-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 188 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send $$ to RadTimes!! --> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --Mexican Army Steps Up Harassment in Chiapas --A little bit of Che, a little bit of Posh --Keeping the Rabble Outside the Gates --Anti-Globalization Protests Begin Against Inter-American Bank In Chile --Officials plan to shut off the park in May to thwart protesters --Silencing Quebec --Traditional Mohawks call for "Day of Rage" April 19th --The Salsa Revolution --European communications 'wide open' to interception =================================================================== Mexican Army Steps Up Harassment in Chiapas Renewed Military Harassment in Chiapas Translation of Hermann Bellinghausen's La Jornada article from March 16, 2001 [This is a direct translation performed by altavista.com - some of it is badly translated, but it was important to get this out as soon as possible to English-speaking audiences.] Harassment and low-intensity warfare breaks out in Chiapas while Zapatista command is in Mexico City. With police support, Cattle ranchers seek to recover land lost to the autonomous indigenous in 1994. While the Zapatista march has traversed the national territory arriving in Mexico's capitol, in the autonomous municipalities of Chiapas harassment breaks out again on the part of the federal Army, Public Security and the cattle ranchers in the region. According to autonomous municipalities and information from diverse organizations in San Cristobal, the aerial and terrestrial patrols have been increased in the communities during the last week. The most serious denunciations come from the autonomous municipalities Che Guevara and San Pedro de Michoacan. Military flights and patrols have returned to norm in Moise's Gandhi, La Realidad and other communities in resistance, contradicting the order by president Vicente Fox that there would be no more patrols in the conflict zone. The autonomous council from the municipality Che Guevara denounced that from February 24th the date when the Zapatista delegation departed Chiapas, a military helicopter has engaged in grazing flights above Moise's Gandhi, 800 meters away from Cuxulja', one of the four military points withdrawn by president Vicente Fox (one of the seven that the EZLN demanded dismantled and that the new government was committed to withdrawal). During the 6th, 7th and 8th of March, these flights were particularly obvious. Che Guevara also reports an increase in the military patrols on the international highway by the Cuxulja' crosstroads by the Public Security Forces and the federal Army. The autonomous municipality say that "the community does not like it, that the children whenever the helicopter passes they think that the soldiers will come and that Vicente Fox has a double edged speech, because while in Mexico City he says that everything is calm yet, the harassment in the communities has not stopped". AGRARIAN CONFLICTS RESURFACE In addition, it seemed that there are those that are trying to take advantage of the absence the delegates and Zapatista command, and the distraction on the local level and the national news. The settlers in Moise's Gandhi refer "another thing that does not calm them" is that the Chiapas governor "wants to solve the agrarian problems but he is doing it through the leaders of the ORCAO and this generates serious problems" with the EZLN support bases and farmers of other organizations. "The government hopes to distract people because now, is the moment for recognizing the indigenous rights and cultures", the secretary of Agrarian Reform and the organization shakes waters with hurried negotiations. Base de Operaciones de Guadalupe Tepeyac has resumed their tasks of patrolling and pressure on the tojolabales communities of San Pedro de Michoacan, particularly the Reality. The aerial patrolling, suspended from 1 of December last, is of return, as if nothing. This climate seems to animate to a group of cattle dealers who try "to recover" the earth that from 1994 were occupied by the natives of the forest, and by which the federal government already compensated the previous proprietors. As one will remember, these cattle dealers when coming out showed belligerence in the previous days of the delegation of the EZLN, that is in the city of Mexico. Now, according to denunciation independent municipality 17 of November, the cattle dealers and small proprietors make meetings and try to organize aggressions against the calls New Centers of Population, and even for " placing in ambush " the delegation of the command of the EZLN, when this one returns to Chiapas. In one of these "conclaves", carried out the 25 of February in Altamirano, quotas were collected "to pay to a gunner, that will attack the commanders". According to the same source, these meetings "are protected" with continuous patrollings of Public Security, and in them also indigenous PRI-istas participate that have been tied previously to the paramilitary group MIRA. U.S. JOURNALIST HOME IN SAN CRISTOBAL RANSACKED The house of journalist Tim Russo in San Cristobal de las Casas "was ransacked" by strangers who destroyed, threw to the ground photos, negatives and books, and painted above his bed: "fucking foreign press". According to the neighbors, the house "had been watched" by civilian dressed men for several days. Russo, correspondent in Mexico for a US agency KGNU Public Radio in Colorado, is in the Mexico City covering the indigenous march. The Fray Bartolome Human rights