GAZA, GAZA, PLEASE DON'T CRY, PALESTINE WILL NEVER DIE!!

There were well over 1,000 people in attendance throughout the entire rally in support of the Palestinian people in Gaza today, which was significantly more than the first emergency protest in support of Gaza on Dec. 29, where approximately 300 people showed up. People came in buses, vans, etc. after Friday congregation prayers from local Mosques. There were even contingents from Buffalo and New York City.

This was really a good turnout considering the time frame in contacting members of the local Arab and Muslim community in Cleveland. Supporters from all walks of life were present and lively as well!

Alison Weir, from If Americans Knew (ifamericansknew.com) was guest speaker along with others from the Cleveland area. There was a minister from a church, and an eloquent Muslim speaker from the African-American community.

Channel 3 News Channel | Channel 19 Action News: Cleveland Locals Protest for Gaza

WKYC News Article | The Other Side of the Story Site - Comparing the Damage

YouTube - Cleveland Gaza Protest (1 of 3) | YouTube - Cleveland Gaza Protest (2 of 3) | YouTube - Cleveland Gaza Protest (3 of 3) | YouTube - Gaza protest downtown Cleveland

*The demo will not be at Public Square as was originally planned.*

Join the Middle East Peace Forum and Al-Awda/PRRC Cleveland (Al-Awda.org) demonstration against the Israeli attacks on Gaza in Cleveland, at 18th Street and Euclid Avenue (Across from the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland), Friday, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:30PM.

Demonstration organizers will host Allison Weir, journalist and founder of If Americans Knew, as keynote speaker at the protest Friday.

Friday's demonstration is an appeal to the US and Israeli governments to end the siege and military attacks in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Palestinians in Gaza have been under siege for nearly two years and have been suffering a terror attack by the Israeli (US-funded) military since, Dec. 27.

"We hold sorrow for all the deaths, especially civilians," said spokesman, Don Bryant, on behalf of the demonstration organizers, Middle East Peace Forum, The Greater Cleveland Arab Community, the Council on American Islamic Relations, and the Interfaith Council for Peace in the Middle East.

FYI: There will be thousands of passersby's due to the sold out Cleveland Cavs VS. Chicago Cubs game in the vicinity. So come out for this great opportunity to get our message out in support of our people in Gaza, Palestine who are currently enduring a brutal Israeli Massacre! We need not be idle at this time!

The Israeli military attack against Palestinian civilians in Gaza Strip has reached an unprecedented mass scale level in the past two days. This has left more the 300 people dead and over 700 injured, most of whom are women and children as well as causing collateral damage to civic and residential buildings.

Israeli air strikes pounding Gaza are deepening the humanitarian crisis in an area that was already in deep distress, according to a United Nations official. "The situation is absolutely disastrous," U.N. official Christopher Gunness told CNN on Sunday.

Palestinian human rights organizations call the attacks "a war crime." The organizations stated: "Both the time and location of these attacks also indicate a malicious intent to inflict as many casualties as possible with many of the police stations located in civilian population centers and the time of the attacks coinciding with the end of the school day resulting in the deaths of numerous children."

The first Protest Rally was held Monday, 12/29/08 at Public Square

Brief Report-Back: The Middle East Peace Forum press conference on Israeli attacks on Gaza was covered by 3, 19 and PD today; about 275 people showed up on Pub. Sq tonight for the protest of US funded Israeli attacks on Gaza- these attacks have killed 350 people, 20 children under age 16, women and other civilians and combatants, over 100 were injured- some will die because of the 2-year siege that has left hospitals ill-equiped.
Maria Smith spoke on behalf of nonviolence at the rally this eve. Yoshiko Ikuta, Fuad Hamed and Abedel Baset (Freddie) also spoke and many other Palestinians, Arab-Americans, activists and people of color spoke at the rally

Commentary:
Gaza: The Logic of Colonial Power
Nir Rosen, the Guardian
Full article here

[excerpt]
Normative rules are determined by power relations. Those with power determine what is legal and illegal. They besiege the weak in legal prohibitions to prevent the weak from resisting. For the weak to resist is illegal by definition. Concepts like terrorism are invented and used normatively as if a neutral court had produced them, instead of the oppressors. The danger in this excessive use of legality actually undermines legality, diminishing the credibility of international institutions such as the United Nations. It becomes apparent that the powerful, those who make the rules, insist on legality merely to preserve the power relations that serve them or to maintain their occupation and colonialism.

