What's Behind the War in Georgia

DEATH LIES WHERE GAS AND BLACK GOLD RUN:
WAR BETWEEN GEORGIA AND RUSSIA ON
THE 21ST-CENTURY SILK ROAD

Mikhail Saakashvili and his dextrous National Movement were brought to power in Georgia on the wave of a "pink revolution" in 2004. In these last four years, Georgia has strengthened its links with NATO and the EU, but has had to put up with a tough embargo on its goods from Russia, which props up the two secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both effectively out of Georgian control. ---- Saakashvili as president has not kept his promises. At least a third of the Georgian population is living below the poverty line; unemployment is officially at 16% but is actually much higher; the monthly pension is €16. Current employment legislation permits employers to fire workers without just cause. Popular discontent exploded on the occasion of last January's presidential election, called following the huge demonstrations of November 2007: poverty had been growing at the same rate as the economy.

Saakashvili won for the second time, but in order to do so was forced into
repressing tens of thousands of demonstrators in the capital, Tbilisi, who were protesting against vote-rigging, corruption, athoritarianism and economic disaster.

But so what?! The strategic control of Georgia is worth much more than the state its people live in. And that de facto Russian-guaranteed autonomy that exists in South Ossetia is no little worry to US and European interests in the area. Georgian entry into NATO would justify an international military presence with the aim of protecting and controlling two enormously important strategic corridors for the West: the famous Baku-Tbilisi-Cehyan (BTC) corridor bringing gas from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum corridor bringing gas from the Caspian to Turkey, where it is planned to link up with the TIG ("Nabucco") corridor which will link Turkey to Greece and Italy. But both these oil and gas pipelines pass too outrageously south of Russia and too near Ossetia. Russia (and Gazprom) will certainly not be sitting around doing nothing! As long as there is tension in the Caucasus, there will be no room for NATO and Europe will be
forced to deal with Russia if it wants Caspian oil and gas.

Italy's Foreign Minister is worried that the conflict will spread to Abkhazia...
but in reality his fears are more for the interests of ENI (which has a 5% stake in the BTC) and Edison (BTE), and he is already offering to send an Italian "peacekeeping" mission to the Caucasus on a European mandate.

Along the 21st-century Silk Road, the lives of 70,000 South Ossetian inhabitants (for whom independence is denied, unlike Kossovo) are worth nothing; as are the lives of the people of Georgia - two peoples apparently divided by ethnic conflict, but in reality hostage to the inter-imperialist conflict for the control of raw materials and corridors.

There will be no peace or stability in the Caucasus until its peoples obtain
full autonomy and self-determination of their own destinies and until they
cooperate in solidarity in the production and shipping of raw materials, against dictators and local ruling classes, against all forms of nationalism, against all forms of imperialism and against capitalism.

Permanent ceasefire. International solidarity with all workers in the Caucasus.

FEDERAZIONE DEI COMUNISTI ANARCHICI

12 August 2008

http://www.fdca.it

Municipalizing Democracy

Selling or leasing public assets to business corporations (privatization or corporatization) is on the rise at state and municipal levels. The reasons driving this trend:
worsening budget deficits by state and local governments,
imminent need to upgrade long-deteriorated infrastructure; and
increasing pressure by investors who’ve seen huge losses from housing and other risky investments seeking safe and stable returns

Privatizing/corporatizing roads, airports, water and sewer systems, and other public assets by national or transnational corporations has many negative consequences:
loss of public jobs,
rising rates,
declining service, and
exporting of income from local communities to shareholders and CEOs of foreign corporations.

Another negative consequence is the loss of control, of self-governance, of democracy. Keeping public utilities public gives citizens power:
the power to inspect the books of public utilities or departments,
the power to hold accountable the director of a public utility or service department,
the power to pressure city officials to control rates, retain jobs, improve service,
the power to directly create laws via citizen initiatives to control rates, retain jobs, improve service.

