REMEMBERING MEXICO CITY 1968, MANY STILL DEMAND ANSWERS

Mexico's El Universal newspaper reports several dozen persons, mostly students of different levels of the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), protested this morning in front of the premises of the Agency 50 of the Public Ministry in support of their colleagues arrested yesterday during the march commemorating the 1968 massacre of students in Mexico City.

The Attorney General of the Federal District (PGJDF) reported that 24 youths are still detained at the agency 50 of the Public Ministry accused of various crimes.

Many of those arrested were busted by secret police dressed as civilians.

More than 30,000 people turned out on the streets of Mexico City on Thursday to demand justice for student protesters killed by Mexican security forces in a 1968 demonstration. The killings took place a few days before the Mexican capital hosted the 1968 Olympic Games. The number of deaths in the incident is still disputed and no one has ever been jailed for involvement.

Shouting "October 2 is not forgotten," AFP reports protesters set off from the Square of Three Cultures where the massacre took place and from the capital's Chapultepec park to meet for a rally in the main Zocalo square.

"I'm here to denounce the most despicable act committed in Mexico," Aarceli Bernal, a 26-year-old student, said.

Protesters in Tlatelolco drew chalk figures on the ground covered with blood stains to remember those killed by the security forces.

Newspaper cuttings of the massacre, showing soldiers standing ready to fire, were plastered on a candle-laden altar in one corner of the square.

Felix Hernandez one of those who helped to organize the march said, "Our struggle still lives to know the truth about what happened that October 2nd."

Melissa Toscano Lazcano writes today in the student newspaper at San Antonio College:

"Dos de Octubre; no se olvida" is a historical motto that still resounds in the hearts of Mexicans familiar with the events of 1968. "Second of October; don't forget."

I'm not referring to the Olympic Games set in Mexico City that same year, but of the military shooting of students and civilians resulting in unknown hundreds of wounded, dead and disappeared individuals during a student meeting at Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Mexico's Tlatelolco."

...This happened around my father's early 20s and he recalls the military tanks driving along the Mexican streets intimidating more than watching over their brother citizens days before the fatal climax."

...One may not be directly affected and not care to acknowledge its significance, but it is an important lesson for anyone who values human dignity."

Amnesty International described what happened that day in downtown Mexico City, just days before the 1968 Olympics. Police, military and unidentified armed men surrounded La Plaza de Las Tres Culturas, Tlatelolco, "The square was full of people demonstrating against police brutality as part of a general student strike that followed the beating of students by the anti-riot police "los granaderos" in July. At about 6pm, they opened fire, from armoured vehicles using heavy weapons and soldiers on foot carrying bayonet rifles. They fired on the square packed with students and on surrounding residential buildings."

Cuauhtemoc Padilla Marroquin, a teacher who was 15 when the massacre took place told the LA Times, "I remember how the tanks rolled over the dead and the injured, how they attacked a number of my friends with bayonets."

Javier Zúñiga, now a special advisor at Amnesty International, then a lecturer at the National School of Agriculture, had brought his wife and two-year-old daughter to what was expected to be a peaceful event that October day. They witnessed the arrival of government troops from a nearby bridge overlooking the square.

"Forty years on from the Tlatelolco massacre, so many disturbing questions remain unanswered," said Javier Zúñiga. "Who ordered the massacre? For how long had it been planned? How many were killed? Who are those whose bodies still have not been identified?

Amnesty yesterday called on the Mexican government to finally conduct a real investigation and take appropriate action.

"President Calderón’s government has been all but silent on this dark chapter in Mexico’s history. We challenge this administration to open all relevant archives and records, establish a new and independent inquiry, and lift the obstacles preventing those responsible for this horrific crime being brought to justice."

Natalia Gonzales Servin, 18, commented aptly during the march,

"When I was little and my mother told me what happened [that night], I couldn't believe it," the student said. "How could it be possible that so many people died and the people did nothing and the media less?

"But as I grew up, I realized that a lot of things happen but people don't act -- it's like they're asleep. 1968 was an awakening."

The following is from Radio France International.

Clashes on '68 massacre anniversary

Protesters clashed with police in Mexico City on Thursday at a commemoration of a student massacre in 1968. Eighteen police officers were injured and 20 people were arrested during the march. Confrontations took place with police as demonstrators demanded justice for those killed in the 1968. When protestors attempted to paint graffiti on a city building wall, police moved in, leading to scuffles.

40th anniversary of the 2 October massacre in which between 44 and 300 student protestors were killed.

The massacre took place ten days before the Mexico Olympic Games of 1968, when security forces opened fire on a crowd of peaceful protestors, then hastily covered up evidence of their actions.

The exact number of victims remains a mystery. Authorities released 44 bodies, but US Central Intelligence Agency reports estimate the number of deaths to be in the hundreds.

Nobody has ever been prosecuted for the massacre.

Political analyst and Mexico specialist Colin Harding was in the country for the first anniversary of the massacre in 1969 and spoke to witnesses.

"People took refuge in the lifts of apartment buildings...the soldiers came along and just sprayed them with bullets,' he told RFI. "It was the most unbelievable event ... Mexicans have never really got over it."

Thursday's protesters set off from the Square of Three Cultures, where the killing took place in 1968, shouting "2 October is not forgotten". Students drew chalk figures covered in blood stains on the ground to represent those killed.

Amnesty International called on Thursday for the government of President Felipe Calderon to establish the truth behind the massacre, saying it was time for the government to assume its responsibility in the matter.

In 2001, President Vicente Fox created the office of the special prosecutor to investigate crimes which took place during Mexico's "dirty war" against left-wing activists, which began in the 1960s and lasted until around 1980.

The Interior Minister at the time of the 1968 massacre was a target of the investigations. Luis Echeverria was in charge of both the federal police and a clandestine military unit at the time of the massacre. He later became President of Mexico.

Mexican courts have blocked attempts to prosecute him for genocide.

OUTRAGE OVER NUTTY U.S. DECISION TO BAN JOURNALISTS FROM COVERING UNITED NATIONS

From the "what the hell are they thinking" category comes news that the US government has decided to deny entry visas to two correspondents from Prensa Latina - Ilsa Rodriguez and Tomas Anael Granados - who regularly cover the United Nations.

The State Department declined to comment on the matter.

Journalists and their organizations from around the world have condemned the bizarre action.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today called on the U.S. government to explain its decision.

CPJ says the two married journalists have together accumulated four decades of experience working both in Cuba and overseas in countries like India, Zimbabwe, China, and the U.S., reported Prensa Latina. They were vacationing in Cuba when they learned that their U.S. visas would not be renewed, the agency reported.

A spokeswoman for Prensa Latina in Havana told CPJ that, according to a recent letter from U.S. authorities, the two reporters were denied visas under a clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act that can deny entry to any person or group considered prejudicial to the interests of the United States.

Prensa Latina denounced the action arguing, "The visa denial ... shows the United States' open disdain for journalism and the universal human right of informing and being informed, while not fulfilling its duty as host to the United Nations main headquarters."

The Foreign Press Association in Peru (APEP) and the Chilean College of Journalists on Tuesday expressed their support for the two Prensa Latina correspondents at the United Nations.

APEP president Lucien Chauvin said that, while Washington has the right to decide who it allows into its territory, the U.N. grounds in New York are international territory and therefore outside Washington's jurisdiction.

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) called on the office of the UN secretary-general to intercede on behalf of the two journalists.

“This measure is both persecutory and incomprehensible,” RWB said. “Since when could journalists who have been accredited to the United Nations for three years suddenly pose a ‘threat’ to the United States? That is what the US authorities seem to think, to judge by the clause they brandished without further explanation.”

The following is from Prensa Latina.

Peru Journalist Decries US Outrage

Lima, Oct 1 (Prensa Latina) Editor of Peruvian La Primera daily, Cesar Levano, condemned on Wednesday the US denial of entry visas to two Prensa Latina correspondents accredited to the United Nations.

"I join the protest of international journalism against the denial of visas to two Cuban colleagues accredited to the UN," the veteran journalist told Prensa Latina.

He added that Washington's attitude against Ilsa Rodriguez and Anael Granados, who have been unable to return to the United Nations after spending vacations in Cuba, confirms that "the government of George W. Bush is again showing his anti-democratic credentials."

Previously, Chair of Foreign Press in Peru (APEP), US Lucien Chauvin, criticized the US decision, describing it as contradicting the defense of freedom of the press the northern country so much promotes.

BLIND PROTEST MOVIE "BLINDNESS" AS INACCURATE, DEPLORABLE, HARMFUL, AND REVOLTING

Across the nation, blind people are protesting the release of the movie, BLINDNESS. "Blindness" portrays a breakdown in society after a virus starts wiping out everyone’s vision, turning them into savages, who compete for meager resources.

Many blind people charge the movie is deplorable to the blind of the nation and encourages the public to accept negative stereotypes about them.

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) says the portrayal of the blind in the film is "simply inaccurate." The NFB points out blind people are a cross-section of society who happen to share the physical characteristic of being unable to see. The blind are employed in almost every profession imaginable, have homes and families, raise children, do volunteer work in their communities, and generally lead normal, productive lives. To the extent this is not the case, the problem is not blindness itself, but rather the misconceptions and stereotypes that society holds about blindness and blind people.

The NFB which is organizing protests across the country at showings of the film states on it web page:

"The premise in the film Blindness is that everybody but one person becomes blind. The description of society as an increasing number of its members become blind is one of filth, greed, perversion, and vice. The film depicts blind people as incapable of doing everything, including basic tasks like bathing, dressing, and traveling. Blindness becomes a metaphor for all that is bad in human thought and action. Blind people in the movie have every negative human trait and few of the positive ones. The only encouraging element in the release of this film is the almost universal reaction of the critics that the film is a failure."

