Ethiopia: millions of Oromo and Somali suffering genocide

One of the origins of the endless tsunami of refugees reaching Europe and other places is Ethiopia. This most informative article from Black Agenda Reports explains why: ongoing mass genocide silenced by the media

Ethiopian Killosh (ethnic states)

Ethiopia’s 10 Million Human Tsunami

Mon, 10/07/2013 - 20:43 — Thomas C. Mountain

Most of the millions of Ethiopians forced into the global limbo of displacement are Oromo or ethnic Somali from the Ogaden, victims of the Ethiopian regime’s genocidal policies. During the recent devastating drought, “all of Oromia and the Ogaden affected by this catastrophe were prevented from receiving food and medical aid by the Ethiopian regime” – one of Washington’s closest allies in Africa.

Ethiopia’s 10 Million Human Tsunami

by Thomas C. Mountain

“At one point up to 1,000 people a day, mostly women, children and the elderly, were dying of hunger.”

Every year for a decade or more a million Ethiopians, 10 million and counting, have left, or fled, their homeland. While the television screens of the world have been flooded with images of North African migrants drowning off the Italian island of Lampedusa, the bones of tens of thousands of Ethiopian refugees lay in unmarked graves along Yemeni shores or at the bottom of the Indian Ocean or Red Sea.

How is it you might ask, that this 10 million human tsunami remains almost unknown to the world? And why, why would ten million Ethiopians, one in every 8 people in the country, risking their lives in many cases, seek refuge in foreign, mostly unwelcoming, lands?

The answer lies in the policies of the Ethiopian regime which have been described by UN investigators in reports long suppressed with words such as “food and medical aid blockades,” “scorched earth counterinsurgency tactics,” “mass murder” and even “genocide.”

Most of the Ethiopians refugees are from the Oromo nationality, at 40 million strong half of Ethiopia, or the ethnic Somalis of the Ogaden. Both of these regions in southern Ethiopia have long been victims of some of the most inhumane, brutal treatment any peoples of the world have ever known (it has been estimated that a full half of all Oromos were wiped out during the western supported Abyssinian Imperialist colonialization during the late 1800’s by the forefathers of “Emperor” Haile Sellasie).

These past few years saw the worst drought and famine in the Horn of Africa in 60 years yet almost all of Oromia and the Ogaden affected by this catastrophe were prevented from receiving food and medical aid by the Ethiopian regime.

What country in the world is allowed to expel both the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders during such a humanitarian crisis and not be roundly condemned by the international community? Only Ethiopia.

In Somalia alone the UN has admitted at least 250,000 starved to death during this famine with estimates for the victims in Oromia and the Ogaden running at least this high.

500,000 people starving to death in a couple of years and no outcry from the world? At one point up to 1,000 people a day, mostly women, children and the elderly, were dying of hunger and all we got was a New York Times best seller on the CIA’s “dirty wars” in the Horn of Africa which somehow failed to condemn this enormous crime.

“Every day some 3,000 Ethiopians flee their homeland, almost 100,000 a month, another million or more this year.”

Ethiopia remains the largest recipient of international, mainly western aid, in the world. Recently sources in Addis Ababa from within the offices of the IMF have sent word that Ethiopia’s import bill has reached almost 12 billion dollars a year while exports are only $2 billion. $10 billion a year in “aid,” “loans” or “investment” make Ethiopia entirely dependent on foreign good will to survive yet the world is helpless to prevent the enforced starvation of hundreds of thousand or over 10 million Ethiopians fleeing their country?

In the past ten years we have seen many reports on over two million Iraqi refugees and now another more than 2 million Syrian refugees. Yet more than twice this number of Ethiopian have become refugees and this fact remains unknown to the world?

When speaking of these crimes I am not speaking in the past tense for every day some 3,000 Ethiopians flee their homeland, almost 100,000 a month, another million or more this year. Many flee by boat from the shores of Somalia, heading for Yemeni shores and hopefully on to safer lands. How many boats sink with the loss of almost all onboard, or worse yet, have their passengers thrown overboard while still offshore will never be known. The international navies that patrol this region seem to care little for preventing the human trafficking mafias from carrying out their ghoulish trade, far to busy protecting the interests of the major shipping lines through these very same waters. Have you ever heard of a drone strike or commando raid on a human trafficking headquarters? Are any of these vermin trading in human misery ever listed on international “Most Wanted” bulletins?

Why should they, for the criminals ruling Ethiopia not only are allowed to continue business as usual but actually see their cash flow in the form of “foreign aid and investment” increased by a third since 2010 while at the same time hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians starve to death.

So next time you are confronted by images of lines of corpses along the shores of Italy remember that this is something that goes on almost everyday in the Horn of Africa but doesn't merit comment, let alone disgust and outrage by those most pious of commentators in the international media.

"Abortion is sacred": FEMEN activists interrupt Spanish congress debate on new fundamentalist abortion law

Three activists of FEMEN interrupted the discourse of Spanish Justice Minister, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, getting topless and chanting "abortion is sacred" for a couple of minutes.

While some MPs applauded them, others, from the neofascist PP in government, yelled "out!" While the three women were being pulled out it could be heard in the microphones the voice of the Christian fundamentalist Ruiz Gallardón perplex about the slogan: "abortion is sacred?, abortion is sacred?"

This seems to underline the extreme difference in thought, conscience and concept between them and us, between the religious fundamentalists who try to impose their ideological dogma on others by means of law and the humanists who only believe in respect, dignity and freedom.

This is indeed a true clash of civilizations, one that has been going on for at least two centuries, since rationality began overcoming fanaticism. Sadly enough, the struggle has not ended with any decisive victory for the only side which can win; the forces of obscurantism, of darkness are still way too strong. It's they or us, freedom or cultist slavery, we must continue fighting. 

Source: Naiz Info[es].

Galicia: bomb attack against outspokenly fascist mayor

A bomb exploded early this morning in the Town Hall of Bouade (Galicia), causing important damages (two storeys damaged) but no victims. 

