tagged w/ Paramilitary
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http://news.yahoo.com/cops-ready-war-094500010.html
All protest can now be aggressively destroyed by paramilitary "police" forces nationwide. Nonviolent passive resistance, including boycotts, strikes, and corporate shutdowns will force them to come into our homes to drag us to jail. Until that time, we must be nonviolent and persistent.http://news.yahoo.com/cops-ready-war-094500010.html
All protest can now be... more
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NOTE: For more on the terrible human and environmental devastation wreaked by GM soy monocultures, see our Latin America videos: http://www.gmwatch.org/gm-videosb/26-gm-in-latin-america
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SOYA WARS CLAIM CASUALTIES IN ARGENTINA
Nick Caistor, LAB
Latin America Bureau, 22 November 2011
http://www.lab.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1138:argentina-death-in-soya-war&catid=65:news&Itemid=39
*A peasant leader has been killed in Santiago del Estero, apparently by gunmen sent in by a local landowner.
The death in mid-November of Cristian Ferreyra, a member of a peasant farmer organization in the north of Argentina has focused attention on a struggle between small farmers and their families and large landowners anxious to clear their land to plant profitable soy-bean crops for export.
Ferreyra, aged 23, was shot and killed at home in San Antonio, in the province of Santiago del Estero. Another man was seriously wounded in the incident.
Two men alleged to have been hired by a local landowner have been arrested for the shooting, which came after repeated threats against the Santiago del Estero Peasant Movement (MOCASE). His death led to large protest marches in the capital of the province and in Buenos Aires.
'They come in a car with papers for us to sign,' says Gloria, a MOCASE member. 'They say they're the legal owners of the land. But we own it, we live on it, and we farm it.'
And, says Gloria, the pressure does not stop there. 'If we don't sign, the paramilitaries and the police come. They threaten to kill us.'
MOCASE has been campaigning for more than 20 years against the expropriation of land in the dry region of the north of Argentina, and for small-scale farming to be promoted rather than large scale properties usually planted with soya grown for export.
'Many families live in the wooded areas remaining in Santiago del Estero, and they help sustain peasant farming communities. So to authorise clearing of the woods implies, in practice, the eviction of the peasants. It is to be regretted that the provincial government encourages deforestation and the violation of the rights of rural inhabitants,' said Hernán Giardini, head of Greenpeace Argentina.
According to Greenpeace, some 70% of native forests in Argentina have been lost in recent years, as the frontier of land for intensive agriculture has rapidly advanced through the central and northern provinces.
Santiago del Estero, together with neighbouring Salta and Chaco, have lost the greatest amount of forests, which according to data from the Department of National Environmental and Sustainable Development were cleared at the rate of 280,000 hectares per year between 1998 and 2006.
In recent months, Santiago del Estero landowners have stepped up attempts to evict families from land they have farmed for years. The businessmen claim to have legal titles to the properties, and have often hired former policemen and other security staff to remove the peasant farmers.
More than a hundred of these producers have formed the group Santiago Justo y Productivo; according to Argentine press reports, the group claims the violence began with members of MOCASE, who they say destroyed machinery, tore down barbed wire, and attacked their workers.
MOCASE, which is supported by some 8,000 peasant families in the province, has organised resistance to these land grabs and the clearing of forests in the north of the province. MOCASE claims that the big landowners acquired the titles to the land during the last military dictatorship (1976-1983) but that peasant farmers have been farming them for subsistence in the years since then.
Ferreyra was one of those who guarded the land claimed by the peasant farmers, and had been a member of MOCASE for several years.
The provincial governor Gerardo Zamora, of the governing Kirchnerist tendency within Peronism, has set up a 'mesa de diálogos' to try to get both sides to sit down and discuss the problem. So far, without much success.
Argentina's soya production has grown enormously in the past twenty years, increasing by more than 200% since 1995. According to a report by the Worldwatch Institute, a US-based environmental NGO, more than 98% of that production is of GM soya.
MOCASE, however, insists on 'food sovereignty'. It says that priority should be given to making Argentina and its population self-sufficient in food rather than growing crops for export. The local farmers grow cotton and maize, as well as keeping herds of goats and cattle to produce meat, milk and cheeses.
