‘Iran Oil Ban Not Workable Without Asia’

‘Iran oil ban not workable without Asia’

Tue Feb 7, 2012 4:45PM GMT
presstv.ir

China, Japan, India and South Korea account for 59 percent of Iran’s crude exports

It will be difficult to enforce a ban [on Iran’s oil imports] as India and China are not willing to back the ban.”

A London-based energy research institute says efforts made by the US and the European Union to enforce sanctions against Iran’s oil sector will fail if the sanctions are not joined by Asia’s economic giants, China and India.

A report by the Global Insight says as Asian powers become more reliant on the Iranian crude, the US and the European Union will have to struggle to enforce practical sanctions against Iran’s crude by those countries.

The report quoted the US Energy Department as saying that China, Japan, India and South Korea were the biggest users of Iran’s oil in the first half of 2010, importing 1.46 million barrels a day of Iran’s oil, or 59 percent of the country’s crude exports.

At the same time, the EU’s biggest economies, Germany, France and the UK, have together imported 77,000 barrels of Iranian crude.

“It will be difficult to enforce a ban [on Iran’s oil imports] as India and China are not willing to back the ban,” Simon Wardell, Global Insight’s energy research manager said.

“Iran will still be able to find buyers [for its oil] if they make concessions and lower their prices,” he added.

On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed into law new sanctions against Iran aimed to penalize other countries for doing transactions with Iran’s Central Bank and importing the country’s crude oil.

The European Union followed suit by approving sanctions on January 23 to ban oil imports from Iran, freeze the country’s Central Bank assets within EU members and ban sale of diamonds, gold and other precious metals to Iran.

Despite efforts made by US officials to convince Asian countries to join the sanctions, India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on January 29 that his country will not cut back on oil imports from Iran.

China has taken a similar position while South Korea, Turkey and Iraq have sought waivers on Iran oil sanctions.

Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said on January 23 that the country has “no concerns whatsoever for finding new customers.”

“The Iranian nation has many times proved that it would never yield to pressure and unjust moves,” he added.

UN food voucher scheme aims to help vulnerable Libyans and boost economy

A new United Nations food voucher scheme aims to help vulnerable families in the Libyan port city of Benghazi get the food they need while also boosting the local economy in the wake of the conflict that wracked the country last year.

Hondurans Organize Amid Growing Repression

Hondurans organize amid growing repression

By Heather Cottin
Published Feb 5, 2012 10:23 PM

When the New York Times publishes an op-ed piece stating that Honduras is “descending deeper into a human rights and security abyss” and adds that this is “in good part the State Department’s making,” something is changing. (Jan. 26)

Since the U.S. government-sponsored military coup on June 28, 2009, the State Department has spread a smokescreen to justify the kidnapping of legally elected President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and the brutal military takeover of this country of more than 8 million people.

Conditions in Honduras, the second-poorest Central American nation, have only deteriorated since the coup. Sixty-seven percent of the population — more than 5.5 million people — live below the poverty level. The unemployment rate is almost 30 percent. (hondurasnews.com, Jan. 3) The oligarchs and transnational corporations have taken total control, exploiting the people and resources, even privatizing the country’s rivers.

Since the coup, Honduras has become the center of U.S. military operations in Central America. The Soto Cano Air Base (Palmerola), to which Zelaya was flown during his kidnapping, has received an infusion of up to $45 million in construction funds since 2009. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Violence and drug trafficking in the country also spiraled upward during the same period. As a result of killings carried out by the military and military-trained police forces, Honduras has among the highest murder rates in the world. (southcom.mil) According to a report of the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission for Human Rights, there is “generalized impunity for human rights violations” and the return of death squads. (October 2010)

Lucy Pagoada, a representative of Honduras Resistencia USA, told Workers World: “The leader of the coup, Roberto Micheletti, and Miguel Facussé, the country’s richest oligarch and uncle of Honduras’ U.N. Ambassador Mary Flores Facussé, are the leading drug lords of Honduras.”

