India- WHEN THE STATE DECLARES WAR ON THE PEOPLE

The government of India is planning a massive attack on a large area of the country controlled by the Communist Party of India Maoist. The government plans to throw everything it has at the Maoist, hoping to wipe them out and kill all the supporters of that movement.
Here are two videos that explain what is happening in those areas.

Micheal Moore on Health care

Students strike in Nicaragua

Conservatives from every country want to cut funding for education and students are fighting back. That’s the case for Nicaragua

From Radio France International:


Hundreds of students used homemade mortars to attack the National Assembly building in Managua on Tuesday as they protested against government plans to cut university funding. Further unrest is forecast for the weekend as pro-and anti-government demonstrators have both scheduled rallies in the capital.

No one was injured by the homemade mortars but several windows in the building were shattered.
The National Assembly is the only branch of the legislature not controlled by President Daniel Ortega who led the 1979 Sandinista uprising that ousted the regime of US-backed dictator Anastasio Somoza.
According to reports, lawmakers appeared visibly rattled as a mortar explosion shattered several skylights overhead in the main chamber of parliament, showering shards of glass upon their heads.
“Luckily the big pieces of glass fell where there weren't any people, because it could have killed someone,” opposition lawmaker and National Assembly Secretary Wilfredo Navarro told The Nica Times.
“Each day these mortars are getting stronger and stronger with a longer range - and we all know it's the Sandinistas who are sponsoring this.”
The student protest was against government plans to cut funding for public universities as set out in the draft budget for 2010, said National Universities Council leader Telemaco Talavera.
Lawmakers have admitted that the law was “a mistake” and have committed to support a presidential veto of the law expected this week.
Meanwhile, groups for and against President Ortega traded insults and claimed the right to demonstrate this weekend on the same stretch of road where thousands of people will square off with the likelihood of violence.
Pro-government groups said they will muster 100,000 people in support of the leftist president, while opposition leaders speak of "sinister plots" by authorities to arm their followers with rocks, clubs and bombs so they can use them against dissenters.
Opposition groups have complained to authorities for allowing the two demonstrations to take place Saturday at the same time and place, while business leaders have appealed to Ortega to personally ask that his followers change the timing of their march.
"The government thinks it not only owns the streets but the whole country. We're going to march, which will be orderly and peaceful,” Pro-Nicaragua Movement official Violeta Granera told AFP
"We won't allow ourselves to fall into violence because we're not only after ending the (Ortega) dictatorship and rescue democracy, but also breaking the vicious circle of violence gripping the country.”
The tension has been building since the ruling Sandinista party's crushing win in mayoral elections a year ago, which the opposition charged were riddled with fraud, and a Supreme Court ruling last month that cleared the way for Ortega to seek re-election in 2011.

For more click here.

Kansas politicians fight herbal highs

Once again the guardians of “our freedom” to get sick from our health care system are now worried about our mental health as a new herb called K2 is showing up in head shops.

According to The Wichita Eagle:

“Kansas City-area police confirm that little bags of dried herbs are starting to pop up among teens and young adults.
State Rep. Peggy Mast is considering trying to outlaw the substance.
The risks of smoking the substance are unknown, and some European countries already have moved to ban it.
Johnson County police first discovered the drug was being used by ex-convicts on probation and now they're seeing it in high schools.
The Sacred Journey, a botanical store in Lawrence, sells K2, and it's available online. Other brands go by the names Spice, Genie and Zohai
"It is new on the scene here," said Johnson County Sheriff's Deputy Tom Erickson. "It's just been a few weeks since we found out it was being sold locally."

And of course out legislators who have nothing else important to spend their time on are determined to stamp this product out. Not only that, they are trying to find a way to make any herb that alters people’s consciousness in any way is outlawed.

Again from The Eagle:

“Mast, an Emporia Republican, heard about K2 from The Kansas City Star.
"I would be very happy to sponsor a bill to make this illegal," Mast said.
Mast sponsored legislation a few years ago that outlawed the hallucinogenic plants jimson weed and salvia divinorum.”

