PEOPLES BARK NEWS BERKELEY

A reader in Peoples Park in 1969
PEOPLES PARK IN BERKELEY - CALIFORNIA - 1969
Photo by Alan Copeland - courtesy of Peoples Park website.


BARBARA LEE SPEAKS FOR ME stickers are available now. If you would like ordering instructions, send an email to: aliun@hotmail.com with "Barbara Lee Stickers" in the subject line. i also have a new sticker "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" by gandhi. You can see the Barbara Lee stickers here!


PBNB Editor

=================================================================================

Subscribe to PeoplesBarkNewsBerkeley
Powered by groups.yahoo.com

===========================
===========================
Check out this helpful website:
Afghan Magazine
===========================
===========================
Click here for college campuses that are organizing nationwide.
http://www.peacefuljustice.cjb.net/
===========================
PEOPLES BARK NEWS BERKELEY
===========================

Visit SF IndyMedia for our media. You can publish your own stories here and there is also an IRCchat room.

You can visit PEOPLES BARK NEWS BERKELEY here at our website
=============================
Celebrate Black History and Womyn's Herstory every day!
=============================
PRUNE the SHRUB! ILLEGITIMATE SONOFABUSH!
These ARE available buttons/stickers - check out how to get em' here
at our website!
=================
Send all news flashes to aliun@hotmail.com for publication.
=================
"THERE IS NO WAY TO PEACE, PEACE IS THE WAY"
A.J. Muste
===============

===============
If you believe that PEOPLES BARK NEWS BERKELEY is an invaluable contribution and an asset to the community, please consider making a donation. We are not tax-deductible. You must make checks out to:

john vance - AFAC and mail to:

A First Amendment Center
PO Box 4851
Berkeley, Ca 94704

==============
PEOPLES BARK NEWS BERKELEY
A First Amendment Center
Berkeley, Ca (510) 287-9406
Mon., Dec. 17, 2001
=============
Please visit our website at http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net and check the information and our bumperstickers here
============
DISCLAIMER: Information reprinted here is not agreed nor disagreed with but provided in the interest of respecting the First Amendment of the Constitution.
============

============
CONTENTS

1... Wilson Riles Reception
2... Bay Area Events - Global Exchange Calendar
3... Connect the Enron Dots to Bush
4... Greenaction End of Year Party
5... KPFA ALERT: PLAN AFOOT TO ELIMINATE FLASHPOINTS
6... 53rd Anniversary - Implement Resolution 194 Now!
7... Confronting the Past
8... Food not Bombs Media Site
9... Pie Baking and Selling in December
10.. George, John and Osama
11.. Robert Norse Exposed!
12.. CLINTON | The Struggle for the Soul of the 21st Century
14.. PACIFICA ACTION ALERT
15.. An Urgent Message from Juan Gonzalez
16.. Weekly Vigil in Alameda
17.. Urgent Times at Media Alliance- Please help!
18.. SF Diversions: Dec. 18-19
19.. Napa Rally For Locked Out Krug Winery Workers
20.. ACLU Action Alert re: Attorney/Client Privacy
21.. Lori Update - Dec. 7
22.. LMNOP Sunday Peace Walks at Lake Merritt, 3 P.M., Oakland
23.. HAITI - Lift the Blockade
24.. A Living Wage Makes Good Economic Sense for Local Communities
25.. Telegraph Avenue Holiday Crafts Faire
26.. Mumia's Sentence Thrown Out
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
1...Wilson Riles Reception


From :Steve Wagner lakemerrittneighbors@yahoo.com
Reply-To : bay_area_activist@yahoogroups.com
Subject :Wilson Riles Reception
Date :Fri, 14 Dec 2001 16:44:29 -0800 (PST)
************************************************
YOU ARE INVITED!

A reception with WILSON RILES, Candidate for Mayor of Oakland

Tue Dec 18, 2001
7 - 9pm
Leaning Tower of Pizza, 498 Wesley @ Brooklyn, Oakland

Join us for snacks, interesting people & good conversation.
Please bring your ideas, questions & suggestions for the future of Oakland.

For more information about Wilson Riles & his campaign for Mayor of Oakland, visit Wilson Riles' website or call 510.763.5934

For more information about this reception, call Dawn & Loren, 510.625.1209

Hope to see you there…

Also............

SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY, JAN 5 - RALLY & MARCH FOR WILSON RILES!
Are You Ready to Get Riled Up?

Join us as we take to the streets to tell people about WILSON RILES, Candidate for Mayor of Oakland.

Saturday, January 5th
10:00am -- 3:00pm
411 28th Street, Oakland (Humanist Hall)
Between Broadway and Telegraph
(Rally 10 - 11:30am)
Join us as we launch our campaign to elect a mayor that will work for all of the people of Oakland. There will be music, food, and performances by Oakland artists and an opportunity to hear Wilson’s vision for Oakland.

For more information about Wilson Riles, and his campaign for Mayor of Oakland, visit Wilson Riles website or call (510) 763-5934.

To RSVP and sign up to walk your precinct, please call 510-763-5934.

We hope to see you there -- bring your friends!

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
2...Bay Area Events - Global Exchange Calendar


From: David Hanks david@globalexchnage.org
Subject: Bay Area Events
Date : Fri, 14 Dec 2001 14:21:03 -0800

(1) Tue Dec. 18, 7:30 pm - Berkeley
Film: Uprooted - Refugees of the Global Economy

(2) Wed Dec. 19, 6-9 pm - San Francisco
"To Afghanistan With Love" - A Holiday Reception

(3) Sat Dec. 29, 4-6 pm - San Francisco
Mario Bencastro & Roberto Leni-Olivares: A Reading of their Literary Works

----------------------


---------------------- (1)
Film: Uprooted - Refugees of the Global Economy
Tue Dec. 18, 7:30 pm
La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley

Celebrate the International Day of Solidarity with Migrants. Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy. A video of three stories of globalization's impact on migration.
Live performance of original score with Francisco Herrera and Jon Fromer.
Sponsored by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

For more information, contact: info@lapena.org, 510-849-2568, La Pena website or 510-465-1984x301

----------------------


----------------------
(2)
"To Afghanistan With Love" - A Holiday Reception
Wed Dec. 19, 6-9 pm
3220 Sacramento (between Lyon & Presidio)
San Francisco

A Benefit for Global Exchange's Afghan Victim's Fund. Enjoy food, drink, fresh videos, Afghan crafts, holiday gifts and conversation with Medea Benjamin and the women delegates just back from their trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hear the findings of their first-hand investigation of the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the consequences of US bombing, what's needed for rebuilding, and what Afghan women's groups said about the role they would like to play in a transition government. (suggested donation $10)

For more information, contact: June Brashares, june@globalexchange.org , 415-255-7296x253, Global Exchange website - Sept.11

----------------------
(3)
Mario Bencastro & Roberto Leni-Olivares: A Reading of their Literary Works
Sat Dec. 29, 4-6 pm
Casa del Libro
973 Valencia (between 20th and 21st Streets)
San Francisco

Mario Bencastro, author and playwright, from El Salvador will read from his current works dedicated to the history and people of El Salvador. Odyssey to the North, whose theme is the massive migration of Salvadorans to North America. The Tree of Life: Stories of Civil War, written between 1979 and 1994, this collection of stories is a reaction to the civil war which swept El Salvador in recent memory. A Shot in the Cathedral, a historical as well as personal account paralleled with the life of Monsenor Oscar Romero.

Roberto Leni-Olivares, originally from Chile and exiled during the military dictatorship there, now lives in the Mission District of San Francisco. He is currently an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in Marin.
Sponsored by CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) & Global Exchange.

For more information, contact: Roberto Leni-Olivares,
roberto@globalexchange.org , 415-255-7296x247

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
3...Connect the Enron Dots to Bush


From: planttrees@aol.com
Reply-To: bay_area_activist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Connect the Enron Dots to Bush
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 05:20:00 EST

Connect the Enron Dots to Bush

Enron is Whitewater in spades. This isn't just some rinky-dink land investment like the one dredged up by right-wing enemies to haunt the Clinton White House--but rather it has the makings of the greatest presidential scandal since the Teapot Dome.

The Bush administration has a long and intimate relationship with Enron, whose much-discredited chairman, Kenneth L. Lay, was a primary financial backer of George W. Bush's rise to the presidency.

It was Enron that provided the model for the administration's trickle-down attempt to revive an economy that's been in steep decline during Bush's tenure. That model gives the fat-cat corporate hotshots everything they want in return for bankrolling political campaigns. Not to worry about the rest of us because, hey, what's good for Enron is good for America. That it hasn't been is now painfully clear.

What did Enron get in return for its contributions?

Click here to read the rest of this article:

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
4...Greenaction End of Year Party


From: Bradley Angel bradley@greenaction.org
Subject: Greenaction End of Year Party Wednesday, December 19th
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 14:39:38 -0800

Dear friends of Greenaction,

Please join Greenaction staff, board members, activists and friends in celebrating the many victories for community health and environmental justice won in 2001, and to dedicate ourselves to winning more victories in the year to come. We will be especially celebrating the victory against the IES incinerators, as the incinerators have closed and stopped spewing dioxin, mercury and other poisons into the air of Oakland and Alameda this week!

GREENACTION END OF THE YEAR PARTY AND VICTORY CELEBRATION!

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2001 5 P.M. UNTIL 7:30 P.M. AT OUR OFFICES, 1540 MARKET STREET, SUITE 325, SAN FRANCISCO
(We are located near Van Ness, 2 blocks from Civic Center BART)

please visit our updated website here and encourage your friends, family and co-workers to join the Greenaction activist network by sending an email to greenaction@greenaction.org

---------------------------------------------
Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice
GreenAction website
phone (415) 252-0822
fax (415) 252-0823
NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS!
1540 Market Street, Suite 325 San Francisco, CA 94102

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
Editor note: If there is any truth to trying to eliminate Flashpoints or Dennis Bernstein, i would call for an IMMEDIATE encampment in the familiar place - right in front of the station on MLK. It was my feeling that we are supposed to be NOW heading back into a democratic Pacifica??? Dennis Bernstein IS Flashpoints - wassup here??? Stay tuned for updates! john v

5...KPFA ALERT: PLAN AFOOT TO ELIMINATE FLASHPOINTS


From: "Lyn Gerry" redlyn@loop.com
Reply-To: "Lyn Gerry" redlyn@loop.com
Subject: KPFA ALERT: PLAN AFOOT TO ELIMINATE FLASHPOINTS
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 19:27:53 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 16:23:14 -0700
From: Jeffrey Blankfort jab@tucradio.org
Send reply to: jab@tucradio.org
Subject: KPFA ALERT: PLAN AFOOT TO ELIMINATE FLASHPOINTS

While this situation deals specifically with KPFA and former WBAI reporter Robert Knight at this time, it is instructive in the way the recent conflict among the Flashpoints crew is being dealt with at the station. This message has been also sent to the local KPFA groups and freepacifica@recordist.com, as well as to those names and e-mail addresses are listed below as bcc:

Jeff Blankfort
While it has not formally been presented to the KPFA Program Council, I have heard from several sources that a proposal will be made to expand Hard Knock Radio to three hours, from 3-6 pm, effectively eliminating Dennis Bernstein and Flashpoints from KPFA's airwaves. Much as Pacifica's playing of Democracy Now! was often used as an excuse for even partial listener funding of Pacifica, many Bay Area activists maintain their subscription to KPFA as their way of supporting the station's only daily investigative reporting show, i.e., Flashpoints.

