Archive for May, 2009

From Bite Back:

May 20, 2009 – Mexico
SUPPORT FOR PRISONERS BY MEANS OF HAMMERS, PAINT AND FIRE

anonymous communique (translation):

Spanish:
“Debido a la coordinación que se hizo entre grupos a fines por la acción directa organizada en el Estado de México como en el Distrito Federal, del 18 al 19 de mayo se han llevado a cabo los siguientes sabotajes:

· Se ataco un banco BBVA estrellándole los cristales
· Se coloco un dispositivo incendiario arriba de un cajero automático perteneciente a otro banco BBVA, dejándolo completamente derretido e inservible y se dejo una nota reivindicando la acción
· Se rompieron los vidrios de otro banco BBVA ha martillazos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHGYyqscHfE)
· Se derramo pintura roja en el parabrisas y en el cofre de una camioneta perteneciente a la empresa de lácteos Lala

Estas acciones están hechas en solidaridad con lxs Presxs, humanxs y no humanxs (animales), unxs encarceladxs por llevar a la práctica sus ideales anti-autoritarios y otxs por ser solo de otra especie, pero lxs dxs victimas del sistema dominante.
Tanto las condiciones de las cárceles y penales humanos, como las granjas industriales, están llenas de malos tratos e inhumanos, de hacinamiento y miedo.
Por eso, cualquier persona o movimiento que se diga verdaderamente revolucionario debe luchar activamente por la abolición de ambos centros de exterminio mental, físico y psicológico.
Quisimos demostrar nuestro apoyo a lxs presxs por medio de piedras, martillos, pintura y fuego, por que es lo en verdad afecta a lxs poderosxs, la acción directa individual y colectivamente será la respuesta que recibirán ante su represión y sus sistemas carcelarios.
Sabemos que el estado siempre será un acérrimo enemigo de aquellas personas que no se dejan domesticar y que dejan el miedo atrás para enfrentar las consecuencias de sus actos pedidos a gritos por la coherencia a sus ideales. Por eso nosotrxs, desde la clandestinidad, desde algún lugar conspirando para el siguiente golpe decimos:

¡No más montajes contra Amadeu Castellas!
¡Queremos su libertad, de no ser así, estos actos continuaran y se multiplicaran! (no es una coincidencia que hayamos atacado los bancos españoles BBVA)
¡Fuego a las cárceles, que impiden la libertad a cualquier costa!
¡Solidaridad con lxs Presxs humanxs y no humanxs!

Células Autónomas por la Propagación de Ofensiva Anti-autoritaria y Anti-especista (CAPOAA)”

In English:

“Because of coordination that took place between groups with the goal of organized direct action in Mexico State as well as in Mexico City, from May 18 to 19 the following sabotages were carried out:

- A BBVA bank was attacked, smashing the windows.
- An incendiary device was placed on top of an ATM belonging to another BBVA bank, leaving it completely melted and unusable and a note was left claiming the action.
- The windows of another BBVA bank were smashed with hammers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHGYyqscHfE).
- Red paint was spilled on the windshield and the hood of a truck belonging to the Lala milk company

These actions are done in solidarity with prisioners, human and non-human (animals), some imprisoned for putting into practice their anti-authoritarian ideals and others imprisoned for simply being another species, but both are victims of the dominant system.

The human jails and prisons, just like the industrial farms, are full of mistreatment and inhumanity, of overcrowding and fear.

Therefore, any person or movement that claims to be truly revolutionary should fight actively for the abolition of both centers of mental, physical and psychological extermination.

We wanted to show our support for prisioners by means of stones, hammers, paint and fire, because that is what truly affects the powerful; direct action, individually and collectively, will be the response they will receive to their repression and prison systems.

We know that the state will always be a staunch enemy of those people who do not let themselves be domesticated and who leave fear behind in order to face up to the consequences of their acts, crying out for consistency of ideals. Because of this, we in the underground, in some place plotting the next strike, say:

No more framing of Amadeu Castellas!
We want his freedom, if not, these acts will continue and will multiply! (it is not a coincidence that we have attacked the Spanish bank BBVA)
Fire to the prisons, which impede freedom at any cost!
Solidarity with human and non-human prisioners!

Autonomous Cells for Propagation of the Anti-authoritarian and Anti-speciesist Offensive (CAPOAA)”

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Comrades,

We bear tragic news from here in Chile.

During the early morning of May 22, we lost our beloved comrade Mauricio Morales Duarte. According to the bourgeois press, Mauricio was transporting an explosive device in downtown Santiago. The device exploded unexpectedly, and our comrade died in combat.

Long live comrade Mauricio Morales! Mauricio joins the list of fallen combatants under the democratic regime in Chile. He was a dedicated and militant anarchist. We remember Mauricio as a youth combatant like so many before him.

