Israel: Walk About Love 2009 - A journey to create a new reality!

On the 1st of March 2009, we, along with many people from all over the world, will embark on an exciting journey of love, music and peace to create a social and environmental change. It will be an inspiring three month walk through nature, music festivals, dancing, ecological activities, friendly dialogue, spreading love and uniting cultures. Let's join together to spread the light of love and joy to all human beings!

On this walk, we will use constructive, non-violent actions to SAFELY spread the seeds of brotherly love, peace and co-existence to everyone along the way. This is not a protest journey against any war in particular: it is a practical action against the idea of war aimed at changing the sociological and environmental situation in which war is fostered. It is a practical action to deepen and spread the awareness of love in ourselves and in our brothers and sisters that we will meet along the way.

The Walk About Love journey is free to join, almost all the activities (except for the three main festivals) are free and you are free to arrive or leave whenever you want. There will also be daily progress updates from the journey on this website so you can easily find where to meet up with the group if you are joining late.

So come on and support Walk About Love! Walk the journey, talk about cultural reconciliation, dance at the festivals, learn about ecological sustainability, trade at the travelling markets, volunteer your time, donate money or goods, register or become a member of Walk About Love. We need your help to demonstrate that people, on a large scale and no matter what the differences, are willing and able to live side by side in peace and solidarity.

http://www.walkaboutlove.org/

Flying people to torture and death

A Brighton family was forcibly deported to Algeria last week on an Air Algérie flight from Heathrow. The first attempt to deport them on a British Airways flight three days before had failed, allegedly because there was 'a problem with their tickets.' Both times campaigners from Brighton and London gathered at the airport and leafleted crew members and passengers to try and get them to protest on board, which may explain why the deportation was cancelled the first time. Earlier that week, about 50 Iraqi refugees refused asylum were not so lucky to have 'tickets with problems' or protesters leafleting at the airport. Instead, they were surreptitiously taken through the VIP entrance at Stansted airport and put on a special 'ethnic charter flight' operated by a Czech airline, which carried them to Erbil in northern Iraq. A few deportees were taken off the plane, just before it took off, after last-minute interventions by solicitors and MPs. One deportee was flown back to London after winning a High Court injunction.

Safe as death

Until last week, Assia Souhalia and her husband, Athmane, had been living in the UK for seven years. Their two-year-old daughter, Nouha, was born in Brighton in 2006 and had lived there all her life. Assia fled Algeria in 2002 in fear of her life after her family had suffered years of violence. Two of her brothers were murdered in two separate and premeditated shootings in 1993 and 1994, despite having no involvement in political activities. Upon hearing of the death of her eldest son, their mother suffered a heart attack and died. Since then, Assia's family have repeatedly received death threats and, in 1994, another brother was murdered. In 2007, her sister was badly wounded in a bomb attack. Only one man has been arrested in relation to these murders. Two of Assia's remaining brothers and sisters have also fled the country.

The Home Office's policy of deporting 'failed asylum seekers' to Algeria has been highly controversial, to say the least. In 1997, an Algerian policeman was deported from the UK. Upon arrival at Algiers airport, he was arrested by Algerian security forces and murdered. In 2007, the Appeal Court halted the deportation of three Algerians after judges ruled that the government "could not be certain" that they would be safe from torture.

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"Look at Greece..."

By Nikos Konstandaras

23 Feb, 2009

The riots in Greece last December are on their way to becoming one of the lasting symbols of the global recession, much in the way that “France 1968” captures the awakening of youth in that – other – eventful decade. Wherever tension rises due to economic hardship, governments tremble lest they have to deal with a rebellion like that of the Athenian youth.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy appears to have this nightmare before him continually: First he froze his plans for education reform and now he is rushing to appease the workers and the unemployed of faraway Guadeloupe so as to prevent the troubles in the French Caribbean from spreading to the mainland.

