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23-08-2006 10:49
I’m in a coffee house in Baalbek to meet Mr Ahmad Rayya, who is a senior figure in Hizbollah and the spokesman for the local district. Baalbek has suffered badly from Israeli air strikes, and the evidence is all around us. Our journey here has taken us passed numerous bombsites where shopkeepers and homeowners toil in the dust and rubble to salvage items in preparation for clearance and rebuilding. The backdrop of Baalbeck’s ancient Roman ruins seems strangely in keeping with the destruction below. I start by asking him to summarise the cost of the war to the area.
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| Lebanon War 2006
| Anti-militarism
| World
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23-08-2006 10:46
I am being shown around what is left of the Leban Lait Dairy plant by Deeb Mounzer, a mechanical engineer and one of the union reps. It was one of the biggest diary producers in the Middle East. On the 5th day of the war it was attacked by fighter jets in a strike whose precision was matched only by its ferocity. The factory is a twisted pile of metal drenched in millions of gallons of dairy that has been fermenting in the sun for weeks. The stench is unbearable and clouds of flies swarm around the wreckage. Deeb tells me that 270 people are now unemployed and no one is insured for war. The present estimate for getting even part of the factory operational is 1-2 years. The cows in the nearby supply farm are weak and neglected and no longer able to produce milk. Israel’s excuse for this outrage was that the factory was a possible weapons storage and funded Hizbollah. This allegation was repeated by all the corporate media in the west.
Related Categories
| Lebanon War 2006
| Anti-militarism
| World
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23-08-2006 10:43
Never let it be said that Hizbollah are not media savvy. Quickly produced banners placed around the ruins of Dhayiya make their views of Israel’s sponsors very clear. ‘The New Middle Beast’ proclaims one, taking the piss out of George Bush’s recent statement. ‘Made in USA’ says another. ‘Extremely Accurate Targeting’ attacks Israel’s claims that their bombings were somehow precise; the banner in question being sat in the middle of a completely demolished street.
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| Lebanon War 2006
| Anti-militarism
| World
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23-08-2006 03:40
In Oaxaca now as many possibly already know, the climate is of total ungovernability, the city has been completely taken, there are pickets and occupations of many government offices where already nobody works, whole streets are barricades with the participation of busand taxis drivers who have put their units into the blockades.
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| Repression
| Social Struggles
| Zapatista
| World
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22-08-2006 14:31
The border town of Aita Al-Shabb saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war. The town is destroyed having been hit with shells, missiles, bombs and heavy machinegun fire. Shortly after we arrive, an elderly woman approaches and asks us to come and see her home. Haji Mariam Srour is 82 and slept for thirty days under her bed. This was a smart move when you consider that every window in her house has been shattered, showering the place with glass. After half her house (the other side from the bedroom) was hit directly by a shell she spent three days sheltering in a neighbour’s bathroom with three other elderly women and no food. Had the ceasefire not happened they could all be dead.
Related Categories
| Lebanon War 2006
| Anti-militarism
| World
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22-08-2006 14:19
I am shown around the southern village of Jbah by Abir Ghamloush, a local woman who lives and works in Beirut. This is her first opportunity to return here since the Monday ceasefire. Until now, her Beirut house, which she shares with her mother, has been home to 30 refugees from fives families, three of which were from here. Jbah is home to around 8,000 local people of middle incomes and acts as a hub for a further 7,000 people from local rural communities. The schools and nursery are based in the village along with a few workshops and small businesses. Until now the place had been deserted by all but five families who stayed during the war. Looking around the village it is not hard to see why the people fled in such numbers.
Related Categories
| Lebanon War 2006
| Anti-militarism
| World
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22-08-2006 14:14
South of Beirut the mother of all traffic jams stretches for miles. Every bridge big and small has been bombed and engineers are working around the clock to clear the way around or to put in temporary ones.
Related Categories
| Lebanon War 2006
| Anti-militarism
| World
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22-08-2006 13:24
The occupation of the Sparkbrook social centre known as the Cottage of Content is ongoing, yet while court proceedings and legalities are set in place against the occupation, the renovation and revival of the community asset is continuing unabated.
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| Analysis
| Free Spaces
| Social Struggles
| Birmingham
| World
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21-08-2006 23:47
On top of ID cards and the move to NHS electronic records, another major government plan with a potential for hideous invasion of privacy and loss of personal freedom comes out of the Children Act (2004). The new Act allows the setting up of incredibly invasive databases by the Secretary of State and/or children's services authorities in England. At the same time pupils and parents are getting more vocal and organised in their protests against the alarming rate of introduction of biometric systems in schools. These have included fingerprinting (and even iris scanning) of children for school dinners, attendance registers, and use of libraries or ‘learning resource centres’.
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| Education
| Repression
| Technology
| Cambridge
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| 3 comments
21-08-2006 18:45
Firefighters on Merseyside have overwhelmingly voted to strike against plans to make 120 workers redundant and reduce night-time cover to just one engine for the whole of Liverpool city centre. The cuts are planned because the government ordered £3 million of savings.
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| Social Struggles
| Workers' Movements
| Liverpool
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21-08-2006 13:18
After capturing and detaining him at Brand Street, the Home Office are attempting to separate Glasgow resident Evariste from his wife and children. Please take action to prevent this. Come along to a Unity demonstration outside the Home Office, Brand St, Glasgow, on Wednesday 23rd August at 12.00pm to support Evariste and his family.
Related Categories
| Anti-racism
| Migration
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| 5 comments
20-08-2006 21:21
A round up of news from Rossport Solidarity Camp and the Shell to Sea campaign; re-routed pipelines, plans by Shell to restart work, a meaningless recommendations from a government appointed mediator, thirteen months of blocking Shell and counting, a gathering at the camp and a wee walk to Dublin...
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| Rossport Solidarity
| Ecology
| Sheffield
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