Attacking civilians is the last, most desperate and basic method of resistance when confronting overwhelming odds and imminent eradication. The Palestinians do not attack Israeli civilians with the expectation that they will destroy Israel. The land of Palestine is being stolen day after day; the Palestinian people is being eradicated day after day. As a result, they respond in whatever way they can to apply pressure on Israel. Colonial powers use civilians strategically, settling them to claim land and dispossess the native population, be they Indians in North America or Palestinians in what is now Israel and the Occupied Territories. When the native population sees that there is an irreversible dynamic that is taking away their land and identity with the support of an overwhelming power, then they are forced to resort to whatever methods of resistance they can. [...clip...]

On Monday, December 8th, Cleveland City Council became the third city in Ohio – joining Cleveland Heights and Toledo – to create a domestic partnership registry.

While the registry does not create any new legal rights, it can be an invaluable tool for unmarried same and opposite sex couples to access other services – such as employment benefits, child care, hospital visitation, and more.

The new registry also sends a message to the community that all families are valued and respected.

Please thank these members of Cleveland City Council who voted in favor of the registry:

Dona Brady (Ward 19)
Anthony Brancatelli (Ward 12)
Joe Cimperman (Ward 13)
Kevin Conwell (Ward 9)
Brian Cummins (Ward 15)
Martin J. Keane (Ward 21)
Kevin J. Kelley (Ward 16)
Mamie J. Mitchell (Ward 6)
Michael D. Polensek (Ward 11)
Joe Santiago (Ward 14)
Martin J. Sweeney (Ward 20)
Jay Westbrook (Ward 18)
Matt Zone (Ward 17)

Read Full Story

by DR, CG, CIMC

The worker occupation of the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Chicago's Goose Island by members of UE (United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America) Local 1110 went into its third day on Sunday, and workers have vowed to continue the occupation until they are paid back pay and benefits, or until the plant is re-opened.

The occupation was declared on Friday, the day the company moved to shutter the plant with only three days notice — in violation of federal and state labor laws. Owners have also cut off employees' insurance and failed to pay back pay. The takeover has sparked a groundswell of support across the nation, with rallies, e-mail campaigns, petition drives, fundraisers and plans for future actions. [ Updated news links ]

Company management blames the shut-down on Bank of America, which cut their credit line — after BoA received $25 billion in federal bailout money that the bank said they did not need. Since the bailout began, BoA — like big banks across the globe — has slashed credit lines to businesses, forcing a growing number of small and medium-sized companies to shut down. Workers plan to meet with company and bank representatives on Monday — and to picket BoA's LaSalle St. offices on Tuesday if Republic's line of credit is not restored.

The action at Republic Windows comes on the heels of a drive to kick out the company union, which had colluded with company owners and management for years. That effort succeeded after three years of struggle. Republic Windows' worker occupation is one of the first actions of its kind in the United States since the Great Depression, when a wave of sit-in strikes and factory occupations marked one of the most militant phases in U.S. labor history.

Accounts from the CIMC newswire [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 ] Local Blogs: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |5 | 6 ] Photos: [ 1 |2 ] Video: [ 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 ] Radio: Labor Express live streaming at WLUW | WINS Radio interviews UE's Leah Fried

 

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is a 2002 documentary about the April 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt which briefly deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. A television crew from Ireland's national broadcaster, RTÉ happened to be recording a documentary about Cháve during the events of April 11, 2002.

Shifting focus, they followed the events as they occurred. During their filming, the crew recorded images of the events that they say contradict explanations given by Chávez' opposition, the private media, the US State Department, and then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. The documentary says that the coup was the result of a conspiracy between various old guard and anti-Chávez factions within Venezuela and the United States.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8(Final)

The documentary follows Bev Harris and Kathleen Wynne, director and associate director for nonprofit election watchdog group Black Box Voting, as they attempt to discover the extent to which it would be possible to alter results on the electronic voting machines of Diebold Election Systems (now Premier Election Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of Diebold). Kathleen Wynne captured live video of Harris finding voting machine records in a Volusia County trash bag, and captured video of Cuyahoga County elections workers admitting that the initial 3% recount ballots had not been randomly selected during the 2004 presidential election. Harris and Wynne then embarked on a series of five voting machine hack tests with Dr. Herbert Thompson and Harri Hursti in 2005 and 2006. During the course of the documentary, multiple methods of tampering with the votes are shown.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

Latest Related Newswire Article

As countries around the world modernize their public elections process, the big problem with electronic voting machines is that the market is moving slow to provide equipment which fulfills all of the requirements for a fully democratic election. In many cases, printed proof of a citizen’s vote is still needed, in case the machine has buggy software or if there is suspicion of fraud. This problem, amongst others, are being floated around the voting machine industry. The Secretary of State from California, Debora Bowen, spoke at EmTech (Emerging Technologies Conference) and said that if the e-voting machines used free software, they would be easier to certify as trustable.

