Hat tip to Sara Rich (Suzanne’s mom).

As thousands of burned-out soldiers prepare to return to Iraq to fill President Bush’s unwelcome call for at least 20,000 more troops, I can’t help wondering what the women among those troops will have to face. And I don’t mean only the hardships of war, the killing of civilians, the bombs and mortars, the heat and sleeplessness and fear.

I mean from their own comrades — the men.

FULL ARTICLE

Posted by stan as News, Analysis at 12:35 PM PST

De Clarke, writer, poet, software engineer, permaculture advocate, sailor, and co-moderator at Feral Scholar, has turned me on to more new reading material in the last year than any other ten people combined. That’s not an outgrowth of her persistence — though she has plenty of that — so much as it is the deep admiration I bear for her intellect and how much I trust her as a human being. One of those writers she put me onto was Derrick Jensen. I don’t know how we missed each other over the past few years — probably just our respective busy-ness. So many of the topics I was struggling to understand, he had already apprehended and clarified in his writing. I have adopted Endgame, Volumes One and Two, as my latest Auto-didact’s Lesson Plan.

Derrick’s subject matter (and subject energy) as well as his lyrical literalism take his writing — as one might say of Andrea Dworkin, Mark Jones, Ivan Illich, or Patricia Williams — into the flesh and very near the bone. If that sounds painful, that’s because it is… but emergency interventions usually are. That’s what Derrick Jensen is: he is an emergency diagnostician for our age.

That’s why we take great pride in linking to his books and his writing at Insurgent American.

Beyond Hope

The most common words I hear spoken by any environmentalists anywhere are, We’re fucked. Most of these environmentalists are fighting desperately, using whatever tools they have—or rather whatever legal tools they have, which means whatever tools those in power grant them the right to use, which means whatever tools will be ultimately ineffective—to try to protect some piece of ground, to try to stop the manufacture or release of poisons, to try to stop civilized humans from tormenting some group of plants or animals. Sometimes they’re reduced to trying to protect just one tree.

FULL ARTICLE

Derrick Jensen talks with Dave Foreman

“For more than twenty years, Dave Foreman has been at the forefront of the conservation movement, working where political activism intersects with ecological philosophy. In the 1970s, believing that the best way to preserve wilderness was to work within the system, he became the Southwest regional representative of The Wilderness Society. In 1980, disillusioned by the inability of mainstream conservation organizations to halt the destructive forces within our culture, he cofounded Earth First! The goal of Earth First! was to help develop a biocentric worldview and to translate that philosophy into action by fighting with uncompromising passion for the Earth.

More recently Dave Foreman helped to found The Wildlands Project, an effort bringing together grassroots activists and conservation biologists to design and establish linked areas of wilderness extensive enough to support large mammals. In addition to being chair of The Wildlands Project, he is executive editor of Wild Earth magazine and author of Confessions of an Eco-Warrior and The Big Outside (with Howie Wolke).” — Derrick Jensen

FULL ARTICLE

Visit Derrick’s website.

Posted by stan as Feature at 10:30 AM PST

I have been corresponding, when they allow it, with Kevin “Rashid’ Johnson ever since, some time ago, our thinkpieces were carried side by side in Socialism and Democracy (Issue 38) His was “A Practical Approach to Strategic Organizing for Popular Struggle.” Mine was called “A Period for Pedagogy.” His was the better article of the two by a long shot.

Rashid is locked up in the notorious Red Onion supermax confinement facility, hosted by the state of Virginia.

Via my friend Inga Muscio, I just received the email being distributed by Rashid’s representative on the outside. Please spread this around on the internet and take the time to follow the action steps.

***

[NOTE: For the actual documents referenced below, email or call Becky 703-463-0558 catsambol@aol.com5125 ]

dear folks,

please read the attached reports before making these important phone
calls. also, please forward this email to anyone you know who will put
in a phone call.

thanks,
inga

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: XXXXXX
Date: Mar 1, 2007 10:15 PM
Subject: Alert: Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson in Danger
To: fedup@riseup.net

With a great sense of urgency we write to you for help. We believe
that FedUp!’s co-founder, Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson’s life is in danger.
In the past week, he has been maced, thrown into a wall, death threats
were made on his life and he has repeatedly been denied meals. We have
received information that he is no longer allowed to receive mail,
make phone calls or have visitors. This leaves him in total isolation.
Rashid has been filing grievances against abusive guards for years,
and also an outspoken member of the Black Liberation Movement. We
believe he is being targeted for his activities.

A new young correctional officer by the name of C. Dutton, is the
guard reported to have been responsible for much of the abuse and
death threats.

We ask that you please call the Warden of Red Onion State Prison and
Gene Johnson’s office, the head of the Virginia Department of
Corrections and demand:

-that continued harassment of Kevin Johnson be stopped

-that C/O Dutton not be allowed near Kevin ‘Rashid’ Johnson #185492

-that he be allowed to receive mail and his visiting privileges reinstated

-that he receive food

There is the famous saying from a guard to a political prisoner, “You
are still alive because too many people care about you.”