Before the Program Council acts, and the disappearance of the Bernstein-hosted Flashpoints becomes a fait accompli, supporters of Bernstein and Flashpoints have a right to know and the opportunity to let the decision-makers at what we are repeatedly told is a "grass roots" radio station, know their opinions.

The following are those at the station who need to hear from listeners.
The first three are on the Program Council.

Gen. Mgr. Jim Bennett jimbennett_@yahoo.com
Co-News Director Aileen Alfandary srosenba@socrates.berkeley.edu
Drama and Lit Director Susan Stone dramalit@kpfa.org
Ralph Steiner ralphstein@aol.com Ralph provides the studio space for FSRN Vic Bedoian vbedoian@pacbell.net Vic is the GM of KFCF which airs Flashpoints which would be effected.

If you are aware of others whom I have overlooked, please let them know your feelings and post their station e-mail addresses accordingly.

Jeff Blankfort

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
6...53rd Anniversary - Implement Resolution 194 Now!


From: cop watch copwatchberkeley@yahoo.com
Subject:[AL-AWDA-News]53rd Anniversary - Implement Resolution 194 Now!
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 05:57:46 -0800 (PST)

Note: forwarded message attached.

_________________________________________________
From: info@badil.org

BADIL Resource Center
For immediate release, 11 December 2001 (E/67/2001)
-----------------------------

53rd Anniversary of G.A. Resolution 194 (1948)

OPEN LETTERS to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and to UN Member States and UN Agencies/Organs Urging Support for Mr. Annan in Implementing G. A. Resolution 194

Fifty-three years ago, on 11 December 1948, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution of monumental importance to the Palestinian refugees - G.A. Resolution 194. This year, the 53rd anniversary of Resolution 194 follows the conclusion of the one-year anniversary of the al-Aqsa intifada, in which the Palestinian refugees have made incomparable sacrifices in asserting their fundamental and inalienable rights to be free from Israel's illegal occupation and to return to their homes of origin. These demands are supported by the entire Palestinian people and leadership, a fact that is not surprising considering that nearly three-quarters of the world's Palestinians are refugees.

Therefore, upon this occasion of the 53rd anniversary of Resolution 194, we urge all interested persons, organizations and governmental actors to call for the full implementation of Resolution 194. The following model letter can be used to address key actors within the UN system, including UN Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan, Member States of the UN (through their foreign ministries), and key UN agencies and organs (including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson). We especially recommend that letters be sent to member states of the UN belonging to the European Union, as well as key states in the non-aligned movement.

--------------------------------------------------------

Call for Full and Immediate Implementation of G.A. Resolution 194:
Prerequisite for a Just and Durable Peace in the Middle East

Your Excellencies:

11 December 2001 marks the 53rd anniversary of the passing of UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (1948), the landmark resolution that reaffirmed the fundamental, inalienable rights of the Palestinian refugees - to return, restitution and compensation.

Resolution 194 did not create new law but rather affirmed the applicability of existing binding law to the case of the Palestinian refugees. Resolution 194 affirmed that three fundamental, inalienable rights were held individually by each Palestinian refugee, namely the rights to: (1) return; (2) restitution; and (3) compensation. Return was expressly stated to be "to their homes," i.e., to their homes of origin in the territory that later became the state of Israel. Because return was expressly stated to be "to their homes," restitution (i.e., the right to receive one's property back if it had been occupied by secondary occupants, looted or confiscated by a governmental authority in violation of international law) was expressly recognized to be a right held by the Palestinian refugees. Finally, compensation was not to be "in lieu of" the right of return but rather supplementary to it. Refugees choosing to return were to be compensated if their property had been damaged or destroyed. Refugees choosing not to return were to be compensated for all their property, whether damaged or not.

The comprehensiveness of the rights affirmed in Resolution 194 demonstrates that the goal of the international community in affirming them was to try to erase the effects of Israel's illegal displacement of the Palestinian refugees ("ethnic cleansing") and to do "restorative justice" by attempting to put the Palestinian refugees back in the position they would have been in had their illegal displacement not occurred. On this 53rd anniversary of Resolution 194, it is high time to implement the rights recognized and affirmed by the international community in 1948. In the intervening 53 years, the international community has not retreated one iota from full recognition of the rights affirmed in Resolution 194.

Therefore, upon this 53rd anniversary of Resolution 194, we hereby call upon the entire United Nations system - including UN Secretary- General Mr. Kofi Annan, UN Member States and all UN agencies/organs (including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson) - to undertake the following measures to implement fully and forthwith the three fundamental, inalienable rights of the Palestinian refugees enumerated in Resolution 194 - return, restitution and compensation:

1. Convene an international conference on mechanisms necessary to implement the three fundamental rights affirmed in Resolution 194 - return, restitution and compensation. Since the rights exist, practical plans for implementing them must be designed. Palestinian refugees themselves must feature prominently in the decision-making processes designed to restore their rights to them.

2. Reinvigorate the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) by nominating new states to comprise its membership. The current membership - composed of the U.S., France and Turkey - is completely inactive (and, in the case of the U.S., completely biased).

3. Make public the property and land records of the UNCCP for inspection by Palestinian refugees and others, for example to be used in designing a mechanism for securing the restitution rights of the refugees under Resolution 194.

4. Issue a definitive pronouncement that under international law, the ethno-national concept of a "Jewish state" (i.e., a Zionist state) is completely prohibited and therefore illegal because it necessarily involves discrimination in favor of Jews and discrimination against non-Jews. Such state-sanctioned discrimination is prohibited under the entire corpus of international human rights law and, indeed, under the UN Charter (which Israel, as a member state of the UN, is bound to uphold).

5. Mandate the creation of an internationally supported return and restitution mechanism whereby Palestinian refugees would be fully restituted of their properties, with interest calculated from the date of taking.

6. Call for the imposition of comprehensive sanctions upon Israel until it agrees to implement the rights of the refugees under Resolution 194. This is a minimum requirement, since Israel's admission to the United Nations was expressly conditioned upon its implementation of Resolution 194. Economic and military aid to Israel must cease completely until Israel comes into compliance with Resolution 194, in order for other states to avoid being complicit in Israel's longstanding violation of the international law-guaranteed rights of the refugees enumerated in Resolution 194.

Fifty-three years is far too long to wait for the implementation of the fundamental, inalienable rights of a population group exceeding 5 million persons. Concrete action to implement the rights of the Palestinian refugees is urgently needed now, in order to bring about a just and durable peace in the Middle East.

The United Nations system must fulfill its obligation to uphold international law! Resolution 194 must be implemented now!

-------------------------------------------------

For more further information on the rights enumerated in Resolution 194, see BADIL Brief #8, "Palestinian Refugees and the Right of Return: An International Law Analysis," available at BADIL Publications - Brief #8
For a longer legal analysis, see BADIL's legal monograph, "The 1948 Palestinian Refugees and the Individual Right of Return: An International Law Anslysis," available here

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
7...Confronting the Past


From: cop watch copwatchberkeley@yahoo.com
Subject: [AL-AWDA-News] The truth is emerging!
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 07:05:03 -0800 (PST)

Note: forwarded message attached.

__________________________________________________

Confronting the Past

A thesis which alleges that Jewish militias slaughtered unarmed Arab fighters during the war of Independence is at the centre of a fierce debate about Israel's approach to its history, writes Suzanne Goldenberg

Monday December 10, 2001
He is a rather unlikely candidate for academic celebrity - or notoriety - depending on which way one looks at it.
But the debate over the MA thesis of Teddy Katz, a kibbutznik in his late 50s, has consumed Israeli academics for the best part of two years.

The saga of Mr Katz began unfolding in January last year when an Israeli newspaper published excerpts from a thesis submitted to Haifa University on the fate of the Palestinian village of Tantura, which was destroyed in the battle for Israel's independence in 1948.

In his research, Mr Katz collected testimony from Palestinians who alleged that Jewish pre-state militias slaughtered 200 Arab fighters who laid down their arms after the village surrendered in May 1948.

Researchers have unearthed other massacres in Israel's bloody war of independence in 1948 - most notably at Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem, where some 120 unarmed villagers were killed in the event that came to symbolise the Nakba - literally the catastrophe of Palestinian flight, and dispossession when the Jewish state was created in 1948.

And there were earlier accounts in Arabic of the episode at Tantura. The coastal village was razed in June 1948 to make way for a kibbutz, and a swimming pool.

But the effect of Mr Katz's research was explosive. The Jewish veterans of the Alexandroni Brigade, the battalion Mr Katz alleged to have carried out the killings, sued for libel. The suit set off a train of events in the legal and academic arenas.

In the early stages of the legal battle, Mr Katz recanted his thesis - and then retracted 12 hours later, saying his judgment had been impaired by a stroke. The lawsuit moved upwards to the supreme court.

Meanwhile, an academic committee at Haifa University reviewed Mr Katz's work and this month ordered the suspension of his thesis, giving him six months to submit a revised version.

For Mr Katz, whose 1998 thesis, was awarded with unusually high grades, the controversy has been personally devastating.

For Israeli social scientists, who have been wrangling over the thesis on academic websites for months, the furore over the findings cuts to the core of a struggle over the portrayal of the history of the Jewish state.

The first histories of modern Israel were guided by Zionist ideology, and dominated by memoirs of the generals who participated in the battles for the state.

These were stories of Jewish war heroes, not of the Palestinian civilians who were purposely driven from their homes in acts of ethnic cleansing, or who fled after hearing of massacres in other villages.

A few historians have emerged during the last decade to set the record straight - including those like Mr Katz or Benny Morris, who is the best-known of the so-called new historians abroad, from outside the academic establishment.

But after more than a decade, the majority of their colleagues continue to cling to the old shibboleths.

Though buried for five decades, the stories of Tantura and the more than 400 other Palestinian villages destroyed with the creation of the Jewish state are deeply threatening to present-day Israeli society.

