The TUC is organising a Concert For Haiti on Wednesday February 3

The TUC is organising a Concert For Haiti on Wednesday February 3 at
Congress House in London as part of its fundraising effort through the
TUC-Aid Haiti Earthquake Appeal. It will feature Billy Bragg, Cuban
band Son Mas with Omar Puente, and a number of special guests. Details
at www.concertforhaiti.co.uk or telephone 020 8800 0155. To donate to the
TUC Haiti Aid Appeal: www.tuc.org.uk/international/tuc-17424-f0.cfm


(acknowledgements to Joseph Healy)

Peace Activist Dan Viesnik in court (&prison?) on Monday

I am due to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court (Courtroom 95), 51 Holloway Road, London N7 8JA at 2pm on Monday 1st February, 2010 in relation to an unpaid fine of £50 and costs of £465 resulting from a peaceful symbolic sit-down protest outside the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, Berkshire in July 2007, during the Footprints for Peace International Walk towards a Nuclear-Free Future from Dublin to London.


You can read a press release from the original action here:


http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/08/363054.shtml


You can read a report of my trial at Newbury Magistrates' Court in March 2008 here: http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/393416.html


You can read extracts from my letter to the court of 7 December 2009, explaining why I won't cough up, below.
I expect I may be handed a prison sentence of up to 28 days (or "community payback"?) as I do not intend to pay the fine or costs. I have never been to prison before. Support inside and outside the court building (from 1.30pm) would be welcome.


Cheap plug for Aldermaston Big Blockade, February 15th
Just over two weeks to go! This should be a cracking day. Get yourselves down there and block the nukes, or cheer on ya mates!More details:http://www.peacenews.info/issues/2516/25161507.html
http://blockawe.blogspot.com/
http://www.tridentploughshares.org/article1577




Cheap plug for Footprints for Peace Walks


After three long anti-nuclear walks in Europe over the past three years, from Dublin to London in 2007, from London to Geneva in 2008 and from Geneva to Brussels in 2009, this year Footprints for Peace will walk from the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to the United Nations in New York, starting on 11 February and arriving on 1 May, in time for the five-yearly Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference.


More details of the NPT walk can be found here:


http://footprintsforpeace.tripod.com/E10/NPT/npt_walk.htm
A walk in Scotland is also planned in the summer:
http://footprints.footprintsforpeace.net/scotland/scotland_peace_walk.htm
Peace,Dan Viesnik




Letter to Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court, 7 December 2009:


Dear Sir / Madam,


I write in regard to outstanding penalties totalling £515 (imposed on 7 March, 2008) which have been transferred to London North West and North Courts from West Berkshire Magistrates' Court. I have been advised by the Administration Team of the Central Accounting Office, HMCS London in their letter of 18 November 2009 to communicate with this Court directly.






As previously stated in writing to the respective fines offices, I have given the matter plenty of consideration and have thus arrived at the decision that as a matter of conscience I shall not pay the outstanding sum, either as a lump sum or by instalment. My wholly unnecessary, disproportionate and unjust prosecution, conviction and penalty for "obstructing the highway" arose from my participation in an entirely peaceful symbolic sit-down protest in opposition to what I consider to be the illegal, immoral and criminally irresponsible maintenance and development of weapons of mass murder and destruction, namely Trident nuclear warheads, and supporting infrastructure at the Aldermaston atomic death factory (also known as Atomic Weapons Establishment) in West Berkshire. The event in question took place on 27 July, 2007 as I walked nearly 900 miles from Dublin to London via Belfast and Glasgow for a nuclear-free future with an international group called Footprints for Peace. I was doing nothing more that day than peacefully carrying out my moral duty to protect humanity and life on planet Earth from the grave threat of nuclear annihilation and radiation exposure. My strength of feeling on this issue is such that I am prepared to face imprisonment rather than pay the fine, despite never having experienced prison before. I initiated a case-stated appeal to the High Court against my conviction, but eventually withdrew for reasons that do not concern this Court. In my experience the courts in general appear to be deaf to arguments of morality, conscience and common sense, especially in politically-sensitive cases such as this, with the result that true justice is often sacrificed in favour of appeasing the Establishment.