Incidentally, the mayor of that town, Senén Pousa, (affiliated to the Spanish conservative party PP) is infamous for his systematic apology of fascism, which has caused offense to many, something way too common among the so-called "populars", whose offenses to human dignity are always tolerated. 

This is not the first case of urban guerrilla in Galicia in the last years. In previous years employment offices and cash machines were targeted but the activity ceased for a time after some people were arrested.

More recently, in more assimilated areas of the state of Spain, there have been bomb attacks against iconic churches, again without victims. The last one was just a few days ago. 

It seems obvious that the anger is growing as the socio-economic and political situation degenerates, and that, for some, peaceful protests have grown increasingly pointless, after being systematically ignored, when not brutally repressed. 

I can only attempt to understand why this violent drift of the social anger. But I guess that, while some kill themselves in desperation, others resign painfully to the destruction of society and their own lives by the local and international bourgeoisie, who keep pocketing huge profits at the expense of the workers, etc., there are also those who think that something more radical must be done. 

The sad true is that the state calling itself Spain is deeply sick and its 45 million denizens are totally desperate. Everything in this is clearly a symptom of such depressingly chronic malady.

Main source: Público[es] (includes video and a photos of the fascist mayor posing with his horrible icons that I'd rather not replicate her).

Basque Country: annother social squat is born

A former convent was occupied recently in Durango (Bizkaia) by people who describe themselves as mothers, fathers, workers, electricians, teachers, young, known, unknown, students... mostly neighbors of the town.

They say that this occupation is a way to make our rights real by bringing back to life a building and lands long abandoned. 

Hope it has a long and fruitful life. 

Source: Bilboko Okupazio Bulegoa[es].

Obituary: Vo Nguyen Giap

A 20th century legend died on Friday. Revolutionary General Vo Nguyen Giap died in Hanoi at the venerable age of 102. He is also known as Ge Luo: volcano under the snow.

Castro and Giap

He was born in August 25th 1911 in a landless but literate farmer family. He began his revolutionary career already in high school, joining nationalist organizations at the age of 15. He was first arrested in 1930. 

In 1933 he began studying at the university but was expelled for his political activities. It was there when he met Truong Chinh, the main communist ideologue of Vietnam, joining then the Communist Party. He finally graduated as attorney in 1937 and got work as history teacher in a high school.

In 1938 he married a Thai woman, Dang Thi Quang, who was also communist.

In 1939 he published his first book, jointly with Truong Chinh, titled "The farmer question", in which they pondered about the role of the farmer class in the joint struggle with urban workers. 

In 1940 the Communist Party was banned by the Vichy regime and he escaped to China. However his relatives were not so lucky: his sister-in-law was beheaded and his wife sentenced to life in prison, dying a few years later because of tortures. His son, his father, two sister and other relatives were also murdered. 

In spite of all this tragedy, he studied the work of Mao in China and met the also legendary Ho Chi Minh. They founded the Dang Minh (Vietminh), which was a broad front of nationalist forces. 

In 1941 he went back to Vietnam to initiate the guerrilla war, in alliance with ethnic minorities. After a few years of frantic armed and political activism, he was in 1945 at the command of a 10,000 strong force, taking an offensive stand against the Japanese and proclaiming the independence of Vietnam with Ho Chi Minh as President. 

However defeating the Japanese was just the beginning. Soon France attempted to reclaim its colony, leading Giap to the epic battle of Dien Bien Phu, in which the guerrilla decisively defeated 15,000 French soldiers supported by US air forces. The arrogant imperialists were unaware of the ability of Giap's forces to move heavy artillery through the jungle. 

The French commander, ashamed, committed suicide soon after the Vietnamese guns began pounding their positions. The whole army was captured or died in combat. However the Vietnamese loses were also very important (exact figures are debated). 

After that, he defeated one after the other, the top generals of the French Army, resulting in the truce by which Vietnam was temporarily divided in two states. 

Giap's struggle did not end there. The war continued in the South, a tyrannical US neo-colonial protectorate, in a guerrilla war that lasted for more than whole decade. In 1973, the USA finally withdrew their forces and two years later Vietnam was united again under a red banner. 

Giap held the position of Defense Minister until 1980. 

In the meantime he also wrote the masterpiece of guerrilla warfare theory "People's War, People's Army", published in 1961. He also authored "Big Victory, Great Task", "Dien Bien Phu" and "We Will Win".

Main source: Webguerrillero[es].

Global eye opening about the shadowy reality of Spanish maverick judge Baltasar Garzón

This guy, who lead much of the worst repression against Basques and our most basic liberties, may be known to you because he is the defense attorney of Wikileaks leader Julian Assange or because he once made a futile attempt to bring Chilean dictator Pinochet to trial, embarrassing Great Britain.

But, in spite of being a character well worth of an intrigue novel or film, Garzón is essentially a hypocrite and a repressor, clearly aligned with the worst of Spanish and global elites.

Argentines are discovering it now and have dedicated a whole blog with plenty material on his person, to uncover the dark truth of Garzón. The materials are so far only available in Spanish, but they are interesting enough to teach me something new about this human worm and therefore to share here at least in outline form. 

Garzón was paid by multinational corporations to teach "anti-terrorism", he paid back in legal favors

→ article[es].

This is one of the items I did not know about beforehand. Spanish multinational companies CEPSA, Banco Santander, BBVA, Telefónica, Endesa and Unión Fenosa, paid Garzón €1 million to give a course on "international terrorism", along with such elements as Condi Rice, John Negroponte, Thimothy Geithner, Michael Chertoff, Michael Bloomberg, Rodrigo Rato, José Manuel Insulza (OAS) and Arthur Shulzberg (NYT).

The case was known publicly because in the 2010 revenge legal action taken against him by his own colleagues, it became apparent that he may have paid back Banco Santander by dismissing a case against them. 

The presence of so many US VIPs in Garzón courses was arranged by Banco Santander as well, on request of the maverick Spanish judge. 

The article links to a number of documents backing this case of cronyism.

