PEACE EVENTS.

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Join us in discussing the inspirational history
of International Womens Day and the lessons we
can use today in our struggle against cuts to
education and social programs.


A Century of Struggle:
100th Anniversary of International Womens Day



Tuesday,March 9th,
7:30pm

Seattle University

Administration Bldg #202

There may be only one entrance open. If so,
it will be on the east side of the building.

Online map:

http://seattleu.edu/home/campus_community/
visit_campus/campus_maps

_________________________________________________


A century of struggle
Hundredth anniversary of International Women’s Day

Elin Gauffin, CWI Sweden

At its very beginning, in the early 20th century,
International Women’s Day – the 8th of March -
was a day of struggle for working women.
Nowadays it has largely been hijacked by the
capitalist establishment as a ceremonial and
sometimes highly commercial affair. Much has
happened over time, providing welcome proof that
women’s oppression can be fought and pushed back,
but despite this, the oppression rooted in
society continues. Indeed, in the past years
many earlier conquests for women have been lost
as a result of the crisis of capitalism.

“We did it!” exclaimed an editorial in The
Economist magazine on 2 January 2010. In some
way this business journal wants to celebrate
that in 2010 women will account for half the
labour force in the U.S. This does mark a step
forward, but since when did “we” include The
Economist? The rising proportion of women in
the workforce is neither the result of increased
welfare spending or greater male responsibility
for household work. The US has the lowest level
of investment in childcare and parental leave
in the western world, and the state has not even
signed the UN Declaration on Women’s Rights.
It is rather that the economic crisis has
predominantly knocked out jobs in industries such
as motor vehicles, so that male unemployment has
risen to 11.2% while the female rate is 8.6%.


100th anniversary of international women's day

It is true that most of the new jobs in recent
years have gone to women. In Europe, these
account for six million of a total of eight
million new jobs since the year 2000.
But this reflects a form of increased
exploitation of the working class as a whole.

Most of these are insecure, part-time, temporary
jobs involving unsocial working hours etc. that
typically mean lower hourly rates of pay but more
stress and illness. Capitalism has always made
use of and had an interest in preserving sex
discrimination, with low wages for women
meaning more profits.

The last thing women’s rights activists around
the world can do for the 2010 International
Women’s Day is take a rest. The situation is
very serious and the events of the last year
call for an answer to the question: which way
forward for women’s struggle?

For the first time ever there are now over 1
billion people suffering malnutrition in the
world, one in six of the human race. Women have
for a long time accounted for 70 percent of the
world’s poor. The Asia-Pacific region has most
of the world’s hungry; 642 million people
suffer from chronic malnutrition.

Women and girls hit first by crisis

The children’s rights organisation, PLAN,
identifies the following effects of the world economic crisis:

Young women - millions of workers in the informal
and export-related sectors - are the first to
lose jobs. Seven out of ten workers sacked in
the Philippines are women.
The sums sent home by migrant workers –
remittances – have fallen sharply and migration
has been reduced. Women working in 'domestic
service' abroad are returning home. The World
Bank estimates that the flow of remittances to
developing countries fell by 7.3 percent in 2009.

Loan facilities from “micro-financing” and other
projects, that were supposed to help women out
of poverty by doing home-working, have decreased.

When the crisis hits parents’ finances it is
first and foremost girls who are taken from
school and thrown into housework, domestic work
or factories. Over 100 million girls are already
working as child labourers worldwide (ILO).

Infant mortality rates are increasing, and this
affects girls more than boys. An estimated
50,000 more African infants died last year
due to the crisis.

• More women and girls are trafficked and forced
into the sex trade. This was the tragic outcome
for many women who lost their jobs during the
Asian crisis of 1997. The first “industry” to
bounce back was the sex industry. In Jakarta,
two to four times more women became sex-workers
in the year after the crisis. Capitalism knows
no boundaries when it comes to inventing new
markets for its business. Everything is turned
into “commodities”, including bodies & emotions.

A form of sex trafficking is the trade in brides.
In some countries the drastic consequences of
women’s oppression mean that part of the female
population has gone “missing” due to gender
selective abortions. This is the case with the
so-called one-child policy in China, where 118
boys are born to every 100 girls. 50,000 women
from poorer provinces or countries are sold for
marriage each year in China. More than 10,000
women are sold by families living in dire poverty
in Vietnam for marriage or prostitution in China
(See [link|http://www.pbs.org|www.pbs.org).