Thanking you kindly in advance for your patience and understanding. I anticipate that I shall soon be brought before the Court at which time I may be committed to prison, so I shall prepare myself mentally for such an eventuality. Please use the above address for any further correspondence.


Yours sincerely,Mr Daniel Viesnik




Images are CopyLeft and may be reproduced free of charge for non-commercial use. Please credit any use.

The Enemy of Nature, Overcoming Capitalism or the End of the World?: Video clips of Joel Kovel speaking and discussions

Video clips of Joel Kovel  speaking and discussions at a London Federation/Green Left meeting at the Lucas Arms, on Monday 25 January 2010. Joel was talking about his book, “The Enemy of Nature, Overcoming Capitalism or the End of the World?”, the situation post Copenhagen, and eco-socialism

1) Introduction (Sean Thompson)
http://blip.tv/file/get/Yrrumuk-eonintro915.wmv
2) Joel Kovel (pt 1)
http://blip.tv/file/get/Yrrumuk-eonjk1310.wmv
3)Joel Kovel (pt 2)
http://blip.tv/file/get/Yrrumuk-eonjk2389.wmv
4) Discussion;(pt 1)
http://blip.tv/file/get/Yrrumuk-eonq1858.wmv
5) Discussion;(pt 2)
http://blip.tv/file/get/Yrrumuk-eonjkq2999.wmv
6)Discussion;(pt 3)
http://blip.tv/file/get/Yrrumuk-eonjkq3460.wmv
7) Closing Remarks
http://blip.tv/file/get/Yrrumuk-eonclos209.wmv

THE LEFT IN PALESTINE / THE PALESTINIAN LEFT 27-28 February 2010,

THE LEFT IN PALESTINE / THE PALESTINIAN LEFT
 Weekend Conference
 27-28 February 2010, School of Oriental and African Studies, London Brunei Gallery
 
Organized by SOAS Palestine Society
and hosted by the London Middle East Institute
 TicketsPlease note SEATS ARE LIMITED – book in advance
Price: £30 (£20 concessions, and £40 organisations)
All tickets include lunch and refreshments
To buy your tickets:Online - www.soaspalsoc. org  
By chequeSend cheque payable to SOAS Palestine Society with attached note of email address to
SOAS Palestine Society
Thornhaugh Street
London, WC1H 0XG
 Day One: Saturday, 27th February
Registration and Refreshments (9:00-9:30)
 
Opening: Azmi Bishara (Former Knesset member in exile, writer and political leader)Speech delivered via video (9:30-10:00)
 Session One: The Left in British-Mandate Palestine(10:00-11:45)
Chair: John Rose (Independent Researcher, London)
 
Musa Budeiri (Birzeit University)

The Last Colonial Venture: Communists, Nationalists and Settlers inPalestine
Ilan Pappe (Exeter University)The Contradiction of the Zionist Left in the Mandate Era
Leena Dallasheh (New York University)Nazarene Labour Mobilization in Late Mandate Palestine
Coffee, Tea and Refreshments (11:45-12:00)
Session Two: The Left of the PLO-in-exile(12:00-13:30)
Chair: Laleh Khalili (School of Oriental and African Studies)
 
Leila Khaled (PFLP, Member of the Palestinian National Council)The Left’s Social Mobilization in the Refugee Camps**presentation via video
Jamil Hilal (Independent Researcher, Ramallah)The Shaping of the Palestinian Left
Gilbert Achcar (School of Oriental and African Studies)Strategic Deficiencies of the PLO Left
 
 LUNCH (13:30-2:15)

Session Three: The Left of the PLO - West Bank and Gaza Strip(2:15-4:15)
Chair: Dina Matar (School of Oriental and African Studies)
 

Muhammad Jaradat (Campaign Unit Coordinator for BADIL)The Left’s Lessons from the First Intifada
Toufic Haddad (Researcher for BADIL and Journalist)The Left in the Post-Oslo Era
Aitemad Muhanna (Swansea University)

The Rise of Hamas, the Fall of Leftist Ideology?