The fate of such villages is central to the Palestinian demand for the right of return of some 3.8m registered refugees to what is now Israel - a prospect most Israelis view with horror as the beginnings of the destruction of their state.

The pressures to conform have grown stronger since Israel executed a collective shift to the right after the eruption of a bloody Palestinian revolt 14 months ago.

The current atmosphere has made it even more uncomfortable for Israeli academics to challenge the founding myths of the Jewish state.

Mr Katz's academic work was problematic in other ways. He based his thesis on oral testimony from surivors of Tantura village, which is near his hometown of Haifa.

The accounts were dismissed out of hand as unreliable by some Israeli academics, specifically because he relied on Palestinian sources.

Unfair, wrote Ilan Pappe, a political scientist at Haifa University, who has emerged as Mr Katz's champion, and who has been at the vanguard of the re-evaluation of Israel's history.

"The oral testimonies by Palestinians on the Nakba - like the testimonies of Jews on the holocaust - will have to be treated as a legitimate source, both in court and scholarly debate."

The academic committee which reviewed Mr Katz's work found seven discrepencies between the tapes of interviews, and conclusions he made in his thesis.

Other academics have faulted Mr Katz for amateurish methodology. In turn, he regrets his early recantation of his thesis, which was made to ward off heavy court costs following the libel suit.

However, despite such flaws, several academics believe the essence of Mr Katz's findings has not been challenged.

"The question of whether the Alexandroni Brigade troopers did indeed murder residents of Tantura and the place of the entire episode in the relationship between Israel and the Palestinians still remains," the historian Tom Segev wrote in the Ha'aretz newspaper.

"Israelis and Arabs committed war crimes both before and after 1948. The Tantura affair is not the point.

"The point is that most Israelis have yet to internalise their share of the responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian tragedy, and until they do so, there is no chance for peace."

=================================================================

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, is the largest network of grassroots activists dedicated to Palestinian human rights. To subscribe to Al-Awda-News, send a blank message to al-awda-news-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and to unsubscribe, send a blank message to al-awda-news-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
To find out how to join an Al-Awda action committee in your area, please visit our website here.
=================================================================
FREEZE TERRORIST ASSETS!
STOP US AID TO ISRAEL!
Sign the petition letter online here
=================================================================
Unless indicated otherwise, all statements posted represent the views of their authors and not necessarily those of Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
8...Food not Bombs Media Site


From: East Bay FNB ebfnb@yahoo.com
Reply-To: ebfnb@yahoo.com
Subject: Food not Bombs News website(fwd)
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 17:06:15 -0800 (PST)

hi folks,

This is a new site that's getting going dedicated specifically to FNB. it's here , and uses a model similar, if not identical, to indymedia. anyone can post news, photos, video, whatever....

ian From: eviljobe@aol.com
Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 21:51:04 EST
Subject: [FNB-L] http://www.fnbnews.org calendar

Reply-to: fnb-l@lists.tao.ca


Food not Bombs News/Calendar website

Hey...all you food not bombs groups, add your meetings, sharings, events, protests, anything! to this calendar to keep people all over the world informed about your fnb or to look for fnb groups in your area...the website is run like a newswire...on the same software as indymedia uses...it's heavily under construction, but what we need most is for people to post stories and histories about their own FNB chapters, recipes, any news relating to FNB, any news or stories relating to any activists involved in fnb...anything you can think of...I'll send out a more formal e-mail to this group and all local FNB chapters when the site is really running, but for now, I'm just trying to let people know it's there...any feedback is welcome.

Thanx

~Nicole
Food not Bombs News website


=====
east bay food not bombs
3124 shattuck avenue
berkeley, ca 94705
510.644.4187 :: East Bay Food not Bombs website
to subscribe/unsubscribe to the weekly web send email to majordomo@ebfnb.org with "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the body (w/o quotes).

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
9...Pie Baking and Selling in December


From: APSC Oakland uhurureparations@yahoo.com
Subject: Pie Baking and Selling in December
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 15:17:03 -0800 (PST)

Please let us know how you can participate this month in the Uhuru Holiday Pie Campaign!

Thank You!!!

****UHURU HOLIDAY PIES****
UHURU Pies website
**PIE BAKING AND SELLING SCHEDULE **

NOTE:

Pie Baking takes place at a commercial kitchen in Emeryville - 6613 Hollis St (enter at 66th - "All About Food") - shifts are flexible and Pie Selling takes place at different locations throughout the Bay Area. Please call Wendy to sign up at 510-835-7759 and also if you need directions or a ride.
You can also order pies beginning Saturday, December 15th.
Call if you would like to set up a pie tasting at your work or home.

·Wednesday Bake Night, December 19th
4 to 8pm and 7 to 11pm

·Thursday Bake Night, December 20th
3 to 8pm 7 to midnight

·Friday Bake Night, December 21st
3 to 8pm 7 to midnight

·Saturday Pie Selling, December 22nd
Sign up for Shifts between 9am and 5pm @ Grocery
stores in the East Bay and San Francisco

·Saturday Bake Day and Night, December 22nd
9am to 6pm

·Sunday, Pie Selling, December 23rd
Sign up for Shifts between 9am and 5pm @ Grocery
stores in the East Bay and San Francisco

·Sunday Day and Night, December 23rd
9am to 6pm 4pm to 10pm 7pm to 12am

·Monday Pie Selling December 24th (Xmas Eve)
Sign up for Shifts between 9am and 5pm @ Grocery
stores in the East Bay and San Francisco

Thanks for all your great support for the Uhuru Movement programs for social justice for the African community!

Don't forget to order your pies at UHURU Pies
Contact Linda Luba regarding any questions regarding pie orders and/or deliveries at (415) 378-3926.

Wendy Snyder
Volunteer Coordinator
(510) 835-7759
Uhuru Holiday Pies
UHURU Pies

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
10...George, John and Osama


From: "joe hill" aliun@hotmail.com
Subject: George, John and Osama
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2001 06:01:41

Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 03:56:58 EST
From: rlcordry1@aol.com
Subject: George, John and Osama

George, John and Osama

George, John and Osama

By: Bridget Gibson

12/08/01

It's getting harder for me to determine exactly whose side George Bush and John Ashcroft are on. That is such a strange statement. But bear with me for a minute. Supposedly Osama bin Laden planned and executed the September 11 attack on America precisely because of our freedoms. That is what George Bush said on September 20, 2001.
So following that logic, would it not be the proper thing to protect exactly those freedoms if we are to fight terrorism? To continue to live normally, to go on with our lives, to show the terrorists that they did not win, that the only way to prove that terrorism lost is to defeat its goal.
Terrorism's goal is to change the victim of such in a profound way. The perpetrator wants to alter how each and every person affected by terrorism views his/her world and force a change to the ways of the terrorist.

Well, our feckless leaders have chosen not to defend our freedoms. They have chosen to forsake all that is wonderful and unique about the United States because of what? My logic tells me that Mr. Bush and Mr. Ashcroft must be on the same side as the terrorists, and that our way of life, our way of country and our way of being American is wrong.

We are wrong to follow the Constitution that was printed with the blood and beliefs of our forefathers. We are wrong to follow and have faith in the Bill of Rights that were negotiated to make ours a "more perfect union." We were so wrong that Mr. Bush and Mr. Ashcroft have taken it upon themselves to destroy as much of both of those documents as possible in as short a time as physically possible.

We are to disavow our faith in our judicial system and allow secret military tribunals to decide the fate of anyone they choose. What about those three young Americans that were following their faith in fighting with the Taliban?
They were fighting with the Taliban before September 11, when the United States (through its policies proscribed by Bush) was financially aiding the Taliban in its fight against poppy fields. Never mind that on May 19, 2001, we (the United States) gave the Taliban $43 million (in dollars - not aid) to cease its drug production. Never mind that we had been notified of the Taliban's horrendous treatment of women for many years . Never mind that we watched (via television) the Taliban destroy thousand year old Buddhas that had been created by what they determined were a faithless people.
These three young Americans can be stripped of their citizenship, can be called "terrorists" for aiding the Taliban, can be tried in secret military tribunals and executed. That was a Military Order signed on November 13, 2001, by George Walker Bush.

We have the USA Patriot Act, drawn and enlarged upon by Mr. Ashcroft, that is in violation of the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Thirteenth Amendments of the Bill of Rights. In the eyes of Bush and Ashcroft our Constitutional freedoms and the Bill of Rights mean nothing. This is what the actions of Mr. Bush and Mr. Ashcroft are telling us. If you agree, nothing need be done. That's the path that we (the United States) are taking. Congress and its lawmakers have no voice in these decisions and thus, you the represented public are allowed no voice either.

Mr. Bush and Mr. Ashcroft have decided that those freedoms that have made us a unique and special country are the very things that we Americans must relinquish in order to protect them. Somehow their logic escapes me. How can we be "free" if we give up our freedoms? How can one lose the very rights that set their country apart from all others and still remain the same?

The United States of America was a country of law. Our forefathers were disillusioned by the elite rule of the English King. They decided that a country of law would be best served by those laws and not in the trusting of men. We have been told to "trust" George Bush and John Ashcroft. They will make those decisions for us. They want additional powers not allowed by the Constitution and are insisting that our representatives give it to them.
Somehow I do not think that was what Madison, Jefferson, Franklin and the other founding fathers had in mind.

You had better speak up soon or you should forget that First Amendment, too.
You know the one. The one with the part that says "freedom of speech."

Bridget Gibson is a contributing writer for Liberal Slant.

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
11...Robert Norse Exposed!


From: "Becky Johnson" becky_johnson@sbcglobal.net
Subject: Robert Norse Exposed!
Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 11:44:58 -0800

Note to readers: This expose on Robert Norse failed to include a single specific that Robert has lobbied for or about since 1997. The "so-called Sleeping Ban" MC 6.36.010 section A is just that -- a ban on sleeping anywhere out of doors or in a vehicle between the hours of 11PM and 8:30AM subject to a $54 fine.
His full name is Robert Norris Kahn. The TRO Administrative Assistant Anna Brooks got, was thrown out by the Judge for lack of merit. He didn't just fail to extend the order. The TRO was originally granted by hearing only Ms. Brooks version of events. When both sides were heard, the Judge threw the order out. The article doesn't mention that he has two radio shows per week on Free Radio Santa Cruz 96.3FM. Out of town listeners can hear his show on the internet at Free Radio Santa Cruz on Thursdays between 6PM and 8PM and on Sundays between 11:00AM and 1:30PM.
The article did not mention that Robert Norse has been a top writer for Street Spirit, a bay area homeless newspaper, for the past 5 years.

Issues Robert Norse has researched and publicized include $16.8 million dollars allocated for "affordable housing" but will result in no net gain in number of units in the City.

Cost overruns on the Police Station that totalled $7 million.