In Greece, we understand that the burning of Athens was the result of a toxic mix of social disobedience, tolerance of youth violence and state paralysis. The fact that our youth are not looking forward to a rosy future played a role in the rebellion, but was not the principal factor. Outside of Greece, however, the troubles in Greece were seen as an outburst of rage and despair because of economic hardship – which the whole of Europe had been dreading before December. Since then, we have seen troubles, strikes and government crises in many countries. In January, the government of Iceland fell, in the midst of public outrage. Last week, the government of Latvia followed suit. We have seen major strikes in Britain, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Lithuania, Montenegro and Russia. Almost every time, reports on these troubles refer to Athens as an early eruption of this social tension.

Just how worried Europe is can be seen in an interview by one of Sarkozy's chief aides, Henri Guaino, with Le Monde last Tuesday, as the French Caribbean was being rocked by violent protests. “If we do not agree on common rules of protection and (government) intervention, if we stay trapped in dogma, then we run the serious risk of absurd protectionism, populism and xenophobia.

“We must take this risk very seriously. Look at what happened in Iceland, at the chasm that was created between the people and the government. Look at the strikes by British energy workers, strikes protesting the use of seasonal workers from Spain and Italy. Look at what happened in Greece. This crisis is exhausting all the chapters of economic practice. Let us take measures so that we do not exhaust the chapters of a history textbook as well,” Guaino said. In other words: We have exhausted all we know about economics, now we are afraid that the crisis will lead to unpredictable developments on the political and social level.

Guadeloupe is especially interesting in that it is a possession of France and could easily transmit its tensions to the French “metropolis.”

One of these dangers is that the uprising in the Caribbean raises the specter of a racial clash: Most of the islands' blacks are poor, while the rich and those who run things are, for the most part, white. “A clique is in control of the economy and abuses this,” said Christiane Tobira, a deputy from the nearby territory of Guyana. She added that this was not far removed from “social apartheid.” One of the protesters' slogans is: “Guadeloupe belongs to us, not to them,” meaning, of course, the whites. The protesters are demanding a raise of 200 euros on the minimum monthly wage of 900 euros (when in Greece the minimum wage is 701 euros).

It is natural that governments should fear the tensions and unpredictable social consequences of economic hardship. The events of Athens showed what happens when a largely homogenous society cannot develop and cannot manage its inner tensions. Guadeloupe shows how easily complicated social tensions can come to the fore – tensions that can make society regress dangerously.

It is clear that no country can be allowed to sink under its problems. The evil is contagious. This will play a role in the current effort by Europe's strongest players to help the weaker ones. “Look at Greece,” they will say.

~ Source: Kathimerini English Edition ~

Europe in revolt: people power vs corporate crisis

by Stu Harrison & Simon Butler
14 February 2009

Europe has all but exploded into the new year with a growing fightback against the policies that caused economic crisis across the continent. Millions of protesters are beginning to take on those responsible for the capitalist meltdown.

Ian Traynor, the Europe editor of the Guardian, summed up the new developments on January 31: “Europe's time of troubles is gathering depth and scale. Governments are trembling. Revolt is in the air.”

While governments are handing out billions to save the banks and big business, working people are suffering from the immense fallout.

Already, one European government has come crashing down in the face of a mass protest movement. Iceland's conservative government collapsed in January under the weight of some of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in the country.

The protests rapidly took on a strong anti-establishment character. One Icelandic activist described it to the Guardian as “a revolution in political activism”.

Icelandic politics has shifted sharply to the left in the wake of the spectacular collapse of the nation's economy. The Left-Green Movement is now the country's most popular party, according to recent polls.

Similar movements have also spread to the poorest and most vulnerable nations in eastern Europe.

Europe in turmoil

After Iceland, the Baltic nation of Latvia is tipped to be the next country to descend into economic meltdown. Latvia's gross domestic product fell a huge 10.5% in the last quarter of 2008, compared to the same period 12 months earlier.

The governor of Latvia's central bank even described the economy as “clinically dead” on national television.

On January 13, more than 10,000 Latvians converged on the capital, Riga. The protests continued into the night, despite violent attempts by police to disperse the crowds.