Attempts to privatize/corporatize public assets is happening in Ohio. The latest example is a proposal by the Mayor of Akron to lease the city sewer system (see reference in article below). Akron’s financial advisor is the investment firm of Morgan Stanley corporation (also referenced in article below) -- which stands to gain millions from the scheme. Morgan Stanley corporation is one of one of several investment firms (including Goldman Sachs) who see privatization/corporatization as a financial safe haven in these economic turbulent times. It’s where money can be made — that is, off the backs of ratepayers and users.

The record of privatization/corporatization of public utilities from a local perspective has been poor. According to Food and Water Watch:
- Atlanta canceled its contract with United Water corporation after 4 years of terrible service,
- Ft. Wayne, IN decided to take over its water and sewer system from a corporation after it hiked its rates 75%,
- Stockton, CA has just won back its water/sewer system after a judge determined privatization would have serious environmental impacts,
- New Orleans dropped its privatization plan after studying the idea for 5 years and spending $5.7 million (by contrast, Akron spent less than 3 months studying the issue with no public hearings),
- In Newark, NJ, the city council voted down privatization,
- Felton, CA has taken back its water system after a corporation took it over and wanted a 74% rate hike,
- Foreign corporations ship profits out of communities to investors and wealthy CEOs.

The above indicates not only the problems of privatization/corporation but how democratic citizen resistance can stop or reverse the trend. Akron citizens have launched an initiative to “let the people decide” and “keep public utilities public” in response to the Mayor’s plan. Citizens to Save Our Sewers and Water (Citizens SOS), which AFSC helped organize, has gathered sufficient signatures from registered voters to qualify for the November ballot. The initiative which would change the city charter or constitution calls for any sale, lease or transfer of any public utility to be without force until and unless the proposal is approved by Akron voters (the current system allows a transfer with only city council approval). Citizens SOS is also gearing up to oppose a separate ballot measure by the Mayor that specifically calls for privatizing the city sewer system. More information about the initiative and Mayor’s plan is at www.AkronOhio.net.

The citizens of Akron are responding both reactively and proactively to privatization/corporatization:
by organizing against the specific immediate threat to handing over a public asset to a foreign corporation, and
by organizing to change the city charter to prevent any transfer of a public utility without direct public approval.

This is what “municipalizing” democracy is all about!

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

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9736

Wall Street to privatize US infrastructure
Global Research, August 3, 2008
Reuters

Roads, airports on the block as budgets tighten
Fri Aug 1, 2008 12:37pm EDT
By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cash-strapped U.S. state and city governments are
likely to sell or lease more highways, bridges, airports and other assets
to investors desperate for stable returns after being frazzled by the
credit crisis.

The trend is set to pick up speed given worsening budget deficits in state
capitals and city halls nationwide.

It will also be welcomed by Wall Street bankers hoping to help create and
market so-called "infrastructure" transactions at a time many debt markets
remain paralyzed, and after major U.S. stock indexes fell into bear market
territory.

"When you are nervous about everything else, you put your money in a toll
road," said John Schmidt, a partner at the law firm Mayer Brown LLP in
Chicago. "That's the logic of infrastructure. Returns are stable and
predictable. You won't get fabulously rich, but you'll get stable cash flow."

The latest enthusiasm for at least partially privatizing infrastructure
assets came on July 30 from New York Gov. David Paterson, who is trying to
plug a budget deficit caused in part by lower tax revenue as Wall Street
retrenches.

"We're just looking at ways to be more efficient and that's why I used the
term public-private partnerships -- trying to find some creative
solutions," Paterson said. "The reason I'm avoiding taxes is because I
think taxes are addictive."

Bankers and others in the industry say there is pent-up demand from
dedicated infrastructure funds and public pension funds to invest in hard
assets -- perhaps $75 billion to $150 billion of equity capital -- but not
enough supply.

"Economic conditions are tough, and are going to be very harsh on the
performance of state budgets in 2008 and 2009," said Greg Carey, co-head of
infrastructure banking at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N:
Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz). "States are looking
for long-term solutions in running businesses. A public-private partnership
is a tool in their toolboxes."