Whatever there is a shortage of, becomes a luxury
under capitalism. Paradoxically, the phenomenon
of polygamy is recurring among rich men. It
happens that businessmen from Hong Kong, with
constant trips to Guangdong take a second wife
among that province’s poor migrant workers.

Deadly toll of climate change

Women also suffer most from another major crisis
which has developed as a direct result of
capitalism – the climate crisis. Atmospheric
warming as a result of 150 years of
industrialisation, carbon emissions and pollution,
will be an important theme for this year’s 8
March demonstrations worldwide. According to the
Women’s Environment and Development Organisation,
women and children run a fourteen times greater
risk of dying from natural disasters than men.

In the Asian tsunami of 2004, 70 to 80 percent of
those who perished were women. After events like
earthquakes and hurricanes, with few resources,
poor women have less chance of getting aid or
compensation and are at greater risk of
subsequent infections when caring for the
elderly and children.

Already global warming is causing a significant
additional burden on women in the neo-colonial
countries in particular. It is they who must
walk farther and farther in search of drinking
water. It is they who do much of the farm work
which becomes more and more onerous in the areas
affected by drought or floods.

On International Women’s Day last year (2009),
the militant women of the farm workers’
network 'Via Campesina' expressed their anger
against imperialism’s deforestation and the
threat to Brazil’s biodiversity. In Brasilia,
hundreds of women occupied the Department of
Agriculture. In Rio Grande do Sul, 700 women
occupied land belonging to the paper company,
Votorantim Cellulose, and eucalyptus plantations
were sabotaged. In other places, mining companies,
sugar cane plantations, the paper multinational,
Stora Enso, and large estates were occupied.

In Espirito Santo thousands of women took over
the harbour in Portocel and sabotaged a large
amount of pulp exports. Deforestation is
responsible for 20 percent of the increase in
greenhouse gas emissions globally. The forests
must be given protection immediately. But the
failure of world leaders at the UN summit in
Copenhagen means there is not even a binding
agreement on measures to stop climate change.

Life under capitalism gets worse for working & poor women

For decades, the “solution” to oppression and
poverty routinely served up by the world’s
politicians and economists has been more
development of market-geared economies - more
capitalism! If only the poor countries open their
economies up to international capital, then in
time they will reach the same living standards
as in the West – such is the mantra of neo-
liberalism. Nothing could be further from the truth.

With its crises, capitalism has condemned itself
as a system. Global financial agencies such as
the IMF and the World Bank, with a decisive role
within the international capitalist system, have
generally continued to demand deregulation and
spending cuts in healthcare and education as
conditions for providing loans to countries hit
by the crisis. As if it was not deregulation
that increased the exposure of these countries
to the international financial crisis in the first place.

It is estimated that foreign investment in
developing countries fell by a third last year.
Similarly, continual reliance on market-based
“solutions”, such as the trade in carbon emission
rights has only resulted in greenhouse gas
emissions continuing to rise. New attacks on
already down-sized welfare systems mean that
the crisis is hitting ordinary people even harder.

In Ukraine, the IMF suspended its last loan
payment in protest against the country’s
parliament deciding to raise the minimum wage
by 25 per cent. In most countries of course
“the minimum wage” means women’s wages.

In Latvia, the government has obeyed the
dictates of the IMF and foreign creditors,
with the result that the government sector
wage bill has fallen by 40 percent, and half
of the country’s hospitals have been closed.

The biggest question for women in many parts of
the world in the immediate future will be the
struggle against truly historic cuts in welfare
that governments are planning. Where they exist,
publicly funded health care, elderly care,
childcare, pensions, parental and sickness
insurance, student grants etc., have all been
very important reforms that have especially
benefited working class women. Unpaid domestic
work has partially been taken over by society,
enabling women to take employment and become
less economically dependent on men. But never
before have the world’s politicians been forced
to adopt such massive rescue packages as last
year, to save the capitalist financial system
from collapse. The trillions of dollars in aid
to the banks must eventually be paid back and,
as long as capitalism remains, we can be sure
the directors who caused the crisis will not be
the ones to pay. Instead, the burden of payment
will be placed on the shoulders of women,
workers, the elderly, the young and the sick.