Marc Maurer, President of the 50,000-member National Federation of the Blind, said of the film in his July 2008 banquet address, "The Urgency of Optimism":

“The capabilities of those who become blind remain essentially the same after they lose vision as they were before they lost it. Although the loss of any major asset (including vision) will bring a measure of sadness to some and despair to a few, it will also stimulate others to assert their will. Blindness can be a devastating loss, but it also has the power to galvanize some to action. The reaction to blindness is not the least bit one-dimensional. Therefore the description is false. . . . The charge that loss of vision creates a personality alteration to a sordid and criminal character is in itself sordid and defamatory to an entire class of human beings.”'

This film will do incalculable harm to the public image of blind people. Society labors under multiple misconceptions about blindness and blind people, and this film promises only to affirm and strengthen these false impressions. The film Blindness will diminish opportunities for blind people to find employment, a distressing reality considering that over 70 percent of blind people are already under-employed or unemployed. The film will also further lower the general public's expectations about the ability of blind people to be fully contributing members of society. Both of these consequences will be devastating to the hopes and aspirations of blind people."

President Maurer concluded his reflections on the film when he said, "The description in Blindness is wrong–completely, unutterably, irretrievably, immeasurably wrong. That such falsity should be regarded as good art is revolting and amazing."'

The NFB began planning the protests after seven staffers, including Christopher Danielsen, a spokesman for the organization, attended a screening of the movie in Baltimore last week. The group included three sighted employees.

"Everybody was offended," Danielsen told the AP.

Protests are planned in at least 21 states. This will be the largest protest in the 68-year history of the NFB, which has 50,000 members and works to improve blind people's lives through advocacy, education and other ways.

Miramax, the studio responsible for the movie, released a statement that read, in part, "We are saddened to learn that the National Federation of the Blind plans to protest the film `Blindness.'"

If you look around the web you'll find many bloggers attacking the NFB's position. They say the NFB is taking "political correctness" to another extreme. How many times have we heard this rap?

The blog Justice for All has a good answer to this charge.

"Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, but not his or her own facts. If an artist were to create a painting called “Elephant,” but the picture in fact represented a giraffe, a camel, or a creature from the artist’s own imagination, then any art critic–or any layman–would point out that the picture does not, in fact, represent an elephant. The person pointing out the inconsistency would not be accused of “political correctness” or a “difference of opinion” with the artist, but would be recognized as having good common sense. The portrait of blind people in this movie is simply wrong; artistic license does not permit a writer or a filmmaker to make false assertions about an entire group of people. The stereotyping of blind people is just as inappropriate as the stereotyping of African-Americans, women, Hispanics, or any other group of individuals who share common characteristics."

The following is from Wired News.

Dystopian Thriller Blindness Sparks Protests

A group of blind activists are outraged by a dystopian film depicting an unexplained epidemic that renders humankind sightless.

The protesters claim the film Blindness -- which features blind people attacking each other and trading sex for food -- is offensive and reinforces negative stereotypes about the blind.

"The movie portrays blind people as monsters, and I believe it to be a lie," Maurer, president of the Baltimore-based National Federation of the Blind told the Associated Press. "Blindness doesn't turn decent people into monsters."

Maurer plans to lead his organization and allies in demonstrations during the film's opening night on Friday. Boycotters will hand out fliers and carry signs.

Blindness is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name about the collapse of society.

Director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) spoke out during Cannes when the film premiered, saying the film is a metaphor for blindness to the human condition -- such as the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and global crises.

A few months earlier, Ben Stiller's R-rated Hollywood parody Tropic Thunder sparked a similar reaction among advocates for the disabled over the repeated use of the word "retard" in the film -- a response that may have been a bit more expected, considering the joke was more explicit in its nature.

BRITISH BANK WORKERS PROTEST AGAINST TORIES ROLE IN FINANCIAL CRISIS

Finance workers wearing bowler hats and pig masks demonstrated outside the British Conservative Party conference today protesting about donations the Tories have reportedly received from hedge fund managers.

The union Unite which organized the protest and has 180,000 members working in financial services, has complained of a "deafening silence" from the Conservatives over how to tackle the current economic crisis.

Unity says the Tories are cashing in on the credit crunch.

The row has been sparked by disclosures that a number of Tory donors have been involved in short-selling banks which have either had to be taken over or nationalised by the government.

Unite Joint general secretary Derek Simpson said today: "This exposes the Tories for what they really are. They are funding their party and maybe even their election campaign on the misery of thousands of British families, who could lose their homes and jobs because of the spivs and speculators.

"Thousands of staff at banks like HBOS and LloydsTSB fear for their jobs but the Tories seem more interested in taking money from the culprits of the credit crunch than helping the victims.

The GMB - Britain's General Union meanwhile demanded that the Financial Services Authority, the regulator, launch an inquiry into the Tory donors who are connected to the short selling of bank shares.

Paul Kenny, the GMB's general secretary, said: "GMB is aware that there is a major inquiry under way in the US to establish if rules were broken during the recent meltdown in the financial sector. GMB would like the FSA to establish what meetings these donors had with Tory politicians and what they discussed at the meetings.

"Did these meetings influence the recent Tory defence of short trading which brought down the Bank of Scotland?"

The following is from the BBC.

Bank staff protest at conference

Bank workers from across the West Midlands have protested outside the Conservative Party Conference.

The protesters, backed by the union Unite, claimed that financiers caused the economic downturn and were the same people who funded the Tory party.

Gerard Coyne, the regional secretary of Unite, said people were worried about losing their jobs.

The protesters gathered outside the ICC in Birmingham on the last day of the conference.

The protest followed Tuesday's announcement that US finance firm GE Money would close its Wolverhampton office with the loss of about 100 jobs.

Market 'rumours'

Of the 2.5m workers across the Midlands, about 425,000 people work in the finance sector.

Mr Coyne said: "We're not at the end of this yet and in these circumstances it's really hard to predict the number of job losses.

"It could be in the number of tens of thousands."

He added: "The state of the market is such that any rumour about the future, particularly of a banking institution or financial institution, can absolutely run rife."

BLACK PANTHERS WHO HAVE SPENT DECADES IN PRISON CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR THEIR FREEDOM

Try and imagine spending more than three decades in solitary confinement in some lousy Louisiana prison. That's been the fate of Albert Woodfox (and fellow inmate Herman Wallace) who have been imprisoned since 1972 for the murder of prison guard Brent Miller.

The true reason is that they tried to organize a chapter of the Black Panther Party in the prison (see earlier article).

Now, finally, in response to a federal judge's decision overturning the conviction of Woodfox, one of the two 'Angola 3' members who remain in prison, lawyers for the men called on the State Attorney General's office to drop any further charges and release the men immediately.

'Both the magistrate judge and the district court judge have now found that Woodfox's conviction was invalid and had to be reversed. Woodfox has demonstrated the deep flaws in the state's investigation and prosecution of the case against him, and has presented evidence of his innocence. If the State of Louisiana appeals, it will bear the burden of showing the court of appeals that both of the two judges were incorrect. As the facts and the law are so clearly on the side of Mr. Woodfox, we are confident that the State cannot carry that burden. No further legal delay should deprive Albert of even one more day of his life,' said Chris Aberle, one of Woodfox's lawyers.

'The state has already stolen nearly four decades of Albert Woodfox's life. The injustice in this case is unfathomable. How can Louisiana continue to imprison a 61 year old man after a federal judge has ruled that he shouldn't have been convicted in the first place? Albert must be released,' said Nick Trenticosta, co-counsel in the case.

The State though doesn't intend to release him, not yet anyway.

Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell said Friday he will make every effort to keep Albert Woodfox in prison for the 1972 murder of a prison guard.

This despite the fact that virtually everyone involved in the case including close relatives of the murdered guard agree that State's case against Woodfox (and the other two men) was clearly a fabrication.

"This is not a public servant who is trying to pursue justice," Trenticosta said of Caldwell. "This is a public servant who is trying once again to railroad an innocent man."

The third member of the Angola 3, Robert King, was released in 2001 after a judge overturned his conviction. King had spent 29 years in solitary confinement for a separate crime.

Meanwhile, the Nebraska Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday in the case of another former Black Panther who claims he wasn't given a fair trial when convicted in the 1970 bombing death of an Omaha Police officer.

Edward Poindexter and fellow Black Panther David Rice were convicted in Douglas County District Court for the death of Omaha officer Larry Minard. Authorities claimed the pair lured police to a house with a 911 call, then detonated a homemade bomb that killed Minard.

Both men were sentenced to life in prison, but have long proclaimed their innocence.

The bomb that killed Larry Minard was planted by 15 year-old Duane Peak who confessed to the crime but was only sentenced to 33 months of juvenile detention in exchange for his testimony that Poindexter and Langa put him up to the crime and assisted with assembly of the bomb. Peak, in turn, testified that the dynamite was supplied by 23 year-old Raleigh House, a suspected COINTELPRO informant, who only spent one night in jail and was never formally charged for his role in the crime.

Supporters say the imprisoned Panthers were merely victims of the FBI's notorious COINTELPRO program.

In fact evidence makes clear that at the time, the two leaders of Omaha's Black Panther chapter, called the Nebraska Committee to Combat Fascism, were targets of the clandestine operation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Years after their conviction when some COINTELPRO files became available as a result of several Freedom of Information requests it was "discovered" that even before the murdered policeman was buried, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had given the order to withhold evidence about the unknown caller who lured Minard to his death. Hoover wanted a case made against Poindexter and Langa regardless of what the crime laboratory reported.

Hoovers orders were recorded by FBI Crime Laboratory chief Ivan Willard Conrad. Michael Richardson writes:

"The Omaha FBI Special-Agent-in-Charge sent a memo to Conrad recommending an informal, unwritten lab report on the tape recording of the fatal call. The Omaha Police wanted to identify the caller through vocal analysis of the tape but did not want to release results of the forensic examination to lawyers for Poindexter and Langa. Conrad spoke with Hoover after getting the unusual request to withhold evidence."

The FBI Crime Lab chief scrawled on his copy of the Omaha memo that Hoover approved of the request to not prepare a formal laboratory report on the crucial tape recording. "Dir advised telephonically & said OK to do." Conrad then initialed and dated the memo entry just two days after the bombing."

