If justice secretary Ken Clarke has his way, squatting in residential
property will soon be a criminal offence with those found guilty
facing a fine of up to £5,000 or a prison sentence of a year – perhaps
both.
Although the coalition government has made no secret of its desire to
criminalise squatting, the proposals are being quietly introduced by
way of an amendment to the legal aid, sentencing and punishment of
offenders bill.
We are in an economic climate where jobs are being lost and public
sector spending cuts are biting. There is a shortage of affordable
housing, whether rented or owned, and rising levels of child poverty.
Proposed restrictions on welfare benefits will only serve to
exacerbate the problem: research suggests that up to 133,000 workless
households in London will be unable to pay their rent under the
reforms.
Recently the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at
Sheffield Hallam University undertook research on behalf of Crisis
about the nature and extent of squatting. The final report revealed
some interesting and worrying statistics:
• Around 78% of homeless people who squat have approached a local
authority for help, but although recognised as homeless they have not
been entitled to housing because they are not in priority need or are
considered intentionally homeless.
• Many squatters have significant welfare needs: 34% of homeless
people who squat had been in care; 42% had physical ill health or a
disability; 41% reported mental health problems.
• Homeless people who squat occupy empty buildings.
• Squats are often in poor condition, lacking running water, heating
and electricity, with damp, broken windows and unsafe stairwells.
Given the current levels of housing shortage, is it really wrong for
empty properties to be used in this way when the alternative is a life
on the streets? Should the state be paying for the consequences of
criminalising the actions of those in desperate housing need?
The government has produced an impact assessment specifically for the
proposed new offence of squatting, which suggests that there could be
between 350 and 4,200 defendants accused of the offence in any one
year. Given that the vast majority of squatters will have no financial
means with which to pay a fine, prison may well be the only viable
option left open to the courts. It is therefore quite conceivable that
the prison population (and attendant cost to the state) will continue
to grow. In times of austerity, is that responsible?
Friday, 24 August 2012
Thursday, 23 August 2012
News from the squat frontline -Uk Govt declares war on the homeless,poor and dispossessed.
The new law on criminalising the homeless,trespass and squatting in residential buildings comes into effect from Sept 1st.2012
There is a meeting this monday 27th august,details on the ASS website http://www.squatter.org.uk/
The Eviction Resistance Network (ER) has been doing sterling work to support the squatting community. Please network there details Tel. 07591415860
email: evictionresistance@squat.net www.evictionresistance.blogspot.com
They have been succesfully resisting several evictions,with large numbers turning up.
We have to improve and strengthen all our networks.Reports have come in from many groups across london and the UK that are now coming together in solidarity to strengthen the resistance.
A Disturbing report the other week of a squat in hackney that was petrol bombed with people severly hurt and burnt.It is still not clear if this was an anti-squat hate crime stirred up by the last years hate campaign by right wing media.
Info from the Bristol network BHAM the Bristol Housing Action Network of illegal evictions of non residential property and that the police have already begun to evict residential squats before the law has been enacted.
In Birmingham the food not bombs group has reported via Indymedia that many homeless people (up to 10) have been rounded up and arrested.
There will be the next Squattastic event around Sunday Sept 9th (date to be confirmed)
Check http://squattastic.blogspot.co.uk/
Time to come together and organise some action and resistance.
The most concerning report from (ER)is that the Police in the east end of London have been posting the section of the new law on existing residential squat doors.A threat or a warning? Will they attempt to evict residential squats that have already been occupied for some time,as the new law states they can.
Time will tell, a law should not work retrospectively,( ref the SOCPA law to remove Brian Haw from Parliament square,as he was there before the law was passed said the Appeal Judge)
There will be a European Court of Human Rights challenge to this law as it contravenes our Human rights.The right to a family life as well as the basic human right to shelter.
One thing is for sure we will need to build links across all the groups that oppose this government and this law,students,lawyers, unions,workers etc for we must all stand up together at the same time.
There should be a campaign launched to repeal The Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO)
Michael Mansfield QC at a recent Legal Aid Lawyers Award ended his speech with the stirring words "the uprising is on,let battle commence"
There are ancient rights in this country to have somewhere to live,to shelter in abandoned and derelict property is not a crime,empty buildings while people freeze to death on the streets is the crime.There are nearly a million empty buildings in the UK.
This government of the millionaires are the criminals.The 1% cannot hide in their Ivory Towers forever as the 99% rise up to take back the common wealth and share it out.
Love and Resistance ,Land and Freedom Phoenix
NATIONAL DEMO - London, Weds 21 Nov - #Demo2012 - UK Indymedia
NATIONAL DEMO - London, Weds 21 Nov - #Demo2012 - UK Indymedia
The National Union of Students (NUS) has announced the date for its national demonstration against education cuts, tuition fee rises and student debt - 21st Nov 2012. EVERYONE has been and is being robbed by bank-bailouts, by austerity and privatisation, so EVERYONE should join this action. The NUS demo comes only four weeks after the massive 20 Oct TUC demonstration. We need to make sure the TUC demo is a launch pad for further action in the run-up to Nov 21. We need to learn from the protest movements in Quebec and Chile. We need to think positive, plan for the long-haul, and keep up the pressure for as long as it takes for the tax-criminals who planned austerity to starting losing their bottle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euiwm8jxckQ Student bloc at #oct20 -
http://www.facebook.com/events/386522028066490/ #Demo2012 National -
http://www.facebook.com/events/259158454193672/ #Demo2012 Bradford -
http://www.facebook.com/events/240514556067543/ #Demo2012 Sheffield -
http://www.facebook.com/events/257880867650831/ #Demo2012 March on Parliament -
http://www.facebook.com/events/391729244200710/ ______________________________________________
SUGGESTIONS FOR NOV 21 - Have fun, but don't get kettled! Keep moving, stay alert, keep turning round, keep looking over your shoulders and over people's heads to see what the cops are up to nearby, in the distance and especially behind you. If you see the cops forming a line near or behind you move quickly to avoid being kettled, and don't be shy - shout LOUDLY to get people moving if you see a police line forming. Be constantly aware that some cops are very savvy and will sneak-up when crowds are distracted, so keep looking over your shoulders, especially when you see or hear something exciting that attracts your attention (on 24 Nov 2010 hundreds of kettled demonstrators missed an escape through street maintenance works, because they were distracted by the activity and noise around the police bait van and weren't searching-out weaknesses in police lines). If the cops try to usher you into a gap in their lines, it might be a kettle - don't go through unless you can definitely see a clear exit on the other side.