Any idea that capitalism as it develops leads to
sexual equality is easily disproved by looking
at the countries with 150-200 years of capitalist
development. In Sweden, which ranks as one of
the most equal countries and is considered to
have a relatively well developed welfare sector
(although this has been scaled back sharply over
a period of more than two decades), women in full-
time work do not earn more than 83 percent of
men’s wages. The labour market is extremely
gender-segregated with women mostly in the public
sector, where wage growth has been slowest.

Sweden has the highest proportion of notified
rapes per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe, and,
together with Britain, tops the league for the
lowest proportion of reported rapes that are
prosecuted (only 13 per cent). These are clear
examples of how apparently 'progressive'
capitalist state perpetuates women’s subordination.

Women's oppression

The oppression of women has its origin in class
society which has existed for well over 5,000
years. There was a long drawn-out change from
primitive communism under which land, tools,
homes, were held in common by everyone to
private ownership. The 'monogamous' family
developed as a surplus developed in society
that could be appropriated. Personal wealth,
however meagre at first, needed to be protected
from 'outsiders'. The family became an
institution for men to control property and
exercise power in society. The word “family”
comes from the Latin “familia”, and means “the
whole number of slaves belonging to one master.”

In China, under the emperors, for example, the
binding of women’s feet was a common practise
among the families of the privileged. As the
proverb explained, this was “not to make them
as beautiful as a curved bow, but to restrain
women when they leave the home.”

Capitalism is also a class society that has
developed and continually adapted the oppression
of women to suit its needs and the demands of
modern production. In today’s family, male
dominance is still manifested. Women account for
the vast majority of unpaid housework. This
covers emotional labour - the care of children,
the old, partners – and involves arduous tasks
such as cooking, cleaning, laundry. The four
walls of the home are often an arena for men’s
violence against women. Amnesty International
has estimated that still at least one in three
women worldwide are beaten, forced into sex,
or exposed to abuse during their lifetime.

The dominance of the male in the home has long
been used as a mechanism for instilling in women
and children the idea of submission to authority.
It has been challenged and changes have taken
place in many countries but it still runs through
much of society. Girls and boys have generally
been brought up differently because of social
pressure and surroundings. This even became a
business idea of modern capitalism when the
department store was born in the 19th century,
and the bourgeois ideal of womanhood was created,
with women made into objects. Fashion, beauty
and advertising are mega industries that have a
huge economic stake in perpetuating the idea
that you are not a “real” woman without spending
a considerable amount of time and money on
“improving” your looks.

The male sex is still considered by most
societies to be superior to the female,
regardless of what anti-discrimination laws
exist. A boy learns early in life to be proud
of his gender, while a girl is supposed to hold
herself back. A guy who is interested in
typically “girly” things risks being called gay.
Homosexuals understand early on that their
sexual orientation can give them a lower status
in society and make them vulnerable to attack.

Around the world, words related to women and sex
without love are used as swear words.

Sexual oppression haunts women in the world
throughout their life and one of the most
important requirements for women’s struggle
wherever it takes place is “the right of women
to their own bodies.” Rapists are driven by the
idea that they are entitled to take a woman
under their control. Although most men distance
themselves from violent abuse, sexual harassment
is something most women have experienced.

When the proportion of women in the workplace
falls , and when the pace of work increases,
so trade unions report that sexual harassment also rises.

A woman’s right to her own body also covers the
right to abortion. World-wide, 70,000 women die
every year as a result of unsafe abortions.

40 percent of the world’s women live in
countries where abortion rights are severely
restricted. Even where abortion is legal,
unsafe “backstreet” abortions continue to be
carried out, for example in India, because,
for many women, professional healthcare is too
expensive. Free access to contraceptives and
sanitary supplies are also important demands.

In Uganda, many girls are forced to leave school
when they reach the age of 13, because they
cannot afford to buy menstrual products.

Women are often held back psychologically not
only by feelings such as fear of being raped,
a sense of shame over their body, physical
suffering during pregnancy and labour etc..

In rich and poor countries alike, they are often
denied real sexual pleasure, which has an
adverse effect on their health. (Genital
mutilation through female circumcision, carried
out in Europe, as well as Africa and elsewhere,
is only the most gruesome illustration of this
form of discrimination.)