Facussé is alleged to have stolen vast tracts of land from the Indigenous and Garifuna (Afro-Honduran) people, and his death squads have killed, kidnapped and tortured dozens of peasants in the Aguan Valley. Facussé brought in the Honduran Army’s U.S.-trained 15th Infantry Battalion and private security guards to attack the Aguan peasants. A 17-year-old boy and five security guards were killed in 2010. (Honduras Solidarity Network, Aug. 19, 2010)

The New York Times piece said that the U.S.-backed coup and Washington’s support for the sham election of Porfirio Lobo Sosa in November 2009 placed a regime in power that was quickly recognized by the Obama administration. The Lobo government “threw open the doors to a huge increase in drug trafficking and violence, and it unleashed a continuing wave of state-sponsored repression. … The judicial system hardly functions. Impunity reigns. At least 34 members of the opposition have disappeared or been killed, and more than 300 people have been killed by state repression.”

According to Human Rights Watch, 18 journalists have been killed since the coup.

Repression breeds resistance

But the Honduran Resistance Movement has been in the streets, facing down the police and army in the cities and countryside. In February 2011, they held a large representative assembly and then went back to their communities to organize to take power.

For the national election set for November 2013, “Peasants, students, Indigenous peoples, teachers and workers have organized a party in direct defiance of the two traditional parties of Honduras, the National Party and the Liberal Party,” said Pagoada. “We call it ‘LibRe’ — for Liberty and Reformation. We have decided to take a political direction. Xiomara Castro Del Zelaya, the wife of Manuel Zelaya, will be our candidate, and a poll taken on Jan. 28 showed that she is the leading candidate.”

Fearing this overwhelming groundswell of resistance, the U.S. government appointed Lisa Kubiske ambassador to Honduras. On Jan. 26, Kubiske whisked President Lobo off to Miami for 10 hours of high-level talks. That resulted in his decision to support unprecedented legislation that would enable the U.S. to extradite suspected Honduran drug traffickers, specifically Miguel Facussé and Roberto Micheletti, to the United States. Lobo also ordered the arrest of police officers believed responsible for the murder of the son of a leading academic. The police then miraculously escaped from prison, Pagoada noted.

On the same day, Honduran lawmakers proposed a bill that would establish an independent monitoring body tasked with reforming the country’s notoriously corrupt police force. (insightcrime.org, Jan. 27)

“Few articles admit that all the poverty, murder, drug trafficking and corruption are the direct results of the U.S.-sponsored coup,” Pagoada told Workers World. “What is clear is that the coup has failed.”

Pagoada informed WW that “Xiomara Castro Del Zelaya is coming to the United States to speak in New York and Washington. She will also address the United National Antiwar Coalition convention in Stamford, Conn., in March [23-25]. We will hear a powerful message of resistance, democracy and peace from the Honduran people.”
———————————————
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news DONATE

Kim Jong Il’s Contributions to People’s Korea

Kim Jong Il’s contributions to People’s Korea

Published Feb 5, 2012 10:10 PM

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has been mourning the untimely death of its leader, Kim Jong Il. The following press release from the DPRK’s U.N. Mission relates some of Kim’s biography and his contributions to securing the country from imperialist attack while adhering to socialist development. The term Songun refers to Kim’s policy of giving the greatest priority to the military and the defense of the DPRK.

This policy was intensified after U.S. President George W. Bush threatened Korea with war by adding it to his “Axis of Evil” list. Vinalon is an ingenious silken fabric that is mass produced in the DPRK from anthracite and limestone, which are abundant there.

Kim Jong Il, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, was endowed with unexcelled military stratagem and unparalleled courage.

Born in Mt. Paektu, the base of the armed struggle of the Korean people to liberate the country from the Japanese military occupation (1905-1945), he spent his childhood amid the roar of gunfire of the sacred anti-Japanese war. In the days of the Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean people against the aggression of the United States (1950-1953, the Korean war) when he was around 10 years old he learned the military beside the table for mapping out plans of operation at the Headquarters. These circumstances enabled him to acquire the viewpoint of giving importance to military affairs and deep knowledge of it from his early days.

He made public many works while studying at Kim Il Sung University (1960-1964) and not a few of them are related to the military affairs.

On Aug. 25, 1960, he inspected the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army, which signifies the start of his Songun-based leadership, and has pursued Songun politics since the end of the 1960s. Already in those years he demonstrated his wisdom and stratagem, and courage and pluck befitting a brilliant commander. When the touch-and-go situations were created on the Korean peninsula owing to the Pueblo (a U.S. armed spy ship) Incident in January 1968, the EC-121 (a U.S. spy aircraft) Incident in April 1969 and the Panmunjom Incident in August 1976, the United States could not escape ignominious defeats. All these were thanks to his unexcelled military stratagem and unparalleled courage.