Citizen Police Review Board that covers up police misconduct such as the case of Happy John Dine who was shot and killed by the police as he waited for a bus. The City, the DA, and the CPRB all exonerated the officer despite testimony from 10 eyewitnesses who saw no aggressive behavior on the part of Dine at all.

Regular reports of misconduct by Sgt. Loran Baker who is accused of abusing a woman on a bicycle for riding her bike the wrong way. She required surgery for her injuries.

Exposing a series of Brown Act violations by the council for not agendizing items before discussion and votes, having activists arrested at City Council preventing them from speaking, and preventing public comment on items when the Brown Act clearly requires the public to be able to comment on any issue.

The inability of homeless people to use the National Guard Armory since Sept. 11th by a new requirement for state-issued photo id for anyone using the shelter.

Publicizing councilmember Emily Reilly's motion and vote to make parking illegal between 5AM and 7AM 7days a week where homeless people sleep in their vehicles, ostensibly for street sweeping. No other street in the entire City is swept daily.

Exposing a practise of police confiscating homeless people's possessions and discarding them.

Lobbying successfully for police to use photographs of people illegally using a blanket at night rather than seize the blanket as "evidence of a crime".

Successfully lobbying to allow community groups to feed homeless people in public places. They had previously been arrested for giving free food to homeless people.

In addition, many homeless people laud Robert for his confrontations of those in power, and for his individual advocacy for homeless people in the courts. I have personally walked the streets with Robert Norse and have countless times had homeless people come up to him and thank him profusely for his work. Sentinel writer Dan White could not seem to find a single homeless person who appreciates the work of Robert Norse. Note, no supporter of Robert Norse was quoted.

--- Becky Johnson, member of HUFF
Homeless United for Friendship & Freedom

====================================================
December 9, 2001

Activist Unrelentingly Fights Camping Ban
DAN WHITE
Sentinel staff writer
SANTA CRUZ — It’s impossible to engage in homelessness debates in Santa Cruz without running straight into a bearish, bearded man in a blue bathrobe who carries a teddy bear.

Robert Norse, 54, whose full name is Robert Norse Kahn, arrived in town in 1977 and has been getting in trouble, often deliberately, ever since.

Like him or hate him, Norse is one of the city’s most visible activists. He says his goals are restoring basic civil rights to poor people and "stopping the gentrification of Santa Cruz."

Norse, aside from leading protests, pointedly questions council actions at most meetings, where he frequently approaches the podium, tape records the proceedings and sometimes makes speeches to the audience directly before order is called. "I’m trying to educate the public," he announced at a recent meeting.

His small but loyal group of backers consider him a civil rights champion for the poor.

But his critics, including the entire Santa Cruz City Council, call him a time-waster and divisive force in the homeless debate.

"Frankly, he has no credibility with the council," Councilman Scott Kennedy said. "We are all familiar with his shtick. ... For us to be constructive at council meetings, it doesn’t happen with Robert railing at us."

Norse says he goes to council meetings not to speak to council members but to appeal to people watching meetings on cable TV.

He publishes a newsletter called "The Street (expletive) Sheet" that includes barbed nicknames for council members and newspapers he doesn’t care for, i.e. "The Jerkury Booze" and "The Santa Cruz Urinal."

His major issue is the so-called sleeping ban, which is part of the city’s prohibition on camping within city limits. The language prohibits sleeping outside at night. Norse says it’s a civil rights violation.

Norse says it’s the council’s failure to listen that forces him to "model a rather harsh form of criticism of the council. If some feelings get hurt, it’s a small price to get the message out. Winter is coming and people are cold out there."

He says the council may profess to be liberal "but they are prone to conservative influences." He says they frequently run on homeless platforms, then cave in to other constituencies.

"When the council takes no action, their honeyed words conceal a profound void," said Norse, who is housed and says he exists on savings. "They make a choice to listen to developers and not the needs of people outside."

Yet the homeless have mixed views on Norse.
Ken Two Dogs of the recently flooded Camp Paradise, said: "Robert Norse is a good person but he’s too extreme. He goes out of his way to rub people the wrong way."

C.F. LeBlanc, also homeless, said Norse "antagonizes certain elements of the population who might otherwise be sympathetic (to the homeless.) He presumes to speak for homeless people and isn’t homeless himself, which is galling."

Some accuse him of intimidation. A female City Hall staffer said Norse was "churlish" while staging a sit-in at City Hall to protest the sleeping ban. The receptionist was granted a temporary restraining order against Norse and two others last summer, but a request to extend the order was rejected by a Superior Court judge.

Norse has also passed out leaflets, threatened to squash pies in the faces of council members and gotten arrested countless times. In 1996, he was convicted of handing out free food to the poor in San Francisco and was jailed for a month in a case that drew condemnation from the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

His views can prompt backlash.

Ten years ago, someone dumped a burned-out portable toilet in the activists’ front yard.

It was covered with derogatory graffiti about Norse.

"It stinks," he said at the time.

Contact Dan White at dwhite@santa-cruz.com

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
12...CLINTON | The Struggle for the Soul of the 21st Century


From: t r u t h o u t admin@truthout.com
Subject: CLINTON | The Struggle for the Soul of the 21st Century
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 16:47:36 -0800
t r u t h o u t | 12.18

CLINTON | The Struggle for the Soul of the 21st Century

India Preparing Response to Attack

Egypt's Mubarak Warned US Of Attack 12 DAYS Before 911

Pentagon : Bin Laden's Location Unknown

Daschle Predicts Denial of Scalia Nomination

Subscribe to, t r u t h o u t - (Free) : join-truthout@lists.truthout.com

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

t r u t h o u t | 12.17

Marc Ash | Radical in the White House

Saudis Say : No Evidence

The White House Connection : Saudi 'Agents' Close Bush Friends

The President's Papers Are the People's Business

Refugees Start Returning Home | Officials Worry Large Repatriation May Overwhelm Afghanistan

UN Official Warns on Child Sex Trade

Subscribe to, t r u t h o u t - (Free) : join-truthout@lists.truthout.com

_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/

t r u t h o u t | 12.16

Pakistanis Welcome al-Qaeda And Taliban

Missile Defense System Canceled | Navy Program Woes Cause Bush Setback

DASCHLE | Democratic Radio Address | Response to the President

Wall Street Journal | The Straw Demon | The Desperate Demonization of Tom Daschle

Thomas Frank | The Enron Outrage

New York Times Editorial Comment | Misusing Executive Privilege

Subscribe to, t r u t h o u t - (Free) : join-truthout@lists.truthout.com

-----------------------------------------

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
14...PACIFICA ACTION ALERT


From: "Lyn Gerry" redlyn@loop.com
Reply-To: "Lyn Gerry" redlyn@loop.com
Subject: PACIFICA ACTION ALERT
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 17:11:55 -0500
ACTION ALERT --

Please email the 5 "dissident" PNB members and request that they not appoint Aaron Kriegel to the interim Pacifica board because:

(1) he has rarely come to board meetings where crucial votes were required,
(2) he "abstained" from the vote for Leslie Cagan for chair of the board, and
(3) he collaborated with Bob Farrell to keep Leslie Cagan off the Executive committee as the representative from New York. Kriegel was originally from Los Angeles but he recently moved to New Jersey. He agreed when Farrell asked him to serve as Executive Committee member from the WBAI signal -- although he has no connections to WBAI or its community.

The dissident board members must appoint 5 members to the interim board -- email them at

Aaron Kriegel -- harav1@aol.com
Rob Robinson -- robrobins@erols.com or rrobinson@horne.com
Tomas Moran -- tomasmoran@aol.com
Pete Bramson -- pbram@aol.com
Leslie Cagan -- lesliecagan@igc.org

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
15...An Urgent Message from Juan Gonzalez


From: "Lyn Gerry" redlyn@loop.com
Reply-To: "Lyn Gerry" redlyn@loop.com
Subject: An Urgent Message from Juan Gonzalez
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 16:49:47 -0500
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 14:05:47 -0500
From: Pacifica Campaign pacificacampaign@yahoo.com
Subject: An Urgent Message from Juan Gonzalez

December 13, 2001
Pacifica Campaign Release

An Urgent Message on the Pacifica Radio Settlement

Dear Pacifica Campaign Supporter:
Late yesterday we received news that there has finally been a legal settlement in the long and bitter battle against the corporate clique which hijacked the Pacifica network. (For the settlement text go here

We in the Pacifica Campaign have not had a chance in such a short time to convene an official meeting and decide our position on the settlement. We have, however, publicly stated for many months that such a negotiated settlement was not only possible but was in the best interests of preserving a viable network for the listeners.

We never deluded ourselves, however, about such a settlement, knowing that in this, as in any bargaining process, the "devil is often in the details." What I offer below is my preliminary analysis of the settlement and what it means for our movement. I want to stress that this is my individual view, not the official position of the Campaign, which can only come later. But given the controversy this settlement is sure to generate, I believe it is urgent to initiate reasoned debate over its terms as soon as possible. So here it is:

The movement for democracy in the American mass media won a historic victory yesterday, one that is sure to inspire new struggles for media accountability.

For perhaps the first time in U.S. history, a people's movement of listeners, employees and political activists succeeded in wresting majority control of a radio network away from a small corporate clique that had illegally seized the reins of power several years earlier.

That movement accomplished this extraordinary victory by a persistent and creative combination of an amazing array of tactics -- including peaceful direct action, civil disobedience, massive public meetings and protests, a well-organized listener boycott, skillful use of direct mail and internet electronic picketing campaigns, as well as numerous court challenges.

Thanks to the combination of those tactics, which aroused tens of thousands of people around the country to unprecedented action and garnered nationwide press attention, the clique in control of the network and their few active supporters in the management and staff of the five stations were soon overwhelmed and forced to retreat.

The agreement reached yesterday is merely the legal reflection of our movement's enormous strength and a recognition of its victory.

There are those who will ask, how can we call this a victory when our movement has not totally ousted all the members of the former board majority? Under the agreement, the reform movement will most likely have a 9-to-6 majority on an Interim Board during a 15-month "transition period," at the end of which new bylaws will be written and a new permanent board elected. During that interim period, however, voting rules will be such that our "majority" will be unable to reach major decisions without, in effect, at least one member of the new minority voting with us. Any board decision by a simple majority vote that does not meet such criteria will automatically be referred to the California judge who is overseeing the agreement, and the judge will then decide the matter.

So how can that be considered a victory if the old raiders can still throw obstacles in the way of our new majority?

The answer is simple. A few weeks ago, our dissident board members were in the minority. Under this agreement, they will be in the majority. A few weeks ago, our dissident board members were powerless to block all but a few major actions by the corporate raiders. Now the raiders have no power to initiate any major actions. All they can do is throw roadblocks, but even then, at least during the transition period, the judge has the final decision, not the raiders.