Jamal Juma (Coordinator for Stop the Wall Campaign)The Current Situation of the Left in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
 
Coffee, Tea and Refreshments (16:15-16:30)
 
 Session Four: The Palestinian Left in the Israeli State(16:30-18:00)
 Chair: Bashir Abu-Manneh (Barnard College)
 
Areen Hawari (Co-founder of Tajamu and former member of its Politburo)

Balad (Tajamu): Democracy Confronts Zionism

Aida Touma-Sliman (Head of the International Relations Department, Communist Party of Israel)Title tbc

Ahmad Sa’di (Ben Gurion University*)

Communism and Zionism: A Troubled Legacy

*speaking in his personal capacity

Day Two: Sunday, 28th February

Registration and Refreshments (10:30-11:00)

Session Five: The Israeli Anti-Zionist Left(11:00-13:15)
 Chair: Nira Yuval-Davis (University of East London)
 
Moshe Machover (Kings College, London)Israeli Socialism and Anti-Zionism: Historical Tasks and Balance Sheet
Sami Shalom Chetrit (Queens College, CUNY)

The Zionist Left, the Anti-Zionist Left and the Fanatic Extremist Zionist Mizrahim in Israel

(Who Really Invaded, Occupied, and Enslaved Palestine?)
Michael Warschawski (Alternative Information Center)

From Matzpen to Anarchists Against the Wall: Continuation and Ruptures

Adar Grayevsky (Anarchists Against the Wall)

From Tel Aviv to Bil’in: The Israeli Radical Left Joins the Palestinian Popular Struggle

Lunch (13:15-14:00)Session Six: The Palestinian Left in Literature (14:00-15:45)
Chair: Wen-Chin Ouyang (School of Oriental and African Studies)
 
Suheir Daoud (Coastal Carolina University)Literature as Resistance
Sabry Hafez (School of Oriental and African Studies)

Constructing Identity, Re-Claiming the Land: Palestinian Poetry debunks the Zionist Myth

Bashir Abu-Manneh (Barnard College)Kanafani's Revolutionary Morality
 
Coffee, Tea and Refreshments (15:45-16:00)
Session Seven - Roundtable Discussion: Towards a New Left Programme for the Palestinian Struggle(16:00-18:00)
 Chair: Gilbert Achcar
 

Aida Touma-Sliman, Areen Hawari, Jamal Juma, Jamil Hilal and Muhammad Jaradat

Daniel Bensaid (1946–2010) memorial meeting

Event: Daniel Bensaid (1946–2010) memorial meeting organised by Socialist Resistance
       "Speakers: Gilbert Achcar, Terry Conway SR, Alex Callinicos SWP, Stathis Kouvelakis NPA"
What: Informational Meeting
Start Time: Tuesday, February 9 at 7:30pm
End Time: Tuesday, February 9 at 9:30pm
Where: University of London Union


The Daniel Bensaïd memorial meeting will be on Tuesday 9 February at 7.30pm in ULU, Malet St, WC1H. According to the leaflet now available at http://bit.ly/BensaidLeaflet the speakers will be Gilbert Achcar (like Bensaïd, an IIRE fellow), Terry Conway (SR executive), Alex Callinicos (SWP central committee) and Stathis Kouvelakis (from the NPA).

Daniel Bensaïd was one of the leaders of the May 68 movement. He was one of those people who had an inherent sense for political initiatives. He grasped the dynamic of the link between the student movement and general strike, and understood the necessity for a revolutionary socialist organization.

Green Left General meeting: Birmingham Metropolitan Community Church 30/1/2010 1-5pm

Green Left General meeting: 30/1/2010 1-5pm
Birmingham Metropolitan Community Church

17 Shaw's Passage B5 5JG which is in Birmingham City Centre -


Agenda TBA

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=b5+5jg&countryCode=GB#map=52.47843,-1.89041|16|4&loc=GB:52.47843:-1.89041:16|b5%205jg|B5%205JG

Preceeded by leafleting for Salma Yaqoob meet outside Birmingham New Street station at 10.30am.

