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February 21, 2005 - 5:53pm -- nolympics
News
Mainstream Media

E. Heroux writes
" From the Streets to the Inner Sanctum"

        By Evelyn Iritani

        The Los Angeles Times


Activists have come a long way since the violent protests of 1999. Now companies and trade policymakers are giving them a place at the table.


        Unhappy over the World Trade Organization's refusal to discuss contentious labor issues at its 1999 meeting in Seattle, activist Mike Waghorne joined tens of thousands of protesters on the streets. The demonstrations, which turned violent, sparked anti-globalization protests around the world.


        Nearly six years later, Waghorne is still unhappy with the Geneva-based trade group. But now he can voice his displeasure from a much more comfortable perch.


        Waghorne was among 70 outsiders given the chance to grill three candidates last month for the position of WTO director general. It marked the first time in the organization's 10-year history that activists were allowed to have input in the selection process, an event that Waghorne, an officer with labor coalition Public Services International, described as "civil" and a far cry from the fireworks he had expected.


       

February 20, 2005 - 3:28pm -- nolympics
News
Work

"Productivity at any Cost?
Jeep workers question DaimlerChrysler’s vision in the aftermath of tragedy"
Michael Brooks
Toledo City Paper

The shotgun-wielding Myles Meyers killed a fellow Jeep employee and wounded two others before turning the weapon on himself on Jan. 27. One view: Just another crazed American worker shooting up his workplace.
Dieter Zetsche, CEO of DaimlerChrysler, reiterated this assessment in a plant-wide memorandum distributed on Jan. 28.
“All information indicates this was an isolated incident,” he said. Jeep workers, however, say that Meyers’ outburst was not isolated and was the culmination of systematic harassment by management that took place throughout many months. Many workers are afraid of the consequences of speaking out about what they feel is a climate of intimidation at Toledo North. Most workers would talk only under a guarantee of complete anonymity.
“You’re not wearing a wire, are you?” asked a suspicious worker. “How do I know you’re not hired by management?”
“They have been obsessed with firing Myles for months,” said ‘Karl,’ whose name has been changed out of fear that his participation in this article will lead to retaliation.
“This is a part of their campaign to eliminate the higher-paid, older workers — especially activists who want a stronger union — and to replace them with younger, cheaper new hires.”

February 16, 2005 - 9:10am -- jim
News
Ecology

Activists Hope Nun's Slaying in Amazon Is Catalyst for Change

Henry Chu, LA Times


RIO DE JANEIRO — As mourners laid her bullet-riddled body to rest Tuesday, environmentalists and colleagues of slain missionary Dorothy Stang seesawed between fragile optimism and angry skepticism over a question they had hoped never to consider.


Would the slaying of the silver-haired American nun, who devoted her life to fighting land grabbers and loggers in the Amazon, galvanize action and world opinion the same way the killing of legendary Brazilian rubber tapper Chico Mendes did 16 years ago?


Officials and activists are already drawing comparisons between Mendes, a national hero here, and Stang. The 73-year-old nun was gunned down Saturday in the jungles of northern Brazil, a region beset by land disputes and growing lawlessness. Authorities say the Ohio-born Stang was ambushed by hit men contracted by a local rancher, just as Mendes was assassinated on the orders of a wealthy landowner he had opposed.

February 15, 2005 - 10:47pm -- jim
News
News

Artist's Attorney Seeks Dismissal of Case

Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. — The attorney for an artist accused of illegally obtaining bacteria for his artwork is asking a judge to throw the case out, saying authorities have sought to portray his client as a bioterrorist.


Attorney Paul Cambria, in court filings, argues the government has not established that University at Buffalo professor Steven Kurtz committed any crime.


The lawyer also challenges two search warrants used by the FBI to seize computer and laboratory equipment, and argues Kurtz was pressured into submitting to additional searches while in shock over the sudden death of his wife.

February 10, 2005 - 4:15pm -- jim
News
News

Lawyer Lynne Stewart Convicted of Helping Terrorists

Larry Neumeister, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A veteran civil rights lawyer was convicted Thursday of crossing the line by smuggling messages of violence from one of her jailed clients — a radical Egyptian sheik — to his terrorist disciples on the outside.


The jury has been deliberating off-and-on over the past month in the case of Lynne Stewart, 65, a firebrand, left-wing activist known for representing radicals and revolutionaries in her 30 years on the New York legal scene. The jury deliberated 13 days in all.


Stewart faces up to 20 years in prison on charges that included conspiracy, giving material support to terrorists and defrauding the U.S. government.

February 9, 2005 - 10:47am -- jim
News
News

Applications to Military Academies Down Substantially

Yoshie Furuhashi

Will the United States military eventually face a shortage of lieutenants?

Cadets don't have to study the opinion polls to know they're heading off to an unpopular war. Applications to the military academies are down substantially. At West Point, applications hit a post-9/11 high of 12,383 for the school year that began 2003. The 10,412 applications for the coming school year represent a 16 percent drop in two years. The Naval Academy is down 2,852 applicants, a 20 percent drop in just a year, and the Air Force Academy is down 3,054 applicants from 2004, a 24 percent drop.

February 8, 2005 - 8:49am -- jim
News
The State

CIA Renditions of Terror Suspects Are 'Out of Control'

Agence France-Presse


The Central Intelligence Agency's 'rendition' of suspected terrorists has spiralled 'out of control' according to a former FBI agent, cited in a report which examined how CIA detainees are spirited to states suspected of using torture.

Michael Scheuer a former CIA counterterrorism agent told The New Yorker magazine "all we've done is create a nightmare," with regard to the top secret practice of renditions.

February 8, 2005 - 8:25am -- jim
News
News

Chavez Takes Command of Venezuelan Territorial Army

Patrick O'Donoghue

Speaking to followers on February 4 at a march to
commemorate the February 4, 1992 failed coup attempt, Chavez
Frias claims that Venezuela history was divided into two on
that day in a before-after scenario.


"We are revolutionaries and not
coupsters ... and the revolution is
not complete," Chavez said.


Turning to the situation inside the FAN, the President
maintains that the military revolution seeks first of all to
strengthen the corps, secondly, the civil-military unity and
thirdly, the people's participation in national defense
through the territorial army.


The reason why he is taken over command of the reservists,
Chavez Frias says, is to take the weight off FAN components
since they have too much to do already, especially regarding
beefing up the country's integral defense.

February 6, 2005 - 12:38am -- jim
News
News

"Hung Jury in Lynne Stewart Trial?"

Gail Appleson

NEW YORK, Feb 4 (Reuters) — The case of a U.S. defense lawyer charged with aiding terrorism is a troubling matter for a jury that may be split into supporters of U.S. President George W. Bush and those who think his anti-terrorism policies threaten civil rights.


So say some legal experts who believe the lengthy deliberations in the trial of Lynne Stewart indicate deep divisions among the 12 members of the Manhattan federal jury.


The panel, meeting just blocks from where the World Trade Center once stood, has deliberated for more than nine working days since Jan. 12.

February 4, 2005 - 11:04am -- jim
News
News

Black American Actor, Entertainer Ossie Davis, 1917-2005

Associated Press


NEW YORK — Ossie Davis, the actor distinguished for roles dealing with racial injustice on stage, screen and in real life, has died, an aide said Friday. He was 87.


Davis, the husband and partner of actress Ruby Dee, was found dead Friday in his hotel room in Miami Beach, Fla., according to officials there. He was making a film called “Retirement,” said Arminda Thomas, who works in his office in suburban New Rochelle and confirmed the death.

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