Omaha Asst. Chief of Police Glen W. Gates later had another memo sent to Hoover by way of the Omaha FBI office asking that no use of the tape be made because it might be "prejudicial to the police murder trial" of Poindexter and Langa. Peak claimed he made the call and placed the bomb under orders from Poindexter, however, the voice on the tape was not that of a 15 year-old but rather an older man thus leaving an unidentified accomplice on the loose and a gaping hole in the prosecution's case against the two Panther leaders."

Conrad followed Hoover's orders and kept quiet about the tape recording. The defense was never provided the tape at trial and the jurors that convicted Poindexter and Langa never got to hear the voice of the actual killer. Peak received a deal from prosecutors and got off with several years of juvenile detention while the two activists were sentenced to life in prison."

Angela Davis, noted University of California professor and political prisoner advocate, told a crowd of 300 justice, civil rights and peace advocates in Omaha recently that the 'Omaha Two' were victims of "repressive authorities" and should be released from prison. She told the crowd, hosted by Nebraskans for Justice, that "the revolution didn't come" and that activists ensnared by COINTELPRO remain imprisoned for crimes they did not commit.

"Our memories aren't as strong as those of the repressive authorities who still hold captive people of that era who fought to end racism, overthrow capitalism and to build a better world for all of us."

We should be ashamed of that fact.

The following is from OP-ED News.com

'Angola 3' Black Panther conviction reversed after 35 years of solitary confinement turns attention to 'Omaha' Two' case
by Michael Richardson

U.S. District Court Judge James J. Brady in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has ordered the state to either free or retry Albert Woodfox after almost three dozen years in solitary confinement. Woodfox, tried with two other co-defendants, was convicted for the 1972 murder of prison guard Brent Miller at Angola Prison where Woodfox was serving a sentence for armed robbery.

After a controversial trial and even more disputed second trial in 1998 when he was retried following appeal of his first conviction, Woodfox may see freedom from the infamous prison where he has been held in virtual isolation over three decades.

Woodfox had been active in a prison chapter of the Black Panthers in racially-charged Angola Prison, a vast plantation-style penitentiary in rural Louisiana. Following conviction for the stabbing murder of Miller a life sentence was imposed and Angola officials decided that for security reasons Woodfox and fellow Panther Herman Wallace would be held in solitary confinement. The 6' by 9' isolation cells would become home, night and day, for thirty-five years.

Magistrate Docia L. Dalby has described the punishment meted out to the two Panthers as, "durations so far beyond the pale that this court has not found anything even remotely comparable in the annals of American jurisprudence."

Judge Brady, after a careful review of the trial record and recommendation of Magistrate Judge Christine Noland, determined that Woodfox had not received a fair trial; that his attorney failed to adequately represent him; and that the state's chief witness, Hezekiah Brown, had gotten a reduced sentence for naming Woodfox. Further, exculpatory information about the physical evidence in the case, bloodstains, was withheld from the jury.

While Woodfox waits for a prosecutor's decision on his future, another Black Panther in the Nebraska State Penitentiary, Ed Poindexter, waits for a ruling from the Nebraska Supreme Court on his request for a new trial. Poindexter and fellow Panther activist Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice) were convicted in April 1971 for the bombing murder of Omaha police officer Larry Minard.

Unlike Woodfox, who was an inmate at the time of his alleged crime, Poindexter and Langa were free and officers in the Nebraska Committee to Combat Fascism and were Omaha's most vocal police critics. On August 17, 1970, police were lured to a vacant house investigating a report of a woman screaming when a bomb killed Minard and injured seven other police officers. Within two days of the bombing, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who had targeted the Black Panthers for dirty tricks, ordered Ivan Willard Conrad, director of the FBI national crime laboratory to withhold information that was not favorable to the prosecution of Poindexter and Langa for Minard's murder.

Hoover was at war with the Black Panthers and secretly directed a clandestine "no holds barred" operation code-named COINTELPRO to put the group out of existence. Using illegal tactics, FBI agents engaged in a nationwide campaign that encouraged violence, planted evidence, withheld evidence, obtained false arrests, and a host of other measures that would later be denounced by the U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Government Operations commonly known as the Church Committee.

At question in the Minard killing was the identify of the unknown caller who made the emergency call to police headquarters. Hidden for years behind a secrecy stamp, Omaha Asst. Chief of Police Glen W. Gates, in a confidential COINTELPRO memo to Hoover, asked the FBI to abandon the search for the killer who made the call because it might "prejudice the police murder trial" against Poindexter and Langa.

Ultimately a 15 year-old, Duane Peak, confessed to the crime and claimed he made the phone call and that Poindexter and Langa put him up to the murder. Peak's story falls apart if someone else made the deadly call. The tape recording, which was withheld from the jury that convicted the two Panther leaders, did not sound like Peak but rather captured the voice of an older man.

The tape was destroyed by local authorities after the trial only to have a duplicate recording emerge years later. The duplicate tape was subjected to modern vocal analysis in 2006 and expert Tom Owens has testified the voice on the tape is not that of Peak, thus leaving an unidentified accomplice on the loose.

Poindexter is seeking a new trial over the withheld evidence and the Nebraska Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case this week. No date has been set for a decision. Poindexter and Langa are serving life sentences at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Both men deny any involvement in the crime.

THE LAWSON FILE: GEE, HAWAII TOURISM BOSS IS SO SORRY ABOUT VULGAR RACIST, SEXIST EMAILS

The Hawaii chapter of the NAACP and several other civil rights groups including the Japanese American Citizens League of Hawaii and the Hawaii Women's Political Caucus marched in Waikiki yesterday to protest the continued employment of the state's top tourism executive.

The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports several dozen protesters, representing a variety of ethnicities, waved signs calling for the removal of Rex Johnson as head of the Hawaii Tourism Authority for forwarding pornographic, racist and sexist e-mails from his government laptop.

The issue ignited again this month when racist and sexist jokes denigrating African-Americans, Hispanics and women which had been found in the recovered files from Johnson's state e-mail account were made public. One e-mail called Sen. Barack Obama a "coon" and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a "beaver."

"Today, we are protesting to urge the Hawaii Tourism Authority to either fire Rex Johnson as the CEO and president, or to urge him to step aside or resign," said Alphonso Braggs, president of the Hawaii NAACP chapter, at the start of the march.

"The reason we are doing this is because Rex Johnson, as CEO and president, on paid time, sent out racist, sexist and pornographic material from his computer. It does not matter that he simply forwarded them. It was over a period of time. It wasn't a singular incident."

The protesters also made it clear that they consider the HTA board's refusal to suspend Johnson inexcusable.

In late August, the HTA board voted unanimously to retain Johnson, but it cut Johnson's $240,000 annual salary by $40,000 and reduced his four-year contract to one year.

In August, when the Board refused to fire their CEO, following an audit which revealed Johnson's inappropriate use of the state computer, HTA Board Chairman Kelvin Bloom tried to explain the boards meager action, “He has apologized to the board for his misuse of his state laptop and we have accepted his apology but sternly warned that any future infractions will be treated more severely. The board also issued a verbal and written reprimand to Rex.”

The board of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) has now decided to hold a special meeting on Oct. 2 in order to reexamine its decision in light of new information. HTA board members say they hadn't seen Johnson's actual e-mails prior to making their decision.

As does almost everyone caught making racist, sexist and other outrageous comments old Rex apologized and said the emails really didn't represent what he thinks. "As I've said before, first and foremost, I again want to apologize to the people of Hawaii," Johnson said yesterday. "Forwarding offensive e-mails was a lack of judgment on my part and a terrible mistake. While it is not a reflection of my character or beliefs, I understand the seriousness of my actions. I am truly sorry for offending anyone as this was not my intent."

Are you as sick of these kind of apologies as me? How could someone making or forwarding or whatever such sentiments later claim, "uh, that's not me?"

Give me a break.

Protester Kathryn Xian, who is with Girl Fest, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing violence against females through education and art, said the HTA board's decision not to fire Johnson sends a message to the public that racism and sexism are acceptable.

Daphne Barbee-Wooten, a civil rights attorney who participated in the march told KHON News, “It's unacceptable to have Rex Johnson still be the CEO of the Hawaii Tourism Authority with the type of e-mails that he read from his friends and forwarded it onto others."

During the protest, more than 300 persons signed a petition calling for Johnson's ouster.

Waikiki resident William Smith was one of those who signed.

"Johnson is supposed to be bringing tourism to Hawaii — not racism," said Smith.

The following is from KITV (Hawaii).

Tourism President Accused Of Sending Graphic, Racist E-Mails

WAIKIKI, Hawaii -- Protesters marched in Waikiki on Saturday to demand that Hawaii Tourism Authority President Rex Johnson leave his post.

Johnson is suspected of forwarding pornographic, racist and sexist e-mails on his state computer.
The Hawaii Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other activists met by the zoo to make signs and prepare for the protest.

"The goal today is to convey to the public the sense of urgency about Rex Johnson either being fired or him resigning," said Alphonso Braggs of the Hawaii Chapter of the NAACP.

"In the long run, he has given the state a bad name. It is as simple as that," said Gwen Johnson of the Hawaii Women's Political Caucus.

The group walked through Waikiki from the zoo to the far end of Kalakaua. Many tourists, not familiar with the issue, seemed baffled.

"No, I am sorry," said Tommy White, a tourist from Georgia who said he didn't know about the situation. "Rex Johnson? What does he do?"

Some locals worried about protesters' impact on Hawaii's already suffering tourism economy.

"I don't think they should be down here," said Kalihi resident Tim Garry. "Business is already hurting down here and they need positive reinforcement not negative."

Johnson has been president of the HTA for six years. He is being accused of using his state computer to forward e-mails his friends sent containing pornographic, sexist and racist jokes.

On Aug. 21, the HTA cut Johnson's salary 17 percent from $240,000 to $200,000 and limited his contract to a year. But since then, the HTA has found some of the jokes Johnson forwarded on his state computer were not only pornographic but also sexist and racist.