Most importantly, the one area where a simple majority can rule is in the election of the Foundation's officers. That means that our dissident board members will have the power to elect the new chair, treasurer and secretary of the Foundation. That means the power to determine when the national board meets, what the agenda will be, who will chair committees and how votes will be conducted, will be on our side. That alone is an enormous change compared to the current situation where listeners and board members were given as little information about board meetings as possible. And this was all accomplished without spending millions of dollars more on a trial that may have ended up giving us less than what the settlement did.

In addition, the new settlement gives a majority of three of the five Local Advisory Boards (LABs) virtual veto power over the amending of any bylaws concerning the election of board members. If the LABs reject the bylaws, the Spooner listeners' suit and the Adelson LAB law suits can proceed to trial.

Moreover, the settlement forbids any sale of a station during the interim period and mandates consultation with listener groups and local communities over bylaw amendments.

There are some who are already lining up to criticize the agreement. They seem most outraged by the fact that the clique of raiders will retain a powerful minority position on the board. My response to that is two-fold:

1) The clique who remain are far different and far less potent than those who were on the board last Dec. 22, the night of the Christmas Coup at WBAI.

Former Chairman David Acosta is gone. Former Vice-Chair Ken Ford is gone. Former treasurer Micheal Palmer is gone. Former secretary Andrea Cisco is gone. So is Karolyn Van Putten and Frank Millspaugh. Even the infamous John Murdock, the defiant, belligerent Murdock of the anti-union firm, Epstein, Becker & Green, is reportedly gone, since he will apparently not be part of the new board. Neither will Houston's Valrie Chambers. In other words, eight members of the one-time raiders will be gone, including the ringleaders of the coup.

But that's not all. Former director Bessie Wash was forced out. So was national program director Steven Yasko and his successor, former WBAI interim station manager Utrice Leid.

When you think about it, our movement has accomplished an incredible sea-change. In less than one year we have forced out from all the top positions of the network those who most sought to move Pacifica away from its original radical mission. No, we have not yet succeeded in ridding the network of all the bad apples. But that brings me to my second point.

2) Those who believe that all of our movement's goals could be accomplished in one swoop, like some modern day version of a Bolshevik or Sandinista uprising, have perhaps underestimated the real world in which we live. We cannot isolate the Pacifica struggle from the capitalist environment that surrounds us, nor can we neglect the reality that we find ourselves in the midst of a new right-upsurge and weighed down by a horrible new war.

The progressive movement in America needs a strong Pacifica now more than ever. It needs to have Democracy Now! back on the air at all Pacifica stations, broadcasting news and information the American people cannot hear anywhere else on the radio dial. We cannot allow bitterness and anger to cloud our judgments. As I have told Pacifica activists repeatedly during the past few months, the great revolutionaries in history, the Mandela's, the Ho Chi Minh's, knew when to fight and when to negotiate. They knew when to stand on principle and when to make difficult compromises. They knew when to choose reconciliation over revenge. A perfect example of this is former boardmember Bob Farrell. In retrospect, the election of Farrell as chairman several months ago, while certainly a move that many of us opposed, turned out to be a watershed moment. Farrell announced he wanted to make peace within Pacifica. Many of us were skeptical, but he went about doing just that. Yes, he had been part of the raiding clique. But Farrell chose to change, and he dragged the remaining members of his group to the table, even as they were kicking and screaming. Farrell will not be on the new board. His own side chose not to elect him. But I believe that by abandoning the old bankrupt policies he played a pivotal role in moving Pacifica toward a new era, so I wish to publicly thank him for keeping his word.

Most importantly, I believe we owe much gratitude to the litigants in the three law suits. All of them spent countless hours, so many of them frustrating and seemingly fruitless, trying to find common ground first with each other, then with the rest of us in our complicated and amorphous reform movement, than with the various representatives of the raiders. They sacrificed so much time away from their families, their jobs, their own personal lives, all to save Pacifica. Thank you Leslie Cagan, Tomas Moran, Pete Bramson, Rob Robinson, Rabbi Aaron Kriegel, Dave Adelson, Miguel Maldonado, Sherry Gendelman, Robbie Osman, Barbara Lubin, and of course, Carol Spooner.

As for those who are dissatisfied, or who believe that this agreement sells out our movement's principles, I urge you to reconsider your views. There will always be some people who are not satisfied with an agreement. Many of us, myself included, had hoped for more. Many wanted several other issues to be resolved right away, including the immediate return of all the banned and the fired from WBAI. But my interpretation of the provisions of this agreement leads me to believe that the WBAI situation will be resolved very soon.

Remember, this is only a transition agreement. When North Vietnam and the United States negotiated an end to the Vietnam War, their Peace Treaty dealt primarily with the transitional conditions under which the U.S. army would withdraw from the South. The U.S. did not surrender and endorse the liberation and reunification of South Vietnam with the North. That momentous event happened later. Not very much later -- but still later.

So rather than quibble over what should have been in this transitional agreement now and what should be decided later, rather than begin attacking those we fought so hard to save the network, we should first take a step back, look at the forest instead of the individual trees, and celebrate the magnificent victory our movement has accomplished.

When I resigned from Democracy Now! on January 31 and we launched the Pacifica Campaign, few people believed we could drive out the hijackers and regain control of Pacifica. Some told us we would either destroy the network or meet a humiliating defeat. Neither of those things happened, as the terrific staff organizers of the Pacifica Campaign -- Dan Coughlin, Farah Davari, Linda Duggins, Arturo Lemus, John Martinez, Denis Moynihan, Bok-Keem Nyerere, Karen Pomer, Myla Reson, Ursula Ruedenberg, Darius Sarrafi, Don Underwood, Valerie Van Isler, Bernard White, Andrea Buffa, and the many volunteers dug in, criss-crossed the country and fought on relentlessly.

No, we do not yet have democratic accountability to listeners and staff. We do not yet have a return of Free Speech. We do not yet have the return of the banned and fired. But we have taken a giant step toward each of those goals by removing from power those who promulgated the dictatorial and retrograde policies at Pacifica

I believe this agreement thrusts our movement into a new stage. During this transition period we have two important challenges. We must mobilize maximum support for the new board majority so that it can fashion a genuinely democratic structure for Pacifica, restore the banned and the fired, and end the gag rule. And we must end the boycott and rapidly move toward rebuilding the network's membership and finances and prepare for elections of new advisory boards so that Pacifica can emerge from this crisis bigger and stronger than ever. I welcome the debate and discussion that will ensue over the next few months as part of the new process of rebuilding the network. Maybe, the Pacifica Campaign can even join with other reform groups in scheduling a national conference on the future of the network where the various viewpoints can be openly aired.

Finally, thanks to all of you for your support to the Campaign and for your devotion to Pacifica. Despite the terrible crises in this country the past few months, despite the rapid erosion of democratic rule throughout our land and the horrible calamity faced by the people of Afghanistan, I want to wish you and all your loved ones a healthy and happy holidays and offer my best wishes for the New Year.

Hope to see you soon on another edition of Democracy Now!

Juan Gonzalez

**********************************
Pacifica Campaign
51 MacDougal St., #80
New York, NY 10012
Tel: 646-230-9588
pacificacampaign@yahoo.com
Pacifica Campaign website

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
16...Weekly Vigil in Alameda


From: ZuWhan Kim zuwhan@eecs.berkeley.edu
Subject: Weekly Vigil in Alameda
Date: Thu, 13 Dec 2001 12:12:16 -0800 (PST)

12/18 TUE Weekly Vigil in Alameda

---------------------------------------------

Weekly Vigil in Alameda

Alameda Witness Against Racist Engagement (AWARE) is having remarkable success in reminding Alameda that ...

... War Is Not A Family Value!

Numerous Alamedans now expect to see us at the corner of Webster and Atlantic on Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Horns honk and hands flash V's. Trucks, buses, taxis and supervisors (from an unnamed company) all honk.

All we need now are more people to build on this success.

Please join us at Webster and Atlantic in Alameda across from the community college on Tuesdays from 5:30 to 6:30.

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
17...Urgent Times at Media Alliance- Please help!


From: Updates updates@media-alliance.org
Subject: Urgent Times at Media Alliance- Please help!
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 20:14:45 -0800

Dear PBNB Readers,

Media Alliance have been very severely affected by the recession; our situation is so serious that we may not be able to pay our rent and payroll this month. Media Alliance has repeatedly come through for the Bay Area with ongoing services and a number of meaningful victories, including the preservation of KPFA as a Free Speech Radio station.

We'll get through this crisis - but only with your help!

Doesn't San Francisco deserve to have one dynamic media accountability organization? We've made it for 25 years- we need your support now to be able to keep going despite the economic downturn...

Please help us right away. Here's what you can do:

* Donate $100 or as much as you can afford. If every one of our members and supporters donates for our 25-year anniversary, we'll have money in hand to keep our services at a high level and keep fighting for media that serves the interests of peace, justice, and social responsibility.

* Sign up for MA classes or give them as a gift. You can view our new class listings here

* Take advantage of our year-end special and renew your membership for one, two or even three years at the 2001 rates through Jan 31, 2002. Prices will be going up to $40/$65/$80, but you can lock in the current rates (and help us make it through this tough period) by renewing here

* Forward this email to people who care about Media Alliance and what we stand for.

Thank you in advance. We really need your support right now, so that we can continue MA's support of the Bay Area community's media needs.

Very best wishes,

Jeff Perlstein Andrea Buffa
Executive Director Board Member, Former Exec. Director
Media Alliance Media Alliance

**************************************************************
visit Media Alliance website here!

Media Alliance is a 25 year's young training and resource center for media workers, activists and community organizations.

Media Alliance
814 Mission St. #205
San Francisco CA 94103
(415) 546-6491

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
18...SF Diversions: Dec. 18-19


From: SFDiversions SFDiversions@diversions.workingforchange.com
Subject: SF Diversions: Dec. 18-19
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 20:15:24 -0500 (EST)

SF Bay Area Diversions
The free weekly guide to entertaining and thought-provoking events in the San Francisco Bay Area, brought to you by Working Assets. Your friends can register to get Diversions for free. Just forward this e-mail to them, and they can sign up online. Send comments and suggestions to diversions@wafs.com

SF Bay Area Diversions Dec 18-19

------------------------------------------


DON'T MISS EVA PATERSON AND A FREE LUNCH FROM WORKING ASSETS!

