Stop sending LGBT people to death in ‘new’ Iraq

This video from the USA is called Gays in Iraq Killed.

Translated from Dutch news agency Novum:

COC plea for asylum for gay Iraqis

Minister for Immigration and Asylum Gerd Leers (CDA) should stop returning gay, bisexual, lesbian and transgender (LGBT) asylum seekers to Iraq. The gay advocacy group COC said this on Thursday. Such people have to fear for their lives in Iraq.

“The situation in Iraq is extremely dangerous and atrocities happen systematically to LGBT’s,” said COC president Vera Bergkamp. “The protection to LGBT asylum seekers from Iraq which the Netherlands currently provides is totally inadequate. We ask Minister Leers to grant them asylum collectively.”

LGBT asylum seekers, if they want to avoid being deported, must still prove that they are personally at risk in their countries of origin. For Iran there is an exception. LGBT asylum seekers from that country need only to show that they are homosexual.

What then, is the difference between Iran and Iraq? Not that human rights in general, and LGBT rights in particular, are better in Iraq than in Iran. They are definitely not. However, NATO governments like in the USA, Britain, and the Netherlands now have a conflict with their Iranian counterparts about oil etc. While, on the contrary, Iraq, ever since George W. Bush invaded in 2003, over a million people were killed, over four million people became refugees, and Royal Dutch Shell got Iraqi oil contracts, is supposedly a ‘new’ Iraq, a human rights paradise. Never mind the horrible reality.

The COC estimates that there are five to fifteen LGBT asylum seekers in the Netherlands now who are at risk of being sent back to Iraq.

The COC view got approval from Human Rights Watch (HRW). On Thursday, they sent an urgent letter to Minister Leers. According to HRW special militias are active in Iraq which hunt LGBT’s. Just in February already forty homosexuals in Iraq were killed, says HRW.

HRW reported in 2009 that death squads hunted LGBT’s. It is estimated that since 2003 some 750 homosexuals were killed in Iraq. Death-rolls with the names of homosexuals hang on walls in Iraqi neighbourhoods, according to HRW.

Thursday, March 8, 2012 at 6:34:38 ​​p.m.

Update 12 March 2012: here.

Trouble brews between mayors and minister over deportations: here.

Related articles

• ‘Cover-up of Dutch soldier’s killing of Iraqi’
• Iraq Illegally Detains Thousands of Women, Tortures Many: HRW
• Women Tortured & Raped In Iraqi Prisons, HRW Says
• Sihail urges to investigate reliability of HRW report over female prisoners

Romanian miners don’t give up

The person who put this video on YouTube in 2008 wrote about it:

from Romania TVR1-Romanian mine explosion kills 12

This is the way in Romania the guvernment takes care of the Romanian workers, they are first busy to fill up their pockets with
millions of $$$ and latter to take care of workers.

Twelve miners died and thirteen others were interned at the Hospital Emergency Petrosani, following two explosions that took place Saturday at the Petrila mine.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Romanian miners’ demo hits day four

Thursday 08 March 2012

Thousands of coal miners employed by a state firm demonstrated for a fourth day in western Romania today over low pay and working conditions.

They mounted their latest protest after talks with managers broke down.

The workers are demanding that the state-owned company, which employs 7,800 people at seven mines, delivers on a January agreement that awarded them a 10 per cent wage rise.

They said they would walk the 205 miles from Petrosani to Bucharest but were foiled by police who blocked a bridge leading out of the city.

And workers in Romania’s mining industry face an even bigger fight in coming years.

The government has agreed with the International Monetary Fund to sack 3,300 mineworkers by 2018 in return for loans.

The appalling situation of Romania’s institutionalized children: From Ceausescu to today: here.

Related articles

• Turkish mine disaster reveals national safety failures
• 11 killed in Romania mine explosions
• Romanian workers exploited in England
• Anti-Semitic Christmas carol on Romanian TV
• It’s the People vs. a Giant Mining Firm… and the People are Winning
• It was murder, not an accident
• West Virginia’s mine wars, 1920-1921
• Turkish mining disaster, economic and political, not natural causes
• World’s First Fleet of Riot Control Drones Ordered by Secret South African Company
• Former Somerset miners hold reunion

Koreans fight militarist destruction of beautiful island

This video is about the beautiful sea around Jeju island, South Korea.