A high-water mark came in May, when a group led by Spain's Abertis
Infraestructuras SA (ABE.MC:
Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz) and Citigroup Inc
(C.N: Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz) agreed to pay $12.8
billion to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for 75 years. The total could
reach $18.3 billion, including promised improvements. Legislators must
approve the lease.

Other transactions have included the $1.8 billion lease of the Chicago
Skyway toll road bridge in 2005, and a $3.8 billion lease of the Indiana
Toll Road the next year. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is preparing to lease
Midway Airport this year.

For Wall Street, infrastructure can be a bright spot at a time of deep job
cuts and expected declines in bonuses.

"We've seen an unprecedented number of headhunters recruiting for positions
on the buy and sell sides," said Rob Collins, head of Americas
infrastructure banking at Morgan Stanley (MS.N:
Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz). "Infrastructure
investing can be counter-cyclical to economic trends."

John Ma, the other Goldman infrastructure chief, added: "We're very
committed to this space. Our business activity has increased dramatically,
even this year."

ALTERNATIVE TO TAX HIKES

According to the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 29 U.S.
states plus the District of Columbia may face a combined $48 billion of
budget deficits in fiscal 2009.

But politicians might be loathe to cut spending or raise taxes at a time
mortgage debt, $4-a-gallon gas and rising food prices leave consumers -- of
whom many vote -- dispirited. Tapping public debt markets might also be too
costly.

Meanwhile the American Society of Civil Engineers estimates $1.6 trillion
is needed over five years to raise the often aged U.S. infrastructure to
"good" condition.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell in July called for the United States to
establish a capital budget to pay for such repairs. It was a year ago
August 1 that the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis plunged into the
Mississippi River, killing 13.

Critics say some infrastructure transactions are short-term budget fixes
that deprive governments of steady cash streams from taxpayer-funded
assets. There is also the risk that private operators won't do their jobs well.

Advocates of privatization say entities might do better managing assets
than a government answering to voters.

Politicians could also get a boost if they can take credit for reinvesting
sale or lease proceeds in needed projects.

"The argument for a public-private partnership is the private sector is a
lot smarter about paying attention to costs, and because it has skin in the
game will be more attentive to maintaining an asset over its life," said
Joseph Giglio, a privatization expert and professor at Northeastern
University's College of Business Administration in Boston.

"Elected officials often shortchange funding of maintenance because they
don't want to increase user fees or taxes to pay for it," Giglio added.
"Their election cycle is four years. They can pass it on to someone else's
watch."

Collins, who also advised Pennsylvania on the turnpike, said infrastructure
can also go beyond roads and airports. He said Morgan Stanley is advising
Akron, Ohio, on exploring the leasing of its wastewater system, and Indiana
on the possibility of private management for its state lottery.

"Lotteries have infrastructure characteristics in that they have stable
cash flows and high barriers to entry," he said. "They could even attract
private equity investment because they are self-financeable and require
minimal capital expenses."

BIG NAMES

At Goldman, Carey and Ma replaced Mark Florian, who is moving to First
Reserve Corp, a private equity firm specializing in energy, a person close
to the matter said.

Goldman itself raised a $6.5 billion infrastructure fund in 2006, and is
reportedly trying to raise a $7.5 billion fund.

Morgan Stanley raised a $4 billion fund in May. Global Infrastructure
Partners, a joint venture between Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN.VX:
Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz) and General
Electric Co (GE.N: Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz), raised a $5.6
billion fund the same month. Private equity firm Carlyle Group CYL.UL last
year raised a $1.15 billion fund.

And Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co KKR.UL, which is preparing to go public,
in May lured George Bilicic from Lazard Ltd (LAZ.N:
Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz), where he led
power, energy and infrastructure efforts worldwide, to run its own
infrastructure investments.

Two of the largest specialists in the area are Australian: Macquarie Group
Ltd (MQG.AX: Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz) and Babcock & Brown
Ltd (BNB.AX: Quote,
Profile,
Research,
Stock Buzz).

Schmidt, the Mayer Brown partner, said if the Midway transaction succeeds,
other airports could also go private, perhaps leading to "lower and more
predictable landing fees and terminal rentals for airlines, which certainly
aren't flush."