Mast has also said she want s to look at all legal herbs. Jimson weed is used in a number of religions, including Druids, and many Indian shamans. Banning this is an assault on non-Christian religions. Alcohol is legal, yet anything else that can alter consciousness is banned. The excuse is that it targets children, but that isn’t really true. Most people who buy these things legally are adults. Once again, the protestant and puritanical influences trump all other religious and non puritan beliefs.
Soon we will be plagued by the garden police, spending countless hours and tax dollars checking to see what people have in their gardens.

Indian interview -- Maoist insurgents with Kisenji Part 2

Tusha Mittal, Tehelka, November 13, 2009
In this interview, underground Maoist leader Kishenji speaks on issues such as peace talks, armed struggle, the party's sources of funding, the difference between people's democracy and India's formal democracy, and the goals of the CPI (Maoist).
With unmistakable pride, he says he’s India’s Most Wanted Number 2. CPI (Maoist) Politburo member Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, 53, grew up in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh reading Gandhi and Tagore. It was after understanding the history of the world, he says, that he disappeared into the jungles for a revolution. During search operations in 1982, the police broke down his home in Peddapalli village. He hasn’t seen his mother since, but writes to her through Telugu newspapers. After 20 years in the Naxal belt of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, he relocated to West Bengal. His wife oversees Maoist operations in Dantewada [a district in southern Chhattisgarh]. Now, at a hideout barely a few kilometres from a police camp in Lalgarh, he reads 15 newspapers daily and offers to fax you his party literature. If you hold on, he’ll look up the statistics of war on his computer. Excerpts from a midnight phone interview:



How is the CPI (Maoist) funded? What about the allegations of extortion?
There are no extortions. We collect taxes from the corporates and big bourgeoisie, but it’s not any different from the corporate sector funding the political parties. We have a half-yearly audit. Not a single paisa is wasted. Villagers also fund the party by voluntarily donating two days’ earnings each year. From two days of bamboo cutting in Gadchiroli we earned Rs 25 lakh. From tendu leaf collection in Bastar we earned Rs 35 lakh. Elsewhere, farmers donated 1,000 quintals of paddy.

What if a farmer refuses to donate?
That will never happen.

Because of fear?
No. They are with us. We never charge villagers even a paisa for the development activity that we initiate.

What development have you brought to Maoist-dominated areas? How has life improved for the tribals of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand?
We’ve made the people aware of the State’s real face, told them how rich people live and what they’re deprived of. In many of these areas the tendu leaf rate used to be one rupee for 1,000 leaves. We got it hiked to 50 paise per leaf in three districts of Maharashtra, five districts of AP and the entire Bastar region. Bamboo was sold to paper mills at 50 paise per bundle. Now the rate is Rs 55. But these victories came after we faced State resistance and brutality. In Gadchiroli alone, they killed 60 people on our side, we killed five.
The CPI(Maoist) also sends medical help to 1,200 villages in India almost daily. In Bastar, our foot soldiers are proficient doctors, wearing aprons, working as midwives in the jungles. We don’t give them arms. We have 50 such mobile health teams and 100 mobile hospitals in Bastar itself. Villagers go to designated people for specific illnesses: for fever go to Issa, for dysentery to Ramu and so on. There is so much illness in these areas that there are not enough people to pick up the dead bodies. We give free medicines to doctors for distribution among the people. The government doesn’t know that the medicines come from their own hospitals.

If the State sends civil administration to the Naxal belt, will you allow it?
We will welcome it. We want teachers and doctors to come here. The people of Lalgarh have been asking for a hospital for decades. The government did nothing. When they built one themselves, the government turned it into a military camp.

What is your larger long-term vision? Outline three tangible goals.
The first is to gain political power, to establish new democracy, socialism and then communism. The second is to make our economy self sufficient so we don’t need loans from imperialists. We are still paying off foreign loans from decades ago. The debt keeps increasing because of the devaluation of our currency. It will never be repaid. This is what the World Bank wants. We need an economy that works on two things — agriculture and industry. First, the tribals want land. Until they own their land, the State will exploit them. The people should be entitled to a percentage of the crop depending on their labour. We are not opposed to industry; how can there be development without it? But we should decide which industries will work for India, not America, not the World Bank. Instead of big dams, big industries, we’ll promote small-scale industries, especially those on which agriculture depends. The third goal is to seize all the big companies – from the Tatas to the Ambanis, cancel all the MoUs [Memoranda of Understanding], declare their wealth as national wealth, and keep the owners in jail. Also, from the grassroots to the highest levels, we will create elected bodies in a democratic way