In terms of food – the Birmingham FOE centre and cafe is just across the road and can provide a vegetarian meal for £6 per head  –  delivered to us.

RadioLabour.net

I thought that all of you might be interested to know about the
upcoming launch of RadioLabour.net
next week -- and that you might want to be talking about this in the
Labour Podcasting group

on UnionBook.

International Labour News Audiocast Starting Up February 1st, 2010
A weekly presentation of international labour news is being organized
on the Internet.

The audiocast - called Solidarity News - will be available on
RadioLabour.net every Monday morning.

Solidarity News will focus on union and workers' activities and
issues from around the world with special emphasis on emerging market
and developing countries.

RadioLabour reporters will provide regular weekly presentations, but
a special feature of the audiocast will be reports from unionists who
want to report on particular events or publicize an activity of their
organization.

Scripts of the audiocasts will be available as aids for unionists who
want to learn the use of English as an additional language in the
international labour movement.

For more information about RadioLabour, listen to the audiocasts, or
provide reports, visit the RadioLabour site

.

Join the Labour Podcasting group on UnionBook
If you're interested in internet radio and podcasting, you should
join this group

on UnionBook. But don't forget -- you have to login first.

“The Enemy of Nature, Overcoming Capitalism or the End of the World?” 7pm on Monday 25 January

Joel Kovel: Lucas Arms, Grays Inn Road, at 7pm on Monday 25 January
Joel Kovel will be speaking at a London Federation/Green Left meeting at the Lucas Arms, Grays Inn Road, at 7pm on Monday 25 January. Joel talking about his book, “The Enemy of Nature, Overcoming Capitalism or the End of the World?” the situation post Copenhagen, and anything else people want to discuss, .

Only the extinction of capitalism will ensure the survival of our species

By Hugo Blanco, translated by Richard Fidler for Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal (acknowledgments Derek Wall)


The concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere is already so high that the climate system has been brought out of balance. The CO2 concentration and global temperatures have increased more rapidly in the last 50 years than ever before on Earth, and will rise even faster in the coming decades. This adds to a multitude of other serious ecological imbalances, the impacts of which threaten the lives and livelihoods of the people of the world, most acutely, impoverished people and other vulnerable groups.


The imbalance of the climate system leads to greater and more frequent extremes of heat and rainfall patterns, tropical cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons, extreme flooding and droughts, loss of biodiversity, landslides, rising sea levels, shortage of drinking water, shorter growing seasons, lower yields, lost or deteriorated agricultural land, decreased agricultural production, losses of livestock, extinction of ecosystems, and diminished fish stocks, among others. These phenomena result in food crises, famine, illness, death, displacement, and the extinction of sustainable ways of life. -- People’s Declaration from Klimaforum09


January 2010 -- In response to this, the United Nations agreed to hold a Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15), which met in Copenhagen December 7-18 to draft a treaty for the reduction of the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming.


The meeting ended without any agreement since the countries primarily responsible for global warming — led by the United States, which, with only 4 per cent of the world’s population, produces 25 per cent of the pollution due to carbon dioxide emissions — were unwilling to commit themselves to even the least reduction in that pollution.


At the last minute, after the official meeting had broken up, US President Barack Obama met with some accomplices and got them to sign, without discussion, a paper expressing “every intention” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but without any binding commitments, and promising “to help” the major victims of warming, basically in Africa and other poor countries, but again without establishing any amounts or enforcement mechanisms. Simply expressions of good intentions without any commitment.


Despite the failure of the official meeting, Bolivia’s President Evo Morales stated: “They say it was a failure, but I would not say that the Copenhagen summit has failed, but rather that it is a triumph for the entire world... because the developed capitalist countries could not impose their statement.”