Please let the officials in Virginia know that you are watching how
they treat our friend and comrade.

Call Tracy Ray, Warden of Red Onion at 276-796-7510 (select wardens extension)

Call Gene Johnson, head of VADOC, at 804- 674-3119

Call Tim Kaine, Governor of VA at 804 – 786-2211

Attached is the latest report outlining incidents of a number of
prisoners with Rashid’s details in bold, and additional documentation
of abuse at this prison.

If you are in a writing mood:

Tracy S. Ray, Warden of R.O.S.P. P.O. Box 970 Pound, VA 24279

Tim Kaine, Governor of VA State Capital- 3rd Floor Richmond, VA 23219

To see the Human Rights Watch Report on Red Onion State:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/redonion/

Thank You!

Human Rights Coalition-FedUp! Chapter

Please Contact Becky 703-463-0558 catsambol@aol.com5125 Penn Ave Pgh,
Pa 15224 412-802-8575 fedup@riseup.net

Posted by stan as News at 5:56 PM PST

Ruby tipped me to this neat web based tool from corporate giant IBM called Many Eyes. It doesn’t appear to be open source but may provide positive uses. Repurposing tools can be a valuable insurgent method.

Many Eyes is a bet on the power of human visual intelligence to find patterns. Our goal is to “democratize” visualization and to enable a new social kind of data analysis.

Here is a visualization of world wide oil consumption. The data is from BP Statistical Review of World Energy June 2006. Comment on the visuals here. The java plugin required to view this is available here for download.

Click on above image to go to visualization.

Posted by BrianR as Analysis at 11:18 AM PST

From the Nyéléni 2007 website:

Nyéléni 2007
Women’s Declaration on Food Sovereignty

We, women from more than 40 countries, from different indigenous peoples of Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania and from different sectors and social movements, have gathered together in Sélingué (Mali) at Nyéléni 2007 to participate in the creation of a new right: the right to food sovereignty. We reaffirm our will to act to change the capitalist and patriarchal world which puts the interests of the market before the rights of people.

Women, who throughout history have been the creators of knowledge about food and agriculture, who still produce up to 80% of the food in the world’s poorest countries and are today the principal guardians of biodiversity and agricultural seeds, are particularly affected by neo-liberal and sexist policies.

We suffer the dramatic consequences of these policies: poverty, inadequate access to resources, patents on living organisms, rural exodus and forced migration, war and all forms of physical and sexual violence. Monocultures, including those dedicated to agrofuels, and the widespread use of chemicals and genetically-modified organisms have a harmful effect on the environment and on human health, particularly reproductive health.

The industrial model and the transnationals threaten the very existence of peasant agriculture, small-scale fishing and herding, as well as the small-scale preparation and sale of food in both urban and rural environments, all sectors where women play a major role.

We want to see food and agriculture taken out of the WTO and out of free trade agreements. What is more, we reject the capitalist and patriarchal institutions that see food, water, land and traditional knowledge, as well as women’s bodies, as mere commodities.

Seeing our struggle as part of the fight for equality between the sexes, we are no longer prepared to submit to the oppression of traditional or modern society, nor to the oppression of the market. We want to seize this opportunity to leave behind all sexist prejudice and build a new vision of the world based on respect, equality, justice, solidarity, peace and freedom.

We are mobilized. We are fighting for access to land, to territory, to water and to seeds. We are fighting for access to finance and to agricultural tools. We are fighting for good working conditions. We are fighting for access to training and to information. We are fighting for our independence and for the right to decide for ourselves, and for our full participation in decision-making.

Under the watchful eye of Nyéléni, an African woman who defied discriminatory rules, who shone through her creativity and agricultural prowess, we will find the energy to give effect to food sovereignty and, thereby, the hope of building a different world. We will find this energy in our solidarity. We will take this message to women all over the world.

Nyéléni, 27 February 2007

Posted by BrianR as News, Analysis at 8:44 AM PST

Over on the World Changing website there is a report from Anna Lappé who attended the first International Forum on Food Sovereignty in Mali. It got me thinking about what food sovereignty means to Americans. As with many things, I think we can learn from non-Americans on the best way to precede. Here are a few answers to the question.

I’ve been asking every delegate I meet, from Thai fisherman to Senegalese peasant organizers, what food sovereignty means to them. As one delegate, a mayor from Norway (and probably the only mayor here) said: “For me, food sovereignty means we must support food producers in every country. Food, after all, is power, and we need to decide who has that power: food producers or large corporations.” Said an African delegate from Sierra Leone: “Food sovereignty is the ability for our people to be able to feed ourselves. Here in Africa, hunger is not a problem of production, it’s a problem of access and distribution. We need basic things like storage and food processing facilities. We need access to networks for sale and distribution. If we had these things, we could have food sovereignty in five years.”

Posted by BrianR as News, Analysis at 8:39 AM PST