That, he said, could bring the value of roads, bridges and airports that
could be privatized to half a trillion dollars.

(Additional reporting by Joan Gralla in New York and Elizabeth Flood Morrow
in Albany, New York, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

Are Women Smarter Than Men?

The gender gap in politics continues, and the difference between boys and girls in school continues to arouse interest in the media. And it is true that girls do better in school than boys and women are less likely to support the right-wing (i.e. the Stupid Party) than men. This would seem to indicate that women are smarter than men.

But I explain the political gender gap thusly;

The right-wing (1) is the war party, and youth, the children born of women are its chief victims.

The right-wing takes the short-term view, ie the quarterly profit rate, the next election – whereas women are more likely to think in terms of the life times of their children and grandchildren. And for women who do not have or want to have children, this attitude is still part of "women's culture."

The right-wing is highly ideological and willing to sacrifice large sections of the population in imposing its world view. Women and children are the chief victims of this sociopathology.

The right-wing seeks to destroy social services and throw the weaker and poorer sections of the populace to the dogs. Women, because of their historical disadvantage in terms of income and the plight of single mothers, are more likely to support such services, both out of self-interest and compassion grown of experience.

Impulsiveness and lack of empathy are two of the chief emotional characteristics of criminals. Around 90% of genuine criminals (2) are male and the vast majority of them are young. Young men, in particular, are noted for their impulsiveness.

Lack of empathy is also one of the chief characteristics of right-wingers.

An impulsive person is one who fails to take the long-term view and to take into account all the ramifications of his actions. In essence he does not think, chief characteristic of stupidity. As before mentioned, the short-term view is the one favored by righists. As well they fail to see connections, everything is seen in isolation. As well, a "black and white" world view. The latter is also an aspect of stupidity.

I would say that women are not necessarily "smarter" than men, but they are certainly a damn sight wiser, since wisdom consists largely of taking the long view and of attempting to see all the ramifications of one's actions. I would also say that in the end wisdom is the more important form of intelligence than the ability to manipulate facts and figures.

On the other hand, I am suspicious of the data that "proves" boys do more poorly in school or that boys are somehow innately less likely to read or take an interest in learning. Gender role specification starts at birth. As well, testosterone automatically will make boys more aggressive (and thus more impulsive, immature and as generations of ten year old girls will tell you, "stoopid!") Yet, rather than seeking to offset this biological tendency, the traditional patriarchal upbringing does the opposite. If a boy is rude, violent, destructive, obnoxious, these traits are dismissed as "just being a boy." Patriarchal upbringing tends to downgrade "intellectual" interests, good manners, non-violence and empathy as effeminate – the female being inferior, of course. Girls on the other hand, who because of patriarchy could do with some aggressiveness, are sat upon. Historically, this has resulted in neurosis among women and sociopathology among men.

Some boys certainly do shun books or do more poorly in class than girls. But these are boys raised in more traditional patriarchal ways. Boys raised by counter-cultural parents or the liberal educated professional classes, are no more likely to do poorly in school or reject "intellectual" activities than girls. Nor do they turn to delinquency. Indeed, you can virtually guarantee that a boy who reads a lot will not take up mugging old ladies as a pastime. (Though he might become a pacifist, a socialist or an anarchist, a worse fate in the eyes of the reactionaries.)

Attempts to improve boys standing in school by introducing male-only classes and "boy-oriented education" are simply attempts to re-introduce patriarchy by the back door and should be fought and defeated.

1."Right wing" does not refer to either "red" Tories or genuine free market libertarians. It refers to the right-wing nanny state, pro-corporate, pro-war, socially reactionary, authoritarian right, such as Bushites, Harpocrits, fundi theocrats, neo-liberals, neocons, etc and their brown shirt kissin' cousins.

2. Prostitution is a moral issue, not a criminal one, drug addiction is a medical problem, not a criminal one. Addicts steal to pay for their drugs, but would not if they could get them in a non-criminal manner. The use of harmless drugs like cannabis is a personal choice and the state should have no say in the matter. "Genuine criminals" are those who harm others or live by theft, fraud etc.