Take cameras and film the cops to discourage police violence and to record evidence of arrests and assaults. Point cameras at cops faces at every available opportunity (even when you're not actually filming). If you see someone arrested, constantly film the cops shoulder ID numbers and faces, shout out their ID numbers and don't stop hassling them - it doesn't always work but on many occasions this has led to protestors being released in-situ. If you post images or videos of arrests or of active disruption on-line, blur or edit-out any images or audio that could be used to identify and victimise protestors from their faces or voices. Brightly coloured home-made banners draw the attention of press photographers and TV, but what the media really love are images of violence, so beware of trolls and agent-provocateurs, online and on the streets. The State has been using agent-provocateurs to justify repression since Home Office plant George Edwards set-up the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1820, and they're definitely still doing it -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cato_Street_Conspiracy ______________________________________________
http://educationactivistnetwork.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/essex-students-union-press-release.pdf For an Autumn of Resistance
The National Union of Students (NUS) has announced the date for its national demonstration against education cuts, tuition fee rises and student debt as November, 21st 2012. The demonstration was called on the back of a substantial vote at April national conference that fed off the mood, both in the room and within the movement: students want to take on the government over its Further and Higher education policy and over austerity.
A lot has changed since the last national demonstration organised by the NUS back in November 2010. That ‘hot autumn’ gave the trade union movement the confidence to march half a million strong in March that subsequent year, and strike over 2 million strong in November of the same year. The reciprocal relationship that students and the trade unions have must be the thread that runs through our preparations for the upcoming term.
To merely approach this November as a ‘re-run’ would be a cruel parody of the rage and anger that was shown on that demonstration back in November 2010. The vital experiences of both Chile and Quebec have shown how far students can go. In Quebec, a proposed raise to tuition fees has led to an explosion of student militancy which has seen over 100 days of education strikes and campus shutdowns. For our student movement, the bar has been raised.
In 2010, the students alone brought the Government to within twenty-one votes of defeat and showed that only a few months into their term, there was a visible and angry section of the British youth that were totally opposed to the Coalition. But since 2010, the trade union movement has stepped onto the streets and onto picket lines to show that same opposition to the Coalition government. That is why students’ unions and the NUS should be a part of the TUC October 20th protest, ‘For a Future that Works’.
We cannot wait for the new term to begin before unions start the preparations for this autumn. The work must start now to book coaches and form organising committees for the autumn demonstrations on our on our campuses. Our Unions need to be central to cultivating a culture of resistance on our campuses.
We know that a one off protest will not be enough to win – to do that, we need to fuse our movement to the trade unions, building ever stronger links, as students did when they joined picket lines and rallies on November 30th, 2011. We will need to work with unofficial grassroots organisations to organise and reach those who traditionally are left behind by NUS. We will need days of action, in the lead up to November 21st, to cultivate that resistance and set in motion the process that can make sure that Education is not the defining debate in the 2015 election, but the defining grievance that leads to our movement bringing down the Government.
Quoted from Nathan Bolton (University of Essex Students Union) F**k the Trolls
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Food riots predicted over US crop failure - Features - Al Jazeera English
The world is on the brink of a food "catastrophe" caused by the worst US drought in 50 years, and misguided government biofuel policy will exacerbate the perilous situation, scientists and activists warn.
When food prices spike and people go hungry, violence soon follows, they say. Riots caused by food shortages - similar to those of 2007-08 in countries like Bangladesh, Haiti, the Philippines and Burkina Faso among others - may be on the horizon, threatening social stability in impoverished nations that rely on US corn imports.
This summer's devastating drought has scorched much of the mid-western United States - the world's bread basket.
Crops such as corn, wheat, and soy have been decimated by high temperatures and little rain. Grain prices have skyrocketed and concerns abound the resulting higher food prices will hit the world's poor the hardest - sparking violent demonstrations.
Early dryness in Russia's wheat growing season, light monsoon rains in India, and drought in Africa's Sahel region, combined with America's lost crop, mean a perfect storm is on the horizon.
Surging food prices could kick off food riots similar to those in 2008 and 2010, Professor Yaneer Bar-Yam, president of the New England Complex Systems Institute, told Al Jazeera.
"Recent droughts in the mid-western United States threaten to cause global catastrophe," said Bar-Yam, whose institute uses computer models to identify global trends.
Hopes were high in May of a bumper corn crop this year, but sizzling temperatures in June and July scuttled those predictions. US corn yields are now expected to be the lowest in 17 years.
The United States accounted for 39 per cent of global trade in corn in 2011-12. Stockpiles are now down 48 per cent, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Corn prices have shot up 60 per cent since June 15.
Corn is a primary staple in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in much of Central and South America. In South Africa, the cost of maize has increased about 40 per cent in the last year, even before the US drought struck.
Bar-Yam highlighted the food riots of 2007-08 and 2010-11 that were fuelled by sudden and dramatic spikes in food prices. He said his institute recently entered data from the US drought into its computer model, which predicted the outbreak of food-related unrest "in a short period of time".
"When people are unable to feed themselves and their families, widespread social disruption occurs," Bar-Yam said. "We are on the verge of another crisis, the third in five years, and likely to be the worst yet, capable of causing new food riots and turmoil on a par with the Arab Spring."
Food riots predicted over US crop failure - Features - Al Jazeera English
Largest Building-Integrated Wind Power System in U.S. Installed in Oklahoma City : TreeHugger
http://solutionszonetv.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/largest-building-integrated-wind-power-system-in-u-s-installed-in-oklahoma-city-treehugger/
The largest building-integrated wind power system in the U.S. is now spinning on the roof of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), thanks to a collaboration between Venger Wind and SWG Energy.
Venger Wind installed a series of 18 vertical axis wind turbines (their own V2 model) as a part of OMRF's sustainability strategy of producing zero-emission energy in their new research tower in Oklahoma City. The 18.5' tall omni-directional V2 turbines are rated at 4.5 kw, begin generating electricity at wind speeds of 8.9 mph (below the city's annual average wind speed), and the project is a good example of what is possible with small wind power integrated into building designs.
Tuesday, 21 August 2012
Monday, 20 August 2012
Police arresting homeless in Birmingham - UK Indymedia
Another aspect of the rounding up of the homeless,poor and dispossessed that will increase with the changes in the law coming in sept,which make squatting in residential properties illegal.