The world public realized more keenly his matchless courage as the brilliant commander, when the United States forced upon Korea a “special inspection” clamoring about its “nuclear issue” while resuming the Team Spirit joint military exercise, a nuclear test war the largest of its kind unprecedented in history, in March 1993. At that time he issued the order of the Supreme Commander declaring the state of semi-war to the whole country, which was followed by the statement of the DPRK government on its withdrawal from the NPT.

Stunned by the successive thunderbolt-like declarations the United States could not but resign itself to the negotiations with Korea and sign the DPRK-USA Joint Statement (June 1993) and DPRK-USA Agreed Framework (October 1994) aimed at peacefully settling the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula.

When Korea announced to the world that it would launch its second artificial earth satellite Kwangmyongsong No. 2 in April 2009 the United States, Japan, south Korea and other enemy forces made much fuss about it. The Japanese government even adopted the “interception of the satellite” as its national policy and by all means tried to prevent Korea from launching its satellite by deploying warships. At this critical time Korea declared that Japan’s “interception of the satellite” would mean a war, stressing that if Japan would make attempts to intercept its satellite, it would shower a fire of revenge not only on interception means already deployed but also on main targets in Japan. Those who fussed about the “interception” shut their mouths and Korea launched the satellite as scheduled.

Kim Jong Il led the socialist cause of Korea and the cause of global independence against imperialism to victory with Songun politics as a basic political mode of socialism.

In the closing years of the 20th century socialism collapsed one after another in several countries, and the U.S.-led imperialist allied forces, raving about the “end of socialism,” directed the spearhead of attack toward Korea who unflinchingly held fast to the banner of socialism. To cope with it, Kim Jong Il held higher the banner of Songun to defend the destiny of the country and people and socialism, and to secure the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the world.

He ensured that the political and ideological, military and technological strength of the army was intensified in every possible way by giving ceaseless inspections at the units of the People’s Army. He also put forward the line of economic construction on giving priority to the defense industry.

As a result, the atmosphere of giving importance to military affairs has been created throughout society and the work of arming all the people and fortifying the whole country impregnably realized at a higher level.

It has also possessed reliable nuclear deterrent in order to cope with the U.S.’s tenacious nuclear threat and blackmail.

Korea has remarkably strengthened the national power as a whole on the basis of its powerful military capacity. It holds supremacy of CNC technology, the cutting-edge technology in the machine-building industry, and has established the system of producing iron, fertilizer and vinalon relying on its domestic resources. The appearance of land has been changed beyond recognition through the large-scale land realignment and tideland reclamation. Korea, already occupying the position of a political and military power, is now striving to become an economic giant.

The reality of Korea which registers one victory after another by upholding the banner of Songun greatly encourages the countries and people of the world which aspire after independence and oppose imperialism and gives strong impetus to the implementation of the cause of making the world independent.

With Songun Korea’s world profile increasing remarkably, West European and many other countries that had long shunned themselves from it or disregarded it, established diplomatic relations with it. Many political figures, including former U.S. presidents, paid visits to Korea.

Wakabayashi Hiroshi, a social figure of Japan, has once commented that nobody could deny the fact that there was only one country among many, large and small on the planet, which won victory politically, diplomatically and militarily in open showdown with the United States and which made the latter yield to and visit it, and that was Korea led by Kim Jong Il.

Kim Jong Il was a peerless commander in the Songun era.
———————————————-
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news DONATE

UN agency implements strategy to conclude three refugee crises is Africa

The United Nations refugee agency reported today that it has embarked on the implementation of a set of strategies to conclude three of Africa’s long-standing refugee crises that involved helping people uprooted by old conflicts in Angola, Liberia and Rwanda.

London Conference Provides “An Opportunity” For Somaliland

SOMALIA: London conference “an opportunity” for Somaliland

Quest for recognition

HARGEISA, 7 February 2012 (IRIN) - More than two decades after it unilaterally asserted its independence from the rest of Somalia, Somaliland plans to lobby hard at a major conference in London in February for something it has sorely lacked since its inception: international recognition of its sovereignty.