Articles on gender difference in intelligence and ability to succeed in school.

Http://news-service.stanford.edu/pr/96/961030gendergap.html www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?pid=5756 http://cupwsisters.blogspot.com)

http://ces-eec.mcgill.ca/documents/CES2006gendergap.pdf.

www.cbc.ca/news/background/gendergap/ www.universityaffairs.ca/issues/2007/october/gender_gap_01.html

More Proof of Polynesian Contact With the Americas

Tahitian Vanilla is a plant found only in Tahiti. But now geneticists have traced its origins to Central America. See http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/34243/title/Tracing_Tahitian_vanilla

This is only the latest in a number of recent discoveries

see http://porkupineblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/polynesians-beat-europeans-to-america.html

and http://porkupineblog.blogspot.com/2005/07/polynesians-in-california.html

Thoughts on Canadian Genocide and the "Apology".

O pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth,
That I am meek and gentle with these butchers!
Thou art the ruins of the noblest
who ever lived in the tide of times.
Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood!
(Julius Caesar, Act 3:1)

A Moment of Reflection ...

If only we in Canada had an ounce of Marc Antony's outrage when it comes to murder in our midst.

All the "honorable men" who slew Caesar had the weight of law on their side, as do the officials of church and state in our country who legally killed generations of innocent children in the "Indian residential schools", and who now absolve themselves of their crime.

Can we dare to ask for pardon from the slaughtered children, for our meek gentleness with their butchers?

Can we ask them to forgive us, when we watch a recent CBC TV broadcast in which Irene Favel described seeing a newborn baby shoved live into a roaring furnace by a priest in Saskatchewan, and we do nothing?

Why should we be forgiven? Who are we to issue an "apology" for our crimes when we refuse to be held accountable for them? When names are not allowed to be named? When priests and nuns are allowed to get away with murder? And when "misconduct" in residential schools cannot even be referred to at the government's upcoming "Truth and Reconciliation" hearings?

Crimes without criminals. Words without substance. That is the Canadian way.

Looking Back, and Forward:
Written on Squamish Nation Territory, under Foreign Occupation - July 21, 2008

Over the past year, the impossible has happened: the government and churches of Canada have been forced for the first time to publicly acknowledge that massive numbers of children died in their Indian residential schools, and that many of these deaths were criminal in nature.

But the predictable has accompanied the impossible: the very same guilty parties have responded to this exposure by effectively absolving themselves of this crime with a verbal "apology" and a self-appointed "inquiry" that is structured to ensure that the crime will be officially whitewashed.

Nothing less can be expected in a place like Canada, where the institutions that ran the residential schools are still in power and call the shots, with the help of their aboriginal collaborators.

But rather than being a cause of despair, this predictable scramble by the guilty to hide their filth is yet another crumbling piece of masonry in the collapsing facade called colonial Canada, which has never resolved what it likes to call its "Indian Problem" - and never will.

Only in an insecure and guilt-haunted nation could the fact of missing aboriginal children generate the enormous turmoil and change that we've witnessed in Canada since April of 2007, when the Harper government was forced to address the missing residential school children in Parliament.

The media scramble that resulted, and has never abated, hovers around the issue of dead residential school kids like a voyeuristic John, watching but not daring to touch all those mass graves. And yet two years ago, the topic was strictly forbidden and censored in the monopolized corporate media in Canada. Today, the Establishment seems to be struggling to gradually acclimatize the populace to the fact of genocide in their midst.

This is all a repeat, but on a bigger scale, of what was tried a decade or more ago, when the first lawsuits by residential school survivors threatened to nail the Catholic, Anglican and United churches to the wall. By slowly leaking to the public some aspects of the residential school nightmare in small, digestible pieces, the media and the courts contained the potentially- explosive issue to yet another ho-hum abuse litigation, complete with "apologies" and "compensation" .