In October 2011 MOCASE and other peasant organizations from nine provinces held the first national congress of the Movimiento Nacional Campesino Indigena (National Indigenous Peasant Movement).
Among other demands, the participants called for an end to land evictions, and stressed that food sustainability should be the government's priority. 'Food should not be treated as a commodity. The land is there to feed the people,' said Cristina Loaiza, a member of MOCASE who attended the Congress.
In a statement, the National Indigenous Peasant Movement (MNCI) declared: 'this violence comes from the agro-business model. The dead, the wounded, the evictions are all from the peasant communities. The State creates the conditions enabling the power of money to impose its logic of destruction and death.'
'These models of production are being questioned, and as Argentine men and women we need to understand that on the one side is life, on the other death. One side signifies work and dignity, the other profits for the few. One side means national food sovereignty, the other, domination by transnational companies.'
http://racismandnationalconsciousnessnews.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/foto8.jpgNOTE: For more on the terrible human and environmental devastation wreaked by GM soy... more
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This video tells the story of the Maguindanao Massacre when 63 civilians were killed on the 23 November 2009 in Maguindanao in the Philippines. The events are recounted by one of the three surviviors still in hiding Aquiles Zonio, correspondent for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The video includes footage from the days after the massacre when the mass grave was discovered. Amnesty International calls on the government to: 1) Revoke Executive Order 546, and ensure full accountability over all state-sponsored militias and paramilitary groups. 2) Establish a presidential commission aimed at preventing and prosecuting enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions. 3)Order the administration to fully implement the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement in order to ensure the safety and well-being of the displaced.This video tells the story of the Maguindanao Massacre when 63 civilians were killed... more
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Jeremy Scahill, The Nation: "A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who has worked as a security operative for the company have made a series of explosive allegations in sworn statements filed on August 3 in federal court in Virginia. The two men claim that the company's owner, Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince 'views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe,' and that Prince's companies 'encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life.'"
Surprise, surprise- the leader of a private paramilitary organizations turns out to be a homicidal egomaniac with a God complex. Who would have thunk it?Jeremy Scahill, The Nation: "A former Blackwater employee and an ex-US Marine who... more
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tour of belfast the sights you will see,the sights that arent as common,
this project is look at the ongoing religious war from a british loyalist perspective.
I toured around all the areas which i know well .
These paintings arent graffiti they are a whole different class and style of street art all stemming from the paramilitary groups some are for rememberance of fallen comrades and some are just to celebrate belfiefs .tour of belfast the sights you will see,the sights that arent as common,
this project... more
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A social circus arrives by bus to the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado. There, they met some people who did not want to be involve in the conflict that Colombia is having. They believe all those who are killing are wrong. In 1997 they declared Community of Peace and since then the armed actors have killed to more than one third of their population. But they are ready to defend the peace up to the last consequences.
There are no ways for the peace, the peace is the way. (Mahatma Gandhi)A social circus arrives by bus to the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado. There,... more
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More than 700 servicemen and women were killed by paramilitaries during the military campaign which was known as Operation Banner.
During the 40 years of the Army's longest continuous campaign, over 300,000 servicemen and women were deployed.
The Prince of Wales, Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Chief of the Defence Staff Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup will join veterans and their families at St Paul's Cathedral, in London, for the event.
Also among the congregation will be Defence Secretary Des Browne, former premiers Baroness Thatcher and Tony Blair, leaders of the Opposition and the Duchess of Cornwall.
Operation Banner started in 1969 as sectarian violent unrest escalated and was formally ended at midnight on July 31 last year.
The Prime Minister said in a statement released ahead of the service: "We owe a debt of gratitude to all service personnel who served on Operation Banner between 1969 and 2007, and especially those who gave their lives.
"They helped create the conditions for the peace Northern Ireland now enjoys and today we salute their courage.
"It is in their honour and for all the people of Northern Ireland that all those committed to the province's future must work together to ensure a lasting peace."