“Somaliland will attend because 44 nations will be there and those are the ones we need to lobby and explain why Somaliland should be recognized; we see it as an opportunity,” Abdillahi Jama Geeljire, Somaliland’s Minister of Fisheries and Ports, said.

The London Conference, hosted by the UK government, is expected to bring together “senior representatives from over 40 governments and multi-lateral organizations… with the aim of delivering a new international approach to Somalia”, according to a statement posted on the website of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Geeljire said: “Somaliland was invited on equal terms with those nations that will participate; it is a golden opportunity for our country and will give us the exposure we need to present our case. It will provide Somaliland with the opportunity to share with our Somali brothers our experience and how we achieved the peace and stability we enjoy today and they are searching for.”

The larger Somalia has been embroiled in conflict since 1991 and has not had a functioning central government since then. One of the aims of the conference is to help pave the way for a permanent administration to replace the transitional one whose mandate expires in August.

The meeting’s agenda, which does not include the question of Somaliland’s sovereignty, covers issues such as root causes of Somalia’s conflicts, counter-terrorism, piracy and humanitarian coordination.

Mixed reactions

Somaliland’s attendance required overturning a legal ban on participating in such international meetings. During a 5 February joint session of the bicameral parliament in Hargeisa, 101 legislators approved the change, with just three voting against it.

“It is a mistake and we should not be there [at the London Conference],” said Ahmedyassin Sheikh Ali, one of the MPs.

Ali said Somaliland had thrived in the past 20 years “because we stayed away from those conferences [about Somalia] and we should have done the same this time around”.

He said parliament’s decision was a “mistake equal to the one we made in 1960″ - when the momentarily independent Somaliland, previously a British territory, chose to merge with the rest of Somalia, which had recently gained independence from Italy.

Ali added the best outcome from the conference would be a decision by the representatives of Somaliland “to reject any decision that will in any way drag us into the Somalia mess.”

Mohamed-Rahsid Muhumud Farah, a veteran Somaliland journalist, told IRIN the conference should be about the Somalis talking directly to one another. The London Conference, he said, was a stage “where the UK government will dictate and the Somalis will have very little say”.

“The only conference Somaliland should attend should be one where Somalis talk, whether they agree to separate or reunite does not matter, but they should be talking,” Farah said.

Due to Mass Pressure Mumia Abu-Jamal Transferred to General Population

Due to mass pressure Mumia transferred to general population

By Berta Joubert-Ceci
Philadelphia
Published Feb 2, 2012 8:40 PM

FREE MUMIA!

After more than 30 years in the chambers of death, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal has been released into the general prison population. Finally, as of Jan. 27, he is now able to embrace his loved ones and shake the hands of all those who have supported him in the struggle for freedom.

In a short message sent to his spouse, Wadiya Jamal, Mumia said: “My dear friends, brothers and sisters — I want to thank you for your real hard work and support. I am no longer on death row, no longer in the hole, I’m in population. This is only part one and I thank you all for the work you’ve done. But the struggle is for freedom!”

On Dec. 7, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced that he had abandoned pursuing the death sentence for Mumia after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the DA’s appeal to reinstate Mumia’s death sentence. On Dec. 9, a standing-room-only event at the Philadelphia Convention Center drew an unprecedented number of people, young and old, especially from the city, to demand his freedom.

Days later, Abu-Jamal was transferred from the infamous SCI Greene to the supposedly less restrictive prison, SCI Mahanoy, just 100 miles from his hometown of Philadelphia. But what should have been an automatic transfer into general population turned into a yet more restrictive and cruel environment.

For seven long weeks, Mumia was held in solitary confinement or “the hole,” with no access to news, bright lights on all the time, wrists and ankles shackled when he was out of his cell and many more conditions far more severe than the ones on death row. What was called “Administrative Custody” in the “Restrictive Housing Unit” was indeed a form of torture that elicited a major national and international response.

As soon as Mumia supporters found out about the cruel conditions, a campaign started to get him into general population.

An online petition campaign was initiated, which rapidly drew 5,000 signatures demanding not only the release of Mumia from solitary confinement, but the closing of all restrictive housing units around the U.S. On Jan. 26, before delivering these signatures and letters from legal organizations and Mumia supporters to Secretary John Wetzel at the Department of Corrections headquarters in Camp Hill, Pa., dozens of Mumia supporters held a press conference in Philadelphia.