But look at the history of communist governments the world over. They became as oppressive as the ones they overthrew. There are ample examples of coercion and absence of dissent in Maoist regimes. How is this in the best interest of the people?
These are all stories spread by the capitalists. People in the villages are dying by the hundreds, but all our doctors want to live in the cities. All our engineers want to serve Japan or the IT sector. They reached their positions using the nation’s wealth. What are they doing for my country? The State cannot insist you become a doctor. But if you do, it should insist you use your skill for two years in the villages. How oppressive the State is depends on who is controlling the reigns of power.
We want to have a democratic culture. If there is no democracy, ask the villagers to start another revolution and overthrow us. In an embryonic form, we already have an alternative democratic people’s government in Bastar. Through elections, we choose a local government called the revolutionary people’s committee. People vote by raising their hands. There is a chairman, a vice-chairman, and there are departments – education, health, welfare, agriculture, law and order, people’s relations. This system exists in about 40 districts in India at present. The perception that Maoists don’t believe in democracy is wrong.
What exists in India today is formal democracy. It’s not real. Whether it’s Mamata Banerjee, or the CPM, or the Congress party, it is all dictatorship. We negotiated the release of 14 adivasi women in Bengal to show the world who the State is keeping in jail; to expose their real face.

Global Warming gives us more jelly fish

As if we needed anymore evidence of global warming, the ocean’s fish are declining while jelly fish are populations are spreading and taking over. I wonder if these Japanese fishermen, who make their living off of fish, doubt that global warming is real
From the AP

By MICHAEL CASEY, AP Environmental Writer Michael Casey, Ap Environmental Writer

KOKONOGI, Japan – A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.
The fishermen leaned into the nets, grunting and grumbling as they tossed the translucent jellyfish back into the bay, giants weighing up to 200 kilograms (450 pounds), marine invaders that are putting the men's livelihoods at risk.
The venom of the Nomura, the world's largest jellyfish, a creature up to 2 meters (6 feet) in diameter, can ruin a whole day's catch by tainting or killing fish stung when ensnared with them in the maze of nets here in northwest Japan's Wakasa Bay.
"Some fishermen have just stopped fishing," said Taiichiro Hamano, 67. "When you pull in the nets and see jellyfish, you get depressed."
This year's jellyfish swarm is one of the worst he has seen, Hamano said. Once considered a rarity occurring every 40 years, they are now an almost annual occurrence along several thousand kilometers (miles) of Japanese coast, and far beyond Japan.
Scientists believe climate change — the warming of oceans — has allowed some of the almost 2,000 jellyfish species to expand their ranges, appear earlier in the year and increase overall numbers, much as warming has helped ticks, bark beetles and other pests to spread to new latitudes.
Here on the rocky Echizen coast, amid floodlights and the roar of generators, fishermen at Kokonogi's bustling port made quick work of the day's catch — packaging glistening fish and squid in Styrofoam boxes for shipment to market.
In rain jackets and hip waders, they crowded around a visitor to tell how the jellyfish have upended a way of life in which men worked fishing trawlers on the high seas in their younger days and later eased toward retirement by joining one of the cooperatives operating nets set in the bay.
It was a good living, they said, until the jellyfish began inundating the bay in 2002, sometimes numbering 500 million, reducing fish catches by 30 percent and slashing prices by half over concerns about quality.

For the rest click on AP

Indian interview on Maoist insurgent with Kisenji Part 1

‘I Am the Real Patriot [Desh Bhakt]"

Tusha Mittal, Tehelka, November 13, 2009

In this interview, underground Maoist leader Kishenji speaks on issues such as peace talks, armed struggle, the party's sources of funding, the difference between people's democracy and India's formal democracy, and the goals of the CPI (Maoist).