On Thursday December 20, the Working Assets' Speaker's Series presents Eva Paterson, Executive Director of the Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. Ms. Paterson co-founded A Safe Place, a shelter for battered women in Oakland, co-founded the Coalition for Civil Rights, and serves on the board of numerous advocacy organizations including the ACLU and Equal Rights Advocates. A dynamic speaker, Ms. Paterson will share her inspirational story and unique perspective on civil rights at our free lunchtime event. Enjoy lunch courtesy of Working Assets! Noon. Auditorium, 101 Market Street, San Francisco. RSVP at 415-369-2150.

DOUBLE OR TRIPLE YOUR HOLIDAY DONATIONS: $75,000 IN MATCHING GRANTS ON GIVEFORCHANGE

Thanks to a group of anonymous donors, there are currently two generous matching grant opportunities on Give for Change website. One matching grant is for $25,000, and it doubles your donation to Global Exchange's Women United for Peace Campaign, working to support women's voices in the rebuilding of Afghanistan. The second matching grant is for $50,000 and it TRIPLES your donations made to Dads & Daughters, Public Citizen, Emergency Housing Consortium & Las Casa de las Madres. Donations to nonprofits via GiveForChange make great holiday gifts, and we'll even send a gift card to the recipient to let them know about your gift. Be sure to make your donation by December 19th if you would like your gift card to be mailed out by December 20th (and thus reach the recipient by December 25th). Please visit the Give for Change website, for complete details.

========================================
Tuesday December 18, 7:00 and 9:15 p.m.
RELIGIOUS STRIFE IN IRELAND

Based on the true story of Sheila Clooney, a Protestant, and her Catholic husband Sean, who are happily married in 1950's Ireland, "A Love Divided" tells the story of how things change when their children begin school and the deep divisions in Ireland begin to take their toll. Directed by Sydney Macartney. Roxie Cinema, 3117 Valencia St., San Francisco. $7. For more information call 415/863-1087.

Tuesday December 18, 7:30 p.m.
GLOBAL ECONOMY REFUGES

Celebrate International Day of Solidarity with Migrants with a screening of "Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy," a video featuring three stories of globalization's impact on migration. Live performance of original score with Francisco Herrera and Jon Fromer. Sponsored by the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $5-$10. For more information call 510/849-2568.

This Week's Recommended Reading
HOW TO MAKE CHOICES TO CHANGE THE WORLD BY ANITA RODDICK

From the protests in Seattle to the perseverance of people like Julia Butterfly Hill, we're seeing a growing resistance to globalization and its negative effects. Daily news informs us of sweatshops, child labor and poor working conditions in developing countries and even in the U.S. People are starting to educate themselves on how they can "take it personally" by making conscious consumer choices. Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, believes corporations can be both profitable and ethical. In "Take It Personally: How to Make Conscious Choices to Change the World," she presents a vibrant collection of photographs, essays and quotes from dedicated writers and activists around the world -- to help you make informed choices, enact real change and live a socially responsible life. Conari Press; 256 pages; paperback.

Buy this book through http://www.ShopForChange.com and 5% of the purchase price goes to nonprofit groups like the Friends of the Earth.

Wednesday December 19, 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.
HOLT UNCENSORED ON WORKING ASSETS RADIO

It's the monthly book show on Working Assets Radio with special guest Pat Holt. Join the on-air conversation as host Laura Flanders and independent book reviewer and activist Pat Holt talk about what books are on their bedside tables. You can call in as well and let the Bay Area know what books you're reading and why. For more information visit Working Assets Radio on the Web at Working Assets Radio with Laura Flanders airs on NPR-affiliate KALW 91.7 weekday mornings from 10:00-11:00 a.m. You can join the program by calling 415/841-4134 to participate live on the air.

Wednesday December 19, 2:00, 7:30 and 9:15 p.m.
MEXICAN REVOLUTIONARIES THEN AND NOW

"The Last Zapatistas" is a video documentary telling the stories of fighters from the 1910 peasant uprising that became the Mexican Revolution. In onscreen interviews, elders discuss their history, the emerging new Mexican democracy, Zapatista guerrilla uprisings in Chiapas, the implementation of NAFTA, and the reality of globalization. Red Vic Movie House, 1727 Haight St., San Francisco. $6.50/$3.00 Srs. and Children/$4.50 matinee. For more information call 415/668-3994.

------------------------------------------

Time to Cast Your Vote
Each year, Working Assets donates millions of dollars to progressive nonprofit groups out of our revenues. If you use one of Working Assets' services (long distance, credit card, wireless, ShopForChange, and GiveForChange) you are eligible to vote.

Since 1985, we've raised $25 million in donations. This year alone, we hope to raise $5 million for 55 worthy groups. The great news is, customers play a critical role in deciding who gets how much.

If you are already a customer, please take a moment now to vote. Want more of the money channeled to organizations working for world peace? Civil liberties? Environmental protection? Fine by us. Want all groups to receive an equal amount? We'll see to it. The important thing is to vote. This year's donation ballot is available online.

If you are not yet a customer of one of these services, we welcome you to become a Working Assets Long Distance customer by clicking here. After you sign up, you can vote online and help us distribute the donations. Deadline is December 31, 2001.

---------------------------------------------


Diversions is taking a holiday break. Look for our next issue on January 9, 2002. Happy Holidays!
-----------------------------------------------

Do you have an event to submit? If your event has a theme or focus that is consistent with the social focus of Working Assets and Diversions, please send your listing to diversions@wafs.com. Be sure to include the date, time, address including cross streets and city, cost if any, contact information including Web site if relevant, and a little something about the event. Please note that Diversions considers hundreds of listings, and can only select a few each week. Listings are edited for length and content.
Thanks for your support!

Paul Bollwinkel
Diversions Editor

Why Diversions from Working Assets? Of course, there are lots of entertainment guides floating around, but unless you read and subscribe to every one, you will miss some great events highlighted in our quite selective listings. Each Thursday we will e-mail you a couple of events for each day of the coming week. We stay on top of interesting readings at local bookstores, new political films, radio interviews, and benefit concerts.
We'll also often include a recommendation for some of the best television.
It could be a movie, a documentary, or an interview on television worth watching or taping for later viewing. Nowhere else will you find selective television picks.

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
19...Napa Rally For Locked Out Krug Winery Workers


From: steve zeltzer lvpsf@igc.org
Subject: Napa Rally For Locked Out Krug Winery Workers: Stop Union Busting!
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 16:48:04 -0800

All Out To Napa On Saturday January 5, 2001 11:00AM-3:00PM

LOCATION: LYMAN PARK
Corner of Main St. & Pine St.
St. Helena, CA

Boycott and Support Rally For Krug Winery workers.
Join us in downtown Napa and support the 40 families that have been Locked Out by the Peter Mondavi family (Charles Krug Winery) since July 3, 2001. These workers need the full support of the community and other labor unions to keep their union. The 40 production workers are in a struggle for a union contract and to stop UNION BUSTING against the only unionized winery in Napa Valley.
Please call (209)524-4245 or (209)604-9697 for further information and boycott flyers.
If you can get flyers out at your local supermarket and pass labor support and boycott resolutions by your city council and or board of supervisors this will help our cause.
You can get the Berkeley City Council resolution here

Thank You For Your Support

U.F.C.W Local 186D Winery, Distillery & Allied Workers

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
20...ACLU Action Alert re: Attorney/Client Privacy


From: "Carolyn S. Scarr" epicalc@earthlink.net
Subject: ACLU action alert re attorney/client privacy
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 16:51:42 -0800

----------
From: action@dcaclu.org
Date: Wed, 12 Dec 2001 16:46:25 -0500
Subject: ACLU Action Update: Rescind Ashcroft's Eavesdropping

Regulation

TO: ACLU Action Network Members
FR: Jared Feuer, Internet Organizer
DT: December 12, 2001

Without observing the legally mandated period of public review and comment, Attorney General Ashcroft has implemented a new eavesdropping regulation that gives the government, without judicial oversight or meaningful standards, the unprecedented power to listen in on conversations between prison inmates and their attorneys.

The new regulation renders the age-old tradition of attorney-client privilege worthless and essentially guts the right to counsel guaranteed by the Constitution. Furthermore, the new regulation is unnecessary since the Department of Justice already has the legal authority to record attorney-client conversations by going before a judge and obtaining a warrant.

Take Action! The Bureau of Prisons is compiling public comments through December 31 and a huge public outcry could force Ashcroft to rescind the regulation. Now is the last time to speak out! You can read more and send an email to the Bureau of Prisons from our action alert here.

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
21...Lori Update - Dec. 7


From: "Mark Berenson" berenson@freelori.org
Reply-To: gtaylor@freelori.org
Subject: Lori Update -- Dec. 7
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:36:41 -0500
Friday, December 7, 2001

To All Friends and Supporters of Lori Berenson:

LORI SENDS HOLIDAY SEASON MESSAGE

Lori sent the following letter, written in English, from the Santa Monica de Chorrillos Maximum Security Women’s Prison in Lima, Peru:


Dear Friends,

As 2001 draws to an end I want to thank you once again for all your support for me and my family. 2001 saw many tragedies; we can only hope that 2002 will be a year in which human beings start acting as such and look to work to end the world of poverty and misery so there be no reasons for war.

2001 was also the year in which I had another trial in which Peruvian judicial officials ignored my protestation of innocence and sentenced me to prison ignoring international norms and due process.

I hope 2002 will be a year of positive changes in general.

Wishing you and your loved ones the best for this holiday season and wishing peace and justice for all.


Abrazos, [Hugs,]

Lori Berenson



We join Lori in thanking you for all the support you have given her and us. This has been a very difficult year. In addition to the horrors of the events of September 11, this was a year in which we spent more than three months in Peru watching as Lori was once again denied due process, found guilty of a crime she did not commit, and demonized by the Peruvian press. We watched knowing that Lori is innocent, has spent much too long in Peruvian prisons, and must come home.

Thanks to your letters, phone calls, and visits with your congressional representatives over the years, a majority of the House of Representatives and almost half of the Senate have argued for Lori’s freedom. The letters and calls to the president have resulted in President Bush, Secretary of State Powell, and other members of the Bush Administration repeatedly telling Peruvian President Toledo that Lori’s case is of highest concern.
And soon, thanks again to your help, he will hear from religious leaders of all faiths urging he let Lori come home.


Much of our progress has been a result not only of your letters, petitions and calls, but also because of our full-time presence in Washington D.C. and the work of Gail Taylor as National Coordinator. Gail has done wonders in increasing our grassroots support and in keeping Lori’s plight on the minds of government officials and human rights organizations in D.C.

FUND RAISING CAMPAIGN


Past contributions to the Committee to Free Lori Berenson have helped us to maintain the office in Washington, travel to Peru to visit Lori, and continue the fight for her freedom. We have accomplished a great deal on a shoestring budget, but each year we have run at a deficit and this year saw additional legal and other expenses associated with the civilian trial. We look forward to the day when we can close the office but meanwhile it is crucial that it remain open and we continue the struggle to bring Lori home.
We know that these are very difficult times but we hope you can help us in this struggle. Any amount you can contribute will be especially appreciated and, of course, we always value your active and moral support.

