Syria Intervention Plan Fueled by Oil Interests, Not Chemical Weapon Concern

by Nafeez Ahmed / The Guardian

U.N. chemical weapons experts visit people affected by an apparent gas attack, at a hospital in the southwestern Damascus suburb of Mouadamiya. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters

On 21 August, hundreds – perhaps over a thousand – people were killed in a chemical weapon attack in Ghouta, Damascus, prompting the US, UK, Israel and France to raise the spectre of military strikes against Bashir al Assad’s forces.

The latest episode is merely one more horrific event in a conflict that has increasingly taken on genocidal characteristics. The case for action at first glance is indisputable. The UN now confirms a death toll over 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom have been killed by Assad’s troops. An estimated 4.5 million people have been displaced from their homes. International observers have overwhelmingly confirmed Assad’s complicity in the preponderance of war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Syrian people. The illegitimacy of his regime, and the legitimacy of the uprising, is clear.

Gezi Park Forums Have Spread Across Turkey

by Saygun Gökarıksel / Occupy.com

“Everywhere is Taksim, everywhere resistance” is one of the most famous slogans of the popular uprising that emerged out of Taksim Gezi park protests in Istanbul in May and June. Ironically, the June 15 police crackdown that violently pushed the protesters out of Gezi park has given occasion to organize more elaborate “forums” and “people’s assemblies” in different public parks of Istanbul and other, predominantly western cities of Turkey.

Today many of these parks offer the much needed space to speak, discuss, criticize and organize cultural events (e.g. film screenings, photography exhibitions) around social issues to build a common political vocabulary and a sense of solidarity for thousands of protesters from all walks of life. However, the questions that often confront uprisings of such massive scale — where millions have taken to the streets for systemic changes, not for a cosmetic makeover — remain to be engaged. They are questions of political strategy and organization, such as: How to sustain and expand the popular force of the uprising and transform it into a movement that will produce lasting revolutionary effects? And what is the role of the forums in this regard?

Drone Demonology: Flying Robots, Cop Mustaches & Resistance in the End Times

by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! News

The first time I ever saw a drone I was sweating my ass off, hiking jugs of water through a cactus forest to drop in remote canyons for famished migrants making the deadly trek through the Sonoran desert. U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance drones patrol the skies along the border with Mexico on the daily. Like any good activist I gave the drone the bird and then quickly ducked beneath a cholla, which I don’t advise doing, as it is a cactus with a reputation.

Two 10,000-pound Predator-B border patrol drones. These are the fellas that patrol the borderlands, from Yuma, Ariz., to Brownsville, Tex.

Since his inauguration, noble peace prize winning president Barack Obama has increased the U.S. military’s use of drones and rewritten the rules of engagement in over a dozen countries around the world. Hundreds of civilians, including swaths of children and several dozen Al Qaeda operatives have been eviscerated by remote. Even four U.S. citizens have been assassinated by drones, violating due process and habeas corpus protections in the U.S. constitution. Reports put the ratio of civilians to “suspected terrorists” killed by drone strikes at about 50 to 1, meaning roughly 98% of the deaths are “collateral damage.”    

49 Acts of Powerline Sabotage, 19 Acts of Oil Pipeline Sabotage in Last Six Months

by Russ McSpadden / Earth First! News

Smoke rises over a recent pipeline attack in Marib governorate, a tribal region in Yemen.

According to compiled reports from the Yemen Times  over 60 acts of industrial sabotage have taken place since January within the tribal area of the Marib governorate in Yemen, cutting power to Sana’a, the nation’s capital 170 miles to the east, and crippling the government’s oil and gas infrastructure. Oil and gas revenue provides 70 percent of the state’s budget.    

From Turkey to Myanmar, Trees Become Triggers for Revolution

from wikipedia

by Carl Pope / Huffington Post

The protest sweeping Turkey began with trees — specifically, the last remaining downtown green space in this ancient capital, a park in Taksim Square. Protestors began gathering peacefully to try to stop government plans to replace the trees with a shopping mall. Disturbingly, the government and police overreacted viciously, clearing the square with powerful hoses mixing water and tear gas. Now, according to the Interior Ministry, 53 civilians and 26 police officers have been injured, and the protest movement has spread to 48 cities with over 900 arrests so far.

