An anonymous coward writes:

"Are 500,000 Keys to Paradise Enough?
Germany 'Confronts' Ahmadinejad"
Matthias Küntzel

In pondering the behavior of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I cannot help but think of the 500,000 plastic keys that Iran imported from Taiwan during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980–88. At the time, an Iranian law laid down that children as young as 12 could be used to clear mine fields. Before every mission, a plastic key would be hung around each of the children’s necks. It was supposed to open for them the gates to paradise.

The “child-martyrs” belonged to the so-called “Basij” movement created by the Ayatollah Khomeini. The Basij Mostazafan – the “mobilization of the oppressed” – were volunteers of all ages that embraced death with religious enthusiasm. They provided the model for the first Hezbollah suicide bombers in Lebanon. To this day, they remain a kind of SA of the Islamic revolution. Sometimes they serve as a “vice squad”, monitoring public morals; sometimes they rage against the opposition – as in 1999, when they were used to break the student movement. At all times, they celebrate the cult of self sacrifice.

Zapatista Comandanta Ramona, R.I.P.

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, México. — The woman
who had the command of the taking of the city of San Cristobal on the 1st
of January 1994, died this morning 6th of January 2006.

The news of the death of Comandanta Ramona was broken at the Otra Campaña
meeting in Tonalá, Chiapas, where the Delegado Zero was participating.
Since 1994 she was suffering from a terminal disease. In 1995, she had a
kidney transplant operation and with that she stole another 10 years from death. This morning she awoke in a delicate state and she died when she
was brought to San Cristobal (Trans note: the original spanish says she
"ceased to exist", but of course it would be nonsense to put it like that
in english). Comandanta Ramona, a tiny indigenous woman, commanded the strategy of the
taking of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas during the armed uprising of
the 1st of January 1994. She was a woman who gave her life for the
struggle of her people, and who despite her delicate state of health, was
always present.

The last time she was seen in public was the 16th of September 2005, in
the plenary meeting of the preparations for the "Other Campaign", in the
Caracol of La Garrucha, Municipality F. Gomez.

In giving the news, Delegado Zero announced the suspension for 2 days of
the programmed "Other Campaign" tour, and the return of the delegation to
the Caracol of Oventic, in order to be present at the funeral of this
great woman, Comandanta Ramona.

American Marxist Theorist Harry Magdoff, 1913–2005

Wikipedia and Autonomedia

Henry Samuel Magdoff (born 21 August 1913), commonly known as Harry Magdoff, died today. He was a prominent American socialist commentator. He held several administrative positions in government during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and later became co-editor of the Marxist publication, Monthly Review.

Early Years

A child of poor Russian-Jewish immigrants, Magdoff grew up in the Bronx. In 1929, at age 15, Magdoff first started reading Karl Marx when he picked up a copy of The Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in a used-book store. "It blew my mind," recalled Magdoff in 2003. "His view of history was a revelation....that got me started reading about economics. We were going into the Depression then and I wanted to figure out what it all meant." His interest in Marx led him to embrace socialism.

George Gerbner, 86;
Educator Researched the Influence of TV Viewing on Perceptions

Myrna Oliver, Los AngelesTimes

George Gerbner, an educator and pioneer researcher into the influence of television violence on viewers' perceptions of the world, has died. He was 86.

Gerbner, the former dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, died Saturday at his home in Philadelphia of unspecified causes.

Always interested in storytelling, the Hungarian-born Gerbner became concerned as television and motion pictures supplanted family members and friends in relaying tales both true and fictional.

Outspoken Professor to Leave Yale Faculty

Matt Apuzzo, Associated Press

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A professor who also is an outspoken anarchist has
agreed to leave Yale University this spring, dropping an appeal over
whether his termination was politically motivated.

David Graeber, one of the world's leading social anthropologists, said he
will teach two classes next semester, then take a yearlong paid
sabbatical, after which he will not return.

"The Old New Clothes of the French Republic:
In Defense of the Supposedly 'insignificant' Rioters"

Yann Moulier-Boutang, Le Manifeste

Major events are not necessarily beautiful, nor joyous. They take you by surprise. They do not necessarily produce integration. The reason why they happen never says anything about the moment of their actual occurrence. They are overdetermined in the same way as the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back: there is a long build-up, and then, one day, submission no longer holds, and you tear down the house.

A riot is rarely a cause for enthusiasm. Its actors are usually unknown, confused, and seldom heroes. There is more than a whiff of undirected, aimless violence in a riot. Unlike wars or revolutions, the dead it leaves, or who lie in its dazed wake, will never be decorated. "Melancholia" [1], despair, "nihilism", "loss of self-confidence", are the conventional vignettes the not-too-stupid Right promptly used to label the rioters.

Eric Goldhagen writes:

On Thursday November 24 2005 the struggle for justice and fair housing lost one of its greatest fighters, Carmen Rubio.

Among the many gifts she gave to the community on the Lower East Side is the Children's Magical Garden, a once rubble strewn lot that she and her life partner Alfredo Felicanio transformed into a beautiful space for the children of the community.

Antiwar Adjunct in E-Mail Uproar Quits

Scott Jaschik

John Daly — an adjunct at Warren County Community College whose e-mail message to a student set off a national controversy — resigned on Tuesday.

The New Jersey college’s board was due to discuss Daly and his controversial e-mail Tuesday evening. But the institution’s president, William Austin, issued a statement saying that Daly had quit late in the day, and that the board had accepted his resignation. Austin also said that “tolerance training” would be provided for faculty members.

Tran writes: "This is an interesting analysis of the WTO...."

"Disneyland, Doha and the WTO in Hong Kong:
The Spectacle of Corporate Fear
Absurdity and the New Universalism"

Hidayat Greenfield, Z Mag

It's fitting that the Sixth WTO Ministerial should arrive in Hong Kong only a couple of months after the opening of Disneyland. In both cases reality is abandoned at the door, while fiction and fantasy take over. The magical Doha 'Development' Round promises an end to global poverty and a new prosperity for all — based on an agenda that boosts transnational corporate power and demolishes the remnants of political and social barriers to corporate profit.

Like a rollercoaster ride through a fictional world, we set off to alleviate global poverty and arrive at greater impoverishment as the destination. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors and dazzling special effects, but we end up where we began. We end up with US$545 billion in global agricultural exports co-existing with eight million people dying of hunger and hunger-related diseases every year, while tens of millions of small farmers and agricultural workers who produce the food that feeds the world are themselves living in hunger. In the fantasy world of the Doha Round 'market access' is the magical solution: small farmers and workers must compete harder, producing more for less, while pinning their hopes on access to overseas markets so they can sell more of the stuff that's impoverishing them.

Continues here.

Solve et Coagula writes:

"American Resistance, The Time Has Arrived"

Ted Lang

The time has arrived – a designation must be assigned to the increasing number of Americans who are fed up and terrified by the unbelievable and staggering criminal acts perpetrated both domestically and internationally by the Bush gang. Bush and his GOP are targeting and immediately attacking any and all inspirations of accurate journalistic reporting of administration wrongdoing, proving all the more how despotic American government has become.

Only days ago, the Washington Post broke the story of secret prisons abroad, and what was the reaction on Capitol Hill? Republican Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, was angered not by the illegal activity and the disgrace it brings upon America, but offered instead: "My concern is with leaks of information that jeopardize your safety and security – period. That is a legitimate concern." If this isn’t a clear case of a simpleton shooting the messenger, I don’t know what is!