Kelvin Bloom, the head of the HTA, said the board takes the issue seriously and that a meeting has been scheduled Thursday to determine how to proceed.

PROFILES IN COWARDICE AND CORRUPTION: WHY MCCAIN AND OBAMA ARE UNITED IN WEAKNESS ON THE FINANACIAL CRISIS

Figured I would just leave you with something to chew on about the current financial mess for the weekend. Sorry about the spacing, but I've got to run and don't have time to fix it up for you.

The following is from ZNet.

Profiles in Cowardice and Corruption: Why McCain and Obama are United in Weakness on the Financial Crisis
by Paul Street

September, 26 2008

GOLDMAN SACHS SOCIALISM



The nation's financial system is in the middle of a colossal crisis caused by massive fraud, idiocy, and greed at the upper reaches of the banking, insurance, and real estate industries. The arch-plutocratic Bush administration and Federal Reserve propose to "solve" the crisis by orchestrating a massive taxpayer bailout granting stupendous rewards to the leading perpetrators. The Paulson-Bernanke plan to buy up $700 billion worth of bad, overpriced mortgage assets takes the venerable corporate principle of "socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor" (privatization of reward and socialization of risk) to grotesque new levels.



Compensating gross business misconduct on a spectacular scale, it would be what former Wall Street economist Michael Hudson called "the largest and worst giveaway since a corrupt Congress gave land grants to the railroad barons a century and a half ago. If it goes through, it will shape the coming century by giving finance unprecedented power over debtors - homebuyers, industry, state and local government, and the federal governmentas well" [1]



As former presidential candidate and progressive Democrat Dennis Kucinich notes, "The double standard is stunning; their profits are their profits, but their losses are our losses." Further: "the same corporate interests that profited from the closing of U.S. factories, the movement of millions of jobs out of America, the off-shoring of profits, the out-sourcing of workers, the crushing of pension funds, the knocking down of wages, the cancellation of health care benefits, the sub-prime lending are now rushing to Washington to get money to protect themselves" [2].



On the front page of the New York Times today (I am writing on Thursday, September 25th), a reporter notes a grave concern among "many ordinary Americans" - that the profound difficulty involved in determining the real value of "troubled investments" could "result in the government's buying them for more than they will ever be worth, a step that would benefit financial institutions at taxpayers' expense." Times reporter Vikas Bajaj notes that "each one of these investments is tied to thousands of individual mortgages, and many of those loans are going bad as the housing market has worsened." Bajaj quotes a leading bond portfolio manager who reports that "we are not going to know what the right price is for years." [3]



But while precise valuation waits, it is a sure bet that the government's purchasing price will be well above fair market value. Asset inflation (along with asset-stripping) is what this latest late-capitalist boom and bust drama - the "mother of all bubbles" (Glen Ford) - is all about [4].



SUBSIDIZING "THE VERY PEOPLE WHO SOLD OUT MY COUNTRY"



Is it any wonder that the Bush administration's scheme to rescue predatory high finance at a price that could fund Society Security for four decades evokes widespread fear and loathing across the United States? Lawmakers of both parties have been releasing e-mail messages from their constituents decrying the proposed bailout. A typical message to Representative Jim McDermott (D-Washington) reads as follows: "I am hoping Congress can find the backbone to stand on their feet and not their knees before BIG BUSINESS." A representative e-mail to conservative Republican congressperson Candice Miller (R-Michigan) said this: "NO BAILOUT, I am a registered republican. I will vote and campaign hard against you if we have to subsidize the very people who have sold out MY COUNTRY." U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) reports 2,000 e-mails and calls that are "95 percent opposed" to the bailout. The reactionary Illinois congressman Ray LaHood (R-Illinois) says he has not seen such an outpouring of citizen rage since the Bill Clinton impeachment trial [5].





"NATIONAL LEADERS IN A TIME OF CRISIS"



How interesting that the supposed "populist" "maverick" John McCain and the alleged left "progressive" Barack Obama have taken a painfully cautious, wary, and vague approach to the epic financial meltdown and the Paulson-Bernake giveaway. These two would-be leaders of "We the People" have watched the historic financial debate with super-careful reserve. They have responded with few if any meaningful differences between them, consistent with the "post-ideological" Obama's request for the open economic ignoramus McCain to join him in issuing a joint statement and with McCain's call to suspend the first presidential debate so that "our national leaders" might "come together at a time of crisis."



Both candidates have called for "greater oversight," for "limits" on executive pay at bailed out firms, and for "ensuring that taxpayers benefit" from whatever emerges. Both have agreed to meet with Bush to forge a Wall Street "rescue bill" because, as both Obama and Bush declare - in Obama's word's yesterday, anticipating Bush's televised statement on the financial crisis last night - the "the risk of doing nothing is economic catastrophe" [6].



Neither of the two business party contenders has called for a moratorium on foreclosures or for writing down the mortgage debt of millions of families facing expropriation. Neither has demanded a public ownership stake in recused firms or the tough re-regulation, disciplining, and political (and campaign finance) neutralization of the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sector's owners and managers. Neither has called for transferring funds from the giant, bloated (but sacrosanct_ "defense" (Empire) budget to support current and would-be homeowners, renters, workers and to stabilize markets poisoned by junk mortgages and other related toxic financial instruments.



"National eeaders?" The only presidential candidates speaking forthrightly and urgently against the proposed Wall Street giveaway have been Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, and Bob Barr. They are banned from the presidential debates, even as McCain threatens not to show up for the first one. They have been preemptively exiled from serious consideration in the corporate-crafted narrow-spectrum electoral extravaganza.





"GIVE US THE MONEY - RIGHT NOW - OR TAKE THE BLAME FOR WHAT FOLLOWS"



The two "mainstream" candidates' cowardly response to the latest spectacular state-capitalist financial fiasco is a result of six basic factors.



First, neither of them wants to be seen as sticking their foot in their mouth on a major but complex issue that changes from one day to the next in accord with shifting markets, polls, and political winds. This is a close race (absurdly enough given the transparent danger and idiocy of the McCain-Palin ticket and the Republican Party's recent record) and one mistaken comment could cost the election.



Second, while both candidates (even the painfully isolated McCain) are sharply aware (that many voters hate Bush's bailout, they also know that officeholders and candidates who oppose the plan risk blame if deepening economic calamity is seen to have resulted from "congressional inaction." As William Greider notes, "Wall Street has put a gun to the head of the politicians and said, ‘Give us the money - right now - or take the blame for what follows'"[7].





DEFECIT v. HOPE"



Third, the major hike in federal debt that is certain to result from a "rescue" plan does not fit well with either of the candidates' campaign promises. The giant public expenditures certain to occur in a likely Wall Street bailout works against McCain's call to extend Bush's tax cuts for the rich. They also challenge Obama's call for "middle class tax cuts" and his promise to increase public subsidies for health care, education, renewable energy, retirement savings, and other priorities. Obama is already talking scaling down some of his already tame "hope" agenda in response to the crisis.





BIPARITSAN COMPLICITY



Fourth, both candidates know that their own parties and key players in their campaigns were centrally involved in key policy moves that created the context for the current financial debacle. During the late 1990s, McCain's longtime ally, associate, and (until recently) economic adviser Phil Gramm was the leading Congressional force behind legislation that exempted numerous toxic financial instruments ("credit swaps," "over the counter derivatives," "credit defaults" and the like) from regulatory scrutiny. Gramm also led the way for the fateful undoing of basic federal (from the New Deal) firewalls between commercial banking, investment banking and the insurance industry [8].



The top Obama advisor and funder Robert Rubin was an even bigger agent of the fateful deregulation of the financial industry and the related drastic over-escalation of financial asset prices during the 1990s "Clinton boom." Under the guidance of the its Treasury Secretary Rubin - a former Goldman Sacs CEO and future Citigroup Chair - the neoliberal Clinton administration (described as "recognizably progressive" in Obama's 2006 campaign book The Audacity of Hope) refused to halt the path to ultimate disaster by taxing speculative financial transactions or by reducing reserve requirements for loans funding productive rather than speculative investments. As Lila Rajiva recently noted, Rubin "was responsible as much as anyone else for blocking regulation of the over-the-counter derivative trade and for consolidating the banks - misdeeds for which the rest of the financial industry is now paying." Rubin influenced Clinton to sign Gramm's deregulatory legislation, favored by Wall Street Republicans and Democrats alike[9].



Perversely enough, Rubin was one of the first to personally profit from the abolition of the separation between commercial and investment banking. Getting out of Dodge before the dot.com asset inflation bubble burst in 2002-2001, Rubin moved from Treasury to become co-director of Citigroup, a newly merged investment-commercial banking conglomerate [10].



WALL STREET SPONSORSHIP



Fifth, both McCain and Obama are deeply beholden to the very financial elites and Wall Street firms who created the current mess and who stand to gain from the Bush-Paulson-Bernanke proposal. Through August of 2008, McCain's top 20 contributors include: Merrill Lynch (#1 at $298,000); Citigroup (#2 at $209,000); Morgan Stanley (3 at $233,000); Goldman Sacs (4 at $208,000); Credit Suisse Group (8 at $150,000); UBSAG (10 at $140,000); PriceWaterhouseCooper (11 at $140,000); Bank of America (13 at $129,000); Wachovia (14 at $122,000); Lehman Bros (15 at $116,000), Bear Stearns (19 at $99,000), and Pinnacle West (20 at $98,000)



Of all the leading U.S. economic sectors, FIRE (finance, real estate, and insurance) is the top giver to McCain at $22,108,921 [11].



Obama's top 20 contributors include Goldman Sachs (#1 at $692,000), Citigroup (#3 at $449,000), JP Morgan Chase (#4 at $405,000), Lehman Bros. (#10 at $371,000), and Morgan Stanley (#16 at $319,000). Note that Goldman Sachs has given three times the amount to Obama it has contributed to McCain and that Citigroup's Obama giving more than doubles its investment in McCain. Obama's #16 contributor - the investment bank Morgan Stanley - gave Obama $20,000 more than McCain got from his top contributor (the investment banker and brokerage house Merrill Lynch).