Center went in the evening to the sacked house, and will present the result its investigations. The hostility against the rebellious communities, in as much, reaches scandalous proportions. The 26 of February, when the Zapatistas bases of support returned to their communities, after dismissing the delegates in San Cristobal of the Houses, "saw a gray light truck, with boards 6721, in the cruise that goes to the community of the Lagoon, halfway between Altamirano and the ejido Morelia, seat of Aguascalientes IV. When the farmers happened, three men descended from the light truck, one of them armed, who gave 20 shots to the air". The autonomous locals think that it is the same people who have themselves been reuniting in Altamirano, that she looks for to create a fear climate and threatens. Simultaneously, the PRI-istas of Morelia now maintain a constant radio communications with the military quarter of Altamirano. The Cuauhtemoc community, of the same municipality, denunciation that, also from the exit of the Zapatistas delegates, continuous patrollings suffer of Public Security, the federal Army and agents of Migration. The patrollings had not stopped, in spite of the declared thing by the Foxista government, but now the number of military vehicles was increased from two to ten, and hourly a particular vehicle with agents of Migration journeys by the community on board. To this, the natives add that "the Public Security makes the practical military every day". The autonomous council of 17 of November also denounced that the SPE introduced in the town the Mendoza to rob laminae destined to the school. They took "to be constructed them houses in its quarter". The police have been robbing wood of the community. "In addition, every day they pass loaded trucks of illegal wood, that pay 'mordida' [bribe] in the position of control of the Public Security, and they take the goods without problem". The independent municipality First of January indicates that from the last week the military population in the quarter of Tonina', seat of the 31 Military Zone, has been increased considerably. The community of Jerusalem, neighbor to this quarter, denounced that the military movements increased after the exit of the Zapatista delegation. The overflights of helicopters are frequent and the military vehicles carry a red flag, "in alert signal, we do not know of what". The independent municipality Olga Isabel, located in the area of Chilo'n, also reports daily military patrollings and a constant and aggressive activity of the detachments of the SPE between Bachajo'n, Chilo'n and other communities. And here also they denounce continuous aerial harassment. Finally, the authorities of the independent municipality Miguel Hidalgo reported the passage of 69 loaded trucks of the federal Army of troops in the direction of Comitan, "which demonstrates that the Army does not think to leave Chiapas", according to the natives. =================================================================== A little bit of Che, a little bit of Posh <http://www.consider.net/forum_new.php3?newTemplate=OpenObject&newTop=200103190008&newDisplayURN=200103190008> by John Carlin Monday 19th March 2001 Hailed by the left as Mexico's liberators, are Marcos and his Zapatistas simply clever marketing men? In the age of the almost - but not quite - smart bomb, of world leaders who hatch schemes to render us immune from nuclear attack, of battles waged not by soldiers but computer hackers, Subcomandante Marcos is way ahead of the game. Bloodless war is the dream of the masters of the 21st-century universe but, from a rudimentary base deep in the jungle of southern Mexico, the purportedly "military" commander of an outfit that grandly calls itself the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) has already beaten everyone to it. Whether it was Marcos's original intention or not, he has patented a style of warfare beyond the imagination of Sun Tzu, Che Guevera or Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf. Marcos is a virtual guerrilla commander, the EZLN is an imaginary guerrilla army and the wonder of it all, oh brave new world, is that it works. The message gets across. Marcos, born Rafael Guillen (son of a comfortably-off furniture shop-owner), pretends that he is a reincarnation of el Che, makes believe that he heads vast infantries of Indian insurgents - and the rest of the world goes along with him. The upshot is that, in the end, he has achieved quite as much as most conventional guerrilla armies have done in Latin America, and the world over - that is to say, his political objectives of winning hearts and minds. And he did so without resorting to the dreadful bloodletting - and general hard work, sacrifice and grief - that had previously been considered indispensable to achieve the twin goals of mobilising the masses and intimidating the enemy. Marcos's "war" lasted precisely 12 days. It began on 1 January 1994 with the takeover of a picturesque mountain town that never knew what hit it; and it was over by the middle of the month. Some 200 people were killed, most of them ill-trained, ill-advised Native Americans (or "Indians"), some of whom Marcos sent into battle against the Mexican army carrying make-believe rifles made of wood. In conventional terms, the EZLN has proved to be the most incompetent guerrilla movement in Latin American history. Since then, Marcos has not ordered one attack in more than seven years, but consider what has happened. The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the brilliantly corrupt