Back then, by reducing genocide to a matter of personal injury claims, Canada spared itself what it's now forced to face: its own history of deliberately exterminating aboriginal nations. But, then as now, the strategy of the guilty churches and state seems to be identical: namely, to minimize and contain the issue by pretending to address it whole not addressing it.

Just as the so-called "Aboriginal Healing Fund" contained the fallout of residential school lawsuits with hush money to survivors, so now does the misnamed "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" (TRC) appear to inquire into missing children by studiously preventing any actual disclosure of their fate.

A simple reading of the TRC mandate reveals an alarming deception. While portraying itself as the definitive investigation into Indian residential schools, the TRC in fact is not an investigative body or a legal inquiry; it has no power to subpoena or compel involvement, does not allow the naming of the names of perpetrators, and will not allow any statement involving wrongdoing by a person or organization; nor does it extend immunity or protection to anyone offering evidence.

In short, the TRC is an explicit whitewash of any criminal behaviour in the residential schools. Imagine a "final report" on these schools that has not a single mention of misconduct in it!

Again, this is precisely what one expects when church lawyers and officials like the United Church's former Moderator Bill Phipps - a TRC convenor - establish an inquiry into themselves. And yet, this whole effort by the guilty is doomed to failure.

For one thing, the crime is too huge to contain. Since April 10, we have documented and released to the press thirty-three mass grave sites across Canada near former residential schools, where countless children are reputedly buried. In response, I have been inundated with stories from eyewitnesses who buried children, witnessed the incineration of others, and who saw killings and other crimes in the schools. And many of these stories have appeared in the media.

But what is especially encouraging and unusual about this disclosure is that it is being accompanied by a new wave of lawsuits against the churches responsible for these deaths, brought by relatives of children who were killed. For the first time, the churches and government of Canada are being named in criminal lawsuits for acts of murder.

It gets even better. In some cases, like on Squamish territory in what whites call Vancouver, these lawsuits will be launched not through Canadian courts of law, which have time and again disqualified claims involving murder, but in aboriginal courts of Justice, convened by traditional elders like Squamish Chief Kiapilano.

In other words, raising the spectre of murdered children is unleashing a revolutionary challenge to Canada and its courts, as survivors and other native people invoke their own sovereignty to win justice.

This fact raises the second problem of Canada's attempt to co-opt and contain its culpability for genocide: namely, that there is no consensus "at the top" of how to deal with the threat of indigenous sovereignty. The power of the Canadian establishment is too fractured and regionalized to devise a common response to the growing breakdown of native peoples' imprisonment in their own land.

Today, the Canadian state does not have a single, credible group of collaborating native elites to impose a uniform "Indian policy" across the nations, which means that any effort to simply shut down or contain the furor over missing residential school children will meet with failure. The growing native populaces, restless, off reserve and plagued by poverty and discontent, are too diverse to be so easily managed anymore.

This fact highlights the third roadblock to any easy resolution of the residential school crimes: the particularly vulnerable position of Canada in the world economy as an exporting and tourist nation, and the battering its "humanitarian" image and credit rating have taken as a result of the residential school scandal.

One of the main reasons behind the creation of the fraudulent "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" was the need to create a convincing public relations front to the world during the period leading up to the 2010 Olympics in British Columbia, a region that is the hotbed of independent native protest and non-treatied communities.

The Canadian elites - native and white - are terrified of the prospect of native road and railway blockades during the B.C. Olympics, disrupting as these will the "new relationship" between these elites in their efforts to secure new foreign export markets for Canadian resources, most of which are located on unceded native land. An upstart aboriginal bourgeoisie is acting as the chief arm of the Canadian state in securing these markets, especially with Asian countries, and restraining protests by their own people in the process.

Nevertheless, all of these factors add up to a single truth: Canada and its churches - and their aboriginal accomplices - will be unable to extricate themselves from their liability for their crimes, and therefore will remain extremely vulnerable to any public criticism or protest campaigns aimed at exposing the full extent of the residential school genocide.