Origins of International Women's Day

The decision to hold a yearly International
Women’s Day in order to strengthen the fight for
all women to get the right to vote was taken in
1910. The call came from the Women’s Conference
of the Socialist 2nd International in Copenhagen
that year, with 170 participants from 17 countries.

The initiative came from Clara Zetkin who was
active in the German and international labour
movement. She had already for many years been
the chief editor of the Socialist Women’s
Association’s journal, Die Gleichheit (Equality),
with a circulation of 112,000. She tirelessly
campaigned for women to organise themselves.

For male party colleagues she explained,
“only in conjunction with the proletarian woman
will socialism be victorious”. Zetkin said that
while socialists supported the bourgeois women’s
demands for justice, working women must organise
themselves in their own organisations along
class lines. This proved to be completely right.

To win women’s suffrage (the right to vote)
required working class methods of struggle.

International Women’s Day was originally known
as “Working Women’s Day”, and was celebrated on
a different date each year in the early spring.

It was not until 1921 that the Communist
International, once again on Zetkin’s initiative,
decided the date should be 8 March each year.

This was also to pay due notice to the fact
that the 1917 Russian Revolution had broken out
on International Women’s Day – 8 March (but 23
February according to the old Russian calendar).

On that day, 90,000 women textile workers left
the factories in a spontaneous strike for bread
and peace, which then grew in scale and did not
subside until the Czar was overthrown.

The revolution continued and in the workers’ and
peasants’ seizure of power in October 1917 gave
a fantastic boost to workers and women around
the world. Revolutionary Russia was the first
country in the world to give men and women equal
rights within the family, women’s suffrage, the
right to abortion, the right to civil (non-
religious) marriage and divorce, the prohibition
of sexual harassment, rights for LGBT people,
and eight weeks maternity leave.

The revolution introduced municipal childcare,
laundries and public canteens even if the
resources to maintain them were always too small.

Urgent struggle for socialism

The main lesson from the century that has passed
since the first International Women’s Day is
that the pace of change is far too slow.
We cannot afford to wait another 100 years.

How many millions of women will be raped, will
starve, or die from natural or climate-related
disasters and wars in the meantime? The most
important lesson from the past year is that we
cannot have any confidence in an economic system
that goes into crisis at regular intervals, and
where many of the gains won through struggle
are constantly being wiped out.

We are not impressed that more women become
directors or 'bigwigs', if this system, based
on huge class differences and a majority
living in poverty, continues.

Hence the need for a socialist programme for
women’s struggle, pointing in a revolutionary
direction, for the overthrow of capitalism.

In a democratic socialist society where
ownership and control over the economy and state
power is in the hands of the workers, the poor
masses and the women, there would be ample
resources to invest in effective measures
that would transform women's lives.

Alternative economic and social relations
in a socialist society would lay the basis for
eradicating sexism and rendering the idea of
separate gender roles out-dated as women's
oppression itself was brought to an end.

A revolution can only succeed if women are at
the forefront. Last year, 2009, it was the women
of Iran who were perhaps the most courageous
fighters internationally. They have continued to
be a large part of the mass protests against
Ahmadinejad’s dictatorial regime, even uncovering
their heads and marching loudly in demonstrations
of both sexes.

Decades of anger against oppression is boiling up
in Iran and the movement is far from over, but
to overthrow the regime more class-based
workers’ struggle is needed.

Women make up at least half of the world’s
working class, and workers everywhere need
new socialist parties, fighting trade unions
and combative community movements involving
working class women to take the struggle forward.

We must never allow sexist attitudes among men
to divide and weaken the struggle.

Despite the fact that one hundred years has
passed and liberation has still not been
achieved for women from their double oppression,
it is inspiring that the revolutionary and
socialist traditions of International Women’s Day
survive and continue to exercise an important
influence in bringing together and strengthening
those who are fighting capitalism and oppression
in various parts of the world. This is needed,
and is ultimately the road to victory.


--

Bryan Watson

206-841-5566
www.SocialistAlternative.org


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***********************************************

New Documentary by Howard Zinn:
"The People Speak"


The documentary film, The People Speak,
is based on Zinn's groundbreaking book,
A People's History of the United States.
It tells the stories of ordinary working people,
Native Americans, of women, of Black people,
and their struggle against political and
economic exploitation - stories that are all
but omitted from most histories.

Hear these powerful and moving accounts
in the people's own voices as read by some
of today's biggest actors - Matt Damon,
Morgan Freeman, Marisa Tomei and others.


