|
Police repression increases as
anti-war protests continue
Compiled by Shawn Gaynor
Apr. 9 (AGR)—Anti-war protests raged across the nation again as
the war on Iraq entered its third week. On Apr. 7 protest groups across
the nation targeted companies that have profited or stand to profit
from the war as part of a Global Day of Direct Action to Stop the War,
called by activists in San Francisco.
In Oakland, California protesters shut down part of the port area. Anti-war
demonstrators arrived around 5am at the port of Oakland to picket American
President Lines (APL) and Stevedoring Services of America (SSA). APL
receives millions of taxpayer dollars every year for shipping military
cargo through the Department of Defense Maritime Security Program. SSA
was awarded a $4.8 million contract for a year’s operation of the
Port of Umm Qasr in Iraq, a major staging point for the war.
Police responded quickly with concussion grenades and wooden bullets
to disperse the demonstrators.
Liz Highleyman, a San Francisco writer who has been at many of the major
protests across the country in recent years, said the police response
reminded her of the World Trade Organization riots in Seattle four years
ago.
“This is a level of injury as high as I’ve seen anywhere since
Seattle in 1999,” she said.
Dozens of people, including six onlooking dockworkers from the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), were injured by the projectiles.
One of the ILWU workers was hospitalized.
“I was standing as far back as I could,” said longshoreman
Kevin Wilson. “It was very scary. All of that force wasn’t
necessary.”
Trent Willis, a business agent for the ILWU, said angrily that dockworkers
were leaving the docks after the incident, forcing a closure of the
port.
“They shot my guys. We’re not going to work today,” Willis
said. “The cops had no reason to open up on them.”
Oakland police reported 24 arrests.
Protesters were chased to a nearby BART station, and later regrouped
to temporarily close down the Oakland Federal Building.
Earlier in the week, over 15,000 Oakland residents took part in an anti-war
march and rally. Representatives of the Peace and Justice Coalition,
which organized the event, said they specifically held the event in
Oakland to attract low-income people and minorities who, according to
polls, are the most likely to oppose the war in Iraq even though they
have been less likely to attend anti-war events in San Francisco.
“I’ve just come from five weeks touring all over Europe. At
each and every place I have been, I have been asked what Americans are
doing about cleaning our own house,” said entertainer and civil
rights activist Harry Belafonte. “We stand here today as the beginning
of a movement to take back America to the place where it belongs, to
the people.”
Omar Yassin, 34, of Oakland, said he hoped the diverse ethnicities represented
by the marchers would convey an important message.
“We’re people of color. We’re not the progressives or
white people, and we need to show that we’re all against the war,”
he said. “There are so many things we could be spending money on
that are better, are positive, and would enrich people’s lives.
It’s crazy.”
Marcus Wilson, 29, was likewise angry at Bush.
“For just a tiny fraction of what it costs to send all those Marines
over there, we could not only bail out Oakland schools, we could improve
them,” said Wilson, 29, holding the hand of his 7-year-old daughter.
“In Oakland, the schools are bankrupt, the homicide rate is going
up and kids are selling drugs because they can’t find jobs.
“And Bush wants to rebuild Iraq. If we had oil, maybe we could
get Bush to invade here, too.”
Vietnam War veteran Richard Sanderell, who wore a T-shirt showing a
picture of himself in his US Navy uniform after boot camp, confronted
the pro-war demonstrators and asked them how many had ever talked to
a veteran about war.
“When I went to Vietnam, I thought I was supporting freedom,”
Sanderell said. “History has shown it was a big lie. These students
... need to ask serious questions about what they are really supporting.
You may spend years trying to live this down.”
In New York City on Monday over a hundred people were arrested as they
peacefully protested in front of the Manhattan offices of the Carlyle
Group. The Carlyle Group is the world’s largest private investment
firm managing $14 billion in assets, including stakes in a number of
military-related companies. Former Defense Secretary (and deputy CIA
Director) Frank Carlucci, former Secretary of State James Baker, former
President George Bush, and former British Prime Minister John Major
are all top Carlyle officials who profit from the war.
The protesters, part of the New York based M27 coalition, said the action
was taken in support of the national day of action against the war.
They said police gave no order to disperse before making arrests.
