Posted on Monday, 6 September, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
“If I can’t dance – I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Thus spoke Emma Goldman (1869-1940) and it’s been variously repeated and attributed since.
PAL JAM is a combination concert, party and workshop to raise funds for Palestine direct action. If you’re in London and you’ve got an empty Saturday the 11th of September laying around, there’s 12 hours of great things to fill it between 4pm and 4am. I know I can’t think of a better way to spend a September 11.
“Direct actions in support of Palestine, such as blockades of Ahava or Carmel Agrexco don’t pay for themselves, van hire, D-locks etc all cost cash money. Therefore a network of people who carry out such actions are putting on a fundraiser to pay for future actions. Come on down, with a banging line up and a great social centre to have a party in (the Ratstar comes with 2 rooms of music, a cinema room and even a roof terrace, oh yes), there has never been a funner way to support a great cause.”
Posted on Friday, 25 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Deep Dish TV is assisting my friend in Rafah, Gaza, Fida Qishta, develop and distribute Where Should the Birds Fly, a powerful on-the-ground view documentary. Fida worked with several folks including yours truly on the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project for a spell, and this documentary represents a lot of what that project was about: bringing a real view of life in Gaza to the rest of the world. Get a perspective from a local’s point of view.
In this film, Fida captures what was happening in Gaza during Israel’s onslaught in 2008, “Operation Cast Lead,” which killed and injured thousands of Palestinian civilians, and the aftermath since. You can help complete this moving film, a story that can engage the minds and touch the hearts of people in the U.S. Distribution isn’t cheap. Deep Dish is working to raise $30,000. Donations are tax deductible, which is more than you can say about the part of your taxable income that goes to perpetuate the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank. Visit the Deep Dish website to help this project move along.
Posted on Friday, 11 June, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Delegitimize.com is a new media library project by Nigel Parry that plans to publish a series of both topic-specific and current event-focused archive websites, with the help of the pro-Palestinian community and beyond.
The Gaza Flotilla archiveis a freely-available research resource on the events that took place in international waters off the coast of Gaza on 31 May 2010.
Wikilieaks released the above classified military footage on April 5, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site. Amongst the small group of what looks to be civilians killed and injred were two children and two Reuters journalists.
Posted on Wednesday, 17 March, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Get them on the record before they trash your digital media rights
Reposting from Cory Doctorow’s post here, and 38 Degrees post here. Ah, the echo chamber…
The House of Lords failed to take reasonable action on the threat posed by the Digital Economy Bill and let it slide back into the House of Commons for final amendments and approval. Of the three main parties, it seems only the Liberal Democrats have started coming around to seing how bad this is for UK’s citizens and its actual real-world digital economy. They at least want to retract the bad bit they’d originally submitted, but that would still leave an incredibly flawed law.
Cory says, “38 Degrees is asking Britons to write to their MPs and ask them to call for a full debate on this law before they vote on it. It seems stupid that we’d have to ask our elected reps to actually give sweeping proposals consideration before turning them into law, but there you have it. No matter what side you come down on for the Digital Economy Bill, is there anyone who wants law to be made without debate.”
38 Degrees says, “Peter Mandelson is rushing to force the Digital Economy Bill into law before the General Election. The draconian law is opposed by industry experts, internet service providers (like TalkTalk and BT), web giants including Google, Yahoo and Ebay and even the British Library. Despite all this opposition, the Government is trying to rush it through quietly just before the election without proper debate – without a chance for us to voice our opposition. Email your MP now and urge them to stop the government rushing this law through.
There’s plenty to oppose in the Digital Economy Bill, it gives the government the ability to disconnect millions. Schools, libraries and businesses could see their connection cut if their pupils, readers of customers infringe any copyright. But one group likes it, the music industry. In a leaked memo a few days ago they admitted the only way to get the bill through would be to rush it through without a real parliamentary debate. Let’s stop that happening.
Write to your MP now urging them to stop the Government rushing the bill through. It’ll take you less than 2 minutes. Just enter your postcode above (so we can find your MP) and click “participate” to get started.”
I say: If you want to keep free wi-fi available in your cities and towns, don’t like the idea of content being blocked because of out-of-date copyright restrictions, don’t like the idea of millions of people being judged guilty of crimes until they prove theirselves innocent and don’t want to see Hollywood stymie innovation and technological advancement simply to maintain inflated prices on DVDs in Zone 2, then its in your best interest to see this bill killed. It’s bad for the economy, free speech and you.
<—- Possible template to base your letter to your MP on —->
I’m writing to you today because I’m very worried that the Government is planning to rush the Digital Economy Bill into law without a full Parliamentary debate.
The law is controversial and contains many measures that concern me. The controversial Bill deserves proper scrutiny so please don’t let the government rush it through. Many people think it will damage schools and businesses as well as innocent people who rely on the internet because it will allow the Government to disconnect people it suspects of copyright infringement.
Industry experts, internet service providers and huge internet companies like Google and Yahoo are all opposing the bill – yet the Government seems intent on forcing it through without a real debate.
As a constituent I am writing to you today to ask you to do all you can to ensure the Government doesn’t just rush the bill through and deny us our democratic right to scrutiny and debate.
Posted on Tuesday, 16 March, 2010 By yours truly | TOOLS:Talk or Share
Rachel Corrie was killed today seven years ago as she stood as a human rights activist with the International Solidarity Movement to protect the illegal destruction of a Palestinian home in Gaza by Israeli occupation forces. My friend Dave Reed has recently unveiled the new design for the Rachel Corrie Foundation website, which is a fantastic new version of the site. Today I urge you to visit it and consider donating to help continue the foundation’s efforts of working on projects in the spirit of the foundation’s namesake.
Rachel Corrie
1979 – 2003
On this, the seventh anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death in Rafah, Palestine, the Corrie family and the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice call for a renewed commitment to create a better, more peaceful, and just world.
People are so isolated, and so alone, and so suspicious, and so competitive with each other, and so sure that they are about to be conned by their neighbor, or by their mother, or by their sister, or their grandmother. What’s the use of having fifty percent of the world’s wealth, or whatever it is that you have, if you’re going to live this pathetic, terrified life? — Arundhati Roy
D3 distributed
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People are so isolated, and so alone, and so suspicious, and so competitive with each other, and so sure that they are about to be conned by their neighbor, or by their mother, or by their sister, or their grandmother. What’s the use of having fifty percent of the world’s wealth, or whatever it is that you have, if you’re going to live this pathetic, terrified life?