She explains that the county decision-makers who are responsible for choosing an e-voting solution for their political jurisdiction have a hard time with proprietary, closed voting machines because they can’t see the code to certify their reliability. It has being proved, that the most popular (and proprietary) electronic voting machines have security holes. And, with a bizarre twist added by intellectual property laws, not only the code but even the voting data submitted to the machine belongs to the e-voting machine company — and not the state or the people, a problem faced in Ohio when a government audit of Diebold voting machines was attempted. What’s worse, Diebold has a proven history of lying followed by cover-up attempts through censorship (in a case that involved the Community Colo in the SF Bay Area).

Bowen believes that if the code is not closed by copyright, the government can analyze the system and certify that it is secure enough to be used during a election.

Showing that in some was the United States needs to catch up to democratic innovations, Latin America has already chosen free software for their voting machines. In Brazil, the government migrated all of its e-voting machines to free software, after months of audits by different authorities and experts and, this year, state elections will use the free software system. Read Full Article

October 22, 2008 marks the 13th Annual National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. The National Day of Protest was initiated by a diverse coalition of organizations and individuals, who came together out of our concern that the peoples resistance to police brutality needed to be taken to a higher level nationwide. In Cleveland a protest is planned to begin at 4:30pm meeting at Woodhill Ave. & E.93rd, behind Fourth District police station in Luke Easter Park. Full information can be found on the Indymedia calendar. It is requested to wear black in memory of those whose lives have been stolen from us at the hands of the police who were meant to serve and protect.

Junk Food for Junk Bonds

On Wednesday, October 1st, Cleveland Jobs with Justice participated in a National Day of Action with 12 other local Jobs with Justice Coalitions. Community, faith and labor advocates conducted rallies, street theater, bake sales and ‘billionaires for bail-outs’ actions to tell Congress and Wall Street that people are fed up with corporate greed and demanded a “Main Street Recovery Plan.” In solidarity our message was clear! We were telling Congress “No Bail-out!” unless they addressed the following:

• Make the people that created and profited from the mess pay for the clean-up, now.
• Any infusion of capital must have specific, binding public ownership requirements.
• Restructure and rein in the reckless private financial institutions.
• Pass a real recovery plan, for Main Street as well as Wall Street, paid for with progressive taxation,
  that addresses the needs for good jobs, affordable housing, health care, pensions, infrastructure and ‘green’ economy

Cleveland Jobs with Justice, together with 40 area activists from 13 coalition partners and other social justice organizations joined us as we protested the $700 Billion bail-out. Passersby were given junk food with the message to "Stop Corporate Greed - Put Main Street before Wall Street!" Cleveland Jobs with Justice was sending the clear message to Congress and Bush that we did not want them to bail out a corrupt system. Instead, we wanted them to build a system that works before they decided to invest $700 Billion of our money by giving away a corporate handout. Photos from the local event in Cleveland.

Planning is underway with National Jobs with Justice for a Bail-out for the People.

Thursday, September 18th
7:30pm

Denison Ave. UCC
9900 Denison Avenue @ 99th and Denison (please use side entrance on 99th St.)
Free – Donations gladly accepted!

This Thursday, the Prison Poster Project launches its first national tour with a presentation in Cleveland. The PPP uses art to explain how the prison-industrial complex operates, the role of prisons in the white supremacist, capitalist, imperialist patriarchy and why prisons need to go. The PPP is a group of prison abolitionists and social justice activists inside and outside of prison, and tool the they have created is one they hope can be spread to those that need it and put to use all over the country.

The Cleveland Presentation features the Oneness village band.

Sponsored by Cleveland Books to Prisoners, Cleveland New Black Panther Party, Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience Project, Jericho Movement, and the Cleveland Anarchist Black Cross.