Garzón used illegal wiretapping to hinder the investigation of the Gürtel corruption affair of the Spanish conservatives

→ article[es].

When still a judge of the Audiencia Nacional (especial political tribunal of Spain), Garzón wiretapped conversations between those investigated and their attorneys in what seems a clear case of intentional muddying of the legal procedure to nullify the prosecution. 

His defense attorney in that case is, quite notably, the same one defending some of those accused in the Gürtel affair, Francisco Correa, who is also godfather of Garzón's son. 

Garzón actively supported state terrorism in Colombia

→ article[es].

He provided legal assessment for the whitewashing of the many horrible paramilitary terror crimes under Uribe and publicly backed the Colombian state attorney in this operation of criminal impunity. 

Garzón attacked Bolivarian Venezuela in connivance with the oligarchy

→ article[es].

After being hired as public relations by the Venezuelan capitalist syndicate CONINDUSTRIA, he backed the RCTV broadcasting corporation when the license it had was not renewed by the government.

He also wrote the foreword of the book by reactionary leader Enrique Capriles Radonski Estado Delincuente (Criminal State), dedicated to defame the Venezuelan democratic socialism. 

Garzón worked against truth and reparation in the case against victims of Fascism in Spain

→ article[es].

Some have imagined, thanks to media hype and half-truths that Garzón was some sort of "hero" in the demand of justice for the massive crimes of Fascism in Spain. But the reality is very different. 

Not just he brought the cases to his own court Audiencia Nacional, legally not competent, but he has admitted publicly that:

• He stopped opening burials of the victims of Fascism
• He did not make any actual investigation whatsoever

His activity of sabotage of the case for some 157,000 victims of Fascist terror, has been denounced by human rights associations.

Garzón was a key piece in the political repression and tortures against the Basque People as well as US kidnapping of Muslims

→ article 1 (torture) [es].

→ article 2 (closure of media)[es].

Well known here but maybe not as well abroad. Garzón, along with other Spanish judges, notably those in the Audiencia Nacional, protected systematic torture against political prisoners of all sorts, not just Basques, but also Catalans, etc.

He also dismissed systematically all denounces of torture.

Garzón was a centerpiece in the political repression that exploded in 1998 against the Basque People. His infamous case 18/98 established the legal frame of "everything is ETA", by which every other Basque entity, be it political, social, cultural or even the media, have been persecuted in the last 15 years. 

He closed newspaper Egin (To Do, an excellent medium with lots of investigative journalism and high quality information and opinion), radio station Egin Irratia and magazines Ardi Beltza (Black Sheep) and its successor Kale Gorria (Damned Street), dedicated exclusively to investigative journalism and, therefore, a threat of truth and transparency against the many corruptions of the Spanish and Basque oligarchies. 

Many of their journalists were jailed and sometimes tortured. A decade later the case was dismissed but the harm was already done. 

Garzón collaborated with the kidnapping and tortures of Muslims by the USA

→ article[es].

Even such a coy organization as Amnesty international denounced Garzón for his active complicity in the US operations of arbitrary kidnapping of Muslim suspects and transference to Guantanamo concentration camp and other secret prisons worldwide. 

In the case of the only Spaniard held in Guantanamo, Hamed Abderrahaman Ahmed, Garzón was informed of the tortures suffered by this citizen but he preferred to bury the issue adhering to the doctrine of "all is Al Qaeda", by which every single Muslim is suspect and therefore, seemingly, unprotected by any law, much less this cynic.

Beware Julian, beware!

Basque Country: huge demo rejects inquisitorial persecution against human rights movement Herrira

A huge demonstration took Bilbao today to reject the inquisitorial operative against prisoner rights watchdog movement Herrira, which has been outlawed by some unelected foreign judge guy from Madrid overnight in yet another instance of imperialist oppression against our small but proud nation.

No media has yet dared to report an estimate of the number of assistants but the description of the march's head reaching its destination at the Town Hall while many were still awaiting to begin at the place of origin (La Casilla Square), make it perfectly comparable with the massive demo that Herrira organized in 2012, following the exact same course, and whose figures have been estimated in more than 150,000.

The 18 activists arrested on Monday (and later set free on bail and other restrictions) took part on the march, as well as many personalities of Basque culture, social activism and politics.

DROP ON DROP
For the rights of prisoners and exiles
A tide for the rights of Basque prisoners and exiles

Among other slogans, people chanted with especial emphasis Herrira aurrera! (go Herrira!) and euskal presoak etxera! (Basque prisoners back home!)

After an hour of marching, the head of the demo reached the Town Hall, while, as I said before, many still awaited to begin the protest at the origin. A communication intercalating Basque and Castilian (Spanish) languages was read (transcript available here). 

The communication emphasized, after expressing solidarity with Herrira and Basque prisoners, that:

We came here also for ourselves. Because somehow all us have been arrested, because we do not want to be a people under conditional freedom.

Indeed. That is exactly what all our struggle is about: our own freedom.

Later:

We have no intention whatsoever of spending our lives denouncing police raids and repeating the same demands once and again. Sometimes it happens that a particular demand becomes the representation of the desire of freedom, peace and democracy of a people. That is exactly what is happening with the issue of the rights of political prisoners.

Sources[eu/es]: Argia, Berria, Naiz Info, Ateak Ireki.


Update: Tsavvko, the Angry Brazilian (a great friend of this country) made some pretty good videos and photos:

→ another video (part of the closing act).

→ full gallery.

Spain: state terrorist Gral. Rodríguez Galindo set free

This is a clear example of double standards when speaking of terrorism. While the prisoners of ETA are given retroactively what amounts to life penalties¹, the prisoners of Spanish death squads are treated with all benevolence. 

It would be naive to expect otherwise but just in case someone is still believes that the law is the same for all. 

Guardia Civil Gral. Rodríguez Galindo was one of the key actors of the death squad known as Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL, sometimes they used other acronyms), which murdered a large number of Basque citizens, some ETA members but many others not at all: political leaders, journalists, local activists, passersby and people they mistook for someone else. Galindo specifically was also involved in large scale drug dealing. 