apparatus that ran Mexico from 1929 to the very end of the 20th century and beyond, has fallen. Which is not exclusively down to Marcos. But by alerting people to the plight of the sector of society most neglected and abused by the PRI machine - Mexico's ten million Indians - and by generally making the sort of noises that helped raise the population's outrage levels, he contributed to the creation of the national mood necessary to prod the cunning old tyrants out of office. If the PRI chose not to rig the vote on this occasion, it was probably in part because its leaders feared that someone might take Marcos's revolutionary rhetoric at its word. Better to bow out, with money safely in the bank, than to be hung, drawn and quartered. People will debate about the degree to which Marcos contributed to the PRI's downfall. But since the matter is not susceptible to scientific measurement, the argument will never be resolved. So let us look at his most tangible success, the culmination of his seven-year looking-glass war: the march he has just completed from Chiapas, the southern state where he has staged his crusade, to Mexico City, complete with his address from the gates of the National Palace before a crowd of 100,000 people OK. It was not quite the march that was advertised. It was a bus ride. A road show. The "Zapatour", as the Mexican press called it. Like everything Marcos has done of any note, it was an extravaganza that had more in common with the Spice Girls or Man United FC than with the exploits of Fidel's barbudos, the bearded ones, in the Sierra Maestra. It was, actually, the wildest buffoonery. An extraordinary pantomime. But he prepared his stage brilliantly and, when the time came to put on the show, the whole world wanted to watch. Here you have a white-skinned, left-wing intellectual who claims to be the leader of Mexico's impoverished Indians, a profoundly conservative people whose misfortunes started when the white-skinned left-wing intellectual's Spanish forebears arrived in town 500 years ago. This descendant of the conquistadors then sends a few dozen Indians to be killed in an unfair contest, summons the world's press to his mountain hide-out, issues endless communiques on the World Wide Web (his favoured terrain of struggle) and declares himself to be waging a guerrilla war not only against the oppression of the Mayan Indians of Chiapas, but against neoliberalism and globalisation - against capitalism itself. Which in turn extends his constituency to every corner of the globe, especially those corners of Mediterranean Europe inhabited by the diehard nostalgic left. French, Italian and Spanish intellectuals make pilgrimages to see Mexico's answer to Robin Hood. They marvel at his wise words; thrill to his masked Zorro get-up, his Sherlock Holmes pipe; gasp at the savage nobility of his native followers; put on T-shirts that read "I am an Indian too"; and return home with the proselytising zeal of an army of Saint Pauls. The triumphant final act, the march on the capital, took place a couple of weeks ago. Marcos emerged from his jungle hide-out sporting a ski mask, a cap kept in place by a set of headphones, camouflage trousers and a pipe; he boarded a bus - equipped with video screen and laptop computers and mobile phones - which took him, under police protection, to the Mexican capital. Here he proceeded, without hindrance of any sort, to address a rally outside the National Palace. Among the admiring throng was a host of international camp followers which included 200 Italian anarchists in white jump-suits, gay and lesbian groups, and Danielle Mitterrand. Marvellous to behold was the complicity of the declared "enemy" in all this. Rarely in the history of human conflict can a government have extended such largesse to a self-proclaimed "insurgent" leader. And yet, there was Subcomandante Marcos in his address outside the National Palace declaring - whether unblushingly or not, we will never know - that he had stormed the capital "to shout for democracy and liberty". What next? Well, President Vicente Fox, Mexico's first democratic leader, has indicated that he is prepared to succumb to two of Marcos's three demands: to release the hundred or so Zapatista prisoners and to withdraw troops from Chiapas. Which is the sort of thing the IRA, to name but one conventional "liberation army", spent decades of real-life slaughter to achieve. The third requirement is that the Congress approve a Bill of Rights granting Mexico's Indians a high measure of autonomous rule. Fox, a canny former Coca-Cola executive, says he is right behind Marcos on all three points, but will have to await the pleasure of the Congress to see if the bill goes through. If it does, it will entrench Indians' rights to rule their territories according to ancient "custom and practice". What does that mean? Maybe it means the Indians will be less exploited. Correction: that Indian men will be less exploited. Marcos's bill would entrench a tradition where fathers sell their daughters to prospective husbands; where rape is unexceptional and rarely punished; where, as a glance around any Indian community in Chiapas will reveal, all the men wear shoes, while almost all of the women - who do almost all of the work - go barefoot. It remains to be seen whether a Bill of Rights will do a great deal more than appease the multiculturalist zeal of the worldwide Zapatista brigades, or do anything substantially to address the excruciating poverty of the Indian population. No matter. Such details are not of paramount importance in Marcos's