Detroit activists block trucks sent to shut off water

Detroit activists block trucks sent to shut off water

Protesters say direct action will continue until city stops turning off taps to delinquent customers
July 10, 2014 1:27PM ET
by Peter Moskowitz

As Detroit’s water provider continues to carry out its plan to turn off the taps for tens of thousands of nonpaying customers across the city, activists are resorting to civil disobedience in an attempt to stop what they call a human rights violation.

Some 50 demonstrators on Thursday held a protest outside the offices of Homrich, a company contracted by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) to stop the flow to residences at least two months past due on their accounts. At least nine of the activists were arrested by Detroit police and charged with disorderly conduct when they temporarily blocked trucks from leaving the company’s parking lot. They were released on bail hours later.

While the protest was relatively small, activists say it’s a sign of things to come if DWSD continues shutting off water lines. The activists say that in a city with a poverty rate of 44 percent, and where water bills are higher than in much of the country, Detroit should work out a solution with poor residents instead of leaving them dry. Otherwise, they say, they’ll have no other choice but to take to the streets ...

Much more here: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/10/detroit-water-protests.html

"There are, despite everything, reasons to be hopeful”

Veronique De Keyser: “There are, despite everything, reasons to be hopeful”

Translated Sunday 20 July 2014, by Michael Peters

A Belgian Member of the European Parliament until last month, Veronique de Keyser actively fought there in favour of the creation of an independent Palestinian state and against the Israeli occupation. We met her at Avignon as the bombs were once again raining down on Gaza.

What was your reaction to this new Israeli outburst against the Gaza strip?

Veroniqe de Keyser: It didn’t surprise me. It was clear that Israel was going to do everything to prevent the reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah which was announced a month ago. We have already seen this several times: as soon as such a possibility takes shape in this sense, something happens implicating Hamas. Israel forces Hamas into a mistake, which isn’t very difficult. A section of Hamas do not want peace and in the Israeli extremists, who are gaining more and more ground, including within the government, they find a willing adversary.

The moderate members of the two sides must stop this orchestrated escalation of violence. If not, we will witness this terrible piece of history repeating itself, worse and worse every time.

Is the risk not increased by the current situation in the region, with the advance of Jihadists in Iraq and Syria?
Veronique de Keyser: Of course. All the more so since they are already present in Palestine, even as an ultra-minority. The current chaos can only increase the risk. Israel is playing with fire. It sold us the story of Hamas as terrorists, but it risks awakening an even more dangerous force. Until now, Palestine and Israel have remained outside the chaos of the region. Now, they are on top of the volcano.

Are you not angered by the weakness of the European reaction?
Veronique de Keyser: In its relations with Israel, the EU has always been in total contradiction with its values and treaties ...

More here: http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/spip.php?article2504

Why Do We Have Wars?

My apologies if I've posted this previously ... just seemed like a good time to post it again.

Capital has no value - (meme)

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Drill, baby, drill

Drill, baby, drill: Obama opens East Coast to oil exploration
by Gregg Levine

Japan might still hunt whales the old-fashioned way, but the U.S. prefers killing them softly.

In a move that spells immediate trouble for marine life and problems for global climate in the long run, the Obama administration has approved use of sonic cannons to map the ocean floor off the eastern united states — a step toward eventually opening coastal waters to oil and gas drilling.

Sonic cannons paint a picture of the seabed by firing sound waves “100 times louder than a jet engine” through the water, then using hydrophones to measure how the waves are reflected back to the surface. The “sonogram of the earth,” as one petroleum industry spox called it, will be used to apply for drilling leases, which become available in 2018. The government plan is to open up waters from Florida to Delaware to fossil fuel extraction ...

More here: http://america.aljazeera.com/blogs/scrutineer/2014/7/18/drill-baby-drillobamaopenseastcoasttooilexploration.html

A message from "God" on Facebook (meme)

An unheard of provocation

Fidel Castro Ruz (Havana. July 18, 2014)

An unheard of provocation

THIS morning the cables were full of reports about the unheard of news that a Malaysia Airlines passenger plane had been hit at an altitude of 10,100 meters as it flew over Ukrainian territory, along a route controlled by the war-hungry government of chocolate king, Petro Poroshenko.

Cuba, which has always stood in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, and in the difficult days of the Chernobyl tragedy provided medical care to the many children affected by the accident’s harmful radiation, and is always willing to continue doing so, cannot refrain from expressing our repudiation of the action of the anti-Russian, anti-Ukrainian and pro-imperialist government.

At the same time, coinciding with the Malaysian aircraft crime, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the nuclear state, ordered his army to invade the Gaza Strip, where, over the last several days, hundreds of Palestinians have died, many of them children. The President of the United States supported the action, describing the repugnant act as legitimate defense ...

More here: http://www.granma.cu/idiomas/ingles/cuba-i/18julio-fidel.html

Big Oil Meme

Remembering the Sandinista Revolution -

(I was in college in the mid-80s when Reagan's Contras were "freedom fighting" )

Nicaragua Vive! 35 Years Since the Triumph of the Sandinista Revolution
Written by Chuck Kaufman
Friday, 18 July 2014 12:03

July 19, 2014 marks the 35th anniversary of the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. On that day, the Sandinista troops led by the nine commanders of the Sandinista Front for National Liberation (FSLN) entered the capital city of Managua where they were greeted by hundreds of thousands of jubilant Nicaraguans. The triumphant guerrillas found a country in ruins. The previous ruler of the country, dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle, had bombed the cities during the final offensive. When he fled the country two days earlier, he took not only the caskets containing his parents’ remains, but all the money in the national treasury as well. The Sandinistas were left with no money and a $1.9 billion international debt.

Despite these handicaps, the Sandinistas set up a nine member National Directorate and five member Junta de Reconstrucción as the executive branch, and a Council of State which included political parties and popular organizations as the legislature. They launched an ambitious and revolutionary political program. Their Literacy Campaign reduced literacy by 37 percent and was given an award by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for its triumphant success. The Sandinistas also provided citizens with free health care, started farm cooperatives, and used land confiscated from the Somoza and his close government and military supporters for state-owned farms. The successful “Revolution of Poets,” many of the country’s poets were revolutionaries and politicians, made Nicaraguans proud and the social advances made them hopeful for the future.

In 1981 Ronald Reagan took office as president of the United States. The CIA, under his direction, immediately began training former members of Somoza’s brutal National Guard who had escaped across the border to Honduras. The famous CIA manual taught at the School of the Americas and captured after a battle in Nicaragua, showed how they were trained. They were taught to assassinate teachers, health care workers, and peasant cooperative leaders. There was also a “Freedom Fighter Manual” authored by the CIA and airdropped into the country which encouraged Nicaraguans sympathetic to the dictatorship to sabotage the Sandinista government and cause social disorder by employing methods such as bombing police stations ...

Much more here: http://upsidedownworld.org/main/nicaragua-archives-62/4942-nicaragua-vive-35-years-since-the-triumph-of-the-sandinista-revolution

#Mandela Day

What is Mandela Day?

“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead” – Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela International Day was launched in recognition of Nelson Mandela’s birthday on 18 July, 2009 via unanimous decision of the UN General Assembly.

It was inspired by a call Nelson Mandela made a year earlier, for the next generation to take on the burden of leadership in addressing the world’s social injustices when he said that “it is in your hands now”.

It is more than a celebration of Madiba’s life and legacy. It is a global movement to honour his life’s work and act to change the world for the better.




http://www.mandeladay.com/content/landing/What-is-Mandela-Day