Police arresting homeless in Birmingham - UK Indymedia
Police arresting homeless in Birmingham - UK Indymedia
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Wishlist for Diggers 2012 camp
Wishlist for Diggers 2012 camp
Wishlist «
As well as people to come and stay,the camp would especially like spades,plants, an inverter for the big solar panels we have.Also climbing harness and torches would be good.
Please network this list on to any of the old or new protest,permaculture,Climate camp or Occupy networks.
Dig in for Victory.
Wishlist «
As well as people to come and stay,the camp would especially like spades,plants, an inverter for the big solar panels we have.Also climbing harness and torches would be good.
Please network this list on to any of the old or new protest,permaculture,Climate camp or Occupy networks.
Dig in for Victory.
Friday, 17 August 2012
Avaaz - Stop the Serengeti Sell-off
The last time this same corporation pushed the Maasai off their land to make way for rich hunters, people were beaten by the police, their homes were burnt to a cinder and their livestock died of starvation. But when a press controversy followed, Tanzanian President Kikwete reversed course and returned the Maasai to their land. This time, there hasn’t been a big press controversy yet, but we can change that and force Kikwete to stop the deal if we join our voices now.
If 150,000 of us sign, media outlets in Tanzania and around the world will be blitzed so President Kikwete gets the message to rethink this deadly deal. Sign the petition now and send to everyone.
Avaaz - Stop the Serengeti Sell-off
Thursday, 16 August 2012
Free Pussy Riot Flashmob
http://www.facebook.com/events/476321332380904/
Free Pussy Riot! Flashmob
Outside Churchill Square, Brighton
August 16, 2012 @ 19:00
MEET/CONGREGATE OUTSIDE THE SHOPPING CENTRE, TOWARDS THE END WHERE THE PIZZA STALL IS, THERE'S A LITTLE MORE SPACE TO DANCE HERE.
http://brightonfeministcollective.org.uk/events/free-pussy-riot-flashmob-august-16-2012/
Does what it says on the tin, a flashmob to show Brighton solidarity with Pussy Riot and to add our voices to the call to free them on the eve of their sentencing.
The plan:
Invite as many people as you can to join in with this - it's a non-partisan event and is purely aimed at showing solidarity and doing something a bit attention grabbing in the spirit of Pussy Riot.
If you plan to take part, get yourself a balaclava - a woolly hat with eye and mouth holes cut in will do.
On the day, put on your most lurid clothing and head to Churchill Square and be there just before 19.00. Keep your balaclava hidden at this point.
At dead on 19.00, balaclavas on and dance to Pussy Riot's punk prayer like your life depends on it. When the song finishes, balaclavas off and disperse. (this should only be a couple of minutes of dancing)
Free Pussy Riot! Flashmob
Outside Churchill Square, Brighton
August 16, 2012 @ 19:00
MEET/CONGREGATE OUTSIDE THE SHOPPING CENTRE, TOWARDS THE END WHERE THE PIZZA STALL IS, THERE'S A LITTLE MORE SPACE TO DANCE HERE.
http://brightonfeministcollective.org.uk/events/free-pussy-riot-flashmob-august-16-2012/
Does what it says on the tin, a flashmob to show Brighton solidarity with Pussy Riot and to add our voices to the call to free them on the eve of their sentencing.
The plan:
Invite as many people as you can to join in with this - it's a non-partisan event and is purely aimed at showing solidarity and doing something a bit attention grabbing in the spirit of Pussy Riot.
If you plan to take part, get yourself a balaclava - a woolly hat with eye and mouth holes cut in will do.
On the day, put on your most lurid clothing and head to Churchill Square and be there just before 19.00. Keep your balaclava hidden at this point.
At dead on 19.00, balaclavas on and dance to Pussy Riot's punk prayer like your life depends on it. When the song finishes, balaclavas off and disperse. (this should only be a couple of minutes of dancing)
Outrage as Uk tries to ignore diplomatic status.BBC News - Julian Assange: UK 'threat' to arrest Wikileaks founder
BBC News - Julian Assange: UK 'threat' to arrest Wikileaks founder
Protestors are now heading to the ecuadorian embassy to support Julian Assange
Protestors are now heading to the ecuadorian embassy to support Julian Assange
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Good for a laugh - FESTIVAL SONG
Good for a laugh -Kind of sums up the way commercial festivals have gone after the government suppressed the massive Free festival movement.
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
'Robin Hood of Spain' runs food raids on supermarkets - World - DNA
'Robin Hood of Spain' runs food raids on supermarkets - World - DNA
Spanish Mayor leads raids on super markets to feed the poor.
Land occupations of large estates planting food and calling for fairer land distribution.Way to go spanish team.
We send support and salute you from the Diggers of Britain,dig in for victory.The uprising spreads acros the Globe day by day.
War on the Homeless and Dispossessed begins a new phase
Illegal eviction resistance tonight in Queen Square, Bristol
Roughly 15 young squatters aged from 16 up to about 22 were illegally evicted late last night
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/08/498995.html?c=on#c286108
There has been an illegal eviction tonight by Avon & Somerset police of 66 Queen Square, a former Building Society, in Bristol City Centre - several people are resisting on the roof overnight - support is needed tonight and tomorrow - including food, water, rope and clothing.
This is in the context of senior local police who are itching to use their new-found powers of to criminalise the homeless who squat empty residential properties. However this is a commercial property so the police cannot use the new laws criminalising homeless people in this case.
The squat was the subject of an article in the local Daily Mail owned Northcliffe paper The Post last week.
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Squatters-prestigious-city-office-block/story-16686260-detail/story.html
Inaccuracies in that article include:
The individuals & photograph used in the Western Daily Press having nothing to do with these squatters
There being only two out of fifteen of the Queen Square squatters from the Clifton Mansion squat
This and other illegal evictions of residential squats in Bristol,along with the petrol bombing the other week of a squat in Hackney, mark the begginning of a new wave of repression on the poor,dispossessed and homeless in this country.
Monday, 13 August 2012
American Autumn: an Occudoc (full length)
Intresting film on the Occupy Movement
http://www.Occudoc.org
written, produced & directed by Dennis Trainor, Jr
contact dennistrainorjr (at) gmail (dot) com
http://www.twitter.com/dennistrainorjr
http://www.facebook.com/dennistrainorjr
Sunday, 12 August 2012
Thursday, 9 August 2012
The Thrive Movement -WATCH THIS FILM
http://www.thrivemovement.com/solutions-hub
Watch the Thrive film and Network it.