Many trials against the GAL were fruitless or almost but Galindo and two other military policemen were eventually found guilty of the kidnapping, torture and murder of Basque exiles Josean Lasa and Joxi Zabala. Their brutally mutilated corpses were buried in quicklime in the countryside of Valencia. 

In 2001 they were punished with more than 70 years of prison each, 75 in the case of Galindo.

Galindo already enjoyed, since 2004, a privileged of home prison on alleged "health issues" (you'd have to watch the irate Spanish chauvinists in TV when an elderly ETA member got a similar deal recently because of a terminal cancer).

Now he has been just set free. The tribunal said that he has "fulfilled two thirds of his sentence, after discounting the redemptions". 2x75/3=50, not 12! What "redemptions" if he was at home, not being able to work for the prison system?

Probably the most favorable possible reading of the law allows for this but the case is that he is a brutal terrorist, kidnapper, torturer and murderer and that in other comparable cases no redemption nor reductions of any kind are considered. 

When the Basque People is being subject to yet another inquisitorial persecution, not against armed fighters but against human rights defenders, this only adds to the many many grievances we have against the Spanish occupation.

Source: Naiz Info[es].

________________________________________________________

¹ Parot doctrine: sentences add up even beyond the constitutional limit of 30 years and no redemptions whatsoever are applied. It is applied retroactively against the repeated jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights.

Basque Country: workers protest against inquisitorial repression (updated)

Today at noon, in many workplaces through the Basque Country, people stopped working and went out to form concentrations of protest against the political repression of human rights movement Herrira, dedicated to Basque political prisoners. 

Bilbao Town Hall

Source: Gara[es].


Update:

Four of the more than 400 concentrations were forbidden by the Spanish Government's Delegation in Navarre. The protests were violently dispersed by police as can be seen in this video from Iruña-Pamplona:

→ Photo-gallery of protests in Navarre.

Source: Ateak Ireki[es]. 

Global worker protest against Banco Santander

Anarchosyndicalist unions of many countries are coordinating global protests against Banco Santander because of their labor policies caused by outsourcing.

The conflict began in August at the Santander subsidiary ISBAN (computer services), when CNT-AIT denounced the illegal traffic of workers between companies. ISBAN quickly fired the union delegate, sending him to another company, Panel Sistemas. 

In response anarchosyndicalist unions from around the World replied with protests wherever Banco Santander has offices.

The protests took place in Brazil, Poland, Uruguay, Portugal, Norway, Spain and other places.

The farewell of a laid out union delegate

In Brazil, the protests have been going on for weeks already.

Picket in Brazil

In Warsaw, Poland, the pickets were violently repressed. But the denounce could not be silenced.

Bilingual posters in Warsaw

In Montevideo, Lisbon, Porto and Oslo there have also been informative actions. Even in countries where Banco Santander keeps no visible offices, like Russia or France, unions have issued communications of solidarity. 

But naturally one of the states where most protests have taken place was Spain. Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, León, Salamanca, Ciudad Rodrigo, Villaverde... are some of the towns where workers have protested, not without police repression.

In some places, there have also been sabotages:

ISBAN controls many "meat suppliers" companies, which provides them with a cheap and precarious force of more than 10,000 workers, which are leant to Banco Santander and its subsidiaries at whim, and fired equally at whim, with no cost for the bank, because they are not formally their workers. 

This situation of quasi-slavery, where workers fear to be laid out at the smallest grudge, allows for brutal work journeys, lots of extra hours, compulsory displacements, ranks and salaries well under their real functions and many other abuses. 

Hundreds of irregular redundancies have already been denounced by CNT-AIT. These redundancies have affected the worse off workers: those illegally ceded between companies, mothers with reduced journey and workers sent overseas. 

Banco Santander is the largest financier entity of Spain and one in the global list of so-called "too big to fall". Its top bosses, Emilio Botín, Alfredo Saénz, Jose María Amusategui, etc. have been often denounced for illegal practices, and sometimes even indicted but they have never been actually punished. Recently they hired the infamous Rodrigo Rato, former economy minister under Aznar, former IMF Director in the days of the 2007 collapse and former CEO of rotten privatized savings bank Bankia, whose loses have been "socialized" by means of a EU-sponsored rescue of € 40 billion.

These "businessmen" are known by mafioso practices like the irregular purchase of banks such as Banesto or Totta, millionaire compensations to top managers, money laundering in Switzerland, junk mortgages, home evictions, usury, dirty business with universities, participation in weapon industries and financial mismanagement of the Spanish prison system. 

The group got € 2.26 billion as profit in the first half of 2013, almost 30% more than a year ago. 

Sources[es]: Webguerrillero, CNT-AIT.

Basque Country: 16 of the arrested in the operative against Herrira free in spite of being accused of "terrorism"

16 of the 18 people arrested on Monday in the inquisitorial operative against human rights movement Herrira, dedicated to the rights of Basque political prisoners, have already been set free. 

14 were set free without bail while a large bail of €20,000 has been imposed to the other four.

It is expected that the two still in jail will be released tomorrow after the bail is deposited.

Paradoxically Inquisitor Velasco still accuses all them of terrorism charges: membership in armed organization, apology of terrorism and financing an armed organization.

They have been forbidden to abandon the territory of the state, imposed bi-weekly controls and prohibition of taking part in activities that involve "control of the prisoners" or "apology of terrorism".

Inquisitor Velasco has also decreed the suspension of activities of Herrira and the closure of its offices.

The prisoners have been kept with the light on since they were arrested but otherwise they do not seem to have been abused, probably because anti-terrorist measures such as incommunicado status were not imposed on them.

Solidarity in Madrid

Quite unexpected but very much welcome. Hundreds concentrated in Puerta del Sol in solidarity with the human rights organization. 

Those calling this protest (a long list of social and political movements) emphasized that while the Spanish state orders armed assaults, the Basque People and the Nationalist Left are decidedly betting for the political path. 

