{"id":7798,"date":"2012-08-26T22:19:27","date_gmt":"2012-08-27T06:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=7798"},"modified":"2012-08-26T22:19:27","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T06:19:27","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-almost-labor-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-almost-labor-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch almost labor day"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Keep Up as Chicago Fights the RaTTs www.substancenews.net\/index.php<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Colombia Workers vs GM <\/strong>At the beginning of this month a group of former General Motors (GM) workers stitched their lips shut and began a hunger strike in the Colombian capital, Bogota. They had already spent over a year outside the US embassy with no success in fighting against what they said was their unfair dismissal.\u00a0The protestors say GM has fired more than 200 employees after they reported on-the-job injuries, including herniated discs, carpal tunnel syndrome and tendonitis, at the company’s Colombian plant.
\nIn addition, they say the US car company refused to provide any compensation to the workers and erased medical records to bolster its legal case.
\nThe US car maker, which started operating in Colombia 50 years ago and now has more than 1,800 employees in the country, denies the allegations and says it has never put the health of any employee at risk, nor discharged anyone for health reasons.
\nThe protest is focusing attention on worker’s rights in Colombia following the implementation of a long-delayed free trade agreement with the US earlier this year. One of the US’ prerequisites for passing the agreement was to enact a Labour Action Plan aimed at curtailing abuses of workers’ rights.
\nBut some argue that such free trade agreements often result in worse conditions for workers. And critics say little has changed in a country regarded as the most dangerous in the world to be a member of a trade union. \u00a0http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/programmes\/insidestoryamericas\/2012\/08\/201282244939753622.html<\/p>\n

Arrests For Backing Bradley Manning <\/strong> Six veterans and activists in Oakland, and six more in Portland, were arrested yesterday night at Obama 2012 campaign offices for occupying the spaces in solidarity with accused WikiLeaks whistle-blower PFC Bradley Manning. Dozens of veterans and anti-war demonstrators coordinated a West Coast set of actions that also included protests in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Seattle.
\nAmong the approximately 100 Oakland protesters was Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen, who participated in the sit-in and explained, \u201cWe occupied the President\u2019s campaign office to raise awareness about the injustices Bradley Manning has endured. Bradley has sacrificed for us, doing what was right despite potentially spending the rest of his life in jail.\u201d
\nProtesters delivered a letter to campaign staff members, which they requested be sent to President Obama at the main campaign headquarters in Chicago. The letter makes its demands clear: that President Obama pardon PFC Bradley Manning, accounting for both his abusive treatment in a Quantico prison cell and the president\u2019s own unlawfully prejudicial remarks that Bradley \u201cbroke the law.\u201d \u00a0http:\/\/couragetoresist.org\/<\/p>\n

Call for More Actions to Back Bradley Manning <\/strong>The Bradley Manning Support Network, Afghans For Peace and SF Bay Iraq Veterans Against the War Call for Nationwide Actions at local Obama Campaign Offices September 6th 2012 during the Democratic National Convention! Free Bradley Manning!
\nSince Army PFC Bradley Manning\u2019s arrest in May 2010 for allegedly sharing the \u201cCollateral Murder\u201d video and other evidence of war crimes and government corruption with the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, progressives and human rights activists have been asking, \u201cWhy isn\u2019t President Obama stepping in to help Bradley?\u201d \u00a0 ymlp.com\/zVQHSh<\/a><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Anc_gP2_QeI<\/a><\/p>\n

Chrysler Dundee Workers Reject Sellout <\/strong>Last week the 590 unionized workers at the plant voted 73% to reject a new local contract with Chrysler. Local contracts typically cover items like work schedules and other plant-specific work rules. \u00a0 …\u201cThey did not canvas us or ask anybody for what we wanted,\u201d West said. \u201cThe guys from the union thought they had all the answers.\u201d
\nChrysler has said that it will not reopen local contract talks with the UAW for the Dundee agreement.
\nChrysler\u2019s position is the UAW does not have the authority to strike. But a similar agreement with General Motors includes a waiver allowing a strike over a local agreement and at least one labor analyst thinks that is the case at Chrysler too. \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.freep.com\/article\/20120823\/BUSINESS0103\/120823051\/UAW-workers-Chrysler-Dundee-plant-regroup-after-rejecting-contract?odyssey=nav%7Chead<\/p>\n

