hydrarchist writes
Manifesto for the Unconditional Regularisation of Immigrants

In Spain more than 50% of immigrants have no legal
papers. We are the visible tip of an iceberg of life¹s
precariousness affecting everyone equally .

In order to fight against this situation, we went out
to the streets, we recognised our equals, we built a
platform for struggle, we listened to other people¹s
struggles at the Popular Assembly, we claimed a direct
dialogue with the Administration, we banged our pans
prior to elections, we received from Zapatero promises
which affected us directly, we attended an interview
with the renewed Generalitat de Cataluña... Yet, the
Generalitat still treats us like ³a problem² and takes
back, together with Central Government, the campaign
promises and press announcements. We have knocked on
all doors. Faced with silence and denial of our
fundamental rights, for citizenship is achieved
through the very exercising of itself...

Yoshie Furuhashi writes:

"Particularly Humiliating in 'Arab Culture'?"

Yoshie Furuhashi

Throughout the US media coverage of Abu Ghraib torture scandal, I've kept seeing the same idea — be it journalists' own or expressed in others' remarks quoted or paraphrased in articles — that the torture in question is particularly humiliating in Arab or Muslim culture.

Virginia Judge Quits After Racist Comments

Jeremy Lazarus, Richmond Free Press

Richmond, Va. (NNPA) -- Facing disclosure of racially charged comments that
he had written on the Internet, Judge Ralph B. Robertson is quitting the
bench after 19 years of hearing criminal cases in the city General District
Court.

The veteran, snowy-haired jurist has stopped hearing cases, went on sick
leave and filed for retirement, which will be effective April 1. He threw in
the towel after the Free Press notified him of plans to publish an article
about the disparaging views he had expressed about Black people over the
past few weeks in participating in an on-line chat room.

hydrarchist writes:

"Sharon's 'Disengagement' a Pacifier for the Majority:

An Anarchist Take on Israeli Politics"

Tanya Reinhart

Getting out of the Gaza Strip is an old dream of the majority in
Israeli society. Even before the Oslo agreements in 1993, the call
to get out of there was heard after every terror attack. Today,
according to the polls, it has the support of 60-70% of the Israelis.

But governments come and fall, and still, this majority has not
found the political power to realize its will.

"Bush: Blanc Blanc"
Peter Linebaugh

Following the opening of the Mark Lombardi exhibit of conspiratorial drawings at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco we repaired to North Beach for a grand dinner, our motley crew led by the inimitable Iain Boal, the geographer activist, convenor of Retort gatherings, and people's art critic who had just explained the drawings to us: the penciled constellations, or networks of high and low finance and how they were connected to the parcel of rogues of international power which were on view at the gallery. We raised our glasses to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the black republic.

All over the world people with the least historical sense were doing the same, because it was the disgraceful week following the coup d'état of democratic Haiti and the kidnapping of Jean Bertrand Aristide by the USA and its nefarious creatures among the private security forces, the CIA agents, the DEA thugs, the hitmen of the tontons macoute, or the Haitian Fraph: all those demons who used to only inhabit the gothic imagination or the voodoo nights of Zora Neale Hurston. Now, alas, they were summoned by Bush blanc blanc against the former liberation theologian, friend of the poor, and advocate of jubilee.

Read the rest at Counterpunch

Anonymous Comrade writes:

On the 20th of January
an email
to the Oekonux list
claimed that "Debian harbours Nazis' on the basis that a
Debian developer, Jonathan Walther,
hosts an extensive collection of
racist
and fascist
documents on his personal web site.

"An Anarchist Introduction to Critical Race Theory"

RACE (Revolutionary Anti-Authoritarians of Color)

Critical Race Theory starts by asking the same questions about race, racism
and power that a myriad of academic disciplines and activists have pondered
for the past century. It draws upon critical legal studies and radical feminism
in the formation of its approach. While it is primarily concerned with the legal
arena, it is activist in nature and has come to include political science, education,
American and ethnic studies and more.

There is an entire trajectory represented by Critical Race Theory (CRT) that
is far beyond the scope of either an introduction or a pamphlet. This means
that we have made choices, both in which concepts we are choosing to highlight,
and in what conclusions we are choosing to share in relation to the theory.
Our choices reflect our personal stories, our cultural histories, and our history
within RACE (the organization). We are choosing to share our positive experience
with CRT (to date) as a way to inspire an anarchist theory of race, and to challenge
the assumptions that we necessarily share a single vision of liberation, struggle,
or oppression.

Friday 9th January at 3pm
Seminar Room, Aberfoyle House, Magee Campus, Northland Avenue.
"How the Irish became White in America"
Lecture by Noel Ignatiev.
Free. All Welcome.
Hosted by Institute for Irish Cultural Heritage.

Friday 16th January at 3pm

Seminar Room, Aberfoyle House, Magee Campus, Northland Avenue, Derry.

"How the Irish became White in America"

Lecture by Noel Ignatiev.

Free. All Welcome.

Hosted by Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages.



Sat 17 January 2pm.

Pat Finucane Centre.

1 Westend Park

"Strategies for Anti-Racism in the north of Ireland"

A talk by Noel Ignatiev.

Hosted by the Pat Finucane Centre and the Anti Racist Monitoring Network.

All welcome. Free admission.

hydrarchist writes:

This from August's edition of New Left Review. South Africa as vanguard of post-colonial neoliberalism, and laboratory of its social consequences. From the townships around
Johannesburg, rebellion against the privatizations of the ancregime, and the enrichment of a new political class.

"Sparks In The Township"

Trevor Ngwane

Where were you born and brought up, and what was your family background?

I was born in 1960 in Durban. My father and mother were medical nurses. My grandfathers were both Presbyterian preachers, from Zululand. My father was an anc supporter. He spent some time in Dar es Salaam when I was small. I’m not sure that he went because of politics: people got out for lots of reasons, for opportunities or dignity. He came back for the sake of the family. But anyone who had been abroad was targeted by the Special Branch once they returned to South Africa. Although he was not really active, they used to visit him every week or so when I was a child; he died more or less a broken man. He definitely had an influence on me. I remember him showing me some political books: there was one in a brown-paper cover, so I never knew the author or title. When I was six we moved to Zululand. My parents worked in a hospital there run by a Scottish missionary, who tried to work along progressive lines. There was a black Jesus in the chapel, for example—that was something in those days; we used to point him out to each other. At that time, Buthelezi was considered quite a hero—he refused to accept ‘independent homeland’ status for Zululand, toured the country speaking out for black people and met with the anc. Even my father was fooled when he set up Inkatha with the colours black, green, gold: ‘It’s the colours of the anc!’ he told me; only the older people knew that then.

Anonymous Comrade writes

"
Hope Against Hope"

John Chuckman

I don't know how many times I've seen articles about Wesley Clark making a formidable opponent for George Bush. And I agree, he likely would, but so what?

I too am sick of the sound of Bush's voice. My radio dial is turned five words into any sound clip from this dangerous half-wit with a speech impediment, but what can be gained by replacing him with Clark?