From daily The Morning Star in Britain:

Islanders fight against Korea naval base

Thursday 08 March 2012

Activists engaged in a five-year battle to prevent the construction of a controversial South Korean-US naval base on Jeju Island continued their protests today even as blasting crews moved in.

The Jeju islanders, supported by international activists, are resisting plans to construct the base on the sacred Gureombi rocks in Gangjeong village on the island just a few hundred miles from mainland China.

The base is to become a port for US navy aircraft carriers and Aegis destroyers fitted with SM-3 missile interceptors as part of its global US missile defence programme.

Campaigners argue that the growth in the missile defence system risks heightening international tensions and risks precipitating a new global arms race.

Despite determined opposition and a poll which showed that 98 per cent of the islanders oppose the base, Samsung – the South Korean navy contractor – began blasting on Wednesday.

It moved in just hours after the local governor Woo Keun-min issued an emergency appeal to South Korea’s government to suspend construction.

Protesters entered the blasting site in an attempt to halt the detonation but were forcibly removed.

Yesterday the campaigners blockaded nearby roads in a bid to prevent construction equipment being brought to the site.

Among those who entered the blasting area was Angie Zelter, a British Trident Ploughshares member from Knighton in Powys.

She said: “Gangjeong villagers’ peaceful lives and the pristine nature of Jeju deserve to be protected from this aggressive act by the Korean navy and its US backers.

“Building the naval base does not advance the security of Jeju or South Korea – it just adds to military tension on and around the Korean peninsula. This affects us all.”

And Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament chairman Professor Dave Webb, who has just returned from Gangjeong, told the Star: “The government I think selected this area because they thought it was a small place and the resistance would not be strong.

“The activists who go there are shocked by the way the villagers have been treated. They have been ignored, beaten up, suppressed but they will not give in.

“They have an amazing spirit and sense of dedication.”

He said that the base was being sold as a joint civilian-military installation but that there was no question that it would be predominantly for military use.

Campaigners opposing the construction of a South Korean naval base on a world heritage site will stage a vigil outside the country’s embassy in London tomorrow: here.

Hedge fund speculation against Greece

This video is called Gerald Celente: Hedge funds affecting the Euro.

By Ulrich Rippert in Germany:

Hedge funds speculate on Greek default

8 March 2012

Today is the deadline for private investors in Greek government bonds to decide to what extent they will voluntarily participate in a debt relief deal. The Association of International Finance (IIF), which negotiated the so-called “haircut” with the Greek government, has warned of catastrophic consequences should the debt swap agreement fail to be implemented.

IIF President Charles Dallara said Tuesday that an uncontrolled default of Greece would cost more than a trillion euros, as the resulting panic on the markets spread to Spain and Italy. Under the headline “Fear of a Trillion Bankruptcy”, the German financial newspaper Handelsblatt reported Wednesday that some banks were “speculating on a decline of the euro”.

The American hedge fund Greylock was the first to refuse to participate in a debt haircut for Greece and has since been followed by other large private investors. Uncertainty over a voluntary debt solution for private creditors led to severe losses on the stock markets on Tuesday. The German DAX at one point plunged by three percent.

A voluntary debt swap is part of the agreement reached by the finance ministers of the euro zone at the end of February. Their approval for a second financial package for Greece of more than €130 billion was subject to two conditions: first, the implementation of savage austerity measures, and second, a debt haircut for private bondholders amounting to 53.5 percent of the nominal value of their Greek bonds.

The social cuts were adopted by the government and parliament in Athens in the face of increasing popular resistance. But private creditors are stepping up their own offensive and demanding new conditions.

This is despite the fact that the banks and investment funds involved in the debt deal have already been compensated. The new €130 billion “bailout” package for Greece involves transferring €93 billion to the banks in return for their write-off of €107 billion of the face value of their Greek bonds. This is under conditions where the banks involved have long since written off the bulk of these bonds.