A section of the protesters confronted riot police outside the Latvian parliament. Outnumbered by the angry crowd, many of the police had their riot shields and batons ripped out of their hands.

By January 16 similar protests had spread to neighbouring Lithuania. Demonstrators in the capital Vilnius defended themselves from police baton charges and threw tear gas canisters back towards the police lines.

By the end of the protest, many windows of the Lithuanian parliament had been smashed.

Anti-government protests also erupted in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia on January 14. Police attacked the demonstrators, arresting 150 and injuring more than a dozen.

Undeterred, protests have continued outside the Bulgarian parliament almost every day since then, demanding greater democracy and accountability from government.

Anger is also brewing in Hungary and the Ukraine. Both countries' economies have been ravaged by the economic crisis. The International Monetary Fund has waded in with bail-out loans of $26 billion to Hungary and $16 billion for the Ukraine — but these loans are having little impact in alleviating the crisis for ordinary people.

As both governments announce further cutbacks to services and unpopular new taxes, popular discontent threatens to explode.

In France, the government's anti-worker, pro-corporate response to the economic crisis and massive job losses have provoked a series of general strikes. The next will occur on March 19 with the support of France's eight union federations.

This follows the huge general strike on January 29, where 2.5 million protesters took to the streets. According to a poll by French magazine l'Express, 69 per cent of the French supported the strike.

French President Sarkozy has called for talks with the unions, but without major concessions further strikes and protests appear certain.

Greek rebellion

Meanwhile in Greece, the police killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos on December 6 triggered the widespread social unrest that has dominated European headlines since.

The movement began as a spontaneous mobilisation by those outraged by ongoing police brutality.

But it has since developed into a broader campaign, incorporating the concerns of those disenfranchised by the effects of economic rationalism, a problem only exacerbated by the economic crisis.

The demonstrations resumed in the new year on January 9, with a militant march of 20,000 teachers and students in Athens.

Central to this movement has been the thousands of school and university students who have organised demonstrations and other actions, often by email and text message, which have shaken towns and cities across Greece. These actions have been supported by wider workers' strikes and actions by farmers.

Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis was elected in 2004 on a platform of openness and honesty. It was a promise that the Greek people had heard many times before.

Three political families have largely controlled Greek politics since the 1950s — interrupted only by the military dictatorship of 1967-74.

The two main capitalist parties, New Democracy and the Socialist Party, have shared power between them for the last 30 years.

Now, the people of Greece, like in many other countries across the globe, are beginning to see their faith in the ruling powers disintegrate.

Stratos Fanaras, political analyst and director of Metron Analysis, told the January edition of Le Monde Diplomatique: “The studies we have recently conducted show that all economic indices as well as people's aspirations for the future have sunk to a record low. People feel let down and disillusioned, and cannot see the situation improving.

“This reaction is the same for men and women, and across all social classes and educational levels.”

The Exarchia district in central Athens, where Grigoropoulos was killed, has become a base for radical protest actions. The area is located close to the Athens Polytechnic — the site of a famous student uprising crushed by the military junta in 1973.

As the protests have swelled, discontent has reached all corners of Greek society. Farmers have protested over low prices by setting up roadblocks on the Bulgarian border throughout January.

Meanwhile, Greek journalists have joined protesters in occupying television stations and the offices of the conservative journalists' union.

At the same time, a new movement in solidarity with the people of Gaza has swept British universities.

Thousands of students have occupied lecture theatres and other buildings across England and Scotland demanding their universities condemn Israel's brutal attacks and cut academic ties with Israeli institutions.

The student movement has also demanded that British universities provide scholarships for Palestinian students, undertake to divest from the arms trade, and send unused books and computers to Palestine.

The campus occupations have sparked greater student involvement in other political issues, including a campaign to demand the abolition of university tuition fees.

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, commented to the February 8 Independent: “What we've seen over the Gaza issue is a resurgence of a particular type of protest: the occupation. It's a long time since we've seen student occupations on such a scale.

"It's about time we got the student movement going again and had an impact.”