More than 700 servicemen and women were killed by paramilitaries during the military... more
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* BLACKWATER : BUSH / CHENEY'S PRIVATE JUNTA * ARMED & DANGEROUS *
If the Republicans lose in 2008, they will leave office armed and dangerous. Bush's Praetorian Guard could presage the final stage in the collapse of American democracy. http://www.indypendent.org/?p=1230
HOW TO DESTROY A COUNTRY AND GET OFF SCOT-FREE * The warmongers invaded, crushed and occupied a country that was no threat to anyone. They stood by as it was looted, exacerbated sectarianism, flattened entire towns, tortured untold numbers of innocents, brought in gum-chewing, tattooed foreign mercenaries and paid crony companies billions of dollars for mythical reconstruction projects. By Linda Heard
POP QUIZ : Which multi-billion dollar defense contractor is actually classified as a small business? It Misrepresents Itself as Mom and Pop Inc. to get Government Contracts. While it received 32 government contracts that had limited applicants to revenues of $6.5 million or less, the company has earned more than $1 billion in government contracts since 2002. CAN YOU SAY CRONY CAPITALISM ? Here's a hint: It's facing a war crimes inquiry and its got "Worldwide" in its name.
"The tyrant, who in order to hold his power, suppresses every superiority, does away with good men, forbids education and light, controls every movement of the citizens and, keeping them under a perpetual servitude, wants them to grow accustomed to baseness and cowardice, has his spies everywhere to listen to what is said in the meetings, and spreads dissension and calumny among the citizens and impoverishes them, is obliged to make war in order to keep his subjects occupied and impose on them permanent need of a chief." - Aristotle
"We are watching a poorly staged rendition of Wag the Dog , interpreted for the morbidly stupid and performed by the criminally insane." - Jules Carlysle
* BLACKWATER : BUSH / CHENEY'S PRIVATE JUNTA * ARMED & DANGEROUS *
If the... more
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Neither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
The U.S. public holds Big Business in shockingly low regard.
A November 2007 Harris poll found that less than 15 percent of the population believes each of the following industries to be "generally honest and trustworthy:" tobacco companies (3 percent); oil companies (3 percent); managed care companies such as HMOs (5 percent); health insurance companies (7 percent); telephone companies (10 percent); life insurance companies (10 percent); online retailers (10 percent); pharmaceutical and drug companies (11 percent); car manufacturers (11 percent); airlines (11 percent); packaged food companies (12 percent); electric and gas utilities (15 percent). Only 32 percent of adults said they trusted the best-rated industry about which Harris surveyed, supermarkets.
With the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007, we aim to show - again - that Big Business is out of control and to connect comparable abuses to the failure of government overseers, regulators and enforcers.
Presented alphabetically, here are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2007:
http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2007/112007/mokhiber.htmlNeither Honest Nor Trustworthy: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2007
by Russell... more
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"Colombian prosecutors have ordered the arrest of a cousin and key ally of President Alvaro Uribe over alleged ties to paramilitary groups.
The chief prosecutor's office said Mario Uribe Escobar was accused of criminal conspiracy.
Mr Uribe, who stepped down as a senator last October, denies any wrongdoing.
He is one of the most prominent figures caught up in the scandal that has seen dozens of politicians arrested over alleged links to paramilitaries.""Colombian prosecutors have ordered the arrest of a cousin and key ally of... more
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This is the personal story of Frank, a former Colombian paramilitary soldier, who was part of a massive demobilization process that forced more than 4100 men to give up their weapons.
Frank has suffered from his past, but lives to tell his story.This is the personal story of Frank, a former Colombian paramilitary soldier, who was... more
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Torture as Policy under George Bush
"On October 5, George Bush confronted a public uproar and defended his administration claiming "This government does not torture people." Again he lied. Once secret US Department of Justice (DOJ) legal opinions confirm the Bush administration condones torture by endorsing "the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency." It also condones paramilitary thuggery, oppressive occupation, and genocide. This unholy combination is the ugly face of an imperial nation run by war criminals. That's the state of things today. First, the practice of torture."
(click on the link to read more)Torture as Policy under George Bush
"On October 5, George Bush confronted a... more
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