virtual-reality wonderland. He has achieved a triumph of marketing, the likes of which the neoliberal globalists he denounces can only admire. Turning the enemies' weapons brilliantly on themselves, he has identified his consumers, tailored his message to their needs and, with minimum investment, sold his product around the globe. Whether the product will have a more beneficial impact on mankind than the Spice Girls or MUFC, well, that is another matter altogether. ------- The author, a former correspondent in Mexico for the Independent, now writes for the Spanish newspaper, El Pais =================================================================== Keeping the Rabble Outside the Gates A Security Bulwark Is Erected Around Quebec Talks On Trade by Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff 03/11/2001 Page: A20 Section: National/Foreign QUEBEC CITY - Not since 1759, when troops under the Marquis de Montcalm anxiously hunkered behind Quebec's fortress walls, awaiting an English invasion force, has this achingly beautiful city, perched above the St. Lawrence River, been so braced for trouble. The Summit of the Americas, a gathering of presidents, prime ministers, and other leaders from 34 nations of North, Central, and South America, will be held here from April 20 to 22. Along with the heads of state, the meeting, which will focus on creation of a free-trade zone stretching from Argentina to the Canadian Arctic, is expected to draw 4,000 delegates and government observers, 2,500 journalists, and thousands of antiglobalization activists from around the world. In the biggest security operation in Canadian history, police and other authorities are readying for the expected legions of agitators with heightened border security, a towering chain-link fence that will seal off Quebec's old Upper Town, and even new bylaws that ban scarves, ski masks, and other face gear that might hide identities. Free-trade opponents admit to being rather awed by the extraordinary effort to transform this Old World-style city of narrow lanes, stone houses, and soaring church spires into an ultra-security zone. But they say they are undaunted. "People are mobilizing for Quebec City because they hope to raise public consciousness about the onslaught of globalization and multinational corporations under the guise of so-called free trade," said Orin Langelle, cochairman of the Action for Community and Ecology in the Regions of Central America, a group based in Burlington, Vt. Most of the protesters claim to be coming in peace. But memories of riots at the 1999 World Trade Organization conference in Seattle are still raw, and Canada wants to avoid a repeat. A recent report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the country's spy agency, warned that "anarchist elements are actively organizing to disrupt the summit" by using gasoline bombs, sabotage, and other tactics. So, ironically, even though much of the summit will be dedicated to discussion of greater opening of borders across the Americas, Canada is drastically tightening its own borders against would-be spoilers of the event. A spokesman for the Immigration Ministry said that activists from the United States and other countries who want to join protests will not be automatically barred, but should expect close questioning and criminal background checks. Those arrested in the Seattle protests are likely to be turned back. "It is a major event, we are taking extra measures, and the border is certainly on a very high state of alert," said Richard Saint-Louis, a senior Immigration Ministry spokesman. "If we have reason to think you are coming to riot or cause violence, you will be turned away. For noncitizens, including Americans, entry to Canada is a privilege, not a right." Security forces are raising a second wall in North America's only fortress city - a charmless, 10-foot-high, heavy-duty chain-link fence, reinforced by steel posts anchored in concrete, that will form a 2.5-mile "security perimeter" within the cobblestone-paved heart of the Old Town. Almost all of Quebec's major tourist sites, from the majestic Chateau Frontenac to the hulking Citadel, will become off-limits to everyone except summit officials, accredited journalists, and registered residents. The new wall will also surround government buildings, a convention center, and the Plains of Abraham just outside the original ramparts, begun by the French in the 1600s and completed by the British in the 19th century. Nearly 5,000 police officers, including five Royal Canadian Mounted Police riot squads from across the country, have been summoned for duty. Prisoners are being transferred from local jails to ensure that there is plenty of cell space for arrested protesters. Quebecers living inside the barrier will have to carry special permits to pass through police checkpoints. And the pastor of a church within the security barrier has been told that parishioners from outside the perimeter will not be allowed to attend services - forcing the venerable St. Pierre United Church to close on Sunday for the first time. Government officials describe the precautions as mere prudence. "As the proverb says,`If you want peace, prepare for war,' " said Serge Menard, Quebec's minister for public security. But a growing number of critics, including civil liberties groups in Canada and the United States, say the security measures are veering toward paranoid suppression of everyday rights. In one of the more bizarre security moves, the suburb of Sainte-Foy, several miles from the summit site but home to budget