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  Brussels on Thursday , December 13th, saw possibly the largest ever demonstration of trade union strength across Europe. Well over 100,000 people took five hours (on a working day) to march through the capital of the ‘Europe of Profit’ under the slogan, “Europe: it’s us!” This comprehensive backgroundrounder is the place to start for a full understanding of the actions and issues at stake this weekend. The first signs of repression have already appeared. Photos: [ One Large Image, Many Photos | One Page W/ Many Separate Images ] => NEW! From IMC-UK: Friday overview, a breaking news-style overview of Friday's activities with links to stories and photos. From IMC-Belgium: Print Page (html), Fri. Multi-lingual Edition (pdf), Sat. Multi-lingual Edition (pdf)  => NEWER! From IMC-UK: Saturday overview, a breaking news-style overview of Saturday's activities with links to stories and photos. [ Indymedia-Belgium | Indymedia-U.K. ]   
 Saturday, December 15, 3 PM: Join Mobilization for the Human Family in this Season of Conscience Demonstration in Support of the Boycott of "Forever 21" Stores And to Support Los Angeles Garment Workers in Their Fight for Justice from retailer Forever 21! At 5637 N. Figueroa Street, Highland Park NEW! Latest press release: "Religious Supporters Declare 'Season of Conscience' and Join Boycott Against Forever 21". [ Calendar Announcement | Garment Workers Center | Previous Stories / Photos About Forever 21 ] As demonstrators gathered yesterday across the country to protest the first anniversary of the Supreme Court coup that brought Bush to power, 300 law professors have signed a letter opposing Bush's military tribunals plan, saying that they would violate the separation of powers, would not comport with constitutional standards of due process and would allow the president to violate binding treaties. The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) has just filed suite against the Department of Energy to expose Cheney task force secrets in the development of the Bush energy plan, following up another lawsuit challenging the plan itself. Meanwhile Bush's bankrupt corporate sugar-daddy, Enron, declined to testify before Congress today, while his Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton was in court being charged with contempt. Of course, today (12-13) was the day the Bush Administration finally allowed the public to see the notorious/"smoking gun" Bin Laden video. Yet on this very same day the Administration re-affirmed their contempt for governmental transparency by invoking executive privlege to prevent Congress from receiving requested documents. No surprise since this pResident has already used an executive order to deny public access to Reagan Administration records which were scheduled to be released in January -- striking a devestating blow to the Freedon of Information Act. Legendary journalist Robert Parry anticipated all of Bush II's manuevers to suppress history and advance executive secrecy on the eve of the Nov 2000 election -- after all, the Iran-Contra affair was run out of the office of then Vice-President George H W Bush. Internationally, Bush is about to announce the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, thumbing his nose at world opinion, in order to pave the way for a missile defense system. Last month, 50 American Nobel laureates sent a letter to Congress (PDF) urging them not to fund it because it will squander resources needed to fight terrorism, while a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists finds that "the United States remains years away from having enough information to make an informed decision on the deployment of even a limited nationwide missile defense system." Just to show that Bush and his administration are not alone in their contempt for the rule of law, last Friday the Senate overwhelmingly passed the so-called American Servicemembers' Protection Act, officially putting the U.S. in opposition to the formation of the International Criminal Court. [ Coalition For An International Criminal Court | Voters Rights March | Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower ]  Policy concerns about global climate change have focused almost exclusively on gradual changes. Despite clear evidence in historical records, sudden climate change--circa 18 degrees F.--has rarely been mentioned. But now a major report on the subject has been issued by the National Academy of Sciences. According to the Executive Summary:"Abrupt climate changes were especially common when the climate system was being forced to change most rapidly. Thus, greenhouse warming and other human alterations of the earth system may increase the possibility of large, abrupt, and unwelcome regional or global climatic events.... "The new paradigm of an abruptly changing climatic system has been well established by research over the last decade, but this new thinking is little known and scarcely appreciated in the wider community of natural and social scientists and policy-makers." [ Press Release | Executive Summary | Full Report ] As solid scientific evidence grows, the corporate media (and even Britain's leftist Guardian) has once again been snookered by amatuer anti-environmetnalist blather--a book called "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Bjorn Lomborg. TompPaine.com has an article debunking the book, "The Tabloid Environmentalist: How a Pseudo-Scientist Duped the Big Media -- Big Time", along with a quick overview of critical comments by sceintists, "Something Is Rotten In The State Of Denmark: A skeptical look at The Skeptical Environmentalist", summarizing some of the contents from a more extensive resource, "Links: Bjorn Lomborg on the web", from Grist Magazine. Particularly noteworthy is the article "On Bjorn Lomborg and climate change by Stephen H. Schneider". It goes without saying that everything in Washington these days has an Orwellian name that says the exact opposite of what it does. The poster boy for such doublespeak could well be the "President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security," which has just issued its Final Draft Report (PDF). Bush's panel was pre-stacked with only people favoring some form of privatization, but they were still unable to agree on a plan. Actions speak louder than words, say Dean Baker and Mark Weisbrot, co-authors of Social Security: The Phony Crisis, in Bush Commission: No Social Security Crisis. Reason And Democracy has a short, sharp guide Debunking The Conservative Attack On Social Security that's a good place to get your bearings amidst the storm of lies. Economist L Randall Wray's trenchant essay Killing Social Security Softly with Faux Kindness debunks the claim made by the President's Commission that Social Security privatization will help the disadvantaged. The Economic Policy Institute has an extensive issue guide to Social Security that can take you as deep as you want to go into the reality of Social Security. 
So much corruption, so little time!
 100+ Nobel Laureates Just Say 'No!' To WarOn the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Prize, over 100 Nobel laureates, primarily from the hard sciences of chemistry (32) and physics (34), called for the "replacement of war by law," and an end to "the unilateral search for security." Rejecting the "madman" rhetoric dominating the corporate media, they said, "The most profound danger to world - Peace in the coming years will stem not from the irrational acts of states or individuals but from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed," a majority of whom "live a marginal existence in equatorial climates" and will suffer most from the coming effects of global warming largely "originating with the wealthy few." Calling the situation of the world's poor "desperate and manifestly unjust," the statement concluded by saying, "To survive in the world we have transformed, we must learn to think in a new way. As never before, the future of each depends on the good of all." [ Read The Statement ] Canadian Chemistry laureate, John Polanyi, who helped draft the statement, explains why they acted--out of a sense of obligation and idealism--saying "Stupidity is the Enemy; Idealism Is Our Only Hope" Polanyi has written extensively on public affairs throughout his career, including a strong statement of support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on it's 50th Anniversay. This is not an isolated expression. In November 1992, some 1,700 of the world's leading scientists, including a majority of Nobel science laureates issued The World Scientists' Warning to Humanity which called for environmental restoration and repair, population control, gender equality and the elimination of poverty. And, in fall 1997, the Union of Concerned Scientists initiated the World Scientists' Call for Action at the Kyoto Climate Summit, signed by over 1,500 scientists, including 104 of the 178 then-living Nobel Prize winners in the sciences. production: archives by date | single feature archives | weekly archives |