The Implications for Us, and the Challenge

Until recently, the movement to bring Canada and its churches to justice for genocide has been localized and relatively unpopular, even among supposed "progressives and radicals". And yet its impact on events has been profound, and has forced Canada's back to the wall, simply by continuing to make public the hard evidence of death and torture in residential schools.

This work is finally paying off, as our efforts are stimulating a much broader reaction among even mainstream Canadians, and we are linking up with more disgruntled residential school survivors and aboriginal youth. There are now twenty six local groups across Canada working with our network, organizing protests, documenting evidence, and educating the world about the Canadian holocaust.

As the frustration of survivors continues to grow with their loss of any avenue for resolving their claims, as the bogus "TRC" exposes itself as Canada's version of the Warren Commission, and as the puppet native chiefs continue to become alienated from their own people, a huge crisis of leadership is emerging in the aboriginal world.

This crisis has created a unique opportunity for those committed to indigenous sovereignty and full justice for residential school survivors. What is lacking is the audacity, the networks, and the overall strategy to begin uprooting the causes of genocide and the colonial political-economic system that is ruining our lands and people.

Last April 15, ten indigenous elders launched their answer to the government's TRC: an independent "International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada". That Tribunal will begin its work this autumn, by convening local inquiries into deaths and other crimes in residential schools, in open opposition to the TRC.

As part of its work, this Tribunal will begin enforcing the Eviction Notices issued by Squamish hereditary Chief Kiapilano against the Catholic, Anglican and United churches on his territory, in "Vancouver". We will claim these buildings and lands as our Mohawk cousins are doing in their land reclamation battle in "Ontario". And within these liberated zones, we will be establishing popular courts of justice to try and convict those persons and organizations responsible for the residential school crimes.

Until September 15, I will be travelling in Europe and elsewhere to gain new international allies for this campaign and cause. Let us begin planning for this "hot autumn" by planning local Tribunals and direct actions of sovereignty and reclamation in all of our communities, against the churches, corporations and government responsible for the murder of our peoples.

May our hearts and courage rise to this challenge. Spread the fire.

I am your brother,

Kevin Annett Eagle Strong Voice
for the Tribunal and sovereignty campaign

260 Kennedy St.
Nanaimo, BC V9R 2H8
ph: 250-753-3345 or 1-888-265-1007

hiddenfromhistory@ yahoo.ca
www.hiddenfromhistory.org

Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org

Police Attack Mohawk Grandmothers

Solidarity with Katenies!
-- "Canada" has no jurisdiction over Mohawk land

On July 14, 2008, Mohawk grandmother and activist Katenies has again been
ordered to appear before a judge in the Superior Court of Cornwall,
Ontario.  Again, Katenies will refuse to recognize the authority of the
courts and demand that Canadian officials prove they have jurisdiction
over her as an Indigenous woman.

One month ago, on June 14, 2008, Katenies -- accompanied by Kahentinetha
of the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory - was targeted for arrest by Canadian
Border Services Agency (CBSA) guards on an outstanding warrant for
allegedly "running the border" in 2003, and offenses resulting from her
refusal to appear in court and validate the colonial justice system.

Katenies has maintained since 2003 that border officials and the Canadian
colonial courts have no jurisdiction over Kanion'ke:haka people or land.
In January 2007, Katenies served court officials with a "Motion to
Dismiss", demanding that they establish jurisdiction, if any, over Mohawks
and their ability to travel freely between "Canada" and the "United
States".

[The Motion to Dismiss is linked here:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/03/katenies-serves-court-with-jurisdiction.html
] and summarized as follows.



During the CBSA attack, Katenies and Kahentinetha - who are both writers
and contributors to Mohawk Nation News (MNN) - were treated brutally by
border guards. Both were handcuffed and tackled to the ground. Katenies
was jailed for three days. Kahentinetha suffered a heart attack and is
under the care of her family.   [www.mohawknationnews.com ]


[Reports about the CBSA attack, and background information, are linked at:
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/06/katenies-cbsa-background.html
]

As mainly non-native groups and collectives based in settler communities
on or near Mohawk lands, we are publicly standing in support of Katenies,
and demand all charges against her by the colonial courts be dropped. We
also condemn the brutal attacks by the CBSA on both Katenies and
Kahentinetha on June 14, 2008 and declare our solidarity with Indigenous
struggles for land, freedom and self-determination.