motels where many demonstrators and journalists will stay, just passed an ordinance banning the wearing and possession of "a mask, hood, ski mask, or any other object of the same nature to cover one's face." Sainte-Foy may rescind the measure after the blasts of criticism from civil libertarians, but Quebec City itself is armed with a similar bylaw. "We must be ready for the hooligans of international protest," said Mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier, who nonetheless fears that his city might get a bad name if law-abiding demonstrators are restricted or if citizens are harassed by police. "There are so many ways a summit can go sour." Opponents of globalization claim that free trade treaties, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement among Canada, Mexico, and the United States, are capitalist ploys to subvert national environmental laws, undercut labor organizations, and destroy indigenous cultures by imposing economic hegemony in the name of "open borders." The agreements tend to be hatched in secrecy. Only a month before the summit, for example, Canada and the United States refuse to disclose major points of the pending Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. "So little information is provided by governments that no one really understands just what these agreements are," said Cassie Watters, an organizer with Massachusetts Jobs with Justice. The group believes free trade primarily benefits multinational companies by enabling them to more easily move operations to countries where labor is cheapest. "Free trade has become another cudgel to use against unions and underpaid workers in this country by threatening to move operations - and take away people's jobs - to places where they pay even less," she said. According to activist sources, significant numbers of antiglobalization protesters, including many from New England, are starting to slip into Canada well in advance of the summit to avoid intensified border scrutiny. Others are attending "protest workshops" organized in dozens of countries. The workshops teach everything from how to defend oneself in street battles with police to how to get along with hardened criminals if arrested. Activists hope the Quebec summit might provide them with their best chance to fight what they consider the real enemy: public indifference to free trade. "We should consider this a struggle or war against our own governments," said Maude Barlow, cochairwoman of the Council of Canadians, a 100,000-member nationalist group that fears free trade is making Canada an economic and cultural colony of the United States. "This is turning into a truly global fight against globalization." The last time Quebec City fell under serious siege, in 1759, British General James Wolfe scored a victory after his troops sneaked up on the French by scaling the cliffs rising from the St. Lawrence. The Mounties have no intention of letting history repeat itself. "We're ready on every front," said spokesman Normand Houle. "Even if 2,000 people try to scale those cliffs, we'll be there waiting." =================================================================== Anti-Globalization Protests Begin Against Inter-American Bank In Chile Santiago de Chile, March 16 (RHC)--Anti-free market globalization protesters have begun to take to the streets of the Chilean capital, Santiago, to protest the upcoming 42nd Annual Assembly of Inter- American Development Bank Governors. Close to 25 people were arrested Thursday, including two who allegedly threw a smoke bomb into a McDonald's fast food restaurant. Chilean police are on alert as numerous foreign organizations and individuals are expected to converge on the city. An Argentinean was among those arrested Thursday, while several people from Spain and Belgium also participated in the protest. The Inter-American Development Bank will officially begin its gathering next Monday, with some 6000 invited representatives from nearly 46 countries. But protests will continue this weekend under the slogan "capitalism kills, kill capitalism - their wealth is our misery." Among diverse activities, organizers of the protest will hold this weekend what they're calling an anti-capitalist culture fair. =================================================================== Tuesday, March 20, 2001 Ala Wai Community Park to close while ADB meets <http://starbulletin.com/2001/03/20/news/story2.html> Officials plan to shut off the park in May to thwart protesters By Nelson Daranciang Star-Bulletin Police plans aimed at thwarting protests at an international meeting in May promise to disrupt hundreds of Honolulu park users and have some activists crying foul. City officials said yesterday they will close Ala Wai Community Park May 7-11 to use as a staging area for security operations during the Asian Development Bank meeting at the Hawaii Convention Center. May is the start of the summer paddling season, and the park is used by about 10 paddling clubs, as well as soccer and Little League baseball teams. In addition to the Ala Wai park closure, the city also is not issuing any permits allowing large groups to gather at Ala Moana Beach Park, which police plan to use as a second staging area. "This is a complete denial of citizens' First Amendment rights," said Brent White, American Civil Liberties Union attorney for ADBwatch, a local coalition of protest groups opposed to the ADB. White said the city Parks Department has denied all permit applications by protest groups that want to use parks in the vicinity of the convention center