FIRE is also Obama's top contributor, granting him $24,860,257, more than $2 million more that sector gave to McCain [12].



It is darkly interesting to note that the Obama campaign's finance chair, the Hyatt heress Penny Pritzker, was one of the leading originators of the toxic sub-prime mortgage instrument during the late 1990s, when she served on the board of the Superior Bank in Hinsdale, Illinois [13].



Also worth noting, Obama initially tried to hand his vice presidential nominee vetting process to Jim Johnson, a former CEO of mortgage lender Fannie Mae (recently re-nationalized in the wake of its financial collapse). Johnson was a top player in the meltdown of the financial system [14].



As the prolific author and Wall Street critic Kevin Phillips noted on the Public Broadcasting System's Bill Moyers Show last week, "But then, you've got Obama with Bob Rubin and he doesn't seem to have any problem with the hedge fund types. I mean, one of the Chicago people was a major financer of his. He gets a guy to pick his vice-president. Turns out to be somebody who was part of the Fannie and Freddie mess."



"So I don't exactly see Obama as this fellow riding in on a horse who represents all kinds of reformism. It's an important thing probably to have to change from the Republicans but I don't see that he is free of the ties to finance and Democratic Party financial types....."



When Moyers noted many Democrats' hopes that a new New Deal - involving tightened financial regulation among other progressive reforms - is in the offing under an Obama administration [15], Phillips responded with understandable skepticism, explaining that:



"there's several difficulties here. First of all, at this point, what you've got are the Democrats are the party right at this point that's getting most of the financial money. When Franklin D. Roosevelt won in 1932, we know he wasn't getting most of the financial money."



"The second thing is I don't think we're more than partway through. The Democrats think it's going to be another 1933, they get in there, they can do all the New Deal stuff. My feeling is that they're coming in halfway and they're going to have to make hard decisions that are going to eat the Democratic coalition like a bologna sandwich. They're going to start civil wars...."



Phillips added that McCain probably "osmossed ...much less sycophancy toward Wall Street and the money crowd" growing up in "a naval family" than what Obama would have "osmossed at Harvard Law School." (But Phillips also noted that McCain who is an economic idiot, as evidence by his willingness to be advised by the ridiculous Gramm)[16].



LOVING "THE MARKET"



The sixth and final factor is that both Obama and McCain are open enthusiasts of American so-called "free market capitalism." This shared ideological commitment to the profits systems is of course mandatory for "viable" presidential candidates under the rules of American "dollar democracy," the "best democracy that money can [and did] buy." It does not leave a lot of room for serious public confrontation with the privileges and dictates of capital, no matter how dysfunctional and dangerous masters of finance have become for the common good.



The supposed "radical leftist Obama" [17]identifies himself as a "pro-market" and "free trade" "guy," saying things like, "Look, I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I love the market" [18]. But as Laurence Shoup recently noted in Z Magazine, Obama "fail[s] to note that the market loves and rewards those who already have money and power, not those lacking these advantages. To say that you ‘love the market' is akin to saying that you love the ruling class (the top 1 percent of the population that controls 20 percent of the country's wealth and nearly 40 percent of the country's wealth) and do not care about the great majority (the 60 percent of the population that controls only 25 percent of the income and 5 percent of the wealth). To say ‘I love the market' - at a time when the financial system is deflating because of decades of lies about how great unregulated markets are which fueled rampant speculation, phony valuations, and deceitful assurances - is to be deaf to the reality of powerful interests are protected by the government while everyone gets a lecture on personal responsibility. ‘Change we could believe in,' would involve confronting the perversity of market-driven capitalism...." [19]



Cowards, fools, whores, and defenders of unjust privilege and concentrated wealth do not make great popular leaders in times of crisis or stability. The cautious and conservative approach of the two dominant party presidential candidates to the current state-capitalist financial fiasco reminds us of the need, in John Pilger's words (on the back cover of my recent study of the Obama phenomenon) to "reveal power as it is, not as many of us wish it to be." It is also, to quote Adolph Reed, Jr. (also writing on the back of my new Obama book) a "bracing reminder that progressive agendas will not be advanced through vesting hopes and aspirations in candidate-centered politics, that there is no quick and easy substitute for the task of building a serious, institutionally grounded, working-class based political movement - from the bottom up and top down" [20].





Veteran radical ex-historian and activist Paul Street (paulstreet99@yahoo.com) is the author of Empire and Inequality (2004), Segregated Schools (2005), and Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis (2007). His latest book (just released) is "Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics" (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, August 2008),order at

www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=186987





NOTES





1. Michael Hudson, "The Paulson-Bernanke Bank Bailout Plan," CounterPunch (September 22, 2008), read at http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson09222008.html



2. Dennis Kucinich, "Protecting the Public Interest in Any Economic Bailout" (September 23, 2008), read at www.Kucinich.us



3. Vikas Baja, "Rescue Plan's Basic Mystery: What's All This Stuff Worth?," New York Times, 25 September, 2008, p. A1.



4. Michael Hudson, "America's One Kleptpcracy," CounterPunch (September 20/21, 2008); Glen Ford, "Death Rattles of a Criminal Class," Black Agenda Report (September 24, 2008), read at www.blackagendarpeort.com



5. Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "Lawmakers' Constituents Make Their Bailout Views Loud and Clear," New York Times, 25 September 2008, p. A25.



6. Charles Babington, "Obama, McCain Cautiously Watch financial Debate," Associated Press (September 23, 2008); Gail Collins, "Bring On the Rubber Chickens," New York Times, 25 September 2008, A29; Elizabeth Bumiller and Jeff Zeleny, "McCain for Delay," New York Times, 25 September 2008, A1, A23.



7. William Grieder, "Goldman Sachs Socialism," The Nation (September 23, 2008), read at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider2



8. Alexander Cockburn, "Is This the Stake Through Neoliberalism's Heart? It Should Be, But...", CounterPunch (September 20/21, 2008), read at http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn09202008.html; Lila Rajiva, "Putting Lipstick on an AIG," CounterPunch (September 20,21, 2008), read at http://www.counterpunch.org/rajiva09202008.html.



9. Rajva, "Putting Lipstick on an AIG;" Cockburn, "Is This the Stake?;" Robert Pollin, Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity (New York: Verso, 2003)



10. Pollin, Contours of Descent, p. 32.



11. Center for Responsive Politics, "John McCain (R): "Top Contributors" and "Sectors" (2008 election cycle through August 2008), view at http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00006424. Here are the standard economic sectors used in the reporting of campaign finance data: Agribusiness; Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate (FIRE); Lawyers and Lobbyists; Health; Labor; Communications/Electronics; Transportation; "Defense;" Construction; Energy and Natural Resources; Misc. Business; Ideological/Single Issue.



12. Center for Responsive Politics, "Barack Obama (D): "Top Contributors" and "Sectors" (2008 election cycle through August 2008), view at http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638.



13. "Truthteller," "REVEALED: Obama Finance Chairwoman Pritzker the Toxic Catalyst of the current Financial Crisis," No Quarter (September 22, 2008), read at http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/09/22/revealed-obama-finance-chairwoman-pritzker-the-toxic-catalyst-of-the-current-financial-crisis/



14. Johanna Neuman, "Barack Obama Advisor Jim Johnson Quits under Fire," Los Angeles Times, 12 June, 2008, read at http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/12/nation/na-johnson12



15. This is the fantasy behind a smart but silly book by the liberal economist and American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner: Obama's Challenge: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency (White river Junction, VT: Chelsea Green, September 2008)



16.Kevin Phillips Interview by Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal(September 19, 2008), read transcript at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09192008/transcript2.html



17. The ridiculous description of Obama advanced by the right-wing hit-man Jerome Corsi in his best-selling book "Obama Nation." For a (I hope) useful review of Corsi's preposterous neo-McCarthyite (and yet best-selling) account of Obama, see Paul Street, "The Madness of Jerome Corsi," ZNet (August 25, 2008), read at http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/18540.



18. Naomi Klein, "Obama's Chicgao Boys," The Nation (June 12, 2008), read at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein.

See also Barack Obama, Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown, 2006),pp. 149-150; Paul Street, "Obama's Audacious Deference to Power," ZNet Magazine (January 24, 2007), read at http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11936.



19. See Laurence H. Shoup, "Obama and McCain March Rightward," Z Magazine (September 2008), p. 27.



20. Paul Street, Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2008), back cover. I hope this book will be understood as useful left alternative to both the vicious right-wing neo-McCarthyiite-white-Christian-nationalist madness of Corsi's attack book ("Obama Nation") and the childish progressive hopefulness of Robert Kuttner's monograph and an earlier similarly immature (but much less serious and substantive) book by Obama's liberal former law student John Wilson: Barack Obama: This Improbable Quest (Boulder,CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2007).

FRENCH COPS ROUND UP THE USUAL SUSPECTS IN BASQUE REGION RAID

Police in southern France have arrested at least 15 people with links to Basque separatist groups in the past couple of days. Some of those detained are said to be members of Batasuna, the alleged political wing of the armed group ETA, and from another group that supports separatist prisoners. Police say they are investigating the illegal funding of ETA and a terrorist attack in 2006.

ETA and Batasuna have been outlawed in Spain, but Batasuna is still legally allowed to operate in France. Both groups want independence for the Basque region, which lies in northern Spain and southern France (see map above).

The arrests were carried out Tuesday and early Wednesday in towns across France's southwestern Basque region and included two senior figures of the separatist political party Batasuna.

The blog Leherensuge reports a search of the offices of the Basque party in Baiona lasted all day long while surrounding streets were closed to the public.

The Askatasuna support group for Basque prisoners (itself a target of the raid) said in a statement that French police were using the Bidarry hotel attack -- which caused no injuries and only minor damage to the building -- as an excuse to crack down on Basque separatists.

The arrests come as a bilateral meeting between the French and Spanish interior ministers is planned to take place in Toulon later today.

