World Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

Two students from Brighton have just arrived in Palestine and will spend the next few weeks in the Jordan Valley, along with other Brighton-tubas solidarity Group members who will join them over the next few weeks. They will be reporting on the numberous resistance projects in the Jordan Valley, where local Bedouins and other Palestinians are coming together to challenge the occupation by constucting schools, health clinics, homes, playgrounds, roads and water pipes. Read their blog at www.brightonpalestine.org to keep up to date with what is happening.

Artwork based upon Angel Palacios' article "Terror en las noches de Honduras":  http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/terror-las-noches-de-honduras

Three months since the US-instigated coup in Honduras, ousted president Manuel Zelaya claims being subjected to mind-altering gas and radiation. Furthermore, he fears being assassinated by Israeli mercenaries.

Over the past week U.S. newspapers and television networks have been abuzz with reports that Washington and its NATO allies are planning an unprecedented increase of troops for the war in Afghanistan, even in addition to the 17,000 new American and several thousand NATO forces that have been committed to the war so far this year.

America's obedient media is preparing domestic audiences for the possibility of the largest escalation of foreign armed forces in Afghanistan's history.

see www.smashedo.org.uk for details

Hebron remains the hub of tension and violence in the West Bank. Much of this comes from the settlers of Tel Rumeida, a community of 800 international Zionists living in the heart of the city, notorious for frequent, unprovoked attacks on their Muslim neighbours. We spoke with New Jersey-born David Wilder, a community leader, to explain their continued presence in Hebron and his hopes for a solution.

Honduran coup leaders are popularly known as "gorillas" and Roberto Micheletti as "Goriletti".

Honduran coup leaders are popularly known as "gorillas" and Roberto Micheletti as "Goriletti".

“We will continue the struggle for democracy,” said Zelaya, as the crowd voiced their desire for a new constitution. “This time I won’t be caught napping,” joked Zelaya, referring to the episode on June 28, when the military accosted him in his pajamas.

Later, when the lights were cut, there were fears the authorities might storm the gates at any moment, and side arms were handed out to security guards. The lights soon returned courtesy of the compound’s generator (and gas supplied by La Resistencia). The expected attack didn’t come until dawn, when police launched tear gas shells into the courtyard, and forcibly occupied neighboring buildings."

"This is a textbook example of what we've referred to before as "dilemma actions." It puts the coup regime on the horns of a dilemma, in which it has no good options. It can leave Zelaya to put together his government again from the Brazilian embassy with the active support of so many sectors of Honduran civil society, or it can try to arrest the President, provoking a nonviolent insurrection from the people of the kind that has toppled many a regime throughout history. Minute by minute, hour by hour, and, soon, day by day, the coup regime is losing its grip. At some point it will have to choose either to unleash a terrible violent wave of state terrorism upon the country's own people - which will provoke all out insurrection in response (guaranteed by Article 3 of the Honduran Constitution) - or Micheletti and his Simian Council can start packing their bags and seeking asylum someplace like Panama."

Three free gigs have been held in North East Wales over the last three days to mark International Peace Day, which is today, 21 September.

 http://www.internationaldayofpeace.org/

Copyleft artwork by Brazilian cartoonist Latuff, originally produced for The Sovereign Newspaper, New York:  http://www.thesovnews.com

please pass on to peace movement peeps...

20 photos from a lively and well attended stall for Palestine in Edinburgh's Princes Street on Saturday 19th

The Afghan War: what is behind this madness?

After 4 years of constant scare-mongering by the world’s leading nuclear powers over “Iran’s nuclear threat”, US President Obama reverts to Clinton administration’s “Iran’s ballistic threat” propaganda of the late 1990s.

In early October, these nuclear powers will hold the “much-anticipated” talks with Iran in Turkey; the neighbouring country that hosts the largest US nuclear arsenal outside the USA.

In January 2009 more US troops committed suicide than were killed in action in Iraq & Afghanistan. In recent years suicide rates in the military have more than doubled, mental health entry standards for new recruits appear to have been lowered and the resulting problems are being medicated with a dangerous cocktail of psychotropic drugs despite manufacturers warning labels.

"So, in effect, since the earliest days of the coup regime in Honduras, the U.S. has done little more than repackage and rebroadcast the same aid cuts to appease the media and to compliment its rhetorical position of being against the coup. But behind the scenes, the economic effect of the aid cuts has been little more than symbolic posturing."

"Henry Kissinger was brutally honest about the U.S. diplomatic reality in Latin America, when commenting decades ago on the government of democratically elected President Salvador Allende of Chile — who was overthrown in a 1973 U.S.-backed coup that led to Allende’s assassination and a subsequent reign of terror by the dictator General Augusto Pinochet.
I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under President Richard Nixon

Under Secretary of State Clinton, that fundamentally anti-democratic foreign policy appears to continue to be the status quo for Latin America — absent a much more hands-on effort to change that course by the president of the United States.

4 photos from Palestine solidarity stall

1st January 2010