They believe that this judicial attack is a distraction maneuver by a corrupt regime, which is faltering by the moment. 

They demanded the release without charges of all the arrested and denounced the infamous role of the Spanish Government, which instead of opening channels of dialogue tries to sabotage any progress in the resolution of the conflict.

Prohibition of protests in Navarre

The Delegate of the Spanish Government in Navarre has forbidden all the protests called for this Friday in the Old Kingdom. The protests were called by a large list of labor unions (ELA, LAB, ESK, CGT, STEE-EILAS, EHNE, HIRU) at noon (12:00) in Iruñea-Pamplona, Tutera, Bera and Altsasu. 

They have appealed the decision and called to all workers to show their solidarity with Herrira at that same time in their work centers. 

Sources[es]: Naiz Info (link 1, link 2), Ateak Ireki.

Spain: bomb attack against iconic church

A small home-made bomb exploded yesterday in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza causing some damages. Unlike it was reported initially, there were warning calls to the media and temple authorities 10 minutes before the explosion. 

The bomb was made of a camping-gas cylinder surrounded by gunpowder but without shrapnel. The device is very similar to the one used months ago against the Cathedral of La Almudena of Madrid, which did not explode.

The attack has been claimed by the Commando Mateo Morral, which is believed to have anarchist ideas. Mateu Morral was a Catalan anarchist who, in 1906, attempted to kill King Alfonso XIII with a bomb hidden in a bunch of flowers. 

In their communication, available at the Spanish edition of Contra Info, they accuse the Catholic Church of being a pillar of oppression indistinct from the State-Capital and, in particular this Basilica of being a centerpiece of the fascist iconography, visited often by dictator Franco and Pope Jean Paul II. They underline that Our Lady of the Pillar (Virgen del Pilar) is patroness of Hispanity (i.e. the Spanish or Castilian Empire) and of the much feared military police corps Guardia Civil, being a favorite temple of the Fascist and Christian Fundamentalist dictatorship of Franco and the resting place of capitalist cardinal Juan Soldevilla.

They claim that with this action they mean to warn visitors that fascist icons like this one are not anymore safe.


Update: the communication now also available in English. 

Greece: latest news on Nazi "crackdown"

I Can't Relax In Greece! reports in several articles on the latest developments on the legal crackdown against Golden Dawn, triggered by the murder of hip-hop musician Pavlos Fyssas (Killah P).

First of all, an agreement between prosecutors and defense lawyers, got three of the Nazi leaders out of jail: Ilias Kasidiaris, Ilias Panagiotaros and N. Michos were released on restrictive measures.

As they left the court they harassed and shoved journalists.  

The most direct local boss, MP G. Lagos was jailed instead. 

Other "peripheral members" have also been let free. 

Critically GD top leader Nikos Michaloliakos remains in jail, as also does his right hand Christos Pappas. 

Michaloliakos' defense collapsed after phone tapping evidence confirmed that he had personally approved the murder of Killah P. It seems that Nikea boss G. Patelis also implicated him in his declaration. 

The turd-o-führer was in direct communication with material murder G. Roupakias. He's also accused of other crimes and of destruction of evidence.

Several police agents are also accused. Among them a commander, yet unnamed, accused of persistent connivance with the Nazis. 

According to the Police report, the former commander and a 52-year-old woman are formally accused of misuse of authority, forgery, perjury, repeated adulteration, possession and distribution of weapons, smuggling and money laundering among others. Another man and woman are still wanted in relation to these charges.

The police recovered from the former commander’s office 10,700 euros in cash, two gold coins, a pepper spray, a tazer, 64 round of 9mm pistol ammunition, 11 working mobile phones and an foreigner’s asylum application form. During physical search of the commander, the police found 2,300 euros in cash and hand written notes indicating illegal casinos in and around Athens.

From his house in Athens they found 10,200 euros in cash, two bank account savings books, three pistols, a collapsible police baton, 2 air guns, 6 switchblades, 7 knives, 2 axes, 3 swords, 2 laptops, 2 USB flash drives, 25 working mobile phones, 16 imitation bags and wallets and scores of official police documentation.

From his house in Ioannina the Police recovered 14 hunting rifles (one with a scope), 4 zip guns, 1 air gun, 1 pistol, 2 knives, 1 switchblade, 2 old type hammers, multiple rounds of ammunition and 718.4 grams of cannabis.

Update (Oct 4): A retired military officer (so far unnamed) has been arrested for complicity in the murder of Fyssas. 

Another arrested Nazi leader is Anastasios Pantathis, responsible of the aggression by 50 thugs against KKE activists on September 12. Nine communists, including the shipyard workers' union president, were hospitalized after this aggression. He is also involved in the attack against Egyptian fishermen a year ago, in which a victim suffered major injuries. 

→ Gara[es].

Update (Oct 5): More than 300 police agents are being investigated in relation to Golden Dawn. Some 40 of them have been suspended already.

→ Sare Antifaxista[es].

USA: encrypted mail service fights FBI bullying till the end

Literally, Lavabit had to shut down in order not to yield to the demands of the FBI to give them encryption codes, which would have destroyed the credibility of the secure mail provider.

The case seems directly related to the persecution of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

From Russia Today (emphasis mine):

The Federal Bureau of Investigation secretly obtained a court order compelling Lavabit, the email service used by National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, to hand over its private SSL key, thereby allowing the FBI to monitor Lavabit's users.

The FBI order was handed down on July 16, according to Wired, shortly after Lavabit refused to bypass the company’s internal security systems to facilitate a government request asking the email provider to trace the internet IP address of an individual user.

Government documents indicate that the FBI sent Lavabit a so-called “pen register” order on June 28, forcing the Texas-based company to record the connection information belonging to a particular user each time that user logged in to check his or her email. Lavabit was then required to turn that data over to the government.

The pen register came down just weeks after the first Snowden leaks were published in the Guardian and The Washington Post. Among the unveiled programs was PRISM - a massive electronic data mining program employed to collect and store communication data extracted from internet companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others.