Among the detained are Batasuna party spokesman, Xabi Larralde, foreign affairs spokesman, Giuliano Cavaterra and national council members, Jean Claude Aguerre and Aurore Martín whose bank accounts have already been frozen as part of an inquiry into the funding of the Basque communist party initiated last May by Spanish High Court anti-terror judge, Baltasar Garzón.

Also arrested today was Jean François Lefort, alias 'Lof', a former spokesman for the Askatasuna association that defends the rights of jailed ETA activists.

Batasuna denounced the operation saying it in effect makes the groups illegal.

The French Green Party also protested the police operation and said that it is an attack against freedom of political activity, and warned Paris that violence only brings more violence.

Yesterday evening there was a protest demonstration of several hundred people in the city of Baiona in the French Basque region. Banners reading "Repression is not the way!" and "Batasuna resist!" were visible in many parts of the city, both in the streets and at private homes.

Other protests happened all through the Northern Basque Country.

Meanwhile, M and C reports the National Court in Spain has ordered that a search be carried out to find the whereabouts of José Ignacio De Juana Chaos, the long-time ETA activist who was released from prison in August this year having served his sentence for 25 killings.

It comes amid reports from police sources that De Juana and his wife, Irati Aranzabal, are now living in Belfast, under the protection of "IRA sympathisers."

The following is from EITB (Spain).

Arrests of the 14 detained in Northern Basque Country extended
Seven of them are at the police station of Pau, while the other half are being questioned in Bayonne. On the other hand, French police has resumed search at the offices of the banned leftist party Batasuna in Bayonne.

The arrest of the 14 members of the so called “leftist movement” detained on Wednesday in Northern Basque Country has been extended. Those arrested will spend this night at the police stations of Pau and Bayonne respectively, France Press agency reported, citing police sources.

Meanwhile, police continue searching the offices of the banned Basque leftist party Batasuna in the city of Bayonne, together with Xabi Larralde, Batasuna’s spokesman in Northern Basque Country.

Questionings to the 14 members of the Basque leftist movement arrested yesterday are expected to begin today.

The police operation coincided with the meeting of the Spanish and French Interior Ministers, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba and Michelle Alliot-Marie. French Interior Minister said this may be the first step of the banning of Batasuna in France, although she underlined this is in the hands of Justice.

On the other hand, about a thousand protesters demonstrated on Wednesday against the arrests in several towns of Northern Basque Country.

ISRAELI PEACE NOW ACTIVIST TARGET OF BOMB ATTACK

Professor Ze'ev Sternhell (pictured here), the victim of a pipe bomb attack at his home on Thursday, spoke out against the incident, saying that "if this act was not committed by a deranged person but by someone who represents a political view, then this is the beginning of the disintegration of democracy."

The small pipe bomb exploded on Thursday at around 1:00 A.M. at the entrance to Sternhell`s home. The professor was lightly wounded by the blast and taken to Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.

Pamphlets calling for the physical assault of left-wing activists were found near the professor's home on Wednesday night, reportedly promising a NIS 1,100,000 reward to anyone who murdered someone associated with the Peace Now organization.

Sternhell, a Haaretz columnist and left wing activist, was lightly hurt in the bombing. He was being treated at Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital. Sternhell, an internationally renowned expert on the history of fascism, was awarded the country's highest honor, the Israel Prize, earlier this year. The award drew fire from West Bank settlers and their supporters, who unsuccessfully petitioned Israel's Supreme Court to try to block it.

Sternhell is a veteran supporter of Peace Now, most recently addressing the audience at an event marking 30 years of Peace Now and only last month attended a Peace Now tour to Hebron that was denied entry by police due to settler violence and threats.

"On the personal level," Sternhell told Haaretz, "if the intent was to terrorize, it has to be very clear that I am not easily intimidated; but the perpetrators tried to hurt not only me, but each and every one of my family members who could have opened the door, and for that there is no absolution and no forgiveness."

A statement from Peace Now read in part:

"Peace Now activists are not surprised by this new wave of threats and violence, in particular the recent fliers, being distributed among the rightist population, promising a 1million shekel prize to anyone who murders a Peace Now member."

Since the murder of Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig in 1983, Peace Now has been warning the police and the IDF that law enforcement authorities must abandon their lenient policy when it comes to law-breakers from within the settler community and their supporter. It is clear that those who don't enforce the law on violent settlers in the territories will find himself with a Jewish terror organization in the heart of Israel."

Today yet again we see that there are extreme factions amongst the right wing that are willing to use any means to reach their goals. The settlers that yesterday attacked Palestinians and Israeli soldiers serving in the West Bank, are those today attacking Israeli citizens within Israel."

These extremists have already established websites of hate threatening Peace Now members, and Peace Now demands that the Interior Minister commands the police force to cut this phenomena at its roots, and begin to immediately arrest and punish those who actions pose a serious threat to the very fabric of Israeli democracy."

Most, but not all Israeli government and political figures condemned the attack.

Israeli fascist activist Baruch Marzel denied that his organization, the National Jewish Front, was involved in the attack against the professor, but would not condemn it. Marzel said that "we are not condemning the incident because in the past, Professor Sternhell expressed his views that it was legitimate to hurt settlers."

Wondering what the National Jewish Front (or Jewish National Front) is? Here are the principles of the Jewish National Front, Chazit HaYehudit Leumit, from their of website. The original is in Hebrew, and an English translation is provided.

א. מפלגת “חזית יהודית לאומית” קמה על מנת לתת תנופה מחודשת למפעל ההיסטורי של שיבת עם ישראל לארצו, ולהביאו להשלמתו, היעד הוא הבטחת חרותו, עצמאותו המדינית ושלומו של עם ישראל בארצו האחת, כדי שיהיה מוכן למלא את יעודו ההיסטורי מאז ומקדם: ארץ ישראל לעם ישראל על פי תורת ישראל, על כל משתמע מכך בחומר וברוח, בחול ובקודש.

1. The ” Jewish National Front ” party arose in order to give a renewed push to the historical process of a return of the People Of Israel in its land, and to bring in due time, the goal that was promised Israel, which is the political independence and peace of The State Of Israel in its one country. This is in order that it may thence fulfill its historical destiny. The Jewish National Front promotes : The Land of Israel to the People of Israel according to the Torah of Israel, as understood in substance and in spirit, in the secular world and in holiness.

ב. מטרת הציונות היתה להביא את רובו של עם ישראל לרובה הגדול של ארץ ישראל. מנגד, מטרת הטרור הערבי היתה תמיד, עד היום ממש, ליצור פחד, חרדה וחוסר ביטחון אישי ולאומי, בכדי לזרוע יאוש ולמנוע את ההתקדמות התנועה הציונית, ובהמשך המדינה היהודית, לעבר מימוש יעדיה. הטרור הערבי שואף לדחוף את היהודים בארץ ישראל ל”תחום המושב”. לסגור אותנו בגטאות מאחורי גדרות הפרדה, ולבסוף להשמיד את עם ישראל ומדינתו. זהו המניע העמוק של הטרור, “חזית יהודית לאומית” תפעל לעקירתו משורשו.

2. The goal of the Zionism was to bring most of the People of Israel to the greatest portion of the land of Israel. From the beginning, the goal of the Arab terror has always been, and still is today, to create fear, panic and lack of personal and national security, in order to sow despair and to prevent the progress of the Zionist movement, and following the establishment of the Jewish state, across materialization of her objectives. The Arab terror lives to push the Jews in Israel ”into reservations”, to close us into the ghetto behind fences of separation, and lastly to destroy the People of Israel and their state. This is the basic motive of the terror, and the ” Jewish national front ” will act to pull it up from its roots.

ג. “החזית” קובעת כי אסור להיכנע לתחושת הרגע ואין ללכת שולל ולהתפתות למקסמי שווא בשל בעיות חמורות בביטחון, בכלכלה ובחברה, אלא יש להמשיך לפעול באמונה להגשמת יעדיו ההיסטוריים של עם ישראל בארץ ישראל, להביט קדימה בהכללה, ולגזור את הפתרונות הנכונים והחוקים ששירתו את המטרה העליונה

3. “The front ” declares that it we are not allowed to yield to short term impulses or to approach an enemy and be seduced by false enticements. There are severe problems in security, in the economy and in society, but you have to continue to act faithfully towards the attainment of the historical goal of the People of Israel in the Land of Israel; to look ahead to the broad view, and to make the right decisions, and laws that serve the higher goal.

ד. “חזית יהודית לאומית” קובעת כי כיבוש הארץ מוסרי וגירוש האויב מוסרי. תורת ישראל היא המקור הראשוני לכלל ערכי המוסר האנושיים, ולפי שהיא המצווה על ישראל לכבוש ולשחרר את הארץ, אין דבר מוסרי יותר מאשר כיבוש ושחרור ארץ ישראל על ידי עם ישראל, “החזית” קובעת שפינוי האוייבים מהארץ יפתור מן היסוד את כל בעיותיה החמורות של המדינה באשר הוא ינתק את הטרור משורשו וירחיק את מלחמה במקום ובזמן. כתוצאה מכך יתאפשרו ויבואו השקעות גדולות, תיירות המונית, צמיחה, בניין לפיתוח. האבטלה תצומצם למינימום, יהיו מקומות עבודה לכולם, והשכר יהיה נאה. פינוי האוייבים יביא בטחון אישי ולאומי , שגשוג כלכלי ותרבותי ופתרון למצוקות החברתיות.

4. “Jewish national front ” declares that occupying the land is moral and deportation of the enemy is moral. The Torah of Israel is the first source for the principled rule of humane ethics, and according to that it is commanded for Israel to conquer and to redeem the country. There is not a thing more morally approved than the conquering and redeeming of the Land of Israel by the People Of Israel. ” the Front ” determines that the deportation of the enemies from the Land will fundamentally solve the severe problems of the state, because it will tear out the terror from the roots and remove war from this place at the same time. As a result of which, big investments will come in, there will be growth in tourism, and thriving building and development. Unemployment will be reduced to a minimum, there will be jobs for all, and the wages will be good. Deportation of the enemies will bring personal and national security, economic and cultural prosperity and solutions to social problems.