This incredible film creating a movement of solutions for a sustainable future.
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Montanans Launch Recall of Senators Who Approved NDAA Military Detention.
Americans rise up against the corporate military industrial takeover of their nation,way to go.
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december252011/ndaa-recall.php
Another sat 11th party tip
The art of psychedelia OUTDOOR you with 3 stages on Saturday 11th of august Psytrance/Drum & Bass/lounge music !!!check our event page www.facebook.com/187250778072480. Infolines will be sent to you closer to the dates
Amazing live acts and DJs
Light and visual show
Full outdoor production is expected !!! Pass it on to your friends and get ready to rave it hard in the nature..
Pass it on to your friends
see you all soon
Amazing live acts and DJs
Light and visual show
Full outdoor production is expected !!! Pass it on to your friends and get ready to rave it hard in the nature..
Pass it on to your friends
see you all soon
Saturday party tip- forest adventure
HAKUNA MATATA
Forest Adventure
Sat11/Aug
FREE ENTRY UNTIL MIDNIGHT!
+PsyTrance Stage
+Camping Area
+Chai/Coffee hut
Info
07583146401
Pass it on to your friends!
Forest Adventure
Sat11/Aug
FREE ENTRY UNTIL MIDNIGHT!
+PsyTrance Stage
+Camping Area
+Chai/Coffee hut
Info
07583146401
Pass it on to your friends!
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Open day at Runnymede Eco Village sat Aug 11th
You're invited to an open day this Saturday at Runnymede Eco Village, near Egham, from 12 noon till 7 p.m. We'll have workshops including pottery, wild food & structure building. All ages welcome. Food and hot drinks available. Bring a tent and stay a night or two if you like. Its all free though we gratefully recieve donations. Call 07963 475 195 or check www.diggers2012.Wordpress.Com for map directions.
Monday, 6 August 2012
Week 7 report from Runnymede by True Levellers
Week 7 report from Runnymede
by True Levellers
Its been 7 weeks since we arrived on the disused land at the ex-Brunel university, Runnymede Campus. Since then we have been busy building an eco-village community based on sustainable methods. This is our latest regular report.
http://diggers2012.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/week-7-report-from-runnymede/
We’re also gearing up for a ‘Little Green Gathering’ from Saturday 11th August until Sunday 12th August. We’ll be laying on several workshops, film screenings, talks, fireside entertainment and wild food. Stay tuned for more info.
by True Levellers
http://diggers2012.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/week-7-report-from-runnymede/
We’re also gearing up for a ‘Little Green Gathering’ from Saturday 11th August until Sunday 12th August. We’ll be laying on several workshops, film screenings, talks, fireside entertainment and wild food. Stay tuned for more info.
Friday, 3 August 2012
Message from the mayan oracle tune in crew.
Message from the mayan oracle tune in crew.New Baktun cycle coming
"Ok can you gather and tune in at 4.27 this full moon and on into the days to come calling in divine intervention and support for humanity in the shift towards unity consciousness".
This is important to tune in with the accelerating shift into unity.
one love raise the vibration across the world.
A very long and extensive article on the diggers 2012 camp with many links and references
A very long and extensive article on the diggers 2012 camp with many links and historical references,From a visitor 2 weeks ago.
http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12578
For The Latest check www.diggers2012.wordpress.com
Thursday, 2 August 2012
System 7 - Song for the Phoenix [MASTERPIECE]
This was written for Steve Hillage from Gong,who i had the pleasure to meet out back of the old Rainbow Centre in the Church Kentish town.He was playing at the Forum next door and popped over to see the hub of the alternative culture that the old rainbow was.He had a meal in the back yard chilled and chatted and very much supported what we were doing.Saying it was in the spirit of the old Gong days.We loved it to see one of our heroes from such a big named band chillin wiv the Tribe.
Party Info Sat 4th Aug.2012
For regular party info check our old friends at www.accessallareas.org
This sat for those not at various festivals a good party to check would be:
The Art of Psychedelia
The art of psychedelia presents you with 2 stages on Saturday 4th of august ! Psytrance & chill area !!!Call infolines after 9pm
07904441405/07904441427
Pass it on to your friends
see you all soon
This sat for those not at various festivals a good party to check would be:
The Art of Psychedelia
The art of psychedelia presents you with 2 stages on Saturday 4th of august ! Psytrance & chill area !!!Call infolines after 9pm
07904441405/07904441427
Pass it on to your friends
see you all soon
Green Gathering Rises from the ashes for a second year
The Green Gathering is on over this weekend at Chepstow.This amazing green festival has something for all ages and a comprehensive spread of eco ideas,talks,stalls and actions.
Check http://www.greengathering2012.co.uk/
For full line up of entertainment groups and talks.Hope to see you there.
Phoenix will be doing 2 workshops on Sunday in the campaigns area on Squatting and the changes in the law and Direct Action.
Friday, 27 July 2012
How the Magna Carta became a Minor Carta, part 2 The Obama administration has perpetuated an assault on the foundations of traditional liberties
Guardian Comment is Free by Noam Chomsky
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/25/magna-carta-minor-carta-noam-chomsky
The post-civil war 14th amendment granted the rights of persons to former slaves, though mostly in theory. At the same time, it created a new category of persons with rights: corporations. In fact, almost all the cases brought to the courts under the 14th amendment had to do with corporate rights, and by a century ago, they had determined that these collectivist legal fictions, established and sustained by state power, had the full rights of persons of flesh and blood; in fact, far greater rights, thanks to their scale, immortality, and protections of limited liability. Their rights by now far transcend those of mere humans. Under the "free trade agreements", the Pacific Rim can, for example, sue El Salvador for seeking to protect the environment; individuals cannot do the same. General Motors can claim national rights in Mexico. There is no need to dwell on what would happen if a Mexican demanded national rights in the United States.
Domestically, recent supreme court rulings greatly enhance the already enormous political power of corporations and the super-rich, striking further blows against the tottering relics of functioning political democracy.
Meanwhile Magna Carta is under more direct assault. Recall the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which barred "imprisonment beyond the seas", and certainly the far more vicious procedure of imprisonment abroad for the purpose of torture – what is now more politely called "rendition", as when Tony Blair rendered Libyan dissident Abdel Hakim Belhaj, now a leader of the rebellion, to the mercies of Colonel Gaddafi; or when US authorities deported Canadian citizen Maher Arar to his native Syria, for imprisonment and torture, only later conceding that there was never any case against him. And many others, often through Shannon airport, leading to courageous protests in Ireland.