With unmistakable pride, he says he’s India’s Most Wanted Number 2. CPI (Maoist) Politburo member Mallojula Koteshwar Rao alias Kishenji, 53, grew up in the interiors of Andhra Pradesh reading Gandhi and Tagore. It was after understanding the history of the world, he says, that he disappeared into the jungles for a revolution. During search operations in 1982, the police broke down his home in Peddapalli village. He hasn’t seen his mother since, but writes to her through Telugu newspapers. After 20 years in the Naxal belt of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, he relocated to West Bengal. His wife oversees Maoist operations in Dantewada [a district in southern Chhattisgarh]. Now, at a hideout barely a few kilometres from a police camp in Lalgarh, he reads 15 newspapers daily and offers to fax you his party literature. If you hold on, he’ll look up the statistics of war on his computer. Excerpts from a midnight phone interview:

Tell me about your personal journey. What made you join the CPI (Maoist)?

I was born in Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh (AP). In 1973, after a BSc mathematics degree, I moved to Hyderabad in to pursue law. My political journey began with my involvement in the Telangana Sangarsh Samiti, which has been pressing for a separate Telangana state. I launched the Radical Students Union (RSU) in AP. During the Emergency in 1975, I went underground to take part in the revolution. Several things motivated me: Writer Varavara Rao, who founded the Revolutionary Writers Association, India’s political atmosphere and the progressive environment in which I grew up.

My father was a great democrat and a freedom fighter. He was also vice-president of the state Congress party. We are Brahmins, but our family never believed in caste. When I joined the CPI (ML),my father left the Congress saying two kinds of politics can’t survive under one roof. He believed in socialism, but not in armed struggle. After the Emergency ended in 1977, I led a democratic peasant movement against feudalism. Over 60,000 farmers joined it. It triggered a nationwide peasant uprising.

The Home Minister has agreed to talks with CPI (Maoist) on issues like forest rights, land acquisition and SEZs [Special Economic Zones]? Why did you reject his offer? He’s only asking you to halt the violence.

We are ready to talk if the government withdraws its forces. Violence is not part of our agenda. Our violence is counter violence. The combat forces are attacking our people every day. In the last month in Bastar, the Cobra forces have killed 18 innocent tribals and 12 Maoists. In Chhattisgarh, those helping us with development activities are being arrested. Stop this; the violence will stop. Recently, the Chhattisgarh DGP [Director-General of Police] called the 6,000 Special Police Officers of Salwa Judum a force of pride. New recruitment continues. These people have been raping, murdering and looting tribals for years. Entire villages have been deserted because of the Salwa Judum. The government can say whatever it likes, but we do not believe them. How can they change policy when they aren’t even in control? The World Bank and America is.

On what conditions will you de-escalate violence?

The PM should apologise to the tribals and withdraw all the troops deployed in these areas. The troops are not new, we have been facing State terror for the last 20 years. All prisoners should be released. Take the time you need to withdraw forces, but assure us there won’t be police attacks meanwhile. If the government agrees to this, there will be no violence from us. We will continue our movement in the villages like before.

Before it agrees to withdrawing troops, can you give the State assurance you won’t attack for one month?

We will think about it. I’ll have to speak with my general secretary. But what is the guarantee there won’t be any attack from the police in that one month? Let the government make the declaration and start the process of withdrawing. It shouldn’t be just a show for the public. Look at what happened in AP. They began talks and broke it. Our Central Committee member went to meet the AP Secretary. Later, the police shot him for daring to talk to the government.

If you really have a pro-people agenda, why insist on keeping arms? Is your goal tribal welfare or political power?

Political power. Tribal welfare is our priority, but without political power we cannot achieve anything. One cannot sustain power without an army and weapons. The tribals have been exploited and pushed to the most backward extremes because they have no political power. They don’t have the right to their own wealth. Yet, our philosophy doesn’t insist on arms. We keep arms in a secondary place. We faced a setback in AP because of that.

The government says halt the violence first, you say withdraw the troops first. In this mindless cycle, the tribal people you claim to represent are suffering the most.

So let’s call international mediators then. Whether it’s Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal or Maharashtra, we never started the violence. The first attack always came from the government. In Bengal, the CPM [Communist Party of India (Marxist)] cadre won’t let any non-party person enter villages under their control. Police has been camping in the Lalgarh area since 1998. In such a situation, how can I press for higher potato prices and drinking water? There is no platform for me to do that. When the minimum wages in West Bengal were Rs 85 per day, people were being paid Rs 22. We demanded Rs 25. The Mahabharat [war] began when the Kauravas refused to grant the Pandavas even the five villages they asked for. The State refused our three-rupee hike. We are the Pandavas; they are the Kauravas.