We fully agree with him. It was different from the Kyoto meeting which set ridiculous goals that the US and other major culprits did not sign and did not fulfill — which made environmental protection a commodity, but nevertheless gave hope to people that something was being done. In Copenhagen, fortunately, the failure of the official meeting was completely clear.


This awakened many who still had the illusion that within the capitalist system it is possible to stop global warming, that the world’s major predators can act in defence of the survival of the human species.


Copenhagen brought together not only official representatives. In the international demonstration on Saturday, December 12, there were 100,000 people concerned about climate change. The meeting was preceded by massive demonstrations in England and other countries.


An organisation was formed, “Change the system, not the climate”, and it issued the “People’s Declaration in Klimaforum09”.


In the meeting of the presidents, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez repeated two slogans raised by the people in the streets: “Change the system, not the climate” and “If the climate were a bank they would have saved it by now.”


Evo Morales reported that when he went to speak they evacuated the room so that only the official leaders heard him. He posed five questions on climate change that the United Nations should put to the world’s peoples in a global referendum, asking that they answer yes or no, "That will leave the decision in the hands of the peoples of the world.” (The United Nations will hold no such referendum, of course.)


1. Do you agree with re-establishing harmony with nature while recognising the rights of Mother Earth?


2. Do you agree with changing this model of over-consumption and waste that the capitalist system represents?


3. Do you agree that developed countries should reduce and re-absorb their domestic greenhouse gas emissions so that the temperature does not rise more than 1 degree Celsius?


4. Do you agree with transferring everything spent on wars to protecting the planet and allocating a budget for climate change that is bigger than what is used for defence?


5. Do you agree with establishing a Climate Justice Tribunal to judge those who destroy Mother Earth?


Morales has also issued a call for the “Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change” in defence of humanity, life and the planet. Those invited will be not only the presidents of interested countries concerned about the issue, but experts, academics and representatives of the social organisations.


“The goal is to achieve a consensus position to be raised at the next Summit on Climate Change to be held in Mexico in December 2010.”


The People’s Summit will be held in Cochabamba, Bolivia April 20-22, coinciding with the first worldwide celebration of Mother Earth Day recently instituted by the United Nations.


It is naive to think that the world’s major polluters will do anything about climate protection.


Large multinational companies are the ones who govern the world through the “leaders” who are nothing more than their servants.


Their neoliberal religion commands them to make as much money as possible in the shortest time possible. They know very well that to do this they must destroy nature. They know very well that they will have no descendants, but they do not care. Through their media they spread the most possible disinformation about global warming and the appropriate steps to be taken.


Evo is right when he says:


They only deal with the effects and not the causes of climate change.


Climate change is a product of the capitalist system, which favours the pursuit of the maximum possible profit. That is the purpose of the capitalist system, with no consideration for the lives of others. In Copenhagen we should analyse which countries are doing the most damage to the environment and, with that in mind, focus on the need for those countries with the greatest responsibility to pay for this debt to the global climate. That is an obligation ...


The Copenhagen summit is much more global in nature, it is a debate about life, about humanity. Here we have profound differences with capitalist governments. I remain convinced that capitalism is the worst enemy of humanity.


We might still be able to ensure the survival of the species. We have cause for optimism in the meeting of 100,000 people in Copenhagen, the formation of the organisation “Change the system, not the climate”, the call for the meeting in Cochabamba, the violent impact on the rich countries of Europe of the freezing temperatures in recent days.


Apparently we Indigenous peoples, who for centuries have been struggling and dying in defence of Mother Earth and the defence of our collectivist solidarity, will no longer be alone.


Only the extinction of capitalism will ensure the survival of our species, and the sooner the world understands this the better.


[Hugo Blanco was leader of the Quechua peasant uprising in the Cuzco region of Peru in the early 1960s. He was captured by the military and sentenced to 25 years in El Fronton Island prison for his activities, but an international defence campaign won his freedom. He continues to play an active role in Peru's Indigenous, campesino, and environmental movements, and writes on Peruvian, indigenous and Latin American issues. He edits the Lucha Indigena newspaper. An earlier English version of this article first appeared at Another Green World.]