. They must have been in a big hurry because they usually ship their bombs more covertly.

Israel had just put out an S.O.S. to the United States government to rush over several more bombs. "The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration," according to the New York Times. Although always well-equipped with sophisticated US- made weapons, Israel was evidently running out of munitions to drop on the Lebanese people.

This article by Marjorie Cohen identifies U.S. weapons passing through SD on their way to Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Protest!
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DA Dumanis Lies About Law
Fred Gardner, repost from counterpunch,

Raids on July 6 targeted 11 San Diego cannabis dispensaries. Owners of some of the dispensaries not raided that day were heard to say that they were spared because they were running proper establishments. As if the DEA made such distinctions! On July 21 the remaining clubs were visited by law enforcement and told to close or else. They have all complied.

San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is taking the position that all sales of marijuana are illegal -despite several court rulings to the contrary and the wording of the Health & Safety Code as modified by Senate Bill 420 and the appellate court ruling in People v. Urziceanu.
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San Diego Actions Against Israeli Terror Campaign
adc and sdcpj,

The Israeli military has been waging a devastating terror campaign against Gaza and Lebanon. It has killed hundreds of innocent civilians, destroyed hospitals, airports, ports, highways, power stations, fuel depots, gas stations, government offices, tens of residential neighborhoods. In addition, Israel has enforced a total siege around Gaza and Lebanon, preventing humanitarian international aid from reaching the civilian population.

Stop Israeli War! Demonstration
Thursday, 27 July 4-6PM
Broadway at Horton Plaza / Downtown

Solidarity with the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine Teach-In
Thursday 27 July 7:00 PM
Four Point Sheraton, 8110 Aero Drive

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Sunday Protest at Pro-Israel Rally-2pm
vinnie,

Ad-hoc Call for Counter-demonstration:
This Sunday Afternoon, July 23, 2006 from 2:30pm to 3:30pm supporters of the Racist Israeli Invasion and bombing of Lebanon and Palestine will be holding a "Support Israel" rally at the Lawrence Family JCC, located at 4126 Executive Drive, La Jolla. Palestinians, Moslems, Progressives, and Peace Activists must come out and counterdemonstrate in force across the street from this racist event.
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Stop Israeli War! Demonstration: Interviews
queer-j brad,

Following abductions of one Israeli soldier on the Gaza/Israel border on June 25 and two Israeli soldiers on the Lebanon/Israel border on July 12, Israel has engaged in massively destructive attacks on both Gaza and Lebanon, resulting in over 90 Palestinian deaths and over 325 Lebanese deaths to date, along with mass arrests of Palestinian elected officials, widespread destruction of crucial infrastructure in Lebanon and looming humanitarian crises in both Gaza and Lebanon. These war crimes have prompted protests around the globe, including a demonstration of about 200 people in downtown San Diego in front of Horton Plaza on Thursday.

Video interviews with protesters reveal information and opinions that are not appearing in the corporate media, including:
"... the overwhelming might of the Israeli army, the fourth largest army in the world, essentially means that Israel can continue to act with impunity, and that the Arabs are left to fight back or retaliate with very limited means and when they do we can see that Israel has no regard for international law, no regard for humanity, no regard for civilian life, no regard for anything except apparently for the master plan of destroying the whole region and being the sole power in the region."
"... Israel has 10,000 prisoners of war, meaning Palestinian or Lebanese, and ... on almost a daily basis kidnaps fighters from the opposite side. These fighters are held in long-term detention, they are tortured.."
"We want to ask our government to not support Israel, to not send our tax dollars to Israel, to spend it on education and not on war."
"... to sit home and just watch the news, which is so nauseatingly one sided, is very frustrating, it's very difficult for us to listen to the essentially Israeli line on CNN, MSNBC, FOX and all the other news stations..."
"This is the place where decisions come from, they come from the streets..."
"They had one civil war, which they rebuilt and now all of that is gone in a matter of nine days! It seems like people just have callous hearts. And we're trying to say, please wake up, people are dying! ... Hopefully this will get to someone, it will move someone to action."


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Emergency Demo-Stop Israeli War!-Thurs-4pm
repost by pipard,

Emergency Demonstration-Thurs-4pm-Broadway at Horton Plaza
Description: The San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice is holding an emergency demonstration to protest Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian and the Lebanese people.
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"Dump Diebold" Folks Pack Board of Supervisors Meeting
Mark,

It happened right here in San Diego yesterday.

The Diebold voting machines and central tabulators in use in San Diego do not and cannot meet either state or federal requirements for certification, yet the Secretary of State certified them anyway, the State Attorney General is defending him instead of prosecuting him, and our Registrar of Voters, who has admitted that he doesn't know how to hold an election in compliance with even the minimal security standards set by the Secretary of State, is still using these machines.

These uncertifiable voting machines cost millions of dollars to buy, store, and maintain. Paper and pencil voting is cheap, and human pollworkers do not have to be warehoused or have their batteries continuously charged between elections. They don't even become obsolete and have to be replaced with more expensive machines every few years.

Although there is current litigation aimed at barring these machines both federally and statewide, it will take local action in order to get rid of them here in San Diego before November.

About 50 people wearing "Dump Diebold" stickers and holding up "No Sleepovers!" signs packed the Board of Supervisors meeting.
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