Attorney Karen Moulding, an attorney with the group Glamericans for
Peace, observed the arrests. “Pedestrians were able to get by without
any impediment. Police gave no warnings to disperse. I’ve been
a legal observer for many demonstrations for years and I’ve never
seen anything like it. Police behavior seemed calculated to silence
or deter peaceful demonstration. Police should be proud to protect the
First Amendment right to demonstrate peacefully, rather than use scare
tactics to pre-empt it.”
Jennifer Jaeger, a protester who witnessed the arrests of bystanders,
said, “I noticed one man thrown to the ground, and another bystander
was cuffed so tightly that she started to cry. The police were brutal
and it’s obvious their actions were meant to stifle protests.”
“Right now, in ways that are off the radar screen of most Americans,
corporate players in key industries are working hand in hand with Bush
administration officials and advisors, using this war — and wars
now being planned — to push for an unprecedented expansion of American
military power and global economic dominance,” said a statement
from the M27 Coalition. “Decisions are being made not on the basis
of what is good for Americans and for the world, but on the basis of
what is most profitable for a tiny elite; and not by democratic means
but behind the closed doors of private institutions like the Carlyle
Group.”
In Madison, Wisconsin, on Apr. 7, local citizens died-in at various
intersections and Senator Kohl’s office in solidarity with efforts
to stop the war.
“Locally, citizens wanted to bring the war home to increase the
awareness of the average citizen,” said a Madison anti-war statement.
“By dying-in, our goal was to allow citizens to experience visually
what an average citizen in Baghdad or the West Bank may see on a daily
basis: carnage and death all around them, rather than the sanitized
images of smart bombs that corporate media has been feeding us.”
In Cleveland, Ohio fascists attacked an anti-war march on Apr. 7. Two
middle-aged men attacked a non-violent, anti-war protest in the Little
Italy neighborhood of Cleveland. Accompanying the men was a teenage
boy who waved a confederate flag. Two middle-aged white men began to
spit on, shove, and hit some of the protesters. One woman had been struck
multiple times. Several other men ran over to join the attack, but did
nothing other than yell.
According to witnesses, there was a heavy police presence for the march,
but the police all but disappeared when the attack happened. One police
car was about 100 feet behind the march when it was attacked. The officers
inside ignored the protesters’ pleas to intervene in the attack
and watched from within their cruiser.
In Portland, Oregon, an anti-war vigil that had been ongoing since the
beginning of the war was shut down by the Department of Homeland Security.
On Apr. 5, Officer Scott Sheldon of Homeland Security, Federal Protective
Services closed Terry Schrunk Plaza for “Public Safety” reasons.
He personally put up police tape around the west half of the grassy
area of the plaza. The Portland Peace Encampment was forced to move
out of the plaza and onto the sidewalk.
According to protesters, acting Lieutenant Miller of the Portland Police
Bureau had checked on the encampment within the previous hour and found
nothing wrong or out of the ordinary. Lt. Miller stopped by shortly
after Homeland Security left and expressed surprise.
Also on Apr. 5 in Portland, Code Pink staged a demonstration in Sears
department store at a local shopping mall. The protesters gathered at
the central escalator and together rode the escalators up and down several
times. A humming sound soon emanated from the scene. Moments later,
women’s voices could be heard harmonizing the words “All we
are saying is give peace a chance.” The women left the mall without
incident.
In Detroit, Michigan, several thousand people faced freezing temperatures
and an ice storm to express their opposition to the war on Apr. 5. The
demonstration commemorated the 35th anniversary of the assassination
of the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, as well
as his historic speech one year before, in 1967, at Riverside Church,
where he laid out his position opposing the United States war in Vietnam.
At the rally protesters chanted “Hell no, we won’t go, we
won’t fight for Texaco,” and, “BP, Chevron, Exxon, Shell,
take your war and go to hell.”
In Williston, Vermont dozens of anti-war protesters blocked the entrance
to Wal-Mart, and several surrounding traffic intersections, to demand
an end to “business as usual” while bombs fall on the civilian
population of Iraq. They carried a banner that read, “Bombs are
dropping, no more shopping.”