Watch... and discuss how we can build
new movements to realize the changes we need.


HOWARD ZINN... and SHAPING LIFE !!!

Watch this powerful new documentary that
brings to life the radicalism that has shaped
our history and discuss how we can build
new movements to realize the changes we need.

Howard Zinn’s The People Speak:
A People’s History on TV At Last

Radical historian Howard Zinn passed away
at the age of 87. This is a huge loss to
the movement for social justice in the US
and around the world, but Zinn leaves an
important body of work behind.

Socialist historian Howard Zinn’s documentary
The People Speak, which premiered on the
History Channel on December 13th, is
undoubtedly among the best programs in TV history.

The People Speak is based on Zinn’s famous book
A People’s History of the United States, which
tells the story of the U.S. from the perspective
of workers, slaves, African-Americans, women,
Native Americans, immigrants, and LGBT people
– rather than from the perspective of the
businessmen, politicians, and generals,
as is usually the case in school textbooks.

The two-hour documentary features readings taken
from the collection Voices of A People’s History
of the United States, which brings together
speeches and writings from social justice
activists throughout U.S. history –
from abolitionists and labor organizers
to suffragettes and anti-war activists.

The speeches are performed by a star-studded
cast, including Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman,
Jasmine Guy, Viggo Mortensen, Marisa Tomei,
Danny Glover, Stacey Ann Chin, and Darryl
McDaniels (of Run DMC). There are musical
performances by Bob Dylan, John Legend,
Eddie Vedder, and Bruce Springsteen.

These are all tied together by Zinn’s narration,
which explains the class struggles at the heart
of U.S. history, as ordinary working people
have fought for civil rights and a better life
in the face of repression and exploitation
by slaveowners, capitalists & their political representatives.

The documentary highlights immensely important
lessons for anyone interested in achieving
genuine change today in the age of Obama.

The main message of The People Speak, as with
Zinn’s other work, is that progressive change
is achieved from below, by ordinary people
who decide to act against injustice –
not by Democratic politicians or “great men.”

As the famous ex-slave and abolitionist activist
Frederick Douglass put it, in a speech read by
Don Cheadle in The People Speak,
“Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never did and it never will.”


This is a particularly important message right
now. Less than a year into his presidency,
Obama has disappointed millions of his supporters
who expected his administration to enact genuine
change. Instead, we have gotten 50,000 more
troops to Afghanistan, a growing military budget,
more bailouts for the banks, a betrayal of labor’s
hopes for EFCA, virtually no progress on LGBT
rights, and a health care reform that will lack
even a mild public option and throw billions
more at the insurance companies. Millions are
asking what happened, why the hopes they put
in Obama are being dashed, and whether serious
change can actually be achieved in the U.S.

But as Zinn writes, “There's hardly anything
more important that people can learn than
the fact that the really critical thing
isn't who is sitting in the White House,
but who is sitting—in; in the streets,
in the cafeterias, in the halls of government,
in the factories. Who is protesting, who is
occupying offices and demonstrating —
those are the things that determine what happens.”

It is becoming clearer and clearer to many,
after the first year of Obama’s presidency,
that it is going to require independent action
from below to achieve real change.

The People Speak shows examples of this process
in U.S. history. In particular, the example of
the Great Depression and the FDR administration
is a telling one. The documentary includes
Danny Glover’s performance of Langston Hughes’
poem “Ballad of Roosevelt,” which details the
frustration faced by millions suffering from
unemployment, eviction, and hunger during the
Depression, who were “Waitin’ on Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt.” Zinn explains how
action on these issues was only achieved
owing to mass struggles, often led by
socialists and other radicals.

While numerous progressive reforms were enacted
under FDR – from Social Security benefits, to
massive public works programs, to aid to the
unemployed – these were only achieved thanks to
intense pressure from below, as workers went on
strike, communities organized to stop evictions
through direct action, and unemployed people
marched on city halls and state governments
to demand relief. There is gripping footage
from the sit-down strike at General Motors in
Flint, Michigan in the winter of 1936-1937,
behind the words of strike leader Genora Johnson
Dollinger, who organized a Women’s Auxiliary Brigade.