Anon Payback <\/strong>Hactivist group Anonymous claims to have taken down the websites of Interpol and a British police force as part of a campaign calling for the freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
\nSeveral Twitter accounts associated with the loose-knit Anonymous collective have announced that the website of International Criminal Police Organization was taken down. The site was unavailable as of 9:18 pm GMT on Sunday but resumed functioning soon after.
\nThe hackers also claim to have taken down the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), a UK police unit responsible for operations against serious and organized crime. \u00a0 rt.com\/news\/anonymous-interpol-free-assange-607\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Capitalist Colleges on the Hunt for Dollars (students as surplus value) <\/strong>U.S. colleges including New York University and Northeastern University are pushing freshmen into study-abroad programs — before the students even set foot on campus — to enroll larger classes and get more tuition dollars.
\nNYU and Boston-based Northeastern, which both charge more than $50,000 a year to attend, make some freshmen spend the first semester or two abroad. They then use the students and their tuitions to fill the beds of midyear dropouts and upper classmen heading overseas. While some students find the opportunity rewarding, others are disoriented at not starting off with their class or having a choice. \u00a0 \u00a0 www.bloomberg.com\/news\/2012-08-24\/colleges-ship-freshmen-to-paris-to-boost-tuition-coffers.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Racism Still thrives in the Empire’s Schools <\/strong> When it comes to spending on the education of our children, students of color are being shortchanged, according to the Center for American Progress\u2019s latest education report, \u201cUnequal Education: Federal Loophole Enables Lower Spending on Students of Color.\u201d
\nNearly 60 years after the 1954 landmark ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education, in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared public education is \u201ca right which must be made available on equal terms,\u201d racial inequities in school spending persist. Let\u2019s look at some of the national numbers:
\nAcross the country schools spent $334 more on every white student than on every nonwhite student
\nMostly white schools (90 percent or more white) spent $733 more per student than mostly nonwhite schools (90 percent or more nonwhite)The United States spends $293 less per year on students in mostly nonwhite schools than on students in all other schools. That\u2019s 7 percent of the median per-pupil spending
\nSince fully 35 percent of the nation\u2019s students of color attend school in either California or Texas, examining the relationship between the percent of students of color and dollars spent per student can bring the problem into sharper focus.
\nIn California schools serving 90 percent or more nonwhite students, per-pupil spending is $191 less than at all other schools, and $4,380 less than at schools serving 90 percent or more white students
\nIn Texas schools serving 90 percent or more nonwhite students, per-pupil spending is $514 less than at all other schools, and $911 less than at schools serving 90 percent or more white students \u00a0http:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/issues\/education\/news\/2012\/08\/22\/32862\/students-of-color-still-receiving-unequal-education\/<\/p>\n

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Gropenfuhrer Gets a School <\/strong>The University of Southern California has announced the creation of the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, named for the former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/13\/education\/education-briefs.html?ref=internationaleducation<\/p>\n

The Fraudsters at UNC (for how long?) <\/strong> For the past two years, North Carolina officials have liked to talk about getting past the scandal that landed it in N.C.A.A. hot water, embarrassing a university that likes to believe it is one of the few doing things \u201cthe right way.\u201d The embers of the era of Butch Davis as the football coach showed that things had gone seriously off the rails, and now they have gotten only worse with the apparent leaking of Julius Peppers\u2019s eye-opening transcript, which indicates the academic fraud stretches back a lot longer than the Davis era.
\nThe university\u2019s chancellor, Holden Thorp, on Thursday announced that an independent review, headed by former Gov. James G. Martin, would look into the situation and determine whether academic fraud stretched back further than 2007, which was the starting point for the violations that landed North Carolina on its current N.C.A.A. probation. \u00a0 thequad.blogs.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/17\/widening-u-n-c-scandal-prompts-independent-review\/?ref=education<\/a><\/p>\n