Over the last three years, there have been countless non-lethal and low intensity attacks on capital across Chile. These attacks have often fallen near the anniversaries of various days of combat, and they have occurred without arrests.

Police are currently searching for a second person present at the scene of Mauricio’s death. They are also raiding various anarchist squats across Santiago.

Please check: Hommodolars.org for more information in spanish.

[Article translated from the bourgeois press]

Name revealed of individual who died from the explosion of bomb that he transported

27 year old man from the southern part of the capital

Francisco Águila, El Mercurio Online

Santiago.-This afternoon the name was finally revealed of the 27 year old individual who died last night from the explosion of a bomb that he transported, while he traveled near the School of Prison Guards, located in downtown Santiago.

According to sources connected to the investigation, it was Mauricio Andrés Morales Duarte, with a home address on María Graham street in the San Bernardo community.

At this time members of the Police of Investigations are at the home of the subject, who was identified this morning by his fingerprints.

According to the reports, Morales Duarte died instantly from head trauma caused by the explosion.

His name was known by prosecutors who are investigating the explosive attacks that in recent times have impacted various areas of the capital.

In fact, the sub-secretary of the Interior, Patricio Rosende, affirmed that “there is an evident connection with anarchist groups,” and “without a doubt” it will help clarify the events of this type that have occurred in the past.

Also, the prosecution will investigate the participation of another subject in the incident, who appears in images captured by the security cameras of a business located in front of the site of detonation.

[Article translated from the bourgeois press]

Man who transported homemade bomb dies by explosion in downtown Santiago

The detonation occurred this morning, while the individual circled near the School of Prison Guards, located on Avenue Matta.

Santiago.-Dead and severely mutilated by an explosion: this was the result this morning of a man who transported a homemade bomb in downtown Santiago.

The subject traveled by bicycle towards the School of Prison Guards, located on Avenue Matta, when close to 1:30 in the morning, the artifact detonated. According to radio Bío-Bío, it was made of a fire extinguisher–filled with gun powder—that the subject transported in a backpack.

Inhabitants in the area awoke, because of the loud noise. When arriving at the area of the explosion, they saw with horror the dismembered body of the subject, without hands and legs, and with a burned face.

Police cordoned off the area, searching for human remains in a radius of seventy meters, while they investigated the identity of the victim and the characteristics of the bomb. After five hours of analysis by specialists, they believe that the man was an adult, and he may have wanted to attack the School of the Prison Guards.

In addition to the homemade bomb, a .38 caliber revolver was also found on the deceased. According to the reports, before the explosion, a telephone call was made to the School of the Prison Guards altered of a possible attack.

According to radio Bío-Bío, there is hope that the tragic event will help reveal information about the bombings that have occurred during recent months in the capital.

The explosion caused damage to several nearby structures, including a childcare center.

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The glorious strike of the Iran Khodro workers to get their unpaid wages and convert temporary contracts to permanent ones ends in victory

Last week the workers of Iran Khodro were successful with their glorious strike which started in the assembly hall and continued in the shuttle (body) hall and ended with the press hall strike. The workers’ immediate demands were payment of their unpaid wages (productivity and last year’s production record bonuses) and to switch workers on temporary contracts to contracts of the Iran Khodro Company itself.

At first the new management of Iran Khodro would not pay the productivity and production record bonuses and postponed paying the wages for Farvardin [the first Iranian month, 21 March-20 April]. When faced with the workers’ protest, it paid the wages to stop the protest spreading. But the workers announced that the time for waiting was over and that to reach their demands they had decided to go on strike. Once the managers, who had recently come to the Company, grasped the seriousness of a strike starting, 150 thousand tomans [£97,395; $154,353; €111,086] was paid into the workers’ accounts within a few hours. But not only did the strike not die down it spread from the assembly hall until it reached the shuttle hall and the production lines – they all came to a halt. It was not night-time yet when all the production record bonuses were paid into workers’ accounts. And the workers showed that if they are together, once again, they can stand up to any power.

Another victory

All the contract workers on the production lines in Iran Khodro will be leaving contractors’ companies and be signed up by Iran Khodro itself.

When on May 2 the Industry Minister, who had the mobilised forces supporting him in the Azadi [Freedom] Stadium for a Labour Day ceremony, was silent and ignored [the fact] that hundreds of workers had been arrested on International Labour Day, he was confronted by the shouts of workers calling for the lying minister to resign. They wanted an end to temporary contracts. Then the minister announced that he will keep his promise and that he had told managers under the Ministry’s authority, to give a section of workers permanent contracts before the election. After that the new [Iran Khodro] management’s notice announced the names of a few thousand workers who were getting [permanent contracts] as part of this public commitment, but the names of the press [hall workers], who are under contract from the PGI contractor, were not among them.