The concept of due process has been extended under the Barack Obama administration's international assassination campaign in a way that renders this core element of the Charter of Liberties (and the Constitution) null and void. The Justice Department explained that the constitutional guarantee of due process, tracing to Magna Carta, is now satisfied by internal deliberations in the executive branch alone. The constitutional lawyer in the White House agreed. King John might have nodded with satisfaction.
The issue arose after the presidentially ordered assassination-by-drone of Anwar al-Awlaki, accused of inciting jihad in speech, writing, and unspecified actions. A headline in the New York Times captured the general elite reaction when he was murdered in a drone attack, along with the usual collateral damage. It read: "The west celebrates a cleric's death." Some eyebrows were lifted, however, because he was an American citizen, which raised questions about due process – considered irrelevant when non-citizens are murdered at the whim of the chief executive. And irrelevant for citizens, too, under Obama administration due-process legal innovations.
Presumption of innocence has also been given a new and useful interpretation. As the New York Times reported: "Mr Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent." So post-assassination determination of innocence maintains the sacred principle of presumption of innocence.
It would be ungracious to recall the Geneva conventions, the foundation of modern humanitarian law: they bar "the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognised as indispensable by civilised peoples".
The most famous recent case of executive assassination was Osama bin Laden, murdered after he was apprehended by 79 Navy seals, defenceless, accompanied only by his wife, his body reportedly dumped at sea without autopsy. Whatever one thinks of him, he was a suspect and nothing more than that. Even the FBI agreed.
Celebration in this case was overwhelming, but there were a few questions raised about the bland rejection of the principle of presumption of innocence, particularly when trial was hardly impossible. These were met with harsh condemnations. The most interesting was by a respected left-liberal political commentator, Matthew Yglesias, who explained that "one of the main functions of the international institutional order is precisely to legitimate the use of deadly military force by western powers", so it is "amazingly naïve" to suggest that the US should obey international law or other conditions that we righteously demand of the weak.
Only tactical objections can be raised to aggression, assassination, cyberwar, or other actions that the Holy State undertakes in the service of mankind. If the traditional victims see matters somewhat differently, that merely reveals their moral and intellectual backwardness. And the occasional western critic who fails to comprehend these fundamental truths can be dismissed as "silly", Yglesias explains – incidentally, referring specifically to me, and I cheerfully confess my guilt.
Executive terrorist lists
Perhaps the most striking assault on the foundations of traditional liberties is a little-known case brought to the supreme court by the Obama administration, Holder v Humanitarian Law Project. The project was condemned for providing "material assistance" to guerrilla organisation PKK, which has fought for Kurdish rights in Turkey for many years and is listed as a terrorist group by the state executive. The "material assistance" was legal advice. The wording of the ruling would appear to apply quite broadly, for example, to discussions and research inquiry, even advice to the PKK to keep to nonviolent means. Again, there was a marginal fringe of criticism, but even those accepted the legitimacy of the state terrorist list – arbitrary decisions by the executive, with no recourse.
The record of the terrorist list is of some interest. For example, in 1988 the Reagan administration declared Nelson Mandela's African National Congress to be one of the world's "more notorious terrorist groups", so that Reagan could continue his support for the apartheid regime and its murderous depredations in South Africa and in neighbouring countries, as part of his "war on terror". Twenty years later Mandela was finally removed from the terrorist list, and can now travel to the US without a special waiver.
Another interesting case is Saddam Hussein, removed from the terrorist list in 1982 so that the Reagan administration could provide him with support for his invasion of Iran. The support continued well after the war ended. In 1989, President Bush even invited Iraqi nuclear engineers to the US for advanced training in weapons production – more information that must be kept from the eyes of the "ignorant and meddlesome outsiders."
One of the ugliest examples of the use of the terrorist list has to do with the tortured people of Somalia. Immediately after 11 September, the US closed down the Somali charitable network Al-Barakaat on grounds that it was financing terror. This achievement was hailed one of the great successes of the "war on terror". In contrast, Washington's withdrawal of its charges as without merit a year later aroused little notice.
Al-Barakaat was responsible for about half the $500m in remittances to Somalia, "more than it earns from any other economic sector and 10 times the amount of foreign aid [Somalia] receives" a UN review determined. The charity also ran major businesses in Somalia, all destroyed. The leading academic scholar of Bush's "financial war on terror", Ibrahim Warde, concludes that apart from devastating the economy, this frivolous attack on a very fragile society "may have played a role in the rise ... of Islamic fundamentalists" – another familiar consequence of the "war on terror".
The very idea that the state should have the authority to make such judgments is a serious offense against the Charter of Liberties, as is the fact that it is considered uncontentious. If the charter's fall from grace continues on the path of the past few years, the future of rights and liberties looks dim.
Who will have the last laugh?
A few final words on the fate of the Charter of the Forest. Its goal was to protect the source of sustenance for the population, the commons, from external power – in the early days, royalty; over the years, enclosures and other forms of privatisation by predatory corporations and the state authorities who co-operate with them, have only accelerated and are properly rewarded. The damage is very broad.
If we listen to voices from the south today we can learn that "the conversion of public goods into private property through the privatisation of our otherwise commonly held natural environment is one way neoliberal institutions remove the fragile threads that hold African nations together. Politics today has been reduced to a lucrative venture where one looks out mainly for returns on investment rather than on what one can contribute to rebuild highly degraded environments, communities, and a nation. This is one of the benefits that structural adjustment programmes inflicted on the continent – the enthronement of corruption." I'm quoting Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey, chair of Friends of the Earth International, in his searing expose of the ravaging of Africa's wealth, To Cook a Continent, the latest phase of the western torture of Africa.
Torture that has always been planned at the highest level, it should be recognised. At the end of the second world war, the US held a position of unprecedented global power. Not surprisingly, careful and sophisticated plans were developed about how to organise the world. Each region was assigned its "function" by state department planners, headed by the distinguished diplomat George Kennan. He determined that the US had no special interest in Africa, so it should be handed over to Europe to "exploit" – his word – for its reconstruction. In the light of history, one might have imagined a different relation between Europe and Africa, but there is no indication that that was ever considered.
More recently, the US has recognised that it, too, must join the game of exploiting Africa, along with new entries like China, which is busily at work compiling one of the worst records in destruction of the environment and oppression of the hapless victims.
