June 21-30, 2009
Joy First – Madison, WI

Introduction

The Military Invades U.S. Schools: How Military Academies Are Being Used to Destroy Public Education
In Chicago, there's a push to replace public schools with military academies. This model may soon spread to the rest of the country.
By Brian Roa | TruthOut.org via Alternet

For the past four years, I have observed the military occupation of the high school where I teach science. Currently, Chicago's Senn High School houses Rickover Naval Academy (RNA). I use the term "occupation" because part of our building was taken away despite student, parent, teacher and community opposition to RNA's opening.

Senn students are made to feel like second-class citizens inside their own school, due to inequalities. The facilities and resources are better on the RNA side. RNA students are allowed to walk on the Senn side, while Senn students cannot walk on the RNA side. RNA "disenrolls" students and we accept those students who get kicked out if they live within our attendance boundaries. This practice is against Chicago policy, but goes unchecked. All of these things maintain a two-tiered system within the same school building.

This phenomenon is not restricted to Senn. Chicago has more military academies and more students in JROTC than any other city in the US. As the tentacles of school militarization reach beyond Chicago, the process used in this city seems to serve as a model of expansion. There was a Marine Academy planned for Georgia's Dekalb County, which includes 10 percent of Atlanta. Fortunately, due to protest, the school has been postponed until 2010. Despite it being postponed, it is still useful to analyze the rhetoric used to rationalize the Marine Academy. Many of the lies and excuses used to justify school militarization in Chicago and Georgia may well be used in other cities as militarism grows.

Not for Recruiting? Read more.

By David Swanson

Do they have a fourth of July in Italy? That's not a trick question. This July 4th, Italians plan to gather in Vicenza to take nonviolent action aimed at freeing Italy from U.S. occupation and opposing the proposed construction of an enormous new U.S. military base in a town already swarming with U.S. troops stationed at existing bases. For years now, a major campaign organized by local residents has resisted the construction of the new base. The history of this campaign is chronicled in English here and here. A local referendum voted 95 percent against the base. A leader of the opposition to the base has been elected to the local government. An Italian prime minister has been temporarily thrown out of power. Local activists and members of parliament have visited Washington to oppose the base, and testified before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs on April 23, 2009. The European media has been unable to avoid the story.

By Malachy Kilbride

Washington, DC - Five social justice and peace activists were arrested in a nonviolent witness on the sidewalk outside of The White House on Saturday, June 27. Three were held and released from police custody after 54 hours of confinement following their action opposing torture. The activists were participating in the annual events organized by the Torture Abolition and Survivor Support Coalition International (TASSC) commemoration of the United Nation International Day in Support of Torture Victims and Survivors. The three activists held were Eve Tetaz, 78 of Washington DC, Joy First 54 of Madison, WI, and Malachy Kilbride 42 of Washington DC,.

By Laurie Arbeiter

[Laurie was one of 17 citizens arrested in a senate office building on the opening day of Congress, January 6, 2009, for speaking against wars. (video)]

I finally settled down since returning from Washington and now have a chance to write and send my appreciation directly to all of you for your support and interest in our trial. I really felt you behind us and that made such a difference.

Among the stories on tonight's HBO "Shouting Fire" documentary, Ruth Benn and Ed Hedemann of the War Resisters League are interviewed about the arrests of hundreds of demonstrators during the 2004 Republican National Convention in NYC.

Today, five persons of conscience were arrested on the White House sidewalk, in connection with a 24-hour Vigil to End Torture, sponsored by the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC). The group gathered at Lafayette Park, bringing messages of solidarity from organizations and individuals -- all calling for an immediate end to torture and support for survivors of torture.

Mid-way through the vigil, at about 1:00 p.m., several hundred vigil participants processed from Lafayette Park to the front of the White House, carrying their mesage of an immediate end to torture. Five persons remained on the White House sidewalk, in violation of federal regulations, and were arrested by US Park Police. The five are: Joy First, of Madison, Wisc.; Malachy Kilbride, Eve Tetaz, Harold Nelson, and David H. Barrows, all of Washington, DC.

By Pete Perry

Myself (National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance), Laurie Arbiter (Activist Response Team), Robert Diesu (Our Spring Break and Campus Progress), and Michelle Grise (National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance) won our case Monday, stemming from the March of the Dead protest January 6, 2009 inside the Hart Senate Office Building. We were honoring the dead killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza on the first day of the 111th Congress, and calling on our elected representatives to do more to stop the senseless killing and costly occupations.

By Linda Milazzo

As a critic of media, in particular of cable/satellite "news," I'm troubled by American corporate-media, specifically CNN's near non-stop coverage of the turmoil in Iran. Not because the story isn't important. It's critically important and warrants the personal coverage it's getting from the Iranian people as they bypass corporate channels to tell their stories on facebook, youtube, flickr and twitter.

Thanks to Iran's tech-savvy society, old-time corporate media is now relegated to the position of new-media aggregator, whoring its visibility to co-opt the Iranian people's new-media messages to America and the world. Old-media, and specifically CNN, are learning the difficult lesson that with or without their vast resources and state of the art studios, the Iranians' stories will be told. And they'll be told to tens of millions more viewers than cable and satellite programs tend to reach.

There's a review and an interview at Truthout.

Word version of this attached below - thanks to Phil Restino.

WHAT: Four of the people featured in this report by Bill Moyers' Journal in January ( http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01092009/watch3.html ) face prosecution for disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly.