ה. היעד האסטרטגי של מדיניות “החזית” יהיה לבסס רוב יהודי גדול ממערב לנהר הירדן, בדרך להחלת ריבונות ישראלית מלאה על כל ארץ ישראל המערבית. היעד יושג על ידי עידוד הגירה נחוש והחלטי מצד אחד, ועל ידי עידוד ילודה בקרב היהודים ויצירת תנאים נוחים לעליית יהודים המונית לארץ, מן הצד השני .לאחר שתתחולל תמורה דמוגראפית יסודית ויהיה רוב יהודי משמעותי ובלתי ניתן לעירעור, תחיל הממשלה ריבונות ישראלית מלאה על כל הארץ.

5. The strategic objective of the policy of ” the front ” will be to base most of the Jewish population increase west of the Jordan River, on the way to exercising full Israeli sovereignty for the western part of Israel. The goal will be met by strong immigration incentives on the one hand, and on the other hand by birth incentives for Jews and the creation of comfortable conditions for Jews to move to the country from other areas. After that because of basic demographics Jews will be the significant majority and without protest, the government of Israel will begin to have full sovereignty over the land.

ו. “חזית יהודית לאומית” תפעל לחינוך העם היהודי בארץ ובתפוצות לאור החזון החדש .היא תחנך לרעיונות יהודים ולאומיים ותביא להזדהות פנימית ולכידות מטרה בעם ,לכידות שהתרסקה בשלושים השנים האחרונות ,והצמיחה תחתיה קיטוב חברתי, פער כלכלי מהגבוהים במדינות המערב ועוני המוני עד כדי חרפה.

6. “Jewish national front ” will make a national education program for Jews in the Land and in the Diaspora to start a new direction. It will teach the concept of the Jewish national identity and bring them to an inner identity and a national cohesiveness of goals, a cohesiveness that crashed in the last thirty years. With that crash came social polarization, large economic gaps in the western nations and mass poverty to the point of disgrace.

ז. “החזית” מודעת לחשיבותם הגדולה של ירושלים והר הבית בתודעה היהודית ולהיותם מוקד המלחמה על הארץ. “החזית” תפעל להעמקת התודעה והקשר הנפשי אל העיר, לחיזוק האחיזה היהודית ולהחלת ריבונות מלאה בירושלים כולה.

7. “The Front “, is aware of the great importance of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in the Jewish consciousness, and that they are the focus of the war on the Land. “the Front” will act to increase the consciousness and the spiritual connection to the city, for the strengthening of the Jewish determination to exercise full sovereignty in all of Jerusalem.

ח. “החזית” קובעת שממשלות ישראל בשלושים שנה האחרונות הגבירו את תיאבון האויב לאדמה הישראלית ואת התאוות הרצחנות שלו, שכן הכניעה והויתור על חלקי ארץ ישראל ועל המשך ההתקדמות המדינה היהודית להגשמת יעדיה, מתפרשים לאויב נכון שהנה הטרור והרצח משתלמים באשר הם גורמים ליהודים לברוח ולהסתגר בגטאות, מאחורי החומות בטון וגדרות הפרדה. “חזית יהודית לאומית” תפעל בניגוד גמור למגמות הפייסנות והכניעה של ממשלות ישראל בעשורים האחרונים. “החזית” תפעל לשינוי ערכים יסודי והיכן שיהיה צורך, להיפוך ערכים: מדינה יהודית של העם היהודי - בכל מרחבי ארץ ישראל!

8. “The front ” declares that the Israeli governments in the last thirty years have increased the lust of the enemy for Israeli land, and his murderous greed. Entrenched in capitulation and in the surrender of parts of the Land of Israel and dragging the Jewish State steadily towards meeting their goals, the enemy correctly interprets that here the terror and the murder pay off because they cause Jews to flee and stay in ghettos, from behind the concrete walls and separation fences. “Jewish national front ” will operate opposite to the trends of appeasement and Israeli government capitulation in the last decades. “The front ” will act to the change basic values and where necessary, reverse the values : The nation of Israel for the Jewish people in the whole land of Israel!

The following is from Monsters and Critics.com

Anti-occupation Israeli professor wounded by pipe bomb

Jerusalem - A pipe bomb exploded early Thursday morning next to the home of a prominent Israeli political scientist and critic of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, lightly injuring him.

Some hours later police found leaflets offering over one million shekels (290,000 dollars) to anyone who kills a member of the dovish Peace Now protest group.

Professor Ze'ev Sternhell was locking up his house in Jerusalem when the device exploded. He was wounded in the legs and was taken to hospital for treatment.

Police set up a special team to investigate the incident and beefed up security around Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer, following the discovery of the leaflets.

Israel Radio quoted police sources as saying the evidence pointed to extreme right-wing elements being responsible for planting the device that wounded Sternhell.

According to newspaper reports, Sternhell, 73, has been receiving threatening telephone calls for some time. Earlier this year a nationalist group, outraged by his critical comments about Israeli settlers and settlements, petitioned the High Court against his being awarded the Israel Prize, the country's highest civilian honour.

'I criticize that which needs to be criticized, to tell the truth even when it is unpleasant. That to me is the definition of what a good researcher is,' he said when he received the award.

Politicians from across the Israeli political spectrum united in condemning the blast.

'We are returning to the sinister phenomenon of using bombs against people, in this case against a very capable man who has never been afraid to voice his opinion, because his position, which is the peace camp's position, is that of a liberal voice, a democratic voice, a sane voice amidst the incitement,' Defence Minister Ehud Barak said.

'We will not allow anyone, from any dank corner of Israeli society, to persecute anyone else,' he said.

'A dirty wave of radical and violent fanaticism is washing over Israeli society,' Ophir Pines-Paz, of the Israel Labour Party, said. He said he would convene the Knesset Interior Committee 'to ensure that the law enforcement agencies in Israel are prepared for this and know how to stop it in its tracks.'

'Even though I disagree and am a bitter rival of the contemptible things that Ze'ev Sternhell wrote about settlers and people whom he doesn't agree with, I think that such a contemptible act is wrong,' legislator Zvulun Orlev, of the pro-settlement National Religious Party, said.

Hawkish legislator Yuval Steinmatz, who once belonged to Peace Now before he changed his views, called the attack on Sternhell an attack on Israeli democracy and on the State of Israel.

'This is very dangerous and I condemn this with full force and hope that the ones responsible are caught and punished severely,' he said.


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CANADA'S FIRST NATIONS STAND UP FOR EDUCATION, DEMAND THEIR ISSUES BE A PART OF FEDERAL ELECTION NOW

Canada’s education ministers emerged from two days of meetings Tuesday, promising continued work on a hodgepodge of issues, including lagging aboriginal education.

Indigenous Canadians (pictured here) marched in the street of Edmonton, Canada to more dramatically highlight what they say is an education system that isn't working for them or their children.

Earlier this month First Nations demonstrators marched to the Manitoba Legislature to protest the lack of funding for First Nations elementary and high schools and post secondary students.

Further, on the same day that Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a campaign stop in Winnipeg, another group of aboriginals rallied in front of the city's Indian Affairs office for better education funding.

The other day Assembly of First Nations national Chief Phil Fontaine asked,"There's been $22-billion expended on the Afghan war, and so what is there for first nations people?"

In fact, First Nations issues have become totally invisible in this years federal election, with all the major parties failing to address the important issues that face the people.

Fontaine said the absence of any discussion of native issues in the campaign for the Oct. 14 election is a disservice to all Canadians, and urged the political parties to address those issues in their platforms.

"First nations poverty is the single most important social justice issue in the country and we would expect that each of the parties would do the responsible thing, and that is to engage Canadians," he said.

There are 27,000 native children in state care, 40 communities without schools, 100 communities under boil-water advisories and serious concerns about housing and health care for people living on reserves, Fontaine said.

On September 29 the Assembly of First Nations is calling for a National Day of Political Action in First Nation communities across the country. On this day all First Nation communities are encouraged to participate in a variety of political activities such as engaging with their citizens and local candidates, host community meetings and town halls, discuss platforms with each other, and other political events so that First Nation citizens can make an informed choice on October 14.

Anishinabek Nation leaders participating that day will be seeking commitments and support for five key priorities:

1. Eliminating poverty through implementation of the Anishinabek Nation
Economic Blueprint and enhancing First Nations economic capacity;
2. Enhancing Education and Training opportunities to enable Anishinabek
youth to enter the skilled workforce;
3. A renewed focus on the Treaties and Treaty Implementation, including
provisions for resource revenue-sharing;
4. Adopting and Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples;
5. Commitment to protecting and proliferating First Nations languages -
including funding of an Anishinabek Language Immersion Institute.

As the marchers today in Edmonton are saying education must be near the top of any list of priorities of First Nation issues.

The results of a 2003 survey (the latest available) on literacy rates of aboriginal people were alarming.

About 72 per cent of urban Manitoban adult first nations scored below the benchmark level three literacy level, as did 70 per cent of first nations in urban Saskatchewan.

Amongst non-aboriginals, the comparable numbers are 44 and 37 per cent.

"It (adult literacy) is at a crisis level," Paul Michel, director of the First Nations Center at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George, told the Vancouver Sun.

Michel estimates that up to 75 per cent of his region's adult aboriginal population would need literacy upgrading before they could even think about applying to a university.

Dropout rates for aboriginal students at British Colombia high schools are "extremely high," said Michel, and those who stay in school often aren't encouraged to take academic-stream classes.

But high-school dropout rates and underemployment are often just the symptoms of deeper problems in aboriginal communities.

One major hurdle to improving literacy is the tainted relationship between aboriginal people and Western education due to colonialism and abuse.

"It's not possible to underestimate the negative effect of the residential school experience," said Elizabeth Wilson, who's worked for 20 years as an educational consultant in the Pacific Northwest.

"[Aboriginal children] were put into situations that were basically devastating and that was their first time with schooling," said. "And it wasn't that many generations ago. So it's not surprising that schooling-type situations have not been easy for aboriginal people."