How far will it go?

Forty-one years after the rebellious year of 1968 that shook the world, new movements are forming, determined that working people and the poor should not have to pay for the capitalists' crisis.

But the question of organisation, of turning movements into vehicles for genuine far-reaching change, remains.

In response to this challenge, the formation of political parties able to link up with these movements, parties that strive for a “socialism of the 21st century”, is essential.

“Make no mistake”, wrote the New Statesman's Neil Clark on December 4, “socialism — pure, unadulterated socialism, an ideology that was taken for dead by liberal capitalists — is making a strong comeback.

“Across the continent, there is a definite trend in which long-established parties of the centre left that bought in to globalisation and neoliberalism are seeing their electoral dominance challenged by unequivocally socialist parties which have not.”

Clark draws on the new popularity of left social-democratic parties such as Die Linke in Germany and the Socialist Party in the Netherlands as evidence for the continent's shift towards the left.

Another indication is the growing support for the Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) in Greece — a coalition of more than 10 left political groups. In the 2004 legislative elections, SYRIZA garnered 3.3% of votes. Recent polls suggest its support now sits as high as 20%.

Clark doesn't comment on possibly the most radical and promising of the new formations on the European left: the New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA) in France. The public approval rating of prominent NPA leader Olivier Besancenot has topped 50% in recent weeks.

The public interest around the creation of the NPA signifies the importance of rebuilding the organised left as a pre-requisite to building movements for social change that can win.

Even during this economic crisis, which has already thrown millions more people around the world into desperate poverty, democratic socialist change can often seem a far-off prospect.

But the very people who can create this change are increasingly taking action now in the belief that a new future of justice and equality is something worth fighting for.


~ Source: Green Left Weekly ~

New Media and the Riots in Athens

From a critique by Bri Riggio:
 
They began with the police shooting of a 15-year old student, and for many people around the world who read about the December 2008 riots transpiring in Athens, Greece, a murderous police officer on a power trip appeared to be the primary reason for the subsequent violent uprising. Yet, while the tragic death may have acted as a catalyst for revolt, the issues and implications went much deeper, and the rebellious youths who torched areas of downtown Athens were more likely protesting their corrupt government as a whole as well as the defective Greek economy.

While the riots were violent and tragic, media coverage greatly over-sensationalized the events. Reading over foreign newspaper articles covering the riots, reporters made it sound as if all of Athens was burning and that the entire country was experiencing internal unrest. In reality, the rioters consisted of young, self-declared anarchists –not your average Greek citizens –demonstrating only in a few important Athenian neighborhoods with rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Shockingly, within 24 hours of the original outburst, the riots had spread from downtown Athens to other significant Greek cities such as Thessalonica and Trikala. Within days, violence erupted on the southernmost island of Crete and on the eastern island of Corfu. Eventually, even the Greek embassies in Germany and Britain were overrun by Greek ex-patriots who stormed the buildings in solidarity.

But it was not the zealous sensationalism by the mainstream media that caused these violent manifestations of Greek sympathy. As New American Media's Andrew Lam explained in an article published on Alternet.com, the traditional news media were actually slow to cover the events. About a week later, his investigation discovered that the extraneous and spontaneous riot eruptions were not so spontaneous after all. Indeed, it appeared as if the Greek youths were using so-called “new media” social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook as well as cell phone text messaging to rally and organize their destructive efforts. Perhaps these methods of communication and organization are not so strange or far-fetched from an U.S. standpoint, but for many Greeks who live in a country still heavily steeped in tradition and not entirely up-to-speed on new media, this behavior likely seemed alarming.

The media madness hardly stopped there. Footage of the riots almost immediately began springing up on YouTube, some produced by news wires such as the Associated Press, but more often videos shot by the rioters themselves. On one hand, such videos act as a way of global communication, transmitting information about an important event around the world instantaneously. But on the other, some of these YouTube pieces posted by regular citizens served as propaganda, promoting the rioters' actions and showing people firsthand the actions needed to avenge the Greek government's transgressions.

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