It should be unnecessary to dwell on the extreme dangers posed by one central element of the predatory obsessions that are producing calamities all over the world: the reliance on fossil fuels, which courts global disaster, perhaps in the not-too-distant future. Details may be debated, but there is little serious doubt that the problems are serious, if not awesome, and that the longer we delay in addressing them, the more awful will be the legacy left to generations to come. There are some efforts to face reality, but they are far too minimal. The recent Rio+20 Conference opened with meagre aspirations and derisory outcomes.
Meanwhile, power concentrations are charging in the opposite direction, led by the richest and most powerful country in world history. Congressional Republicans are dismantling the limited environmental protections initiated by Richard Nixon, who would be something of a dangerous radical in today's political scene. The major business lobbies openly announce their propaganda campaigns to convince the public that there is no need for undue concern – with some effect, as polls show.
The media co-operates by not even reporting the increasingly dire forecasts of international agencies and even the US Department of Energy. The standard presentation is a debate between alarmists and sceptics: on one side virtually all qualified scientists, on the other a few holdouts. Not part of the debate are a very large number of experts, including the climate change programme at Massachusetts Institute of Technology among others, who criticise the scientific consensus because it is too conservative and cautious, arguing that the truth when it comes to climate change is far more dire. Not surprisingly, the public is confused.
In his State of the Union speech in January, Obama hailed the bright prospects of a century of energy self-sufficiency, thanks to new technologies that permit extraction of hydrocarbons from Canadian tar sands, shale and other previously inaccessible sources. Others agree. The Financial Times forecasts a century of energy independence for the US The report does mention the destructive local impact of the new methods. Unasked in these optimistic forecasts is the question, what kind of a world will survive the rapacious onslaught?
In the lead in confronting the crisis throughout the world are indigenous communities, those who have always upheld the Charter of the Forests. The strongest stand has been taken by the one country they govern, Bolivia, the poorest country in South America and for centuries a victim of western destruction of the rich resources of one of the most advanced of the developed societies in the hemisphere, pre-Columbus.
After the ignominious collapse of the Copenhagen global climate change summit in 2009, Bolivia organised a People's Summit with 35,000 participants from 140 countries – not just representatives of governments, but also civil society and activists. It produced a People's Agreement, which called for very sharp reduction in emissions, and a Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. That is a key demand of indigenous communities all over the world. It is ridiculed by sophisticated westerners, but unless we can acquire some of their sensibility, they are likely to have the last laugh – a laugh of grim despair.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Noam Chomsky How the Magna Carta became a Minor Carta, part 1 The Magna Carta was a milestone in civil and human rights. Can we stop its principles being shredded before our eyes?
Guardian Comment is free article.http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/24/magna-carta-minor-carta-noam-chomsky?CMP=twt_fd
Diggers 2012 camped at Runnymede near Magna Carta memorial say wow Chomsky on the Magna Carta
Phoenix note:(We wonder if the actions of a brave few at Runnymede (diggers 2012) may be sending Ripples in all directions.In 3 years 2015 it will be the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta.Apparently we are told plans are already afoot to control this celebration ( see video of a Professor of History from Brunel University warning us at the Runnymede memorial 4-5 weeks ago posted on this blog via the Phoenix Report soon)
A rare copy of the Magna Carta in New York Sotheby's, auctioned off for $19m in 2007. Photograph: Michael Nagle/Getty Images
Down the road only a few generations, the millennium of Magna Carta, one of the great events in the establishment of civil and human rights, will arrive. Whether it will be celebrated, mourned, or ignored is not at all clear.
That should be a matter of serious immediate concern. What we do right now, or fail to do, will determine what kind of world will greet that event. It is not an attractive prospect if present tendencies persist – not least, because the Great Charter is being shredded before our eyes.
The first scholarly edition of Magna Carta was published by the eminent jurist William Blackstone. It was not an easy task. There was no good text available. As he wrote, "the body of the charter has been unfortunately gnawn by rats" – a comment that carries grim symbolism today, as we take up the task the rats left unfinished.
Blackstone's edition actually includes two charters. It was entitled The Great Charter and the Charter of the Forest. The first, the Charter of Liberties, is widely recognised to be the foundation of the fundamental rights of the English-speaking peoples – or as Winston Churchill put it more expansively, "the charter of every self-respecting man at any time in any land." Churchill was referring specifically to the reaffirmation of the Charter by Parliament in the Petition of Right, imploring King Charles to recognise that the law is sovereign, not the King. Charles agreed briefly, but soon violated his pledge, setting the stage for the murderous civil war.
After a bitter conflict between King and Parliament, the power of royalty in the person of Charles II was restored. In defeat, Magna Carta was not forgotten. One of the leaders of Parliament, Henry Vane, was beheaded. On the scaffold, he tried to read a speech denouncing the sentence as a violation of Magna Carta, but was drowned out by trumpets to ensure that such scandalous words would not be heard by the cheering crowds. His major crime had been to draft a petition calling the people "the original of all just power" in civil society – not the King, not even God. That was the position that had been strongly advocated by Roger Williams, the founder of the first free society in what is now the state of Rhode Island. His heretical views influenced Milton and Locke, though Williams went much farther, founding the modern doctrine of separation of church and state, still much contested even in the liberal democracies.
As often is the case, apparent defeat nevertheless carried the struggle for freedom and rights forward. Shortly after Vane's execution, King Charles granted a Royal Charter to the Rhode Island plantations, declaring that "the form of government is Democratical", and furthermore that the government could affirm freedom of conscience for Papists, atheists, Jews, Turks – even Quakers, one of the most feared and brutalised of the many sects that were appearing in those turbulent days. All of this was astonishing in the climate of the times.
A few years later, the Charter of Liberties was enriched by the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, formally entitled "an Act for the better securing the liberty of the subject, and for prevention of imprisonment beyond the seas". The US constitution, borrowing from English common law, affirms that "the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended" except in case of rebellion or invasion. In a unanimous decision, the US supreme court held that the rights guaranteed by this Act were "[c]onsidered by the Founders [of the American Republic] as the highest safeguard of liberty". All of these words should resonate today.
The Second Charter and the Commons
The significance of the companion charter, the Charter of the Forest, is no less profound and perhaps even more pertinent today – as explored in depth by Peter Linebaugh in his richly documented and stimulating history of Magna Carta and its later trajectory. The Charter of the Forest demanded protection of the commons from external power. The commons were the source of sustenance for the general population: their fuel, their food, their construction materials, whatever was essential for life. The forest was no primitive wilderness. It had been carefully developed over generations, maintained in common, its riches available to all, and preserved for future generations – practices found today primarily in traditional societies that are under threat throughout the world.