WHEN: Monday, June 22, 2009, 9:00 a.m. ET.

WHERE: Before Judge Richard H. Ringell in the Superior Court of The District of Columbia Criminal Division, Courtroom 120.

Hi-Res Photos, B-roll and Video will be available, www.mountainaction.org.

Activists Risk Arrest to Stop Mountaintop Removal

Scale 20-storey tall machinery to call attention to nation’s worst form of coal mining; This is the first time a dragline has been scaled on a mountaintop removal site

The Audacity of War Crimes

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO DEMAND JUSTICE

Contact the Office of the Attorney General, District of Columbia to demand that our charges be dropped:

• Call Assistant Attorney General, Elizabeth A. Meyers at 202-727-3500 and/or at her Direct Line 202-727-4783 to leave a message.
• Call U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at 202-514-2001 to demand the appointment of an Independent Special Prosecutor to investigate the crimes of the Bush Administration.

On January 6, 2009, seventy people came to Washington D.C. from all over the United States to participate in the MARCH OF THE DEAD.

Our goal was to stage a peaceful protest displaying the ever-increasing death toll due to the AUDACITY OF WAR CRIMES committed by our government.

Our right to assemble and petition our government for redress of grievances was disrupted when the Capitol Police stopped the reading of the names of the dead from the illegal wars and occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

Seventeen of us were arrested.

To avoid serving in Iraq, 75 American soldiers have left their homes and families and fled to Toronto
By Maggie Gilmour, Toronto Life.

To avoid serving in Iraq, 300 American soldiers have left their homes and families and fled to Canada, 75 of them to Toronto. Many assumed they’d get a visa, settle down and live a normal life. But the federal government has rejected their refugee claims and ordered them deported. Some go into hiding; others wait for appeals and judicial reviews of their cases. In the meantime, they’ve put down roots, taking temp jobs and raising children, nostalgic for a time when Canada was a haven for conscientious objectors.

READ THE REST AT Toronto Life.

Iranian Filmmaker says Mousavi was told he won: Iranian filmmaker Makhmalbaf reports on phone call from Ministry of Internal Affairs to Mousavi HQ
Makhmalbaf's Interview on Radio Farda | June 13, 2009, 12:00 AM | Translated for The Real News Network

Makhmalbaf: Yesterday, twenty agents in civilian clothing attacked press offices of Mousavi‘s campaign at Gheitarieh. They broke all communication devices and attacked the campaign staff, including Mr. Kharazi and Mr Amirzadeh. They beat up the staff and when the people confronted them, they fired tear gas at the crowd. These were agents in civilian clothing! Then the agents attempted to runaway. About seven of them were captured by the people and were kept at the campaign headquarters. Next the police arrived at the headquarters and demanded to have custody of the seven captives and said "We would punish these lawbreakers ourselves." . "No, we need this to be court documented; we know that after the election, you will lose them", said Mr. Amirzadeh.

[I think here he is referring back to before this recording begins. This has to do with the reports from the early counts at the polls indicating that Mousavi is the winner] The Ministry of Internal Affairs contacts press offices of Mousavi's campaign to prepare a message for declaring victory on Sunday [which is Hazrate Zahra's birthday http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatimah]. Mr Mousavi said that "within the next couple of hours I will declare victory and the celebrations would be on Sunday, which is Hazrate Zahra's birthday and Mother's Day [in Iran]". Afterwards Mr. Khamenei is notified that Mr Mousavi has won the election. At first he says fine, you can communicate this to the people, but the message propagation and broadcasting should be well managed [and controlled].

Behind the scenes the news changed! All the mobile phones belonging to Mousavi's campaign got disconnected. Also from couple of days ago the SMS messaging were disabled for all the mobile phones. It was communicated to the Reformist [Eslah Talab] newspapers [the papers of Mousavi's political party] that they were the winners but were told that they must refrain from announcing the victory. The campaign's communications headquarters was shutdown and the responsibility for campaign's communications was given to me [Makhmalbaf]. This is as much as I know personally. Read more, view video

On June 25th (See graphic link at right) you can take part in a rally, a march, a nonviolent protest, or all three. If you're interested in the protest, please read the following from NCNR and contact them below.

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Last November 2008, after sending a letter requesting a meeting, members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) went to the Department of Justice to ask the Attorney General Michael Mukasey for a meeting to discuss the prosecution of Bush and Cheney for war crimes.  When we were refused a meeting, about 15 individuals were moved by conscience to participate in a die-in, risking arrest on the sidewalk in front of the Department of Justice.  The police decided not to arrest any of the 15 people. We decided that we must continue our work to bring the war criminals of the Bush administration to justice and we would return.

By Stephanie Westbrook:

As many of you know, on July 4th, just days before Obama arrives in Italy for the G8 summit, Vicenza will celebrate it's own "Independence Day," that is, independence from the U.S. military! After three years of determined opposition to the construction of a new base in their city, the people of Vicenza show no signs of letting up.

You can read a translation of the appeal for the July 4th national demonstration at: http://www.nodalmolin.it/spip.php?article215

As one of the many lead up event to the July 4th protest, activists recently entered the site of the new base and raised the No Dal Molin flag. See video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohxvW038viM

Show your support for the July 4th demonstration by sending an endorsement, group or individual, to: international@nodalmolin.it If you can do so before Thursday, June 18, it will be included in the initial list of endorsers.