Also particularly powerful was Matt Damon’s
reading of the words of Tom Joad from John
Steinbeck’s depression-era novel The Grapes
of Wrath. This book should be at the top of
reading lists in these times of double-digit
unemployment, mass foreclosures, and
skyrocketing hunger. Joad says, “I been thinkin’
a hell of a lot, thinkin’ about our people
livin’ like pigs, an’ the good rich lan’ layin’
fallow, or maybe one fella with a million acres,
while a hunderd thousan’ good farmers is starvin’.
An I been wonderin’ if all our folks got together
an’ yelled, like them [rich] fellas yelled …”

Joad’s words resonated, as we again and again see
our government entirely beholden to the lobbyists
of the banking, insurance, pharmaceutical, and
war-profiteering industries, while workers
are left without a voice.

This points to the desperate need for working
people and youth to organize a party of our own
to challenge the corporate-dominated two-party
system and give voice to our demands – for
universal, affordable, not-for-profit health
care, decent living wage jobs, affordable
housing, an end to the wars, equal rights for
LGBT people, an end to the racist war on drugs
and police brutality, etc.

Muhammad Ali’s explanation of his refusal to be
drafted to fight in Vietnam, for which he was
sentenced to 5 years in prison and stripped of
his heavyweight title, is also included.

Speaking out against the war in 1966, Ali said,
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and
go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs
and bullets on brown people in Vietnam
while so-called Negro people in Louisville
are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”

Ironically, just weeks before announcing he was
sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan to
drop bombs and bullets on brown people there,
President Obama wrote a tribute to Ali in USA
Today, claiming him as one of his heroes.

This is why Zinn’s documentary is so important,
because it presents a history of resistance
that has too often been hidden from high school
textbooks and the corporate media.

Corporate-Controlled Media

The fact that this type of program so rarely
makes it onto television, despite the hundreds
of channels now in existence, exposes what a
crime the corporate control over the media is.

Instead of more inspiring documentaries about
people who have made heroic sacrifices in the
fight for a better world, we get shows like
“Mall Cops” and “Survivor.” The media claims it
is just giving the people what they want to see,
but how many people really think there should be
dozens of dating shows and almost never anything
on the collective struggles of ordinary people
that have shaped this country? The truth is,
reality shows and other such programs are made
because they are profitable & non-controversial,
and thus popular with advertisers.

Why has Hollywood never produced a movie about
the life of Eugene Debs, or Sojourner Truth,
or John Brown, or nearly any of the other
fighters for social justice featured in The
People Speak, whose lives are surely of more
interest to millions of Americans than the
latest Twilight saga? Clearly the talent exists,
given the big-name stars who participated in
this project, but the stranglehold over the
film industry by a few giant corporations
prevents such works from being made.

Above all, this documentary is a call to action.
The final performance is by Stacey Ann Chin,
who performs the poem “The Low Road” by Marge
Piercy, an extremely moving invocation to the
strength of solidarity. The film ends with Bruce
Springsteen performing Woody Guthrie’s “This
Land Is Your Land,” a reminder that this country
does not belong to the bankers, CEOs, and
politicians, but rather, to ordinary, hard-
working Americans – if we get organized & fight for it.

Go out & buy the DVD & show it
to as many people as possible.

Bryan Watson
206-841-5566
www.SocialistAlternative.org


JUSTICE HERE NOW

The January-February edition of Justice,
the newspaper of Socialist Alternative,
is now online. Check it out at:

http://www.SocialistAlternative.org/justice.


************************************************

PROTEST VIDEO OUT NOW

This is a 55-minute video of a protest against
the Troop Surge to Afghanistan held on Dec. 10th
at 3:30 pm at Seattle Central Community College.

You have two options to see this video:

1. Use this torrent download option:

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5239573

2. If that doesn't work, download the movie from this link:

http://www.mynetblog.com/media/torrent_media/
Obama_Peace_Prize_Protest-Seattle.wmv

This video is not copyrighted in any way,
so do with it whatever you want!

*************************************************

Hi,

Pasted below is an excellent eye-witness report
written by a Swedish woman about the 100,000
people who protested outside the Copenhagen
climate change summit and the police repression!

Information is included about the intervention
of the international organization that Socialist
Alternative is in political solidarity with,
the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).

40 members of our international organization
were arrested and subjected to police abuse.
Also here are links to the leaflet and pamphlet
distributed by CWI members on the protests this week.