The terms of the relief packages for Greece were dictated by the banks and have led to an increase in the financial and political power of the international financial aristocracy. As a result, the reactionary profit motives of a handful of the most rapacious private investment groups are now able to determine the fate of Greece and other euro countries.

Under the headline “Hedge Funds Threaten Debt Deal,” the Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: “Hedge funds with racy names like Marathon, Saba or Vega hold up to a quarter of the Greek bonds held in private hands.” The newspaper points out that if a number of other hedge funds follow the lead of Greylock, the acceptance rate of the deal rapidly falls below the necessary 90 percent.

What is publicly presented as the financial markets’ “sacrifice,” a “waiver” by private creditors, giving up over half of the value of their Greek bonds, is in fact a financial gift to the banks; here.

On November 4 US prosecutors imposed a $1.2 billion fine on hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors for engaging in insider trading “on a scale without known precedent.” The hedge fund is owned and managed by Steven A. Cohen, who has become enormously wealthy through SAC’s operations. His 2012 net worth was estimated at $9.4 billion: here.

Related articles

• Yanis Varoufakis: Johnny (Paulson) Got His Gun and is Aiming at Bigger Subsidies for His Greek Bank Investments (nakedcapitalism.com)
• EuroZone Profiteers: Welcome to the Casino (corpwatch.org)

International Women’s Day 2012

This video from England says about itself:

Million Women Rise 2009, march for International Women’s Day London: Oxford Street 7th March 2009 Copyright: Pam Isherwood

Today, 8 March 2012, is International Women’s Day again.

In many places all over the world, women pay attention to that in various weays.

Here is a message from Pakistan.

Here is one from Australia.

Women and children from Waltham Forest Asian Mothers Group have started work on a giant living dome at the WaterWorks nature reserve in east London as a tribute to the rights of women globally: here.

Here is a Kurdish women’s message.

And here is a report from the World Wildlife Fund about Nepal:

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY FEATURE

Posted on 07 March 2012

Sabita’s Journey with WWF-Nepal

Sabita Malla, 27 years of age, is WWF-Nepal’s Senior Research Officer. With a Master’s Degree in Wildlife Sciences from Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, Sabita has made significant strides as a young female conservationist. Her professional career started with WWF-Nepal in 2010 as Research Officer for the Terai Arc Landscape (TAL) Program; she was promoted to Senior Research Officer in less than two years.

Sabita has been a part of some of the most challenging and successful wildlife monitoring and research operations at WWF-Nepal. Some of these included the ID-based rhino monitoring program and gharial population survey in TAL, Nepal’s first satellite telemetry to monitor tigers in Bardia National Park, and the implementation of Management Information System Technology (MIST) in Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve, Chitwan National Park and Bardia National Park to aid patrolling and species monitoring activities.

As we celebrate the indomitable spirit of women in the backdrop of International Women’s Day, WWF-Nepal brings to you Sabita’s story through excerpts of an interview conducted with her at Bardia National Park in Nepal’s Terai Arc Landscape. Sabita is currently leading a team of 33 people in the national park in setting up about 120 camera traps to help monitor tiger populations in the area, and also conducting prey-base population monitoring.

A Conversation with Sabita

What motivated you to work for tigers and wildlife conservation?

Growing up in a small village in western Nepal, the outdoors was my playroom. I would go looking for butterflies and birds in the forest, wading through streams, climbing up and down the hills while naming every tree I crossed along the way.

It gave me a deep love for nature that motivated me to study about species ecology, habitats and conservation at India’s prestigious Wildlife Institute of India.

But it was only during my field research in 2009 that the wildlife conservation crisis in Nepal became real to me. I can still hear the echo of gunshots as poachers killed wildlife inside Bardia. It made me realize that I had to be part of the efforts to save my country’s iconic species.

And here I am today, right back in the same protected area, working with the government and local communities to assess the important progress we’ve made in the past few years.

How does it feel to be leading an all-male team for this tiger monitoring project?

People tell me that being the only woman during field operations is probably a big challenge. I don’t think so. And I do not think that I should be treated differently from my male colleagues. The most important thing is to be very adaptive and able to work with others. You need to create a bond of trust and respect with each and every team member. When I am in the field, I am the same as my other team members. We are connected by one cause—to help understand and protect wildlife.

