Growing resistance throughout Haiti … On Feb. 7,
the anniversary of the 1986 fall of the Duvalier dictatorship, the
National Popular Party (PPN) and the Confederation of Peasant Groups of
Borgne (KGPB) rallied hundreds of protestors from around the countryside
for a 20 kilometer march through rivers and mud from the town of Petit
Bourg au Borgne to the city of Borgne. In Borgne, the KGPB’s Marc Lamour
and the PPN’s Augustin Edouard gave speeches denouncing the Feb. 29th
coup, the de facto government and the foreign military occupation.

At midnight on Feb. 3, guerrillas of the “Northern Front” of the
Dessalinien Army of National Liberation (ADLN) attacked the police
station in Plaisance, just as the ADLN’s “Artibonite Front” did in Gros
Morne on October 24.

[I love this story! -SG]

DARE to struggle, dare to win … as married gays. After raiding a few
Army camps, two communist guerrillas hid in a forest gorge and fell in
love.

Deeply.

That was three years ago. On Friday, under a romantic drizzle in a
muddy clearing in Compostela Valley province in Mindanao, Ka Andres
and Ka Jose exchanged vows in a heavily guarded ceremony before
local villagers, friends from the city and their comrades in arms.

They are considered the first homosexual couple in the New People’s
Army (NPA) who were wed by the Communist Party of the Philippines
(CPP).

“Didn’t We Get Rid of Those People Years Ago?”
Reflections on Empire and Uppity Indians

By TIM WISE

I should have known better than to listen in to the conversation immediately to my left, sitting as I was in the Northwest Airlines World Club, in Detroit. Unlike most of the folks who have paid their $450 for an annual membership–which entitles one to little more than some free booze, cheese, crackers and coffee, along with a comfy chair between flights–I am hardly, after all, the typical “business traveler.” I usually spend my time in such places, hastily composing one or another radical screed (like this one), while waiting to fly somewhere to deliver a speech that will, in some small way, move forward the cause of social transformation.

BRIC it was originally called, and F. William Engdahl calls it the U.S.’s new ‘BRIC wall.’ A multilateral initiative is developing between Brazil, Russia, India, and China (and more recently and significantly, Venezuela and Iran), to bloc U.S. ambitions to crush future competitors for dwindling energy resources. This is a great primer on how the U.S. chooses its selective humanitarianism (the Balkans, Sudan, etc.) and what Condi Rice is trying to accomplish by repairing the diplomatic damage in Europe.

“It is reasonable to expect that hydrogen is probably going to play a big role in future transportation and energy developments. Hydrogen can make a great student paper or a nice research topic. And eventually might lead to a technical buck or two… At the same time, there is sure a lot of hogwash and misinformation out there. Especially on the web. So, the more you know about real hydrogen resources, the more intelligently you can dismiss all the rest of them.”

During the last presidential follies, along with all his other delusions, John Kerry smelled environmental blood. The Republican’s eager biospheric vandalism would alarm even the most phlegmatic observer, and this seemd a perfect seg for the Kerry strategy — which was trying to prove he was not George W. Bush. While the Republicans leveraged our fears of the menacing Dark Other, the Democrats leveraged our fear of Republicans. This was how Kerry engaged the Battle of the Bonesmen with a new ally — the eco-capitalists. He became the proponent of tax subsidies to energy snake-oil salesmen and eagerly joined the think-tank neocons in ritualized public Saudi-bashing as part of the “energy independence” delusion.

[As I repost this extremely encouraging news of Latin American resistance to neoliberalism, I will include a promise to forward a communique from a newly formed popular armed resistance that seems to be forming in Haiti as well. For now, it is in Kreyol, and when it is translated, it will go up. This is [...]

From the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force:

On January 3, the Department of Defense announced a new policy on sexual assault prevention and response. It took the form of a series of very brief “directive-type memoranda” for the Secretaries of the military services from the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. Actually promulgated in November and December, and effective immediately, the memos are part of a policy in formation mandated by the new Defense Authorization Act.

Disclaimer: Great story here, but please don’t get the impression that this is my endorsement of Kerry as a past alternative to Bush. I advocated a left strategy of defeating Kerry as a way of breaking with the Democratic Party. It is just posted to show, as following articles will, what a bunch of craven cowards the U.S. press are – with a very few notable exceptions. -Stan

The Emperor’s New Hump
The New York Times killed a story that could have changed the election—because it could have changed the election

Extra! January/February 2005

By Dave Lindorff

In the weeks leading up to the November 2 election, the New York Times was abuzz with excitement. Besides the election itself, the paper’s reporters were hard at work on two hot investigative projects, each of which could have a major impact on the outcome of the tight presidential race.

Writer, teacher, and political/social activist, Joel Kovel has authored over 10 books and countless articles on subjects ranging from race to Reich, the role of spirituality in history and the role of fossil fuel interests in the current US “oligarchy”. He was the Green Party candidate for US Senate (NY) in 1998 and ran against Ralph Nader for the 2000 Green Party presidential candidacy. His new book The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World (St. Martin’s Press, 2002) will be available in early February.

I spoke with Prof. Kovel (Alger Hiss Professor of Social Sciences at Bard College) at his home in Willow in late December, 2001. —Jason Stern