- Ramy Khalil

------------------

CWI Leaflet mass distributed in Copenhagen this week:

http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/
2009/12/0704.html

CWI Pamphlet on Climate Change - over 700 copies
sold in Copenhagen this week:

http://www.socialistworld.net/
eng/2009/12/0401.html

----------------------------------




Obama Announces Troop Surge -
Bellingham Residents Hit the Streets!

BELLINGHAM, WA - Hours before Obama would
announce his plan to send 30,000 more troops
to Afghanistan, approximately 160 students,
veterans, and community members hit the streets
of Bellingham to protest the troop surge.

Many protestors were especially outraged because
voters elected the Democrats to have full
control over the White House and Congress,
hoping they would end the disastrous occupations
of Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, Obama is
escalating the war in Afghanistan. And he is
escalating it only one week before he receives
the Nobel Peace Prize!

The protest was organized by Socialist Alternative,
which established a branch in Bellingham
only two months before the protest.

Everyone was inspired to see the decent turnout
given how new Socialist Alternative is to Bellingham
and because the protest was planned in only one month.

The protest was reported in The Bellingham Herald,
the Western Front, the Cascadia Weekly, and
possibly more media outlets. Socialist
Alternative members Brett Hoven and Ramy Khalil
also got a guest opinion column published in the
Western Front. Scroll down to see the photos
and all the media coverage!

The appearance of antiwar protests organized by
Socialist Alternative and other groups across
the country also suggests that a majority of
Americans are growing weary with the Afghanistan
War and are increasingly willing to publicly
challenge President Obama on this issue.

For many students, this was their first protest,
and everyone seemed to really enjoy the rally
and especially the march, which was very
energetic and spirited. As one student,
Zach Snover, puts it:

“As my first experience protesting and marching,
I could really feel the power students could
achieve through united action. And I really
loved the chant: ‘Show me what democracy looks like!
THIS is what democracy looks like!’”

The protest was co-sponsored by the Whatcom Peace
and Justice Center, Veterans for Peace Chapter
111, Coffee Strong, World Can’t Wait, Youth
Against War and Racism, Young Dems of Skagit
County, Food Not Bombs, and the Whatcom
Community College Bike Club.

Socialist Alternative would like to thank all of
these groups for their support, their speakers,
and their efforts to get the word out about the
protest, especially the Whatcom Peace and Justice Center.

Proponents of war often criticize the antiwar
movement for not “supporting the troops.” Yet
this rally featured numerous veterans speaking
out against imperialist wars. Among them were
Gene Marx, the head coordinator of Veterans for
Peace Chapter 111, whose son has done two tours
of duty in Iraq. James Gillies, a Vietnam veteran,
also shared his personal experiences with U.S.
imperialism in Southeast Asia 35 years ago
and the little good that it had accomplished,
drawing parallels with Afghanistan.

Evan Knappenberger, an Iraq war vet, also shared
his personal experiences and questioned how the
U.S. military could possibly help the people of
Afghanistan and Iraq when it doesn’t even take
care of its own soldiers and veterans.

The speakers from Socialist Alternative,
Lindsay Worley and Jake Silberman, questioned
the benefits of the costly occupation of
Afghanistan for ordinary Americans and Afghans,
especially women, when funds for jobs and
education are being slashed every day.

Aditi Kaushik, a social justice activist from
India and a member of Socialist Alternative,
talked about the occupation’s failure to
improve women's rights in Afghanistan.

A small counter-protest was also held.
Four conservative student activists came out
to heckle the crowd, chanting slogans such as
“Let the surge work!” But they were met with
a cold reception by the antiwar crowd.

All in all their presence only served to
strengthen the resolve of the crowd which, at
one point, drowned out the counter-protesters
with a sea of voices chanting “troops home now!”

The counter-demonstrators’ overall effect on the
protest was minimal, especially given that they
offered no clear solutions for ending the war in
Afghanistan, which has been dragging on
for eight years and getting worse.

The rally was followed by a march that began in
Red Square and traveled throughout campus before
heading downtown to US Congressperson Rick
Larsen's office. Many community members and
people who had to work who could not join us
honked and clapped in support as we marched by.

Rep. Larsen’s staff had been invited to come
downstairs and talk with the crowd that arrived
at his building. Unfortunately, though, they
refused to come out and talk with all 160
protesters as a group. Instead only a few
activists were able to talk with Larsen's staff
in his office, and they delivered a letter to him
protesting his support for the troop surge,
especially because he is a Democrat.