Non-tax deductible contributions of any amount can be made to “Free Lori Berenson.” Tax-deductible contributions of $50 or more can be made to “Proteus Fund: Attn.: Inter-American Human Rights Project.” Checks should be sent to The Committee to Free Lori Berenson, 110 Maryland Avenue NE, Suite 112, Washington, DC 20002.

Rhoda and Mark Berenson
Free Lori website

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
22...LMNOP Sunday Peace Walks at Lake Merritt


From: LMNOP lakemerrittneighbors@yahoo.com
Reply-To: bay_area_activist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: LMNOP Sunday Peace Walks at Lake Merritt, 3 P.M., Oakland
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 00:04:50 -0800 (PST)

Please forward hither & yon:
___________________________

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace (LMNOP) invites you to join us on weekly peace walks around Lake Merritt in Oakland. Every Sunday at 3:00pm.

Meet at the columns at the east end of the Lake, between Grand & Lakeshore Avenues. Near Grand Avenue exit off 580 freeway. Most well-known nearby landmark: Grand Lake Theater.

WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER!
Justice Not Revenge!

Information: (510)763-8712, lmno4p@yahoo.com

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
23...HAITI - Lift the Blockade


From: "Pierre Labossiere" pierrelabossiere@hotmail.com
Subject: HAITI - Lift the Blockade info/action flyer for distribution
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 15:14:22 +0000


From: haiti123@aol.com
Subject: Lift the Blockade info/action flyer for distribution
Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2001 07:32:36 EST

LIFT THE BLOCKADE AGAINST HAITI - NOW!

Is this the way we treat our neighbors?

"We have to begin to work to get our government to change its policies. All of us have to participate in this kind of activity so that our government does not press down against the poor and crush them but rather lift them up and bring real justice to these people." Bishop Gumbleton after his trip to Haiti in October 2001

"In this time of crisis we must not apply a double standard to this country, just as we have helped other countries at political impasses, we must also help Haiti. It is imperative that the US remove its blockade of essentially all aid to Haiti, particularly the loans currently held up at the Inter-American Development Bank." Congressional Black Caucus letter to President Bush - Nov. 8, 2001

THE BLOCKADE MUST BE LIFTED NOW! U.S. economic sanctions against Haiti have been in place since the elections in May 2000 and has influenced the freezing of funds from the European Union as well. In an effort to resolve the conflict, the senators whose elections were contested have all resigned.
Despite the resolution of this dispute, the U.S. continues to block over $500 million in international aid and loans to the Haitian government, including loans from the Inter-American Development Bank earmarked for education, healthcare and infrastructure projects, such as potable water.
Haiti is still required to pay arrears payments and credit commissions on loans that it has not received. Now, to add insult to injury, the IDB, in an effort to save face and head off further ridicule fearing that they would close out their year with a zero balance of assistance going to the poorest country in theWestern Hemisphere, are about to award one million dollars to the Pan American Health Organization earmarked for AIDS in Haiti.
In fact, reviewing the budget sheet for that 42-month project, $467,550 of those funds will be used directly for PAHO staff expenses, and none will be used for delivery of services to HIV/AIDS patients in Haiti! Meanwhile, Haiti, whose budget on HIV/AIDS requires $13 million, hasn't received a penny of its own money while quality of life indicators on health care and infant mortality continue to erode:

· The HIV/AIDS rate is 4% or 300,000 persons (163,000 children orphaned and 30,000 new cases a year).
· Haitian Health Foundation, a U.S. NGO providing healthcare in Haiti's rural areas where the ratio is 1.2 doctors for every 10,000, states that, "The U.S. government provided a modest grant to bring health care to 35,000 people with no access to this basic necessity. Since then, due to desperate pleas and very obvious needs, the number of villages that we serve has grown from 15 to 92, with a population that now stands at more than 200,000.
Despite this dramatic increase, USAID has failed to keep pace, increasing its support by less than 20 percent."
· Infant mortality rate is 74 out of 1,000 births. * Dramatic rise in refugees taking to the high seas.
· Only 40% of the Haitian people have access to potable water, which is critical in preventing infant deaths.
· 60% of Haiti's 8.2 million people are undernourished (1,977 calories per day compared with 3,754 calories a U.S. resident gets, according to the World Health Organization).
· The president of Haiti's Diabetes Association recently said that stress from current conditions has caused a marked increase in diabetes in the country.
· UNICEF, citing the correlation between the blockade and rising problems amongst Haiti's children, is asking the international community to lift its sanctions.

THE SANCTIONS ARE ILLEGAL!
· The U.S. imposed an embargo during the 1991-1994 coup d'etat against a defacto government, which had ousted a democratically elected government!
The defacto government was not recognized by any country in the world.
Today, the U.S. imposes a defacto embargo against a democratically elected government that is recognized by every country in the world!
· The IDB lacks legal standing to block these loans since contracts have been signed for disbursement. What is unusual about this situation is that the loans were blocked at the moment of disbursal instead of during the normal process of halting loans at the project review level or in the decision making process at the Board of Executive Directors.
Many legal experts believe that the IDB faces possible legal exposure for failing to honor signed contracts with the Haitian Government.

- OVER -

· The Sanctions violate the Geneva Convention, the UN Charter, the World Health Organization Constitution, the Convention on the Rights of Children, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States.

"We must address this injustice. The people of Haiti need our support. We must release these approved loans. They are not grants, mind you, but they are loans to Haiti." Cong. Barbara Lee

"The United States must change its current policy towards Haiti so that it may receive multilateral funds for pressing development needs." Cong. Eddie Bernice Johnson

``When you look at some of our allies [like] Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Israel, you begin to wonder what the differences are that account for some countries receiving sizable assistance and others nothing until they quote straighten up and fly right unquote.'' Cong. John Conyers

"The U.S. government is blocking aid to Haiti in order to expand the influence of a single political party that is supported by less than four percent of the Haitian electorate. It is time for the United States to end this political impasse and restore bilateral and multilateral assistance to this impoverished democracy." Cong. Maxine Waters

"With a humanitarian crisis looming large over this island nation of 8 million, the U.S. cannot hesitate at any level or in any institution to maximize the delivery of development and relief programs." Cong. Earl Hilliard

DON'T ABANDON THE HAITIAN PEOPLE. WORK FOR A JUST U.S. POLICY ON HAITI.
CALL OR WRITE TO LIFT THE ILLEGAL BLOCKADE AGAINST HAITI WHICH DESTROYS A CIVILIAN POPULATION FOR POLITICAL END:

President George Bush, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, D.C. 20500,
Tel: 202-456-1414, Urge him to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus and change U.S. policy on Haiti.
Your U.S. Representative at Congress by calling their toll free number 800 393-1082.
At the prompt enter your zip code and you will be connected to the office of your congressperson.

The Inter-American Development Bank, Enrique V. Iglesias, President, 1300 New York Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20577, Tel: (202) 202-623-1000

Organization of American States, Cesar Gaviria, Secretary General, 17th Street & Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20006, Tel: (202) 458-3000. Ask them to honor their OAS resolution of June 2001 which stated they would assist to get the sanctions lifted "as progress is achieved in reaching a sustainable solution to the crisis."

International Monetary Fund, 700 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20431,
Tel: (202) 623-7000

The World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn, President, 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, DC
20433, Tel: (202) 477-1234

CARICOM, Edwin W. Carrington, Secretary General, Bank of Guyana Building, Church Street & Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown, Guyana, Tel: (592-) 226-9281
United Nations, Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations Plaza, New York, N.Y. 10017

Delegation of European Union to the United Nations, 305 E.47 Street, 12th floor, N.Y., N.Y. 10017

Ask the media to report on the real life stories of the Haitian people whose primary concerns are food and jobs. Urge them to report on the daily violence of hunger and poverty that is attacking the children of Cite Soleil and La Saline.
Ask international human rights organizations where they stand on the daily violence of poverty.

Speak out in your community or organize a vigil about the devastation caused by this illegal blockade against Haiti. Contact groups working for social & economic justice in Haiti, such as Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center, Bay Area Action Committee, Pax Christi, Witness for Peace, Global Exchange, Amnesty International, American Friends Service Committee and others.

For information, please contact any of the following:

Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center haiti@quixote.org
The Haiti Action Committee at 510/483-7481 haitiaction@yahoo.com
haiti@globalexchange.org

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
24...A Living Wage Makes Good Economic Sense for Local Communities


From: Peter Phillips peter.phillips@sonoma.edu
Subject: A Living Wage Makes Good Economic Sense for Local Communities
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 18:16:33 -0800


A Living Wage Makes Good Economic Sense for Local Communities

By Peter Phillips

The wages for millions of the lowest paid workers in the United States are failing to meet their basic needs. Today workers can be employed full-time and still have incomes below the national official poverty line. This wage disparity is amplified for workers in high cost regions who find themselves unable to afford rent, food, and basic necessities. Reports from homeless shelter operators across the country indicate the regular use of emergency housing by full-time employed individuals and their families.

This situation has been magnified by a quarter-century decline in real family income for the bottom 40% of the workers in the U.S. The old adage that the poor get poorer is increasingly true. Attempts to address this issue have been widespread. Coalitions of progressive activists, labor unions, and church leaders have formed loosely knit living wage groups in many cities. The Living Wage Movement in the United States has now successfully achieved the passage of minimum wage ordinances in some 70 cities. These ordinances have mostly required city contractors to pay regionally determined wages that meet the basic needs of working families.

The Living Wage Movement often meets strong opposition. Resistance to establishing local living wage ordinances or increasing the minimum wage at State levels generally comes from business groups who claim that increasing wages for the lowest paid workers will expand unemployment, hurt small businesses, cause inflation, and encourage business relocation.

Research clearly shows that these concerns are misguided. When the lowest paid workers receive additional income, they rapidly spend that income to meet their basic needs. This new income circulating in the region more then offsets the increased salary costs for most businesses and will provide an overall fiscal boost to the local economy. Studies show that in cities where living wages have been implemented that the actual costs to business average less then 3% of revenue, and that increased sales or small graduated price increases easily cover these added wages. Furthermore there is no evidence indicating businesses shy away from living wage areas.
Actually, a thriving economy is more likely to attract new businesses and encourage expansion, thereby increasing employment in the community.

When cities are considering the implementation of a living wage ordinance, a cost benefit analysis is often conducted to determine fiscal impacts. Generally missing from these reports are the long-term regional fiscal impacts of increased spending by low-wage workers.