U. Georgia Drives out Student Editors <\/strong> The walkout came after Ms. Marinova obtained a draft memo written by a board member that contained proposed guidelines for the newspaper. The memo listed, among \u201cbad\u201d news that was to be played down, \u201ccontent that catches people or organizations doing bad things.\u201d
\nThe author, who was not identified, added, \u201cI guess this is \u2018journalism\u2019 \u201d \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/17\/us\/georgia-student-newspaper-editors-quit-over-interference.html?ref=education<\/p>\n

Corruption is always Part of Capitalist Schooling <\/strong>The principal of Stuyvesant High School abruptly announced his retirement on Friday afternoon, even as New York City continued its investigation into a cheating scandal that recently rocked the elite institution. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/04\/education\/stuyvesant-principal-announces-retirement-amid-inquiry-into-cheating.html?ref=educationThe Race for Empire, in the Schools <\/strong> This week, the Center for American Progress and the Center for the Next Generation released a report entitled \u201cThe Race That Really Matters: Comparing U.S., Chinese and Indian Investments in the Next Generation Workforce.\u201d The findings were breathtaking:
\n\u2022 Half of U.S. children get no early childhood education, and we have no national strategy to increase enrollment.
\n\u2022 More than a quarter of U.S. children have a chronic health condition, such as obesity or asthma, threatening their capacity to learn.
\n\u2022 More than 22 percent of U.S. children lived in poverty in 2010, up from about 17 percent in 2007.
\n\u2022 More than half of U.S. postsecondary students drop out without receiving a degree. \u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/25\/opinion\/blow-starving-the-future.html?_r=1&hp<\/a><\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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US Foreign Arms Sailes Triple in one Year, $66.3 Billion <\/strong>Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran\u2019s regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress.\u00a0Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or nearly 78 percent of the global arms market valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.
\nThe American weapons sales total was an \u201cextraordinary increase\u201d over the $21.4 billion in deals for 2010, the study found, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history of United States arms exports. \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/08\/27\/world\/middleeast\/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html?_r=1&ref=global-home<\/p>\n

Surge Schmerge (guerrillas winning) <\/strong> When President Obama surged 30,000 additional U.S. troops into Afghanistan in 2010, the new forces were concentrated overwhelmingly on two volatile areas of southern Afghanistan: Helmand and Kandahar Provinces. Now, as the troop surge is practically over, those provinces still rank as the most violent in the entire country.
\nAccording to Marine Gen. John Allen, the commander of the war, ten districts around Afghanistan account for fully half of the insurgent violence in the country. (Afghanistan has 405 districts.) According to a breakdown provided to Danger Room by the Pentagon, six of those districts \u2014 Sangin, Now Zad, Nad Ali, Kajaki, Musa Qalah, and Nahr-e Saraj \u2014 are in Helmand Province, where the Marines started fighting a costly and grueling battle with the Taliban in 2009. Three more of them \u2014 Maiwand, Panjwei and Zharay \u2014 are in Kandahar, the Taliban\u2019s birthplace and the scene of similarly arduous Army fighting from 2010 to the present. (The final district, Pul-e Alam, is in the eastern Logar Province.) \u00a0 www.wired.com\/dangerroom\/2012\/08\/afghanistan-violence-helmand\/<\/a><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Wy_XmN1NoY0&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fclient%3Dopera%26rls%3Den%26q%3Dsyrian%2Brebels%2Bkill%2Bprisoner%26oe%3Dutf-8%26channel%3Dsuggest%26um%3D1%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN%26tab%3Dw1<\/a><\/p>\n

Near “7 Days in May” Scenario? War with Iran <\/strong>Gwenyth Todd had worked in a lot of places in Washington where powerful men didn\u2019t hesitate to use sharp elbows. She had been a Middle East expert for the National Security Council in the Clinton administration. She had worked in the office of Defense Secretary Dick Cheney in the first Bush administration, where neoconservative hawks first began planning to overthrow Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
\nBut she was not prepared a few years later in Bahrain when she encountered plans by high-ranking admirals to confront Iran, any one of which, she reckoned, could set the region on fire. It was 2007, and Todd, then 42, was a top political adviser to the U.S. Navy\u2019s 5th Fleet. \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/magazine\/sunk\/2012\/08\/21\/96209788-cebd-11e1-aa14-708bac2c7ee9_story.html<\/p>\n