While the identity of the FBI’s Lavabit target was not disclosed in the filings, the suspect is described as having committed violations under the Espionage Act, indicating with near certainty that Snowden was the motivating factor.

The June 28 order, as seen by Wired, required Lavabit to turn over all “technical assistance necessary to accomplish the installation and use of the pen/trap device.”

When the company - which is now embroiled in a court battle with the government - refused to comply, authorities filed a motion to compel, saying the single user “enabled Lavabit’s encryption services, and this Lavabit would not provide the requested information.”

“The representative of Lavabit indicated that Lavabit had the technical capability to decrypt the information, but that Lavabit did not want to ‘defeat its own system,’” the order went on.

Prosecutors soon asked that founder Ladar Levinson and Lavabit be held in contempt “for its disobedience and resistance to these lawful orders.” A search warrant was issued demanding “all information necessary to decrypt communications sent to or from the Lavabit email account [redacted] including encryption keys and SSL keys.”

A search warrant and SSL key would grant the government unobstructed access to Lavabit’s servers, and a court informed Levinson that he would be fined $5,000 each day he refused to hand over the necessary information.

“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit,” Levinson wrote on August 8. “After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations.”

Now embroiled in a costly legal battle, Levinson has already raised over $20,000 to pay the necessary legal fees. That makes up half of Levinson’s goal, he said, because unfortunately “defending the constitution is expensive.”

UPDATE: Lavabit has issued a statement in response to aforementioned revelations.

"The vast majority of the court records in Lavabit LLC’s fight for internet privacy and security are now public. Although most of the documents have been redacted, 23 court orders, pleadings, and other documents are now available to the public while the case is on appeal in the Fourth Circuit.

Lavabit was created so every law-abiding citizen has access to a secure and private email service. During an investigation into several Lavabit user accounts, the federal government demanded both unfettered access to all user communications and a copy of the Lavabit encryption keys used to secure web, instant message and email traffic. After having a motion to quash the search warrant was denied by Judge Claude Hilton of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Notably Judge Hilton served on the FISA Court from 2000 through 2007. Judge Hilton subsequently issued a $5,000 per day contempt of court citation thus forcing Lavabit to surrender their encryption keys. Ladar Levison, the owner and operator of Lavabit, then made the difficult decision to suspend operations and “limit the damage to user’s 4th amendment right to privacy.”

The statement goes on to remind users and privacy advocates that by suspending operation, Levinson has come to rely on donations to fund the ongoing legal battle. It also describes how the new information about the NSA has led to a massive uptick in subscriptions.

While catering to a niche market for most of it’s history, the recent revelations about American surveillance efforts caused what Mr. Levison describes as a “massive increase in user registrations, usage and revenue in our final month of operation.” When the service was suspended on August 8th, it boasted over 410,000 registered users, of which approximately 10,000 were paying $8 or $16 a year for premium features like encrypted storage."

USA: government shutdown (and "emergency" rumors)

The US Government is since yesterday in technical shutdown for lack of a budget (unlike in other countries the previous budget can't be automatically extended, it seems - someone explain this to me, please).

The effects, which may have dramatic consequences in workers and welfare beneficiaries, are described in this official page:

Below, find an overview of some of the government services and operations that will be impacted until Congress passes a budget to fund them again. For detailed information about specific activities at Federal agencies, please see federal government contingency plans.

• Vital services that ensure seniors and young children have access to healthy food and meals may not have sufficient Federal funds to serve all beneficiaries in an extended lapse.
• Call centers, hotlines and regional offices that help veterans understand their benefits will close to the public.
• Veterans’ compensation, pension, education, and other benefits could be cut off in the case of an extended  shutdown.
• Every one of America’s national parks and monuments, from Yosemite to the Smithsonian to the Statue of Liberty, will be immediately closed.
• New applications for small business loans and loan guarantees will be immediately halted.
• Research into life-threatening diseases and other areas will stop, and new patients won’t be accepted into clinical  trials at the National Institutes of Health.
• Work to protect consumers, ranging from child product safety to financial security to the safety of hazardous waste facilities, will cease. The EPA will halt non-essential inspections of chemical facilities and drinking water systems.
• Permits and reviews for planned energy and transportations projects will stop, preventing companies from working on these projects. Loans to rural communities will be halted.
• Hundreds of thousands of Federal employees including many charged with protecting us from terrorist threats, defending our borders, inspecting our food, and keeping our skies safe will work without pay until the shutdown  ends.
• Hundreds of thousands of additional federal workers will be immediately and indefinitely furloughed without pay.

Services That Will Continue During the Government Shutdown

• Social Security beneficiaries will continue receiving checks.
• The U.S. Postal Service will keep delivering mail.
• Active military will continue serving.
• Air traffic controllers, prison guards, and border patrol agents will remain on the job.
• NASA Mission Control will continue supporting astronauts serving on the Space Station.

Emergency rumors affecting Mid-Atlantic and Puerto Rico

Webguerrillero[es] reports that various sites speculate with this crisis being maybe engineered into a desperate emergency situation that would end with an emergency state, emergency in which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) would intervene. This emergency would affect FEMA region III, which includes Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington D.C.

They also mention that there is great concern in Puerto Rico because the FEMA began sending large loads of coffins and mysterious bags to the island, as well as to "other places in the USA". FEMA replied that these are just "routine supplies".

FEMA has bought 22 million water bags and €6 million in readily edible food. They have also been moving, as mentioned, lots of plastic coffins, in Puerto Rico as well as in the USA, as well as weaponry. 

The Puerto Rican TV source[es] speculates with a possible imminent earthquake in a fault line in Eastern USA, which already hit two years ago, damaging the the North Anna nuclear power plant (Virginia).

Maybe just a mere rumor but it does sound intriguing, especially as seismic weapons do seem very real and were speculated to have been used against Haiti years ago (which "coincided" with a "humanitarian" intervention drill in Haiti - coincidences like that do not happen).