New research conducted by myself and students from Sonoma State University in Santa Rosa, California provides an understanding of the positive effects of increased low-wage worker spending on local economies. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 1999 Santa Rosa PMSA report indicates that approximately 5,391 City residences work in jobs earning below $8.00 per hour. We conducted a random sample of these low-wage workers using addresses from the Santa Rosa reverse phone directory. On two weekends, teams of students from Sonoma State University physically went into the neighborhood locations seeking to find willing interviewees at or near the selected addresses. The teams were successful in locating and interviewing 44 individuals during the period. We are 70% statistically confident that our sample survey of 44 individuals represents the answers for the entire low-wage population in Santa Rosa. Of the 44 persons interviewed it should be noted that over half were 25 years or older and close to half were the primary wage earner for their families.

The purpose of the interviews was to determine the likely spending patterns of people making below $8.00 an hour were they to earn a living wage. A series of questions was asked to determine how low-wage individuals would most likely spend their increased wages. For the purposes of the study a $400 a month average increase in disposable income was assumed for individuals working over 20 hours a week, and a $200 increase for individuals working less than 20 hours per week.

The results of the study indicate that if all of the 5,391 lowest-wage individuals living in Santa Rosa made a living wage, they would circulate in the local economy an additional $23,818,301 per year. This amount would be spent in the following manner: Housing-11.9%, Auto Purchases-13.6%, Auto Repairs-6.8%, Clothes-9.1%, Food-6.2%, Movies-3.0%, Video Rentals-0.8%, Restaurants-5.0%, Credit Card Debt-8.0%, New Purchases for Home & misc.-9.1%, Vacations/travel-3.0%, Tapes and CDs-2.3%, Sports Activities-2.3%, Books and Magazines-0.6%, Schools & Childcare-3.5%, Savings-14.8%.

These amounts are substantial. Santa Rosa auto dealers should know that they would receive over $4,500,000 in new sales and repair orders given the implementation of a living wage in the City.

With this new research it now is easier to predict the potential positive economic benefits from a living wage. Business owners and city managers everywhere should be joining the Living Wage Movement and demanding the end to low-wages in the United States. It makes good economic sense for all of us, and the poor do not have to be poorer.

Peter Phillips is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored a media research group.

E-mail: peter.phillips@sonoma.edu

Peter Phillips Ph.D.
Sociology Department/Project Censored
Sonoma State University
1801 East Cotati Ave.
Rohnert Park, CA 94928
707-664-2588
Project Censored website

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
25...Telegraph Avenue Holiday Crafts Faire


From: "joe hill" aliun@hotmail.com
Subject: Telegraph Avenue Holiday Crafts Faire
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 07:22:42
HOLIDAYS ON TELEGRAPH IN BERKELEY, CA

For immediate Release
December 1, 2001

Contact: Linda Hall, Coordinator
Ph: (510) 528-6983
Email: linderxls@aol.com

The 18th Annual Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Faire
Holidays on Telegraph

Berkeley - Holiday shoppers to the Telegraph Business District will be treated to an abundance of good cheer, great music, fine food and high quality handcrafts. Festive lights, colorful decorations and a friendly multicultural shopping atmosphere complete the experience. Once again, the cultural heart and soul of Berkeley is alive and well and ready to celebrate.

The 18th Annual Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair, located on Telegraph Avenue bewteen Bancroft Way and Dwight Way in Berkeley is scheduled for four remaining days this year:

Friday, Dec. 21st, Saturday, Dec. 22nd,
Sunday, Dec. 23rd and Monday, Dec. 24th

Hours are 11am til 6pm

=========================================
Artists, merchants and community groups
=========================================

More than 300 street artists, merchants and community groups will fill four blocks of Telegraph Avenue when it is closed to traffic for the eighteenth annual fair.

The Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair offers unique handcrafts created by some of Northern California's finest artists. This fair offers the rare opportunity to buy fine art originals and inexpensive gift items in the same afternoon.

Shoppers can choose from a tremendous diversity of arts and crafts, including gift boxes, candles, rubber stamps, hats, flower arrangements, leather work, silk-screened clothing and prints, bumperstickers from community groups, batik and painted clothing, jewelry, paper crafts, handmade stuffed animals, blown and shaped glassm toys, puzzles, wood crafts, sculpture, paintings, musical intruments and metal crafts.

Local restaurants and community organizations add to the festive spirit of Telegraph Avenue during the Holiday Street Fair. Come enjoy a variety of fine foods.

How to reach Telegrpah Avenue

To reach the Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair, take BART to downtown Berkeley and ride the AC Transit to Telegraph Avenue. Plenty of parking is available in the Sather Gate Garage between Channing Way and Durant Avenue, west of Telegraph Avenue.
Additional parking can be found in the Anna head UC parking lot between Channing way and Haste Street, east of Telegraph Avenue.

There is a shuttle service to and from Telegraph Avenue via dowtown Berkeley.

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
26...Mumia's Sentence Thrown Out


From: "joe hill" aliun@hotmail.com
Subject: Mumia's Sentence Thrown Out
Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 23:14:38

Mumia's Sentence Thrown Out
by MaryClaire Dale
December 18 2001, Tue, 11:09am


A new sentencing hearing is ordered within 180 days, but no new trial.

By MARYCLAIRE DALE, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the death sentence imposed nearly two decades ago on Mumia Abu-Jamal, revered by supporters worldwide as a crusader against racial injustice but reviled by others as an unrepentant cop-killer.

U.S. District Judge William Yohn cited problems with the jury charge and verdict form in the trial that ended with the former journalist and Black Panther's first-degree murder conviction in the death of a Philadelphia police officer. The judge denied all of Abu-Jamal's other claims and refused his request for a new trial.

The judge said Abu-Jamal is entitled to a new sentencing hearing within 180 days.

``Should the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania not have conducted a new sentencing hearing ... the Commonwealth shall sentence petitioner to life imprisonment,'' the judge said in his 272-page ruling.

The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

Abu-Jamal, perhaps America's most famous death-row inmate, was convicted of shooting officer Daniel Faulkner, 25, during the early-morning hours of Dec. 9, 1981, after the officer pulled over Abu-Jamal's brother in a downtown traffic stop.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe ruled Nov. 21 that she did not have jurisdiction over Abu-Jamal's petition for a new trial, scuttling his hopes for another round of state-court appeals.

Abu-Jamal exhausted the state appeals process two years ago, but a petition filed in September argued that the defense had new evidence to clear him, including a confession by a man named Arnold Beverly.

In a 1999 affidavit, Beverly claimed he was hired by the mob to kill Faulkner because the officer had interfered with mob payoffs to police.

Abu-Jamal's former lawyers, Leonard Weinglass and Daniel R. Williams, said they thought the confession was not credible and Yohn refused to order Beverly to testify on Abu-Jamal's behalf.

Mumia's Sentence Thrown Out

Also visit the Mumia 2000 website
And here is the Mobilization to Free Mumia website

Click here to return to CONTENTS section above!
===================================================================================
===================================================================================
no peace without justice....
BUSH LOST!
He's STILL not my pResident!
BUSH IS A PLANT ---
IMPEACH the ILLEGITIMATE SONOFABUSH! ---
BARBARA LEE SPEAKS FOR ME

john vance, editor
PEOPLES BARK NEWS BERKELEY

A project of:
A First Amendment Center
PO Box 4851
Berkeley, Ca 94704
www.freezepeach.cjb.net
(510) 287-9406

Hotlines:
(510) 848-6767 ext. 621
(KPFA Event Calendar)

(510) 287-9406
(A First Amendment Center's Message Line!)

(510) 594-4000 ext. 202
(Coalition for a Democratic Pacifica hotline!)

(510) 548-0542
(Friends of KPFA hotline!)

(415) 546-6334 ext. 352
(Media Alliance KPFA info line!)

PLEASE send me SF Bay Area news/events that you would like posted
to: aliun@hotmail.com

i would like to add that there has been a cool new calendar added
that folks might like to check out to post your events. It's at:

PeaceNowFreedomNow

Also, of course, postings at Craig's List are a good idea as well.

And, remember, the most important place of all, our own people's media at: SF IndyMedia for San Francisco Bay Area news postings and IndyMedia to look for postings for other city's community news.

San Francisco Indymedia Calendar

More calendars:

Peoples Bark News Berkeley
Bay Area Progressive Calendar
B.A.P.D.Current Notices)
Peace and anti-war calendar
SF Bay Guardian ALERTS
East Bay Coalition Against the War
Peninsula Peace & Justice Center Calendar
Global Exchange Bay Area Events
Ecology Center Calendar
Abacia Calendar
Change Links Calendar - L.A.
Berkeley Daily Planet Calendar
Protest.Net Calendar of Events
Earth Neighborhood calendar - Union City, Ca

SOME ALTERNATIVE (and one mainstream) MEDIA SOURCES:

Save Pacifica
Media Alliance
Radio 4 All
S.F. IndyMedia
IndyMedia
AlterNet
Common Dreams
Afghan Magazine
BuzzFlash
AJR Newslink - mainstream media source
BushWatch
CounterCoup
Fairness in Accuracy and Reporting
Global Research
Institute for Public Accuracy
Rabblerousers
Independent.co.uk
Mother Jones
Narco News
Open Democracy
Palestine Report
TomPaine.commonsense
Utne Reader Online
Z Magazine Online
Arabic Media in Qatar">
TRANSLATOR for aljazeera.net
LaborNet - News for the labor movement
The Afghan Women's Mission
Money in Politics
The Newspaper Guild
Human Rights Now
Democracy Now - Amy Goodman
Muslim News - Britain
Pakistan News Service
More News from Pakistan
News from Pakistan
Pakistan News
News from Peshawar, Pakistan
Al-Ahram Weekly - Front Page



BOOKS TO READ:

AK Press

OTHER LINKS:

KPFA

KPFA/Pacifica-related websites:

Coalition for a Democratic Pacifica
Pacifica Foundation Radio Website
Coalition to Remove the Pacifica Board

(Lotsa KPFA-related links)

unofficial WBAI union website
MFBerry
newKPFA
Listener's Group - NYC/Cdp
Bill Mandel or
Bill Mandel
My partner, Miriam Ruvinskis' Spanish Book Club website

FreePacifica discussion list: to subscribe, send email to: majordomo@recordist.com with the text "subscribe freepac"

Coalition for a Democratic Pacifica local list: to subscribe, send email to: les@delong.org with the text "subscribe"
======================================
To subscribe to Peoples Bark News Berkeley, send an email to: peoplesbarknewsberkeley-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Send an email to: peoplesbarknewsberkeley-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com to unsubscribe.
======================================
Thank you for subscribing to and/or reading PEOPLES BARK NEWS BERKELEY.

john vance, editor
Peoples Bark News Berkeley


Home Page
Peoples Bark News Berkeley's "other" HomePage