USA: Remembering Lucy Gonzales Parsons this International Women’s Day: here.

On International Women’s Day, Congress debates measure to limit reproductive rights: here.

Forced Ultrasound, “Informed Consent,” and Women’s Health in Texas: The Sad State of the State. Andrea Grimes, RH Reality Check: “Last month, when news spread that Virginia legislators were considering a forced trans-vaginal ultrasound bill, the uproar was loud, clear and immediate: women would never stand for this invasive and unnecessary law. Politicos and pop-culture icons alike spoke out against the Republican-led legislation. What kind of world are we living in, reasonable people wondered, when ‘informed consent’ is tantamount to state-sanctioned rape?” Here.

Texas Republicans’ campaign against abortion providers endangers key state women’s health program: here.

Women’s Rights Are Human Rights. Ron Jacobs, The Rag Blog: “Besides the fact that it celebrates women in a society primarily controlled by men, it is the socialist roots of International Women’s Day that have discouraged its celebration in the United States…. The insistent capitalism of America’s ruling classes will not so much as even acknowledge a holiday determined by the workers that celebrates something besides the domination of Wall Street and Washington”: here.

As International Women’s Day is celebrated across the globe, She Bop a Lula, a photo exhibition at the Strand Gallery in London, pays tribute to music’s leading ladies from Tina Turner to Siouxsie Sioux via Beyoncé, Diana Ross, Debbie Harry and Sinéad O’Connor. The shots are all taken by women photographers, who have agreed to donate them for free: here.

The Gender of Media Creators Affects What We See. Anne Elizabeth Moore and Mickey Zacchilli, Truthout: “For Women’s History Month, ‘Ladydrawers’ offers part two of our look at gender disparity in hiring practices across all media … an issue underscored by VIDA’s release of 2011 gender counts in literary publishing last month. What we start to see when we compare labor stats to content concerns is a direct relationship between who makes and edits our news, art and popular culture – and how women are portrayed in media”: here.

“Woeful” lack of women at top of Dutch companies: here.

Where is the outrage on gender oppression in #Swaziland? – call for action: here.

This video is about the 8 March demonstration in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Jobs (and Your Tax Dollars) for Christians and Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Sofia Resnick, The American Independent: “If you want to help carry out the anti-abortion mission of the taxpayer-funded Care Net Pregnancy Resource Center, you have to be a Christian. It’s right there on the Rapid City, S.D., center’s volunteer application…. But that hasn’t stopped the center from receiving federal funding and other forms of government support”: here.

Greenfinch and long-tailed tits

This video is called Birds of Britain UK ~ Greenfinch calling in the Spring ♪♫.

This morning, close to home, I heard a greenfinch sing. Not a common bird here.

A bit later, two long-tailed tits in a small tree.

As I write, a robin sings.

Shark fin soup horror video

From the Daily Mail in England:

Shocking video shows thousands of shark fins dumped on Hong Kong street to supply dubious soup industry

By Emma Reynolds

Last updated at 10:29 PM on 7th March 2012

Shark fin soup is a popular delicacy served as a status symbol by many of the rich in Asia, especially urban China.

But the broth is made through the cruel practice of hacking off a live shark‘s fin and then tossing the animal back overboard to drown.

This eye-opening video shows what happens next in the dubious industry – which is illegal in many countries – as thousands of fins are dumped on a street in Hong Kong.

See also here.

New York, Chicago against war

This video says about itself:

The high numbers of civilians killed in Afghanistan is a grim reminder that the war in Afghanistan continues.

The Pledge of Resistance Could Change the Game Against a War With Iran. Robert Naiman, Just Foreign Policy, in the USA: “If people were convinced that there were a 90% chance of war in the next three months … many people would be in the streets…. By inaction on the threat of war with Iran, people are effectively saying: ‘so we’re on a slow path? Give me a call when we’re on a fast path. I have other demands on my time.’ The problem with this is that by the time we are on a fast path to war, our political leverage to stop the war will be very small – much smaller than it is today”: here.