“The reports came in yesterday that there several thousand Iraqi
casualties caused by US bombs. People’s limbs are being amputated
in Baghdad with no anesthesia because the hospitals are overwhelmed
and do not have enough medicine to treat injuries. While these atrocities
are committed by the US we must say ‘no more business as usual!’”
stated Anne Petermann of Action for Social & Ecological Justice,
who was part of the protest.
Dozens of other protests took place around the nation, including several
critical mass bike rides, and a 5,000 person march in Philadelphia on
Apr. 3.
Source: AP, Cleveland IMC, Madison IMC,
New York City IMC, Pan African News Wire, Portland IMC, San Francisco
Chronicle, San Francisco IMC, Vermont IMC
back to top
Asheville locals ‘sick’ of war
By Shawn Gaynor
Asheville, North Carolina, Apr. 9 (AGR)— On Monday morning, amidst
rush hour traffic, a group of local activists dumped dozens of fake
dead bodies in the intersection of Patton Ave. and Haywood Rd., in front
of Wachovia and Bank of America. The bodies were covered in “blood”
and accompanied by signs reading, “War is Terrorism,” and
“Shame.”
The action was in solidarity with the National Day of Direct Action
to Stop the War in Iraq.
A statement by the group said, “This action was taken to reveal
the true face of war; a war where nearly 1,000 civilians have been murdered
in the name of imperialism and economic domination. This action was
taken to send a message to the war makers. As long as they ignore the
voice of the people, there will be no business as usual.”
At 5pm, six individuals vomited on the steps of the Asheville Federal
Building. In the midst of singing “The Star Spangled Banner,”
the participants, who had apparently eaten colorful foods, vomited forth
gushes of red, white, and blue. The national anthem ended with a cacophony
of gurgles and retching sounds.
After vomiting, one woman said in reference to the aggression against
Iraq, “I’m just sick about the whole thing. I have felt ill
about this war since before it began, as I have about all wars waged
by the US under the guise of humanitarianism.”
No arrests were made.
back to top
US war gives cover for
a renewed Israeli crackdown
Compiled by Seán Marquis
Apr. 8 (AGR)— On Apr. 2, Israeli occupation forces, backed by
tanks, armored vehicles, and helicopter gunships, attacked the Tulkarm
refugee camp in the northern West Bank.
The incursion, the biggest since the onset of the US-British invasion
of Iraq, is ostensibly aimed at arresting or killing suspected Palestinian
resistance fighters. Palestinian sources in Tulkarm said Israeli soldiers
violently raided homes and vandalized property, after forcing women
and children out at gunpoint.
Eyewitnesses said the invading troops came under fire from a few Palestinian
fighters at the camp.
Palestinian officials denounced the raid, accusing Israel of intensifying
its clampdown while the world’s attention was turned to war in
Iraq. Israel said the sweep was justified by security concerns.
While Israeli soldiers imposed a curfew in Tulkaram, more than 1,000
male residents aged 15 to 40 were forced from their homes, taken to
a school, frisked and forbidden to return for two days while the army
searched their houses for weapons. The raid came three days after a
suicide bomber from the town blew himself up in the nearby Israeli resort
of Netanya, wounding more than 30 people.
Israeli forces have detained thousands of Palestinians during the current
conflict. Early last month about 4,800 remained in jail – 1,400
serving prison terms, 1,090 in legal proceedings, and 2,400 detained
without charge, the Israeli rights group B’tselem said, citing
army and prison figures.
The following day in Gaza, tanks, armored vehicles, and bulldozers raided
Rafah refugee camp, killing four men whom the Israelis said were armed
militants. A 14-year-old boy was shot dead in the West Bank town of
Qalqilya while, in Nablus, soldiers killed a man they said was a wanted
Hamas fighter.
The Gaza raid came two days after the new Palestinian prime minister
designate, Mahmoud Abbas (better known as Abu Mazen), visited the territory
trying to persuade Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who both reject dialogue
with Israel, to stop suicide attacks while he tries to get peace talks
back on track.
Mazen’s appointment was brought about by the Bush administration’s
determination to sideline Arafat.