Exposing horror of U.S. prisons

The press conference was a vivid example of the significance of the struggle to free Mumia. The various speakers represented prisoners and their families, community activists, lawyers, educators and Mumia advocates, showing the broad spectrum of the struggle against the prison-industrial complex and the cruelty of the system. Each speaker added a piece to the quilt that is U.S. imprisonment.

Pam Africa, well-known spokeswoman of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, opened the conference by introducing the chair, King Downing, of the American Friends Service Committee.

Several political prisoners spoke through a moving video describing the horrible conditions that they are subjected to as punishment for their activism. The video stated that on any given day as many as 200,000 people endure solitary confinement in U.S. prisons; that up to 80 percent are people of color and 60 percent have mental illness. It was reported and repeated several times that, according to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, prolonged solitary confinement is torture.

Ramona Africa, Minister of Communications of the MOVE organization, said that the reason Mumia was in the “hole” was due to the fury that the state has “because they could not legally kill him.”

Setting the tone for the media event, she reminded the audience that it is the people who have the real power, but it must be used to continue the fight. She concluded her remarks calling for the freedom of all political prisoners.

Prisoners’ relatives spoke like Theresa Shoatz, daughter of Russell Maroon Shoats, a former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member who has been incarcerated in Pennsylvania prisons for almost 40 years — 30 of them in solitary. She spoke not only about the ordeal her father and the whole family have gone through, but how more than 15 young men in their 20s hung themselves in one year alone, because they were in 23-hour lockdown in SCI Greene. Also speaking was Karen Ali, an activist and spouse of prisoner Omar Askia Ali, who has been incarcerated for over 40 years.

Johanna Fernandez, “Justice on Trial”’ filmmaker and professor, described vividly her conversations with Maroon Shoats, who likened Mumia to Frederick Douglass and himself to Nat Turner. Shoats told her that the prison authorities, in the current climate of struggle brought about by the Occupy movement, would never allow Mumia and him together in SCI Greene general population. Indeed, six days later, Mumia was transferred.

Attorney Rachel Wolkenstein spoke on Mumia’s fight to get into general population, a move that was delayed with bogus excuses by the prison like demanding that his dreadlocks be cut and that he give a blood sample and also that they were waiting for the papers about resentencing. Finally, these excuses were all dropped.

Lawyer Michael Coard stated, “We don’t go to court to get justice; we go to court to expose the injustice.” He delineated the three approaches of legal action on behalf of Mumia: “At the international level, based on the human rights violation law that states that ‘solitary confinement’ is torture, and torture is a violation of human rights; at the federal level, based on the Eighth Amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which his continued, ongoing incarceration constitutes; and at the state level, based on Article 1, section 13, which says the same and even more than the Eighth Amendment.” Coard concluded that the ultimate remedy is to remove Mumia from prison.

Other speakers were Suzanne Ross of the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition (NYC) and Heidi Boghosian, director of the National Lawyers Guild. They spoke on the fightback and the campaigns to free Mumia. Sandra Jones, of the Delaware Campaign to End the Death Penalty, and Darryl Jordan, from AFSC, also spoke on their organizations’ work.

Although the fight continues until Mumia is free, this has been a victory thanks to the relentless fight of the ICFFMAJ and the supporters at the international and national level. The increase of support in Philadelphia, demonstrated by the significant turnout at the Dec. 9 event, has been a major factor in the turning point of the struggle. The next big action will be on April 24, Mumia’s birthday. That day will be Occupy the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. Free Mumia and ALL political prisoners!
—————————————————
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news DONATE

In wake of elections in DR Congo, UN urges all sides to pursue dialogue

The top United Nations envoy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) today stressed the need for all parties to use legal means and dialogue to settle differences in the aftermath of recent elections so as to advance stability and peace in the country.

Kenyan running aces to help mark milestone for UN environment agency

Two top Kenyan long-distance runners will be on hand to show support for the conservation efforts of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), joining the public in a half-marathon race in Nairobi later this month, to mark the agency’s 40th anniversary.