From the United National Antiwar Coalition in the USA, about their New York City conference:

(Please forward widely)

Register Now! Extremely Reasonable Air Fare & Hotel Rooms Now Available!

United National Antiwar Coalition National Conference

March 23-25, 2012 at the Stamford CT Hilton (one stop from Harlem/125th St. on Metro North commuter line)

Say No to the NATO/G8 Wars & Poverty Agenda

A Conference to Challenge the Wars of the 1% Against the 99% at Home and Abroad

The U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) military alliance will meet in Chicago, Sunday May 20 and Monday May 21, to plan their financial and military strategies for the coming period.

These NATO and G8 elites, who serve the 1% at home and abroad, impose austerity–often by the use of drones, armies, and the police–on the 99% to expand their profits.

Originally, both NATO and the G8 planned to have their conferences in Chicago. However, now only NATO will meet there.

The G8 has ran away from Chicago, because:

Amid concerns over thousands of protestors descending on Chicago, Illinois for the G-8 Summit this spring, the event has been moved to the presidential compound at Camp David, Maryland, around an hour outside of Washington.

Leaders from the United States, Russia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and European Union were expected to arrive in Chicago this May for the annual meeting of the world’s largest economies. Protesters also had plans for the Windy City, however, and demonstration groups including Occupy Wall Street offshoots had begun orchestrating events to coincide with the meeting. Now barely two months before the event is slated to occur, the G-8 Summit is being moved outside of Chicago to Camp David, a suburban city outside of the US capital that serves as a historic retreat locale for America’s commander-in-chief.

“In May, the United States looks forward to hosting the G-8 and NATO Summits. To facilitate a free-flowing discussion with our close G-8 partners, the president is inviting his fellow G-8 leaders to Camp David on May 18-19 for the G-8 Summit, which will address a broad range of economic, political and security issues,” reads a statement released Monday by the White House.

After the G-8 Summit, the NATO meeting is expected to continue as planned in Chicago on May 20 through 21.

In the past, these high-profile meetings of the minds have attracted massive demonstrations, with the 2010 G-20 Summit in Toronto resulting in the largest mass arrest in the history of the entire country of Canada. In recent weeks, the Apartment Building Owners and Managers’ Association of Chicago began a series of presentations in which it explained how building managers could effectively handle riots, protests, tear gas and bomb threats.

Camp David has served as a retreat for every president since Franklin Roosevelt went into office in the 1940s and has hosted foreign dignitaries such as Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Anwar al-Sadat. Come this spring, however, it will serve as a meeting place for more than just a few heads of state. Obama, Cameron, Merkel and Sarkozy are just a few of the names that are expected on this year’s guest list — and don’t expect there to be many more. Camp David is normally subjected to heightened security standards, and this spring’s G8 Summit won’t come as any exception. For protesters hoping to picket outside the grounds — a mass demonstration would be unlikely.

Coincidently, a new bill drafted by Congress, HR 347, will make it a federal offense to trespass on the grounds of any place granted Secret Service. If approved, the NATO Summit in Chicago will fall into this jurisdiction, as will the presidential retreat at Camp David. What does that mean for protesters? Even if you’re in the proximity of the premises, you could be considered a criminal for engaging in any activity that disrupts a governmental event.

The United National Antiwar Coalition continues:

Join activists from the antiwar, occupy, environmental, immigrant rights, labor, and other movements at a conference from March 23-25, 2012 to learn more, to plan a major “No to NATO” demonstration in Chicago, and to democratically develop a program of action for the months to follow.

Special guest speakers include:

–Xiomara de Zelaya is currently a presidential candidate in Honduras and the partner of Manuel de Zelaya, the former president displaced by a U.S.-backed coup in 2009.

–Bill McKibben is the founder of the grassroots global warming group 350.org and the architect of the successful campaign to defeat the XL pipeline.

–Glen Ford is the executive editor of Black Agenda Report, a ground breaking site that covers U.S. wars abroad and wars at home from the perspective of the African American community.