to stage a march and rally against the ADB on May 9. "The denial of these permits is an attempt to prevent ADBwatch and others from exercising their free-speech rights in Honolulu during the ADB meeting," he said. In response to criticism that the council and police are going overboard in their preparations, City Councilman and Parks Committee Chairman Gary Okino said: "It's better to be safe than sorry. I'd feel really bad if we didn't pass these measures and someone got hurt. I think we've just got to trust police." Meanwhile, canoe clubs that want to paddle that week will have to move their canoes and practice elsewhere, said Ala Wai park attendant Cass Kasparovich. "We've called all park users who practice or play games during that week (and told them) that they won't be able to get access to the park because of the bank meeting," Kasparovich said. Mike Tongg, president of the Hawaii Canoe Racing Clubs, said the clubs based at the Ala Wai have met with police and will relocate for the week. The canal itself will be off limits to paddlers from near University Avenue down past the convention center. Callers hoping to get permits for Ala Moana Beach Park are being told city officials are "evaluating" permits for the five days of the ADB. "They (police) don't want us to issue permits," said John Mau, manager of the park's McCoy Pavilion. White said the city denied applications from ADBwatch to use the parks and Kalakaua Avenue for a rally because the groups would need special duty officers, but all of them will be assigned to provide security for the ADB. "The part of it that's nonsensical, all officers will be assigned to provide security during the Asian Development Bank," he said. "But none are available to escort protesters." Police refused to comment on their security measures for the meeting. The ADB, a Manila-based multinational group that promotes free trade and Third World development projects, has come under fire from environmentalists, unions and other groups who say the ADB exploits workers and the environment. At a 1999 Seattle meeting of another multinational development group, the World Trade Organization, rioting protesters caused millions of dollars in property damage. =================================================================== Silencing Quebec <http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10609> Naomi Klein, Globe and Mail March 20, 2001 "I'm worried that free trade is leading to the privatization of education," an elementary school teacher tells me. "I want to go to the protests in Quebec City, but is it going to be safe?" "I think NAFTA has increased the divide between rich and poor," a young mother tells me, "But if I go to Quebec, will my son get pepper sprayed?" "I want to go to Quebec City," a Harvard undergraduate active in the anti-sweatshop movement says, "but I heard no one is getting across the border to Canada." "We're not even bothering to go to Quebec City," a student in Mexico City says. "We can't afford to get arrested in a foreign country." If you think that the next big crackdown on political protest is going to take place when 5,000 police officers clash with activists outside the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City next month, you are mistaken. The real crackdown is already taking place. It is happening silently, with no fanfare, every time another would-be protester decides not to publicly express his or her views about the largest free trade zone in the world: the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. It turns out that the most effective form of crowd control isn't pepper spray, water cannons, tear gas, or any of the other weapons being readied by Quebec police in anticipation of the arrival of 34 heads of state. The most cutting-edge form of crowd control is controlling the crowds before they converge: this is state-of-the-art protest deterrence, the silencing you do yourself. It happens every time we read another story about how Quebec will be surrounded by a three-meter high fence. Or about how there's nowhere to sleep in the city except the prisons, which have been helpfully cleared out. A month before the Summit, post-card perfect Quebec City has been successfully transformed into a menacing place, inhospitable to regular people with concerns about corporate-driven trade and economic deregulation. Protesting, rather than being a healthy part of democracy, seems like an extreme and dangerous sport, suitable only for hard-core activists, with bizarre accessories and doctoral degrees in rock climbing. More protest deterrence takes place when we accept the stories in the papers, filled with anonymous sources and unattributed statements, about how some of these activists are actually "agitators" who are "planning to use violence," packing bricks and explosives. The only proof provided for such inflammatory allegations is that "anarchists" are organizing into "small groups" and these groups are "autonomous," meaning, gasp! -- they don't tell each other what to do. The truth is this: not a single one of the official groups organizing protests is planning violent action. A couple of the more radical organizations, including the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, have said they respect "a diversity of tactics ... ranging from popular education to direct action." They have said they will not, on principle, condemn other activists for their tactics. This admittedly complicated position has been distorted in the press as tantamount to planning violent attacks on the summit, which it most certainly