In the end, it was highly encouraging to see so
many students and community members come out
and challenge Obama to end the occupation of
Afghanistan. It was also highly encouraging
to see so many new young members of Socialist
Alternative getting involved in planning and
participating in the rally and march.

But we need more people to get involved and
help us build a powerful movement for peace,
justice and socialism.

Get more info and get involved!

www.SocialistAlterantive.org *
(206) 293-8389 *
khalilr@students.wwu.edu

PHOTOS: http://www.whatcompjc.org/gallery.html

Check out the links to media coverage and the photos below:


http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/1184143.html

http://westernfrontonline.net/guest-column/
troop-surge-is-not-a-viable-end-to-the-war/


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WHY PROTEST THE TROOP SURGE TO AFGHANISTAN ?


Obama is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize,
yet announces on December 1st, that he is
sending tens of thousands more troops
to Afghanistan, escalating the war!

Eight years after the US invasion of Afghanistan,
the occupation continues to drag on with no end
in sight. US casualties are on the rise, with
recent months being the deadliest since the war began.

The recent Afghan elections were supposed to
legitimize the US-backed government and its
“democratic” institutions but instead exposed
widespread corruption. Mass voter fraud,
threats of violence, and low voter turnout
undermined what little credibility remained
for the Karzai government.

These developments have dramatically undermined
support for the war. A majority of Americans
(57%) now oppose the war. (AP-GfK Poll 10/05/09)

Still, Vice President Joe Biden claims that the
war in Afghanistan “is worth the effort we are
making and the sacrifice.” (BBC News, 7/23/09)

After eight years, $228 billion have been sunk
into Afghanistan, thousands of US soldiers and
innocent Afghans have been killed or permanently
disabled, and for what?

Malalai Joya, an outspoken 30-year-old women’s
rights activist who was ousted from her position
in the Afghan parliament by right-wing religious
fundamentalists and warlords, describes
Afghanistan after 8 years of occupation:

“Your governments have replaced
the fundamentalist rule of the Taliban
with another fundamentalist regime of warlords…

While a showcase parliament has been created
for the benefit of the US in Kabul,
the real power is with these fundamentalists
who rule everywhere outside Kabul.”

For women, “the situation now is as catastrophic
as it was under the Taliban.” (Independent (UK), 7/28/09)

The war has exacerbated Afghanistan’s endemic poverty.
2/3 of Afghans still struggle to survive on
less than $2/day (Food and Agriculture Org.).
77% lack access to clean water (UNICEF).
Female literacy – at 14% – has barely improved
on what it was under the Taliban’s
ultra-conservative rule (UNESCO).

Yet, according to Biden, the war must go on
because Afghanistan is “a place that, if it
doesn’t get straightened out, will continue
to wreak havoc on Europe and the US.”

However, the brutal US occupation, along with
the grinding poverty and oppression faced by
the peoples of Central Asia and the Middle East,
is only sowing the seeds for future terrorist attacks.

“Straightening out” Afghanistan will be a long,
costly, and ultimately futile campaign.

General Sir David Richards, the head of British
forces in Afghanistan, believes it will take
another 40 years of occupation before there
will be stability (Telegraph (UK), 8/8/09).

With a discredited US puppet regime, ruling
through warlords and drug-traffickers guilty
of all sorts of war crimes, “stability” means
nothing more than a government strong enough to
suppress dissent and defend the interests of
US imperialism in the region.

All this shows clearly the need to rebuild the
antiwar movement. A powerful antiwar movement
in the US and around the world is of decisive
importance in stopping the carnage in Afghanistan
and preventing thousands upon thousands more
troops from being shipped off to kill and
be killed in this unjust, unwinnable war.

The ground is being laid for the antiwar movement
to grow. Millions voted for Obama and the
Congressional Democrats, hoping they would
end the disasters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet the Democrats have dashed these hopes -
pursuing imperialist foreign policies that are
fundamentally the same as Bush’s, despite
some difference in tactics.

The majority who oppose the war must be mobilized
in the streets against the escalation, against
requests for war funding, and to demand
an immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghanistan.


!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ASK THE SOLDIERS !!!

http://mfso.org/article.php?id=1354