–Richard Wolff is the author Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It

–Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid is the founder of the Muslim Peace Coalition

–Vijay Prashad is the author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World

–Andrew Murray is a member of the UK Trades Union Congress General Council and head of UK Stop the War coalition from 2001-2011

–Col. Ann Wright was a central Gaza Boat organizer and the editor of Dissent: Voices of Conscience

–Medea Benjamin is the founder of Code Pink

–Jared Ball is the author of I Mix What I Like

–Clarence Thomas is an Oakland ILWU activist with Longview WA Longshore fight

–Scott Olsen is an Iraq war veteran and Occupy victim of Oakland police violence

–David Swanson is author and editor of War is a Crime.org

–Pat Hunt is a founding member of the Coalition Against NATO/G8 Wars & Poverty Agenda

–Fignole St. Cyr is a leader of the Haitian Autonomous Workers Confederation

∞

How to Register?—Where to Stay?—Transportation?—Submitting Resolutions?

Visit www.UNACPEACE.org and click on UNAC conference.

Email: UNACpeace@gmail.com Phone: 518- 227-6947.

∞

We urge attendees to take advantage of the double rooms (2 double beds) at the convention site that are now only $119 a night. There is nothing less expensive in the tri-state area and we had to guarantee the hotel room reservations in return for the use of space for the convention. By staying at the hotel, you are contributing to the overall success of the conference.

Also, registration covers two Saturday meals, and there will be key plenary panels going on in the dining room during these meals.

∞

Conference Schedule and Workshops

Conference Schedule

Friday Night, March 23, 2012

4:30 p.m. Registration Opens

8:00 pm–Opening Panel: Shifting Strategies of Empire: Analyzing the Military and Economic Plans of the 1%.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

7:00 am Registration Opens

8:30 am—Plenary

10:45 am Workshop Series One

12: 30 pm. Lunch with Panel: The War at Home on the Black Community: Mass Incarceration, Unemployment, Stop and Frisk

1:45 pm Plenary

4:00 pm Workshop Series Two

5:45 pm Workshop Series Three

7: 30 pm Dinner with Panel: Islamophobia, the Attack on Civil Liberties, & the War on Workers

Sunday, March 25, 2012

9:00 am Plenary

Noon Plenary Panel: Global Economic Meltdown, Warming, and War: Why the 1% Will Not Retreat without a Fight and the Kind of Fight It Must Be.

1: 30 pm Workshop Series Four

3:00-4:30 pm NATO/G8 Protest Organizing Session & Closing Remarks

————-

Workshops-in formation

US Geopolitical Strategy and Intervention in the Asia-Pacific Region. Bernadette Ellorin, Juyeon Rhee.

End the Occupation of Haiti! Ray Laforest & Kim Ives.

Haiti: Analysis from Trade Unionists on the Ground. Fignole St. Cyr & others.

Egypt: Will the People Rule? Ayman El Sawa, Ahmed Shawki, others

Law as a weapon of war. Steve Downs, Marlene Jenkins, Shamshad Ahmad, Kathy Manley

Defeating AFRICOM & NATO: Bldg Solidarity with Africa in the Struggle Against Imperialism. Abayomi Azikiwe In formation.

Targeting Iran: The Truth Behind the Hype: Ana Edwards, Sara Flounders, Ken Stone, Mansoureh Tajik & Phil Wilayto.

Iran: Solidarity, Not Intervention. Raha Iranian Feminist Collective.

The West’s Politico-Economic Warfare on Iran. Eleanor & Ardeshir Ommani.

Antiwar Strategies in Black Community Organizations. Ana Edwards, Abayomi Azikiwe, others.

Contradictions of the Imperialists’ Agenda for Full Spectrum Dominance. Glen Ford, Nellie Bailey, Margaret Kimberly, Bruce Dixon, Tony Montiero.

Propaganda and Communications on Permanent War. Peter Hart & David Swanson.

Building Resistance at the Democratic National Convention. Ben Carroll. In formation.

No to NATO/G8: Teaching Resistance—Anti-Imperialist Curriculum and Methods. June C. Terpstra, Cris Toffolo.

U.S. Nuclear Weapons in Europe and the Campaign for Withdrawal: John LaForge, Marion Keupker, Alice Dressman

Veterans Peace Teams. Tarak Kauff, Eric Lobo, Mike Tork, Fred Nagel, Ellen Barfield.