According to an Apr. 6 report by Scotland’s Sunday Herald newspaper:
“a diplomatic cable from Washington this week urged Israel to take
action on freezing settlement activity in the occupied West Bank. [The
US] had acted in Israel’s interests in tackling Iraq, the communiqué
said, but in so doing had harmed its relations with the Arab world.
Getting Israel to act on the settlements — where an estimated 230,000
Israelis live on land claimed by Palestinians — was a way of easing
those tensions.”
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon brushed aside that appeal by allowing
Israeli settlers to move into a Palestinian district of Jersualem.
Sharon’s office approved the plan last week and the first Jewish
families have moved into new flats in the Ma’aleh Ha’zeitim
settlement, beside the densely populated Arab district of Ras al-Amoud.
It is the first time a Jewish settlement has been built in a Palestinian
area of Jerusalem since Israel seized control of the entire city in
1967.
It also undermines plans under the Camp David accords for a corridor
to give Palestinians access to Muslim sites in Jerusalem’s old
city without having to pass through Israeli territory.
US peace activist shot
A US peace activist volunteering as a human shield in the Jenin refugee
camp was shot in the face by a burst of machine gun fire from an Israeli
Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) on Apr. 5.
Brian Avery, 24, from Albuquerque, NM, heard shots fired and came out
of his apartment building in Jenin to investigate just as an Israeli
armored personnel carrier rounded a corner, said Tobias Karlsson, a
fellow activist from Sweden.
Avery and Karlsson are members of the International Solidarity Movement
(ISM) which uses non-violent methods to protest against Israeli occupation
of Palestinian territory. Members of the group often insert themselves
between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers to try and stop Israeli military
operations.
Avery and Karlsson left the ISM office to investigate and had traveled
about a hundred meters when they arrived at a major crossroad and saw
two APCs advancing towards them at low speed. There were no Palestinians
on the streets in the area, armed or otherwise.
At the sight of the APCs both activists stood still and raised their
hands above their heads.
“We had our hands up and we were wearing vests that clearly identified
us as international workers when they began firing,” Karlsson said.
He said that when the first APC was 50 meters from them, it fired a
burst of machine gun fire at the ground in front of them so that they
were sprayed by a shower of broken bullets and stones.
“Brian was shot in the face and it looks like he was hit by a heavy
caliber bullet because of the extent of the wound,” Karlsson said.
He added that Avery was conscious, but when he raised himself from the
ground he saw that his left cheek had been almost totally shot off.
Avery was taken to a hospital in Jenin where he was treated for shrapnel
wounds to his face including bone fractures below the eyes, lacerations
of the tongue and lacerations of his left cheek. He was later transported
to a hospital in Haifa by helicopter.
In an Apr. 7 interview on the Pacifica Radio program Democracy Now!
Karlsson elaborated on the incident, “I have read a report from
the Israeli army spokesperson stating that there was a fire fight taking
place between Palestinians and the Israeli army, but to me, that is
an outrageous lie to cover up the circumstances of the attempted murder
of an international activist,” he said.
“There were clashes between children — and I emphasize, children
— throwing stones at armored vehicles earlier in the day,”
he continued, “but they took place in a totally different area
of the city and they had ended at least one hour before this incident
took place. I emphasize again, at this point, when the armed personnel
carrier opened fire on us, me and Brian are [sic] the only people visible
on that street. They are not under any kind of attack from anyone, not
even children throwing stones.”
Forcing tribespeople off land
On Apr. 2 Israeli authorities destroyed the harvest of a Bedouin tribe
in the Negev desert with crop-dusting planes, accusing the tribesmen
of being squatters on state land, public radio said.
Planes sent by the Lands Authority sprayed chemicals on 600 hectares
(1,400 acres) of land farmed by the Abu Kaff tribe of Bedouin, a semi-nomadic
Arab population that was herded off large tracts of the Negev after
the Jewish state was created in 1948.
Israel has instead built seven designated towns in the area to accommodate
the approximately 140,000 Bedouin living in the Negev, whose ancestral
lands were designated state property.
The Bedouin accuse Israel of trying to move them off their homeland
to make way for Jewish farmers and villages.
Sources: Agence France Presse, Associated
Press, Democracy Now!, Guardian (UK), Qatar News Agency, Reuters, Sunday
Herald (Scotland)
back to
top
|