The Charter of the Forest imposed limits to privatisation. The Robin Hood myths capture the essence of its concerns (and it is not too surprising that the popular TV series of the 1950s, "The Adventures of Robin Hood," was written anonymously by Hollywood screenwriters blacklisted for leftist convictions). By the 17th century, however, this Charter had fallen victim to the rise of the commodity economy and capitalist practice and morality.
With the commons no longer protected for co-operative nurturing and use, the rights of the common people were restricted to what could not be privatised, a category that continues to shrink to virtual invisibility. In Bolivia, the attempt to privatise water was, in the end, beaten back by an uprising that brought the indigenous majority to power for the first time in history. The World Bank has just ruled that the mining multinational Pacific Rim can proceed with a case against El Salvador for trying to preserve lands and communities from highly destructive gold mining. Environmental constraints threaten to deprive the company of future profits, a crime that can be punished under the rules of the investor-rights regime mislabeled as "free trade." And this is only a tiny sample of struggles underway over much of the world, some involving extreme violence, as in the Eastern Congo, where millions have been killed in recent years to ensure an ample supply of minerals for cell phones and other uses, and of course ample profits.
The rise of capitalist practice and morality brought with it a radical revision of how the commons are treated, and also of how they are conceived. The prevailing view today is captured by Garrett Hardin's influential argument that "freedom in a commons brings ruin to us all," the famous "tragedy of the commons": what is not owned will be destroyed by individual avarice.
An international counterpart was the concept of terra nullius, employed to justify the expulsion of indigenous populations in the settler-colonial societies of the Anglosphere, or their "extermination," as the founding fathers of the American republic described what they were doing, sometimes with remorse, after the fact. According to this useful doctrine, the Indians had no property rights since they were just wanderers in an untamed wilderness. And the hard-working colonists could create value where there was none by turning that same wilderness to commercial use.
In reality, the colonists knew better and there were elaborate procedures of purchase and ratification by crown and parliament, later annulled by force when the evil creatures resisted extermination. The doctrine is often attributed to John Locke, but that is dubious. As a colonial administrator, he understood what was happening, and there is no basis for the attribution in his writings, as contemporary scholarship has shown convincingly, notably the work of the Australian scholar Paul Corcoran. (It was in Australia, in fact, that the doctrine has been most brutally employed.)
The grim forecasts of the tragedy of the commons are not without challenge. The late Elinor Olstrom won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2009 for her work showing the superiority of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins. But the conventional doctrine has force if we accept its unstated premise: that humans are blindly driven by what American workers, at the dawn of the industrial revolution, bitterly called "the New Spirit of the Age, Gain Wealth forgetting all but Self."
Like peasants and workers in England before them, American workers denounced this New Spirit, which was being imposed upon them, regarding it as demeaning and destructive, an assault on the very nature of free men and women. And I stress women; among those most active and vocal in condemning the destruction of the rights and dignity of free people by the capitalist industrial system were the "factory girls," young women from the farms. They, too, were driven into the regime of supervised and controlled wage labour, which was regarded at the time as different from chattel slavery only in that it was temporary. That stand was considered so natural that it became a slogan of the Republican party, and a banner under which northern workers carried arms during the American civil war.
Controlling the Desire for Democracy
That was 150 years ago – in England earlier. Huge efforts have been devoted since to inculcating the New Spirit of the Age. Major industries are devoted to the task: public relations, advertising, marketing generally, all of which add up to a very large component of the Gross Domestic Product. They are dedicated to what the great political economist Thorstein Veblen called "fabricating wants." In the words of business leaders themselves, the task is to direct people to "the superficial things" of life, like "fashionable consumption." That way people can be atomised, separated from one another, seeking personal gain alone, diverted from dangerous efforts to think for themselves and challenge authority.
The process of shaping opinion, attitudes, and perceptions was termed the "engineering of consent" by one of the founders of the modern public relations industry, Edward Bernays. He was a respected Wilson-Roosevelt-Kennedy progressive, much like his contemporary, journalist Walter Lippmann, the most prominent public intellectual of 20th-century America, who praised "the manufacture of consent" as a "new art" in the practice of democracy.
Both recognised that the public must be "put in its place," marginalised and controlled – for their own interests of course. They were too "stupid and ignorant" to be allowed to run their own affairs. That task was to be left to the "intelligent minority," who must be protected from "the trampling and the roar of [the] bewildered herd," the "ignorant and meddlesome outsiders" – the "rascal multitude" as they were termed by their 17th century predecessors. The role of the general population was to be "spectators," not "participants in action," in a properly functioning democratic society.
And the spectators must not be allowed to see too much. President Obama has set new standards in safeguarding this principle. He has, in fact, punished more whistleblowers than all previous presidents combined, a real achievement for an administration that came to office promising transparency. WikiLeaks is only the most famous case, with British cooperation.
Among the many topics that are not the business of the bewildered herd is foreign affairs. Anyone who has studied declassified secret documents will have discovered that, to a large extent, their classification was meant to protect public officials from public scrutiny. Domestically, the rabble should not hear the advice given by the courts to major corporations: that they should devote some highly visible efforts to good works, so that an "aroused public" will not discover the enormous benefits provided to them by the nanny state. More generally the US public should not learn that "state policies are overwhelmingly regressive, thus reinforcing and expanding social inequality," though designed in ways that lead "people to think that the government helps only the undeserving poor, allowing politicians to mobilise and exploit anti-government rhetoric and values even as they continue to funnel support to their better-off constituents" – I'm quoting from the main establishment journal, Foreign Affairs, not from some radical rag.
Over time, as societies became freer and the resort to state violence more constrained, the urge to devise sophisticated methods of control of attitudes and opinion has only grown. It is natural that the immense PR industry should have been created in the most free of societies, the United States and Great Britain. The first modern propaganda agency was the British Ministry of Information a century ago, which secretly defined its task as "to direct the thought of most of the world" -- primarily progressive American intellectuals, who had to be mobilized to come to the aid of Britain during the first world war.
Its US counterpart, the Committee on Public Information, was formed by Woodrow Wilson to drive a pacifist population to violent hatred of all things German – with remarkable success. American commercial advertising deeply impressed others. Goebbels admired it and adapted it to Nazi propaganda, all too successfully. The Bolshevik leaders tried as well, but their efforts were clumsy and ineffective.