You say violence is not your agenda, yet you’ve killed nearly 900 policemen in the past four years. Many of them came from poor tribal families. Even if it is counter violence, how is this furthering a pro-people goal?

Our battle is not with the police forces, it is with the State. We want to minimise the number police casualties. In Bengal, many police families actually sympathise with us. There have been 51,000 political murders by the CPM during the last 28 years. Yes, we have killed 52 CPM men in the last seven months, but only in retaliation to police and CPM brutality.

Are terrorist responsible for Major Hasan—Scott Roeder?

A new discussion is evolving over the massacre at Fort Hood by Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Is he legally a terrorist? Even though he acted alone, he was in contact with several Islamic terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda. He may have gotten inspiration and encouragement from them even if they didn’t actually help him. Some politicians are concerned about this and pundits are also questioning whether or not Hasan is actually a case of international terrorism. For example, see:

“Uncritical Pursuit Of Diversity Prevents Calling Hasan's Ft. Hood Attack Islamic Terrorism,” Pipelinenews.

This raises anther interesting question. If terrorist groups can be held responsible for what Hasan did, what about Scott Roeder? He was in contact with a member of Operation Rescue. Some anti-abortion fanatics have actually tried to raise bail for Roeder through the sale of terrorist manuals and other items on eBay. The Army of God web page starts off with the headline: “American Hero Scott Roeder.” Then it invites people to send “a thank you” to Roeder with a hyperlink to his e-mail. With all this glorification and moral support, is the Army of God responsible for those who commit murder. As with the jihadists, the Army of God and others like them, try to use religion to justify the killing of innocent people. Why is there no investigation into Roeder’s contacts? Why is he not connected with domestic terrorist groups and how are they able to openly support him and his criminal actions?

Conflict continues in Nepal and Maoist push for civilian government

The United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has made a push for change civilian control of the military. This is the main reason the UCPNM have pulled out of the parliament, where they had won a large majority of the vote. There is clearly resistance within the military for this change and the right and centre-left parties have only taken advantage of the conflict to try and gain political power in a coalition government for them selves. The following is a manifesto from the UCPNM’s own website and then news reports of today’s news on the present unrest still going on in Nepal.

From the Red Star:

Mass upsurge towards Climax
United National People’s Movement (UNPM), recently formed common platform for the struggle under the leadership of UCPN-Maoist, has declared its programme of struggle allover the country. It has recently published and publicized its manifesto of struggle against all the imposed problems by the anti-people forces and the foreign powers. The ongoing struggle has its inseparable fertile ground for progress and strong relationship of UCPN Maoist with the people with its long historical background.
It has clearly given its focus over the target, form and task of the movement along with the reasonable demands. The demands are categorized: i) as related with peace process; ii) related with nationality; iii) related with people’s power and iv) related with the people\\\'s livelihood. The 45- point demands have been included in the manifesto.
The first meeting of the (UNPM) has formed its 144 member body under the leadership of Vice President of the UCPN-Maoist Dr. Baburam Bhattarai. After the meeting, the mass organizations have declared their phase-wise programmes of the struggle all over the country.

From Nepalnews.com:

Maoists give Nov 20 deadline for consensus
Unified CPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Friday gave one week deadline to the 22-party the ruling coalition to find solution to current political deadlock.
Addressing a mass meeting at the end of the second-phase stir for restoration of 'civilian supremacy' in the capital Friday afternoon, Dahal said his party will begin third phase of protests if the coalition government failed to address the demands by November 20.He said that Nepali people have given mandate to the Maoist party to conclude the peace process and write new constitution for the country and that his party is committed to fulfill the duties entrusted by the people.

From the Kasama Project:

Street Clashes in Nepal’s Capital

Rachel Maddow and the Stupak amendment

Protest end in Nepal – Dahal warns of a third wave

From Nepalnews.com:

Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Thursday warned that his party will be compelled to announce a general strike by launching their 3rd round of nationwide agitation if their ongoing protests fails to bring about the desired results - making the government agree to correct the President's 'unconstitutional' move.The Maoist chief further said that they are in favor of ending the current deadlock immediately and expressed his hopes that a consensus will be reached within the next week.