Endorsed by:
Agitate (Ottawa)
Les Apatrides Anonymes (Montreal)
Block the Empire-Montreal
Common Cause (Ontario)
Kingston Indigenous Solidarity Network
No One Is Illegal-Kingston
No One Is Illegal-Montreal
No One Is Illegal-Ottawa
OPIRG-Carleton
OPIRG/GRIPO-Ottawa
La Otra Campaña (Montreal)
People's Global Action Bloc (Ottawa)
Solidarity Across Borders (Montreal)

To endorse this statement, and Katenies, please contact
indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com  This legal challenge will cost
money.  MNN has none.  Canada is apparently hiring top law firms to fight
the Mohawks.  If you could send donations, it would be greatly appreciated
to:  "MNN Mohawk Nation News", Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L
1B0.  Nia:en/Thank you very much. www.mohawknationnews.com
katenies20@yahoo.com

The Diggers

This was originally titled A Vision for Today, from Yesterday and was sent to me by Hidden From History.

A poor man named Gerrard Winstanley wrote the following words in April, 1649 as he and a handful of other poor folks called the Diggers tried to restore a small part of England to the common treasury with their own hands. Their struggle to create a spiritual communal society under the noses of the landlords and their Cromwellian army met with the same result that happens whenever faith stands unarmed before men with guns.

But Winstanley and the Diggers live on, and his few words not only capture the essence of my life’s calling, but remind me how the Thing we are fighting has rampaged and done its genocide on our people on both sides of the Atlantic.

I hope this reminder will unite us all more with a vision of a world made equal, and one - and thereby stir us into action - and check out the great Billy Bragg song based on their tale! (below):

In the beginning of time the great creator Reason made the Earth to be a common treasury, and not one word was spoken that one branch of mankind should rule over another; and the reason is this, that every single man, male and female, is a perfect creature of himself, and thus none is subject to another …

Yet selfish imagination did alienate man against himself, and did set up one man to teach and rule over another, and expel his fellow from his natural right to the whole earth and its fruits. And hereupon the earth was hedged into enclosures by the false rulers, who stole the earth for themselves and made their fellows their slaves and servants.

And that earth that is within creation, made a common storehouse for all, is now bought and sold, and kept in the hands of a few, and thereby the great creator is dishonored, as if he were a respecter of persons, delighting in the comfortable livelihood of some, and rejoicing in the miserable poverty of others. For in the beginning it was not so …

But when the earth becomes a common treasury again, as it must, owned by none and shared by all, then this enmity of all against all shall cease, and none shall war against another or seek to dominate others, nor desire more of the earth than another.

St. George's Hill, Surrey, England, April 10, 1649

Billy Bragg singing "The Diggers":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LK2ldle1kAk&feature=related

Lyrics:

In 1649
To St George's Hill
A ragged band they called the Diggers
Came to show the people' s will
They defied the landlords
They defied the laws
They were the dispossessed
Reclaiming what was theirs.

We come in peace, they said
To dig and sow
We come to work the land in common
And to make the waste land grow
This earth divided
We will make whole
So it can be
A common treasury for all.

The sin of property
We do disdain
No one has any right to buy and sell
The earth for private gain
By theft and murder
They took the land
Now everywhere the walls
Rise up at their command.

They make the laws
To chain us well
The clergy dazzle us with heaven
Or they damn us into hell
We will not worship
The God they serve
The God of greed who feeds the rich
While poor men starve.

We work, we eat together
We need no swords
We will not bow to masters
Or pay rent to the lords
We are free men
Though we are poor
You Diggers all stand up for glory

Stand up now.

From the men of property
The orders came
They sent the hired men and troopers
To wipe out the Diggers' claim
Tear down their cottages
Destroy their corn
They were dispersed -
But still the vision lingers on.

You poor take courage
You rich take care
The earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace
The order came to cut them down.