Armed Permaculturists Explain Strategy of Seed Bomb Explosives

from Earth First Newswire

This beautiful short documentary sheds some light on a little-known international perma-eco-terra-ist group calling itself SLF-NAG (Seed Liberation Frontier-North Aegean Guerrillas). The mysterious organization has gone public to explain the motives behind their seed-bombing campaign:

“Seed control is an issue of growing importance not only for the consumers, but also for the producers. The current state of affairs endangers not only the public health but also the freedom of the people. Hence, there is an urgent need for innovative and radical means of reaction.

“In our days it is the mass media which shapes the reality. Documentaries, on the other hand, often act as key instruments for deconstructing the ‘”reality” and unveil the truth behind. Therefore, documentaries should also be used to inform the public, challenge well-established views of reality and, subsequently, to turn the propaganda upside down.”

Wait a minute… Do those accents sound a little fishy to anyone else?

The Horrific Extent of Police Brutality in Turkey

by Belgin Tan / Hurriyet Daily News

endthelie.com

What you will read below is extremely disturbing. It is the firsthand impressions of a Boğaziçi (Bosphorus) University student who was detained by police in connection with the Gezi Park incidents in Istanbul.

Erkan Yolalan first thanks everybody who has assisted him, especially to those who fetched him a lawyer.
Here is his story:

“I am at home, I’m fine. I want to write what I went through. My only aim is that everybody knows what is being experienced while in detention. I have no other aim; I want to say that at the beginning. I will write all of the events that happened to me from the beginning and with all swear words and insults included. With all its openness…

“Last night (June 3, 2013) around 9 p.m. I was detained in Beşiktaş, at traffic lights on Barbaros Avenue. I was not involved in any action like swearing or throwing stones. They took me in bending my arm the moment they saw me. Some friends of mine saw on TV how I was taken into custody. Then hell began.

Could Golden Dawn Bring a New Wave of Eco-Fascism from Greece to the US?

The “Green Wing” logo of Golden Dawn, a fascist political party of Greeks and apparently now Greek-Americans

by Panagioti / Earth First! Newswire

In times of social upheaval, it seems a given that the far-right elements of an industrial empire will present themselves as a counter force in an attempt to allure some of the righteously indignant and, often painfully ignorant, folks who perceive themselves as a “middle class” in need of protection and salvation.

That is undoubtably the case with Greece today, where  members of the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn have begun firmly establishing themselves in political office, in the ranks of law enforcement, and now, with a larger street presence than ever before.  

I Am Writing To You On the Motor Hood of a Knocked-over Police Car, Taksim Square

A barricade in Taksim Square, Istanbul, Turkey

Raising Our Voices in Taksim Square

by Kıvanç Eliaçık / Labor Notes

What began in Turkey seven days ago as the takeover of Gezi Park turned into a national uprising from Istanbul to other major cities. A small protest to protect public space – which the government had ordered to be razed to make room for a shopping mall – united a wide range of citizens protesting what they see as the Prime Minister’s pro-business, authoritarian, and religious policies. Tomorrow, June 4, the public sector union coalition, KESK, will strike in solidarity with the protests.

This is a first-hand account from Taksim Square in Istanbul, written by trade union leader Kıvanç Eliaçık, originally posted at Equal Times.

My trade union, the Revolutionary Worker Unions Confederation of Turkey (DISK), is part of a platform with professional associations and neighborhood organisations.

This platform protests the construction work in Taksim Square, Istanbul, that will demolish the park there, replacing it with a shopping centre.

When I heard that bulldozers came and cut the trees in the park on Tuesday, I ran to the park.

Israel-Mexico Military Cooperation to Crush Zapatistas in Chiapas

Mexico has gone public about military coordination with Israel in Chiapas, home to the Zapatistas liberation movement.
(Omar Torres / AFP/Newscom)

by Jimmy Johnson and Linda Quiquivix / the Electronic Intifada

Earlier this month, Jorge Luis Llaven Abarca, Mexico’s newly-appointed secretary of public security in Chiapas, announced that discussions had taken place between his office and the Israeli defense ministry. The two countries talked about security coordination at the level of police, prisons and effective use of technology (“Israeli military will train Chiapas police,” Excelsior, 8 May [Spanish]).

Chiapas is home to the Zapatistas (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional), a mostly indigenous Maya liberation movement that has enjoyed global grassroots support since it rose up against the Mexican government in 1994. The Zapatistas took back large tracts of land on which they have since built subsistence cooperatives, autonomous schools, collectivized clinics and other democratic community structures.