After this issue [came to light] the workers of the press hall brought the production lines to a standstill and gathered in front of the management office. The strike continued from the morning to the evening shifts, but before it was time for the night shift, management announced that all workers will be covered by the public commitment. And another victory for the workers of Iran Khodro was chalked up.

Iran Khodro workers
18 May 2009

Translated by Iranian Workers’ Solidarity Network

For further news on the situation of the tyre workers see the special section.

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Submitted by taxikipali on May 22 2009

Extended clashes broke our in Athens on Friday 22/5, during the second protest march in two days against police racism, after a cop tore the Koran and brutalised Muslims during anti-immigrant sweeping operations. During the clashes many protesters were injured arrested and hospitalised.

A second protest march against police racism took to the streets of Athens on Friday 22/5/08 in response to the incident of anti-muslim brutality two nights before during a police sweeping-operation against immigrants in the center of Athens. During what appears to be a typically offensive search of muslim immigrants at a local cafe, a policeman tore a Koran in pieces and stepped on threatening the immigrants in compromising racist language. The incident led to a protest march on Thurday with limited clashes between police and demonstrators.

During the Friday protest march immigrants and solidarity protesters of the left gathered in Omonoia square and clashed with the police outside the Greek parliament. The protesters piled the riot police with marbles, shoes and other projectiles, receiving tear gas and blast flash grenades in response.The march then proceeded towards the coveted Athens area of Agios Panteleimonas where the anti-muslim incident had occurred. On the way, protesters smashed banks, expensive shops and government vehicles, before being massively attacked by strong riot police forces. During the battle that ensued scores of protesters were seriously injured, many being hospitalised, while 40 were arrested and remain in custody. One Syrian protester is said to be arrested during the protest march for allegedly throwing a molotov cocktail against the local police department.

The riots that have once again reduced much of the capital’s center into a battle zone come at a time of increasing tension across the country, accentuated by both the political impasse after the surprise dissolution of the Parliament earlier this month, and the continuing pressure of urban guerrilla groups which once again demonstrated their resolve this week by bombing the offices of the Siemens affiliated corporation that has provided the greek police with its new phone tapping and electronic surveillance system meant to frame the social antagonistic movement after the December uprising. The attack which injured none due to a previous warning call was claimed by the left-wing urban guerrilla group “Popular Will”, who also claimed responsibility for the bombing of the State Land Management headquarters last March. The greek branch of Siemens is involved in one of the biggest economic scandals of the collapsing government, with its head on the run, and its deputy-head held in custody.

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Submitted by taxikipali on May 21 2009

Immigrants march in Athens after incident of policemen beating a Muslim when they found a copy of the Koran in his bag which they cut into pieces in an orgy of racist bigotry.

On Thursday 21 May afternoon 1500 immigrants took to the street of Athens marching to the police station of Kypseli, the most densely populated area of the Greek capital. The protest march was organised in response to yet another incident of police racism against Muslims the previous night. When as part of the now common anti-immigrant sweeping operations the notoriously racist greek police stopped a Syrian immigrant and found in his bag a copy of the Koran, they severely beat him, tearing the Koran in pieces and jumping on its torn fragments on the ground.

The incident comes as yet another example of greek police fascism which has reached new levels after the active involvement of immigrants in the December uprising. The most common target of both police, the secret services and paramilitary thugs are members of the Pakistani community, which is despised by the police state for its active involvement in left wing politics. An increasing number of attacks against Pakistani activists has been reported after December, recalling the infamous arrest of more than a thousand Muslims in Athens after the London July metro bombing, and the setting up of secret interrogation camps in the greek mountains, uncovered by the British media in the winter of 2006. In a bravado of racist policy unique to Europe, no public worship of Islam is allowed in Athens or other major cities, and the State does not allow the creation of a Muslim cemetery.

The police sweeping operations against immigrants are concentrated on the area of Agios Panteleimonas where a number of Greek residents allied with neo-nazi groups have been launching an racist hatred campaign in the last year. Thursday’s protest march began in Omonoia, met at the square of Agios Panteleimonas with solidarity protesters and marched to the Kypseli police station where limited clashes occurred, with one policeman injured. New marches are planned for the following days.

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Submitted by Ed on May 17 2009

Police apprehended more than 450 labor activists Saturday after a violent protest in Daejeon which left about 150 injured. Labour unrest is set to escalate this month as truck drivers plan to strike and a major labour umbrella group pledged to join.

Thousands of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions members rallied in the city to mark the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Uprising. They mourned a unionized trucker who committed suicide earlier this month in what colleagues said was a protest against the government’s policies.

The clash erupted when activists marched toward a major transportation company and a police station at 6pm. They attacked riot police with flagpoles and stones, while police fought back with water cannons and batons.