Peoples' struggles, repression, sin, brainwashing and sado-masochism

Borroka Garaia Da! (It's Time of Struggle!) publishes today an article[es], in which they criticize the criminalization of Herrira and of all Basque society. Not surprisingly I quite agree with it, so I will outline, first of all, the eight notes in synthetic form:

1. The locally ruling EAJ-PNV acts as accomplice, including police brutality, and probably knew in advance of the raid.
2. The hyped declarations of Eguiguren, figurehead President of the local branch of the Spanish Imperialist party PSOE, are meaningless, considering what his party actually has done (and will surely do in the future).
3. Where are international human rights watchdogs like Amnesty International?
4. Repressive strategy is planned, not accidental. This should not be so "unexpected".
5. You can't block a road with no traffic, you can't sabotage a peace process that does not exist at all. Wishful thinking is not reality: reality is a war against the Basque People. No new time has begun yet. As long as the goal is peace and not liberation, the State can keep the pressure.
6. Repression is independent of the actions of the oppressed. If the oppressed ones come to believe that repression has any relation whatsoever with their actions they will fall in a deadly trap of manipulation. I'll discuss this point below, because I believe it is very much central. 
7. The myth of the new time is just that: a myth. Neither Basque Nationalist forces have come together, nor repression has ceased at all, nor internationalist solidarity has increased, nor the economy has improved, nor there is any peace. The prophets of peace have failed. The states of Spain and France want nothing else than to oppress the Basque People and that's what they do, be there peace or be there war. 
8. Repression is efficient only when it goes in line with historical developments; it is powerless when it goes against them. This historical development is nothing but the concrete and dynamic result of the class struggle of the peoples. No police nor repressive system on Earth can stop a growing popular mass conscious of its historical role and duty and indifferent to the repression by the oppressor. 

As I said above I find point #6 particularly important. It is after all the old brainwashing method of Judeo-Christian sado-masochist tradition: blame the victim, punish them even if you don't know why. Just like misogynist who said: when you go home slap your wife: you will not know why, she will. Just like rape victims are blamed for wearing "provocative clothes" or being at the wrong time in the wrong place. Just like a real sado-masochistic relation or a cultist hierarchy is: a slave is brainwashed by means of creating a state of defenselessness and internalized perpetual self-blame.

That's why Jewish and Christian preachers say that there was once an abhorrent original sin, which was nothing but an act of legitimate disobedience and defiance, an act of self-empowering, that is magically transmitted to all believers thereafter just for the fact of being alive. That way the sense of self-blame is imprinted in the mind of the victim (adept) and he or she can be conditioned into blind obedience, accepting punishment (pennance) for the most natural (but outlawed) acts with naturality. 

The slave or adept, the victim of a sado-masochistic relation, is forced this way into a spiral of self-denial and endless effort to satisfy his or her master, be it a person or institution or even imaginary godform. 

Not surprisingly that's exactly how Capitalism and money (another godform) work as well: the person is forced into the belief that having money (which is magically but most unrealistically associated to hard work) is a sign of bourgeois holiness or pride, while not having it is a sign of blame, sin and shame.

We must therefore break radically with this brainwashing, we must also be very much aware of it, because it permeates all social relations as long as they are hierarchical and unequal, exploitative and abusive. We must break altogether with the induced idea of repression being in any way related with our actions: repression is essential to oppression and exploitation, we are just born naked with our intelligence and freedom, but with no sin nor guilt whatsoever. 

Take the red pill, please, your life and all lives are at stake.

Basque Country: Gara editorial on inquisitorial attack against human rights movement Herrira

I'm translating here in full today's editorial article of Gara newspaper, probably of some interest after the direct attack by Spain to the most basic rights of association, free speech and human rights in the Basque Country, by arresting and surely outlawing human rights organization Herrira. I do not necessarily agree with all but I still think it has great informative value.

Defending Human Rights is an offense for the State

"Giza eskubideak. Konponbide. Bakea".  This was the slogan of the last campaign developed by Herrira, social movement that yesterday suffered the violent attack of the Guardia Civil. "Human Rights. Solution. Peace". Three concepts that choke the State and that have motivated the n-th aggression against this People. Nobody should be deceived. It is not a circumstantial act, done on the thread of the imminent resolution of the Strasbourg Court -whichever this will be-, but a much deeper movement. Madrid has decided to cross into another stage in its attitude before the new cycle opened in the Basque Country and, sadly, maybe we will have to get used again to unease coming with such a quotidian activity as turning on the radio in the morning. An Autumn fecund in initiatives that could break the blockade by the states had been announced and the Spanish securitocrats have chosen attack as their best defense. 

The operative that carries the signature of judge Eloy Velasco is a most serious attack against freedoms and human rights. Because that area of human rights is precisely the only one in which Herrira has worked since its constitution less than two years ago. It's worth emphasizing this fact because, after the lies poured by Interior Minister Jorge Fernández Díaz and the leaks that so enthusiastically have spread some media, we must confront the reality of a social movement which has always acted under public light and that has never hidden its goals: achieving the repatriation of Basque prisoners, the liberation of severely ill prisoners and the derogation of the 197/2006 doctrine¹ along with all other emergency laws. Goals that are shared by the majority of Basque society and, around which, a human tide² clotted earlier this year the streets of Bilbao, outnumbering the also massive demonstration of 2012. It is not possible for anyone else to gather 115,000 people in this country.

However the path of Herrira has not just been successful in quantitative terms. Since the very first day it has dedicated many efforts to consolidate channels of dialogue with all kind of actors and including a broad ideological spectrum among its components. It was born with the goal of being plural and it has achieved it. Also in the acts it has promoted and that can be confirmed even by the very judges of the Audiencia Nacional⁴.

Success, plurality, defense of human rights, are seemingly enough ingredients for the State to consider it an offense. Starting from there, it has just awaited for the best moment to strike. 