What War? US Turns from War on Iraq to Permanent Occupation. Invitees: Debra Sweet, Siman Antoon, Wafaa Bilal, Larry Everest, Raed Jarrar, and Michael Otterman

Taking Back Our Schools: Counter-Recruiting in upstate NY and Chelsea MA. Jim Murphy, Lyn Meza

“We are Not Your Soldiers”: Stop the Militarization of our High School Campuses. Elaine Brower, Ethan McCord, Matthis Chiroux, James Brower.

Corporate War Against the Planet: The Hydrofracking Front. Mary Finneran, Joan Walker, video of Richard Grossman

Democratizing Money: Banking in the Public Interest: Susan Harman, Mike Krauss, Tom Sgouros

Labor Against Austerity and War: Andrew Murray, Clarence Thomas

Border Militarization/Migrant Workers Rising Globally. Monami Maulik, Rafael Samanez, Amanda Flores, AyeshaMahmooda, Roksana Mun, Mustafa Sullivan, Derechos Humanos, Carol Barton

All Out for the May 1 mobilization! Teresa Gutierrez, Victor Toro, others.

From Egypt to New York City: “Anti-Radicalization” Laws, Surveillance, the War on Terror Industrial Complex, & NDAA. Monami Maulik, Fahd Ahmed, Shasheena Parveen, Shahid Buttar; Osman Chowdhury, Sam Anderson, Suzanne Adely

Confronting Robotic (Drone) Warfare at the Hancock AFNG Base/Hancock 38. Carol Baum, Judy Bello, Ed Kinane.

Rethinking Pakistan: People’s Struggle and the War on Terror. Saadia Toor, Adaner Usmani, Madiha Tahir, Zohra Ahmed.

Negotiating Peace—What the U.S. Might Do for Colombia. John Jairo Lugo & Stephen Kobasa.

Honduras: The Struggle for Land, Democracy, & Sovereignty. Xiomara de Zelaya, Lucy Pagoada, others.

The Economy, Unemployment & the Military: Alternatives to Save Our Country & the Jobless: Marguerite Rosenthal, Gertrude Schaffner, Shelia Collins.

Linking Endless War and Economic Crisis: Bring Our War $ Home. Bruce Gagnon, Lisa Savage, Paki Wieland, Mary Beth Sullivan

Occupying the Military Industrial Complex: David Swanson, Brian Kwoba, others

Occupy, Community, & Labor Collaboration: Notes from the field. In formation.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions—Join Palestinian Non-violent Resistance to Occupation. Ethan Heitner, Nancy Krikorian, SJP.

No Nukes: Nuclear Power, Weapons, & War. Hattie Nestel, Alice Slater, Henry Rosenberg

How Do You End Student Debt? End the War! Tax the Rich! Daniel Alley, Christopher Hutchinson, others

Search for Human Rights & Justice in South Asia. Muslim Peace Coalition. Kannan Srinivasan, Toby Caman, Junaid Ahmad, Haley Duschinski.

Resource Wars in South Asia. Muslim Peace Coalition. Hares Sayed, Akhtar Assad, Shafat Ahmad.

Influencing Electoral Conversation from a Peace & Justice Perspective. Muslim Peace Coalition. Shaik Ubaid, Seemi Ahmed, Imam Talib Abdurrashid.

Prisons: The New Torture Machine. Steve Downs, Faisel Hashmi, Ayesha Hoda, Kathy Manley.

Faith-Based Organizing. Fellowship of Reconcilation & others.

Activist Lessons from the Past: Changing Our Society & Pressuring Our Gov’t to End War. David Swanson. In formation

Honduras Resistencia. Xiomara de Zelaya, Lucy Pagoada, and others.

Women, Peace & Security. Laura Rosko. In formation.

From Adbusters:

On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen.

Indeed the rumors are true. Chicago will host an “Occupy Festival” in the run-up to the NATO summit this coming May. NBC and Huffington Post have already broken the news, and the buzz in the social media world has just started to percolate: here.

Last Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder enacted guidelines that further expand the US government’s asserted powers to collect and store private information, without a warrant, concerning individuals who are not suspected of any crime: here.