About 50 protesters and 104 police officers were injured during the three-hour skirmish, according to the Daejeon Police Agency. The windows of 99 vehicles, including police buses, were shattered, it said. A total of 457 workers were taken to police stations. Police booked all of them and will seek arrest warrants for those who led the protest and were involved in the violence.

The labour group said police caused the collision by blocking their parade violently.

The bulk of protesters were from the Korean Cargo Workers’ Union, which just ahead of the rally approved a plan to go on a walkout demanding labour rights, better working conditions and reinstatement of dismissed workers.

The leaders of the 15,000-member union will decide the strike date later. They will meet with representatives of railway, port, construction and public sector unions early this week to discuss joint actions.

During the rally, the KCTU declared it will advance its general strike scheduled for next month to join force with the truck drivers. The union is demanding basic labor rights for its members.

The government does not allow them the right for collective action because they are formally categorized as self-employed businessmen and not as employed workers. The drivers usually own trucks and work under contract with transport companies.

They also demand that transport firms cancel the reduction of payments and that Korea Express Inc., a major logistics company, rehire 78 laid-off workers.

A union leader committed suicide by hanging in Daejeon May 3. He had been wanted by police on charges of organizing illegal rallies against the company.

The cargo union staged a week-long strike in June last year, causing an estimated $7.2 billion in damage to the export-dependent economy, the government said.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said it will not accept the demands of the union and warned of stern action against illegal strikes. The government said it will stop paying fuel subsidies to striking truckers and cancel the business licenses of those who physically disrupt freight transportation. It will also mobilize military vehicles and personnel to escort non-striking truck drivers.

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May 21, 2009

BY NADRA KAREEM

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A pair of men awaiting trial for their alleged involvement in the 1971 murder of San Francisco Police Sgt. John Young declared their innocence at the May 12 meeting in Pasadena.

In 2007, Ray Boudreaux, 64, and Hank Jones, 70, were two of eight men charged with murder and conspiracy in connection with the decades-old murder. Although a San Francisco judge dismissed the indictments against the “San Francisco 8” in 1975 and ’76, the case was reopened based on the prosecution’s claims of new evidence linking the men to the killing. But Boudreaux and Jones argue that authorities targeted them as murder suspects due to their involvement with the Black Panther Party in the 1970s.

“COINTELPRO was pivotal in pitting the Black Panther Party and police against each other,” Jones said during his visit to the Pasadena-Foothill American Civil Liberties Union.

COINTELPRO is an acronym for the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program.

Although the Black Panther Party acquired a reputation for being a militant group, Boudreaux and Jones, both Altadena residents now, said that it served the community’s needs at the time. Boudreaux was involved in the party’s free breakfast program, and Jones was an active member.

“There would have never been a Black Panther Party had there not been … racism … discrimination,” Jones said. But the federal government “used the police to quiet the unrest in the black community.”

He argued that the Black Panther Party enjoyed widespread community support until COINTELPRO, he says, launched a misinformation campaign about the group, often casting them as violent aggressors instead of a group focused on self-defense.

On June 8, the “San Francisco 8” will have a preliminary hearing related to the cold case. Then, Boudreaux anticipates a favorable outcome.

“We expect the case to be dismissed sometime during this preliminary hearing,” he said. “Many of the motions to have the case dismissed by the judge were put off to the preliminary hearing.”

In Spring 2008, five of the defendants were cleared of conspiracy charges because the statute of limitations had run out. This completely cleared one of the eight — Richard O’Neal — as a defendant in the case because he was only charged with conspiracy and not murder. At the preliminary hearing, defense attorneys will seek to have conspiracy charges against the remaining three men dismissed.

In addition to O’Neal, Boudreaux and Jones, the remaining defendants include Francisco Torres, Harold Taylor, Herman Bell and Jalil Muntaqim (formerly Anthony Bottom).

Asked by an audience member if each member of the “San Francisco 8” was innocent, Boudreaux insisted that was the case. “We had nothing to do with it,” he said.

Both he and Jones claim that confessions obtained by the police from the ’70s about the murder resulted from torture.

Police coercion factored in a judge’s decision to dismiss charges against the men in the ’70s. Now that the case has been reopened, Jones said he felt the prosecution was “… looking for a face-saving way out of this.”

Jones said that no new evidence ties the men to the case.

“They say they have weapons,” he said. “There are no weapons.”

Jones and Boudreaux also said that before their murder arrests, some of the eight men did not know each other.

Although his political activism may have factored into why he was targeted as a suspect in the original case, Jones said he has no regrets over his involvement in the Black Panther Party.

“I’ve been an activist since the murder of Emmett Till in 1955,” he said. Till was a teenage boy from Chicago who was killed by white men for allegedly making a pass at a white woman in Mississippi.

“His mother was wise enough to leave that casket open,” Jones said of Till. “It affected me. Before then, I was a Marine, apolitical. I’ve been an activist ever since, and I’ll die one.”

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