In residential schools, students were often forbidden to speak their native language and discouraged from maintaining their culture.

Wilson said this legacy has often translated into a feeling that when students learns English, they are simultaneously losing something of their aboriginal language and traditions.

Michel says the best way to teach basic skills to aboriginal learners is to make lessons resonate with their everyday lives.

"If they're hunting, then you've got all the hunting words and you write about that," he said. "So when you're teaching literacy, you're not teaching about the 14th floor in downtown Toronto with a three-piece business suit -- words that really don't have any relevance within their life."

At that Winnipeg rally a few weeks ago Chief Terrance Nelson, with the Roseau River First Nation, said the next government needs to put education first. Right now, he said parents on reserves have to pay much more for their children's education than other Canadian residents.

Instead of paying $70,000 to keep one young person in jail, Nelson said the government should be investing that money in ensuring every young person can go to a well-funded school.

The government boasts about spending $10 billion on aboriginal programs but very little of that money actually trickles down to the people who need it, he said.

"It's sure as hell not getting to us," Nelson told the rally. "It's not getting to the young people. What we're saying is we need to make sure this becomes an election issue."

The following is from the Edmonton (Canada) Sun.

First Nations take to city streets over education system 'in crisis'

Hundreds of First Nations people took to the streets today to protest what National Chief Phil Fontaine called an education system “in crisis.”

“We’re here to protest the conditions in First Nations and the discrepancies in funding in First Nations as opposed to non-First Nations,” said Treaty 6 Grand Chief Wayne Moonias, who is from Hobbema.

“We’re severely underfunded and as a result there’s a lot of negative impacts.”

Those impacts, he added, include teachers who are paid up to $25,000 less annually than their colleagues working for the province.

He said retaining quality teachers - nine left his home town of Hobbema over the summer - and offering “quality programs,” is a constant challenge.

Other problems include a lower standard of education, leaving students behind those in public schools.

“Any mainstream child, they’re at least three to five years behind those children just because of poor education,” said protester Jacqueline Fayant, shortly before the crowd - waving banners and beating drums - marched from Churchill Square to Canada Place.

Fontaine, who once again expressed his disappointment with most First Nations issues being left off campaign platforms in the federal election, said the lack of proper funding directly affects students on reserves.

“We have 40 communities without education facilities, without schools. There’s another 80 with schools in terrible state of disrepair, so it compromises our kids,” he said. “Our kids deserve better.

“There’s a huge disparity between what public schools receive from provincial governments and what First Nations schools receive; it’s at least $2,000 on the average (per year) per student.”

Fontaine said much of the funding woes stem from a cap imposed in 1996 that limits funding increases to core services to two per cent per year.

Many present said that is not keeping pace with the rising cost of living and does not take into account the booming First Nations population.

ANTI-ISLAM RACISTS MEET DEFEAT IN COLOGNE

That big racist "Anti- Islam Congress" which was supposed to happen last weekend for Cologne, Germany flopped. When tens of thousands of protesters and the people of Cologne, made it clear they weren't interested in the fascists meeting in the city, the cops finally agreed and said the "Congress" ain't gonna happen.

Police chief Klaus Steffenhagen said, "It would have been excessive to deploy water cannon and special units to fight a way into the square for 300 (right wing) participants."

Some 3,000 police had been brought in and part of the old city sealed off as authorities appealed for peaceful protests against a weekend congress called by the far-right group Pro-Köln (For Cologne).

Der Spiegel reports when radical-right activists from around Europe arrived in Cologne on Saturday for a rally, the city was ready. Thousands of anti-racist protesters flooded the rally site. Protesters of all stripes and all levels of militancy included some who blocked urban trains to keep delegates away and raided a tourist boat shaped like a whale -- called the "Moby Dick" -- where the far-right gathering had been hoping to hold a press conference. A Pro Cologne spokesman said, "Stones, bricks and paint bombs were thrown and the panoramic windows of the Moby Dick were shattered."

After less then an hour the police called the "rightists"press conference off while the more militant members of the crowd flung paint bombs at the racist organizers of the fascist fest and lit fires near barricades in the streets.

Less militant protesters did their job as well. "Conservative Christian Democrats stood with trade unionists, Left-Party members and students; Christian churches stood with Islamic groups; critics of Islam stood with mosque supporters; Carnival clowns stood with hooded anarchists. Taxi drivers refused to help the far-right delegates, hotel owners cancelled their rooms, and bar owners backed up their promise of 'No Kölsch for Nazis'" wrote Der Speigel.

The demonstrators, including thousands more regular citizens let out a jubilant cheer when the mayor of Cologne, Fritz Schramma, told them the right was beaten.

Schramma slammed Pro-Köln as "arsonists and racists" hiding under the cloak of a "citizens' movement.".

Even after the massive crowd dispersed almost 6000 others stuck around for a street concert and some of them scuffled with police or set garbage alight in the city's alleys.

Baton-swinging police surrounded 500 masked leftists at one point and took the names of individuals who had been seen earlier "rioting," throwing stones and firecrackers at officers and trying to snatch away police guns.

Six police were injured, 15 leftists were arrested and 500 were briefly held for identity checks Saturday.

Pro Cologne claimed it held the third day of the event out of the public eye on premises in the nearby city of Leverkusen. It was not clear how many people were attending.

A city councilor for the Pro Koln, which won 5 percent of votes at the last poll, said his group would challenge the ban in court. "We'll repeat the event later," Manfred Rouhs told WDR television.

Armin Laschet, minister for minorities in North-Rhine Westphalia told the Tagesspiegel newspaper it was the first time an entire German city "stood up to protect its Muslims."

The following is from Qantara.

European Parties Fail to Feed Resentment against Islam

European right-wing populist parties had planned an "Anti-Islam Congress" in Cologne for the past weekend. An alliance of local people, politicians, the media, churches and associations put a stop to these plans. Frank Überall reports from Cologne

Radical right-wingers from all over Europe suffered a major political defeat in Cologne. They had intended to hold a xenophobic "Anti-Islamisation Congress", but were foiled by the people of Cologne's vehement resistance. Thousands took part in peaceful demonstrations against the extreme right-wing meeting, accompanied by isolated incidents of violence. Cologne's police eventually banned the central right-wing rally at the last minute due to the dangerous security situation. The organisers announced they would go to court over the ban and stage a repeat event.

The group Pro Köln was to host the three-day congress, planned as a critical discussion of Islam. The organisation is under official observation due to suspicion of right-wing extremism. It has built up a high public profile over the past few years, mainly through its protest against the construction of Cologne's first major mosque. Pro Köln's publications also routinely incite blanket resentment against migrants and Islam.

Local mayor admits mistakes

"We made the mistake of not taking public concerns seriously at an early point," admitted the Social Democratic politician Josef Wirges. He is the mayor of the Cologne district of Ehrenfeld, where the large mosque and community centre are being built. One reason for its size is that the Turkish Islamic religious organisation Ditib has its German headquarters in Cologne. The district has had an improvised Muslim prayer-room in a former factory building for over ten years. Issues of increased traffic, possible noise pollution and architectural compatibility arising from the new mosque had been tackled too late, commented Wirges. "Pro Köln took advantage of this vacuum to gain votes." Pro Köln now has a number of representatives on Cologne's city council.

Josef Wirges was one of several thousand people who took part in this weekend's demonstrations against the extreme right-wing events. According to a Pro Köln spokesperson, these were partly financed by the populist right-wing parties Vlaams Belang (Belgium) and FPÖ (Austria). The public demonstration was to be accompanied by a congress, where the participants intended to launch a Europe-wide patriotic party. But the events never took place, as the people of Cologne literally blocked out the radicals in their thousands.

Unwanted guests

"There's no kölsch for Nazis here," said landlord Markus Hemken, referring to Cologne's famous local beer. He and 150 other bar-owners had beer mats printed with an unmistakeable message – they would not serve right-wing extremists. The unwanted guests were thrown out of a Cologne hotel after anti-fascist groups informed the manager exactly who had booked the rooms. Pro Köln, otherwise a verbal proponent of law and order, had rented a number of conference rooms and coaches under false names. As a result, the party's members and their guests were not allowed in, and had to cancel almost every part of their congress.

Even the central rally "against Islamisation" at the heart of Cologne had to be called off, as the police were concerned about major security problems and banned the event.

Far-left activists had attacked police officers all over the city. "They were throwing stones, incendiaries and fireworks," said police spokesman Wolfgang Baldes: "There were even isolated attempts to remove police officers' guns." More than 400 demonstrators were placed under temporary detention, with six police officers sustaining injuries. These incidents overshadowed the fact that thousands of people were involved in peaceful demonstrations against the right-wing extremists.

An alliance across broad swathes of the population had called the protest – including the Protestant and Catholic churches, the Jewish community and the Turkish Islamic organisation Ditib. "I think it's great that the people of Cologne have blocked the way for right-wing extremists together," said the German reggae singer Gentleman. "I'm proud of Cologne."

Cologne's Christian Democrat city mayor, Fritz Schramma, put across a clear message at a protest event outside the famous cathedral: "I say to this clique of eurofascists, these Haiders and Le Pens and whatever their names are: there's the exit, that's the way home. We don't want you here."

Researchers call for clearer information policy

Pro Köln, however, is not willing to leave it at that. "We want to make next year's local election a plebiscite on the new mosque," said councillor Markus Beisicht. Had the radical right-wing conference in Cologne been a success, the "Pro Köln model" would have been emulated across Germany. There are already local branches in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich, though none of them are particularly active as yet.

Political scientists see deliberate incitement of resentment against mosques as a key element of the "Pro movement". "This is an extreme right-wing party that consciously operates in the guise of respectable middle-class moralists," says Alexander Häuser from the Neonazism Research Centre at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences: "They consciously pander to resentments against migrants and Islam held by parts of the population. The only thing that can help is a consistent public information policy."

Frank Überall

© Qantara.de 2008

Translated from the German by Katy Derbyshire