A primary domestic task has always been "to keep [the public] from our throats," as essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson described the concerns of political leaders when the threat of democracy was becoming harder to suppress in the mid-19th century. More recently, the activism of the 1960s elicited elite concerns about "excessive democracy," and calls for measures to impose "more moderation" in democracy.
One particular concern was to introduce better controls over the institutions "responsible for the indoctrination of the young": the schools, the universities, the churches, which were seen as failing that essential task. I'm quoting reactions from the left-liberal end of the mainstream spectrum, the liberal internationalists who later staffed the Carter administration, and their counterparts in other industrial societies. The right wing was much harsher. One of many manifestations of this urge has been the sharp rise in college tuition, not on economic grounds, as is easily shown. The device does, however, trap and control young people by debt, often for the rest of their lives, thus contributing to more effective indoctrination.
The Three-Fifths People
Pursuing these important topics further, we see that the destruction of the Charter of the Forest, and its obliteration from memory, relates rather closely to the continuing efforts to constrain the promise of the Charter of Liberties. The "New Spirit of the Age" cannot tolerate the pre-capitalist conception of the Forest as the shared endowment of the community at large, cared for communally for its own use and for future generations, protected from privatisation, from transfer to the hands of private power for service to wealth, not needs. Inculcating the New Spirit is an essential prerequisite for achieving this end, and for preventing the Charter of Liberties from being misused to enable free citizens to determine their own fate.
Popular struggles to bring about a freer and more just society have been resisted by violence and repression, and massive efforts to control opinion and attitudes. Over time, however, they have met with considerable success, even though there is a long way to go and there is often regression. Right now, in fact.
The most famous part of the Charter of Liberties is Article 39, which declares that "no free man" shall be punished in any way, "nor will We proceed against or prosecute him, except by the lawful judgment of his peers and by the law of the land."
Through many years of struggle, the principle has come to hold more broadly. The US Constitution provides that no "person [shall] be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law [and] a speedy and public trial" by peers. The basic principle is "presumption of innocence" – what legal historians describe as "the seed of contemporary Anglo-American freedom," referring to Article 39; and with the Nuremberg Tribunal in mind, a "particularly American brand of legalism: punishment only for those who could be proved to be guilty through a fair trial with a panoply of procedural protections" -- even if their guilt for some of the worst crimes in history is not in doubt.
The founders of course did not intend the term "person" to apply to all persons. Native Americans were not persons. Their rights were virtually nil. Women were scarcely persons. Wives were understood to be "covered" under the civil identity of their husbands in much the same way as children were subject to their parents. Blackstone's principles held that "the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband: under whose wing, protection, and cover, she performs every thing." Women are thus the property of their fathers or husbands. These principles remain up to very recent years. Until a supreme court decision of 1975, women did not even have a legal right to serve on juries. They were not peers. Just two weeks ago, Republican opposition blocked the Fairness Paycheck Act guaranteeing women equal pay for equal work. And it goes far beyond.
Slaves, of course, were not persons. They were in fact three-fifths human under the Constitution, so as to grant their owners greater voting power. Protection of slavery was no slight concern to the founders: it was one factor leading to the American revolution. In the 1772 Somerset case, Lord Mansfield determined that slavery is so "odious" that it cannot be tolerated in England, though it continued in British possessions for many years. American slave-owners could see the handwriting on the wall if the colonies remained under British rule. And it should be recalled that the slave states, including Virginia, had the greatest power and influence in the colonies. One can easily appreciate Dr Johnson's famous quip that "we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes".
Post-civil war amendments extended the concept person to African-Americans, ending slavery. In theory, at least. After about a decade of relative freedom, a condition akin to slavery was reintroduced by a North-South compact permitting the effective criminalisation of black life. A black male standing on a street corner could be arrested for vagrancy, or for attempted rape if accused of looking at a white woman the wrong way. And once imprisoned he had few chances of ever escaping the system of "slavery by another name," the term used by then-Wall Street Journal bureau chief Douglas Blackmon in an arresting study.
This new version of the "peculiar institution" provided much of the basis for the American industrial revolution, with a perfect workforce for the steel industry and mining, along with agricultural production in the famous chain gangs: docile, obedient, no strikes, and no need for employers even to sustain their workers, an improvement over slavery. The system lasted in large measure until World War II, when free labour was needed for war production.
The postwar boom offered employment. A black man could get a job in a unionised auto plant, earn a decent salary, buy a house, and maybe send his children to college. That lasted for about 20 years, until the 1970s, when the economy was radically redesigned on newly dominant neoliberal principles, with rapid growth of financialisation and the offshoring of production. The black population, now largely superfluous, has been recriminalised.
Until Ronald Reagan's presidency, incarceration in the US was within the spectrum of industrial societies. By now it is far beyond others. It targets primarily black males, increasingly also black women and Hispanics, largely guilty of victimless crimes under the fraudulent "drug wars". Meanwhile, the wealth of African-American families has been virtually obliterated by the latest financial crisis, in no small measure thanks to criminal behaviour of financial institutions, with impunity for the perpetrators, now richer than ever.
Looking over the history of African-Americans from the first arrival of slaves almost 500 years ago to the present, they have enjoyed the status of authentic persons for only a few decades. There is a long way to go to realise the promise of Magna Carta.
• Part 2 of Noam Chomsky's discussion of the Magna Carta will be posted here tomorrow
Monday, 23 July 2012
Icelands Revolution.Pots, Pans and Other Solutions
In Iceland, the first European country to wake up to an economic crash, people became aware that they could and should intervene in society and started demanding more democratic participation.
The payment of bank debts by citizens went to referendum. The government was forced to create a Council to write a new constitution: a citizens’ group - without politicians, lawyers or university professors – who opened the discussion process to everybody and managed to approve by consensus a draft proposal.
In Iceland, many citizens are now organized in associations and have substantial proposals for a society where everyone can participate.
Let’s meet the Icelanders that the media refuse to talk about.
This documentary was idealized, conceived and produced by Miguel Marques, Yolanda Rienderhoff, Pedro Bruno Carreira and LIGHTS ON(E). We had no sponsors whatsoever.
If you liked it and you have the means, feel free “to pay your ticket”. You can make a bank transfer of 1 to 5 euros to:
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We also have the film available on DVD. Just write an email to potspans2012@gmail.com with your name, postal address and a proof of the bank transfer – 10€ (europe) or 12€ (rest of the world) to cover expenses.
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Feel free to make public exhibitions of the documentary. You can ask for the film poster by email.
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