A cushion for the attack

That moment has arrived now, just when a new political year begins, which is expected to be intense and determinant for the achievement of peace. It comes also days after PNV and PSE⁵ signed a strategical pact and when the Report on Peace in the Parliament of Gasteiz⁶ is still blocked by the obstructive attitude of this last party and jeltzale⁷ inaction. It seems obvious that the Spanish Government has found in this context the much needed cushion for this police operative, which would have been much harder to achieve if these two parties kept a different position.

"A time is born in which nobody is persecuted or coerced for his [or her] ideas". This sentence belongs to Iñigo Urkullu⁸ and was part of his investiture speech. It is obvious that he was wrong. Before and after reaching his seat, the Lehendakari has sported a very partial vision of the wounding of rights happened in this country in the last decades and that still happens. It is not something personal of him anyhow. The reactions of Josu Erkoreka, speaker of the Western Basque Governmen, and of Andoni Ortuzar, President of the EAJ-PNV, before this military police operative evidences how thick is the skin of the PNV leaders when violence is exerted by the state. It is also not surprising the role taken by the Ertzaintza⁹ to protect the agents of the military corps and repress the solidarity with those arrested. The Ertzaintza of Urkullu is the Ertzaintza of Ares¹⁰. There is no other.

Paradoxically -or not-, the President of the PSE made a much more critical read of what happened yesterday than his colleague of the PNV. Jesús Eguiguren, in fact, asked the Western Basque Government to "be at the height of the circumstances and takes action on the matter". A clear indicator of the position each actor right now¹¹.

Challenge to Basque society

It is not possible to speak of immobility of the State because it is evident that a dramatic involution has taken place, and this people must be ready to give the right response. The road is marked and advancing through it goes through articulating social majorities in favor of a democratic resolution of the conflict. It is no magic formula, it is not new either, but it is what will achieve to reverse the aggression. This is what Herrira has done, what has put Madrid so nervous. The Guardia Civil, the Audiencia Nacional, the Interior Minister, in brief: the Spanish State, has thrown a challenge to Basque society, and the way this one confronts the shove will determine the future of the Basque Country. It is the time to act as People, to turn off the hand brake and march over the ditches and the barbed wire. We have to get it right in Autumn for the Spring to come¹².

_______________________________________________________________

Translator's notes:

¹ The so-called Parot doctrine (on the first prisoner it was applied against) is a jurisprudence, declared illegal by European courts but still applied by Spain unilaterally, by which some prisoners with sentences for "terrorism" (i.e. ETA prisoners, not state terrorism prisoners in practical terms) are forced to serve their sentences one after another even above the constitutional limit of 30 years of prison, resulting in de facto live sentences, even if such penalty does not exist in Spanish law. See: Inquisition insists with the life penalty for Basques

² See: Jan. 23 2013: Massive march for Basque prisoners in spite of the rain

³ See: Apr. 15 2012: Basque Country: tens of thousands demonstrate for the rights of prisoners

⁴ Audiencia Nacional, alias The Inquisition: political tribunal created by the Fascist regime with the name of Public Order Tribunal. It deals with political cases, be them what they consider "terrorism" or the trial of "chartered" citizens such as elect representatives or members of the government, which they usually keep safe from any penalties or even any half-serious investigation.

⁵ EAJ-PNV: Basque Nationalist Party (or Traditionalist in the Basque form), PSE: Socialist Party of the Basque Country (Western Basque delegation of the all-Spain chauvinist-liberal ("socialdemocrat") PSOE. These two parties are sort of a "Weimar coalition" in the Western Basque Country, having ruled together many times. 

⁶ The Western Basque semi-autonomous Parliament, located in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

⁷ Jeltzale means lover or partisan of the J.E.L.: Jainkoa Eta Legizarra, i.e. God And the Old Law, a reformed version of the Carlist slogan: God, Fatherland, Charters, King. It's a common name for the members of the EAJ-PNV, a right-wing party which pretends to be Basque Nationalist but acts in practice as a merely regionalist force, quite useful for Spanish oppression of this ancient country.

⁸ I. Urkullu: current Lehendakari (President) of the Western Basque semi-autonomous region (EAJ-PNV).

⁹ Ertzaintza: Western Basque autonomous police corps under control of the regional government.

¹⁰ Rodolfo Ares: regional Councilor of Interior (police) under the undemocratic government of López (PSOE), infamous for killing one and injuring so many with the most brutal use of police violence.

¹¹ Actually this seems more like wishful thinking. Eguiguren is nothing but a figurehead and has already been an outlier within his party before, surely in the old game of "good cop, bad cop", in which the "good cop" actually holds no power whatsoever but serves as icon of a "plurality" that is not real at all.

¹² This conclusion part is obviously a rallying address meant to direct the resistance through peaceful means and attempt to dissuade the growing bunch that are quite tired of a "peace process" that goes nowhere.

England: 50,000 people march through Manchester against healthcare privatization

This was on Sunday: some 50,000 citizens marched through the streets of Manchester protesting the (further) privatization of the British healthcare service NHS.

The march was so strongly participated that even Manchester police had to describe it as "one of the largest we have ever watched over". 

TUC union leader Frances O'Grady protested the 21,000 jobs lost to privatization in just three months and wowed to defend the public NHS.

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

Basque Country: protests against political repression and violent police charges, senator injured

The first, quite numerous, protests against the inquisitorial attack to prisoner solidarity association Herrira and related arrest of 18 citizens, as well as closure of webpages and social network profiles, took place this evening in many Basque towns, notably the four ones with sees of the human rights organization, where police searches continued at the time.

Military police before the see of Herrira in Bilbao

The most serious incidents happened when police charged against the protesters in Hernani, with several injured, including Senator Amalur Mendizabal (pictured). 

See video below.

In Bilbao there was also a less severe incident, as police shot rubber bullets when they were retreating from the scene.

There have been also protests in Donostia, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Iruñea-Pamplona and Baiona, as well as in other towns.

Although still unconfirmed, it is probable that a National Demonstration will take place in Bilbao on Saturday.

Video of the brutal charge in Hernani:

Sources[es/eu]: Naiz Info (link 1, link 2), Ateak Ireki, Sare Antifaxista.