US Ups Backing of Fascist Coup in Hondurous, and the Drug trade–you bet on it <\/strong> Honduras is under siege. Its judicial system is almost completely dysfunctional, and more than 10,000 complaints of human rights abuses by state security forces have been filed in the last three years, according to the Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras. At least 23 journalists have been killed since 2009. The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have all raised grave concerns about the country’s dire situation. \u00a0 www.latimes.com\/news\/opinion\/commentary\/la-oe-frank-honduras-human-rights-20120824,0,5575021.story<\/a><\/p>\n

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Syria <\/strong> Spillover <\/strong>A respite from almost a fortnight of clashes in Lebanon’s second city, Tripoli, raised hopes yesterday that the release of some kidnapping victims would ease a growing threat of unchecked violence spilling over from the Syrian civil war.
\nBut the lull failed to douse an enduring fear elsewhere in Lebanon that the enmity in the north will inevitably spread to other parts of the country. Another day of soaring violence in neighbouring Syria instead fuelled concerns that the raging civil war would further spill beyond the borders of its unstable neighbour.
\nTurkey yesterday announced that one of 11 Lebanese Shia men kidnapped north of Aleppo in Syria in May had been released in what was hailed by his captors as an “act of good will”. Hussein Ali Omar’s release came after a request by the head of the Committee of Muslim Scholars in Lebanon, Sheikh Hasan Qaterji. \u00a0http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/world\/2012\/aug\/26\/lebanon-fears-firestorm<\/p>\n

Isolated Iran to Host Meeting of 120 Nations <\/strong> Leaders of 120 countries have gathered in Tehran to attend 16th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement. Summit host Iran is expected to draw up a new peace resolution to solve the crisis in Syria. Nuclear disarmament issues are also on the table.
\nThe Non-Aligned Movement represents practically two-thirds of UN member states. The movement was founded in 1961 and has become a significant discussion platform for developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
\nAmong many global topics to be discussed at this summit are human rights and nuclear disarmament issues that have been specified in advance.
\nAt the Tehran summit Iran will take over the leadership role in the Non-Aligned Movement from Egypt for the next three years, meaning Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi is definitely heading to Tehran this week. \u00a0http:\/\/rt.com\/news\/non-aligned-movement-summit-tehran-583\/<\/p>\n

Tomgram on the Afghan War the US Lost <\/strong>One thing seems ever more likely. If your plan is to stay and train a security force growing numbers of whom are focused on killing you, then you are, by definition, in an impossible situation and you should know that your days are numbered, that it\u2019s not likely you\u2019ll be there in 2020 or even maybe 2015. When training your allies to stand up means training them to do you in, it\u2019s long past time to go, whatever your plans may have been. After all, the British had \u201cplans\u201d for Afghanistan, as did the Russians. Little good it did them.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Imagine for a moment that you were in Kabul or Washington at the end of December 2001, after the Taliban had been crushed, after Osama bin Laden fled to Pakistan, and as the U.S. was moving into \u201cliberated\u201d Afghanistan for the long haul. Imagine as well that someone claiming to be a seer made this prediction: almost 11 years from then, despite endless tens of billions of dollars spent on Afghan \u201creconstruction,\u201d despite nearly $50 billion spent on \u201cstanding up\u201d an Afghan security force that could defend the country, and with more than 700 bases built for U.S. troops and Afghan allies, local soldiers and police would be deserting in droves, the Taliban would be back in force, those being trained would be blowing their trainers away in record numbers, and by order of the Pentagon, an American soldier could not go to the bathroom unarmed on an American base for fear of being shot down by an Afghan \u201cfriend.\u201d
\nYou would, of course, have been considered a first-class idiot, if not a madman, and yet this is exactly the U.S. \u201chearts and minds\u201d record in Afghanistan to date. Welcomed in 2001, we are being shown the door in the worst possible way in 2012. Washington is losing it. It\u2019s too late to exit gracefully, but exit in time we must. \u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/www.tomdispatch.com\/post\/175587\/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_losing_it_in_washington\/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=131c76b9b3-TD_Engelhardt8_26_2012&utm_medium=email#more<\/p>\n

The International Economic War of the Rich on the Poor <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n