In Response to State of Emergency in Wisconsin Occupy Movement Spreads

In response to state of emergency

Wisconsin Occupy movement spreads

By Bryan G. Pfeifer
Milwaukee, Wis.
Published Feb 4, 2012 10:22 PM

Those participating in the Occupy Wall Street movement in Wisconsin are continuing to fight the 1% statewide in a creative series of protests, forums and foreclosure defenses, and by building a statewide and regional network in solidarity with numerous progressive struggles. OWS here is bolstered by the people’s uprising that started with the State Capitol occupation in February 2011.

Critical features of Occupy in Wisconsin include youth and students taking leadership roles, learning organizing skills and working with elder activists of all nationalities, who are also learning from youth and students. Other critical building blocks are white participants in the Occupy Coalition in Milwaukee and in other cities who are open to respecting the leadership roles of people of color and their initiatives, organized by Occupy the Hood and Decolonize the Hood.

To build events, members of all the groups work together on many tasks, including distributing leaflets throughout the city and on city buses. The Occupy Coalition in Milwaukee began the year by joining together in neighborhood activities in the African-American community and celebrating Dr. King Day.

The Occupy Coalition in Milwaukee, which includes Decolonize the Hood, Occupy Milwaukee, Occupy Riverwest and Occupy the Hood, formally joined the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rally and march in Milwaukee on Jan. 16. Each group had representatives speaking and participating as a united delegation in the march to the King memorial statue.

“When any members of a community are oppressed, we all are oppressed. … War has been declared on working and poor folks in this state and across the country. When we invoke the legacies of Father Groppi [Milwaukee-based civil rights activist who died in 1985] and Dr. King, we fight back. When we build alliances at the grassroots level, like the Occupy Coalition I’m a proud part of, we fight back. When labor and community forces join together to agitate and work for infrastructure funding that will really create jobs, we fight back,” said Angela Walker, legislative director of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 998 and a leader of the Occupy Coalition, at the main rally at St. Francis of Assisi church.

Continued Walker: “When we march on Madison [the state capital] and Washington to demand an end to unjust wars and corporate giveaways that have broken this economy, we fight back. When we demand accountability and not lip service from our elected officials and let them know we’re not going for pacification tactics anymore, we fight back. In our push for safe and affordable housing, access to health and food and an end to foreclosures and evictions in our neighborhoods, we are fighting back. And when we remind those in positions of power that transit is a necessity and that it needs to be fully funded, expanded and respected, we fight back … in the spirit of Sankofa we reach back and carry the battle forward.”

Crisis, fightback deepen

The Occupy Coalition in Milwaukee is now mobilizing for a “Take Back City Hall” Feb. 6 rally at Chase Bank on Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue, with a march to Milwaukee’s City Hall to follow. The coalition will be demanding that Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker declare a state of emergency based on the economic crisis that exists in Milwaukee and statewide. Of particular concern are the foreclosure epidemic and jobs crisis, especially as these relate to the Black and Latino/a communities.

Milwaukee has one of the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. for African Americans. The infant mortality rate for Black infants is approximately 19 per 1,000 live births. There have been more than 20,000 foreclosures since 2007 in Milwaukee, mostly in neighborhoods where Black union workers and their families had jobs at nearby manufacturing plants that have been moved out or shut down by the 1%. Other demands include that funds allocated for community development block grants be disbursed correctly in the neighborhoods where they are needed most, as well as a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions.

Across the state, Occupy groups are forming and developing. The Occupy WI website lists more than 20 cities in Wisconsin that have Occupy groups, along with their Facebook and web sites. New websites such as Occupy Riverwest are growing and activists are learning many new skills.

Occupy Green Bay hosted its first-ever people’s forum on Jan. 28 and other activists came from throughout the region to attend. Occupy Appleton is engaging in community foreclosure defense actions. And various Occupies are joining in the Feb. 4 “No War on Iran” protests in Green Bay and Milwaukee. All the Occupies in Wisconsin are standing in solidarity with Native nations to oppose an iron ore mine in the northern region of the state near Lake Superior — the largest fresh water body in the world — that would destroy the environment.

Many progressive organizations are working with the Occupy movement in the state, including the Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement, which is also sponsoring a Feb. 25 organizing meeting in Milwaukee to fight foreclosures and evictions. Go to wibailoutpeople.org for more information.
————————————————
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.

Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news DONATE