is not. The position has also been a source of frustration for many activists who argue that it would be infinitely easier if everyone just signed on to a statement saying the protests will be non-violent. The problem is that one of the fundamental arguments against the FTAA's Darwinian economic model is that it increases violence: violence within poor communities and police violence against the poor. In a speech delivered last year, Pierre Pettigrew, Minister of International Trade, helps explain why. In the new economy, he said, "the victims are not only exploited, they're excluded ... You may be in a situation where you are not needed to create that wealth. This phenomenon of exclusion is far more radical than the phenomenon of exploitation." Indeed it is. Which is why a society that blithely accepts this included/excluded ledger is an unsafe society. It is filled with people who have little faith in the system, who feel they have nothing to gain from the promises of prosperity coming out of gatherings like the Summit of the Americas, who see the police only as a force of repression. If this isn't the kind of society we want, one of included and excluded, and ever higher walls dividing the two, then the answer is not for "good" activists to preemptively condemn "bad" activists. The answer is to reject the politics of division wholesale. And the best place to do it is in Quebec City, where the usually invisible wall of exclusion has been made starkly visible, with a brand-new chain-link fence, and crowd control methods that aim to keep us out before we even get there. =================================================================== Traditional Mohawks call for "Day of Rage" April 19th and pledge to open border, welcoming anarchists. Written By World War Three, Target & Warcry Sun, 18 Mar 2001 This April the heads of State of every country in the Western hemisphere except Cuba will be meeting in Quebec city Canada to sign a trade deal that undermines the rights of working people, environmental protections and human rights. They are very afraid that people will come to Quebec City and ruin their party. So afraid that protesters are being refused entry at the Canadian border. But there's good news. There is an important chance to build solidarity between anarchists and indigenous people. The Mohawk territory of Akwesasne straddles both sides of the Canadian border. The Mohawk people view that border as illegitimate. On April 19th,a group of Mohawks from the Traditional contingent of the Mohawk people will open the bridge at Cornwall to activists wishing to go to Quebec City. They are billing this as a "Day of Rage" in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Canadian radicals and trade unionists are supporting this action on the Canadian side while several different mobilization groups from the U.S. are planning a caravan from the Burlington Convergence to Quebec City through the Mohawk reservation. This is not a blockade. In solidarity with the Mohawk nation's grievances towards the Canadian and U.S. governments and their action upon that day, the caravan hopes to travel without harassment and unfettered to Quebec City. The Mohawk people consider the bridge and border an abomination forced on them by the U.S. and Canadian governments. The bridge is controlled by customs 364 days of the year but one day of every year Mohawk people take over the bridge to assert their sovereignty over their land. They have never given up their lands to these tyrannical nations. This is a chance to build an alliance between Anarchists and indigenous people. There is a lot we can learn from the Mohawk people, who have struggled for centuries against all forms of oppression at the hands of the capitalist system and the governments of both Canada and the U.S. They have never conceded their land. They have never accepted the U.S. or Canadian government as legitimate. They have responded to oppression with armed resistance. The powerful spirit of insurgency has been very effective in the recent past as well. The federal governments have amassed to strike with horrendous force only to back off when it became apparent what they were up against: a people committed to sovereignty at all costs. As Anarchists we aspire to be as strong and defiant as the Mohawk Traditionalists already are. This group of Mohawk Traditionalists - along with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (An organization of poor people fighting to bring power back into poor communities, OCAP) and the Kingston People's Community Union (An organization of community members, PCU) - are using this as a chance to build coalition and organize towards a larger campaign to unseat their rightwing asshole premier of Ontario, Mike Harris. This will be a day of solidarity between radical Mohawks, Canadian Trade Unions, the poor of Ontario (Through OCAP), several radical activist groups in the U.S. and Canada, independent Anarchists, and the Anti-Globalization movement worldwide. A few of the U.S. groups currently involved are NYC DAN, NYC YaBasta! Collective, IMC-NYC, Philly Direct Action Group. The Canadian Guelph Direct Action Group is also down. The border crossing also has the endorsement of the Cornwall Labor Council, the radical Canadian Postal Union and possibly a Canadian AutoWorkers Union. Once over the border the U.S. caravan will be free to join the Canadians for a large-scale caravan to Quebec City. Canadians are still discussing plans to shut down the locks on the Saint Lawrence Seaway if necessary. The Burlington Convergence (Starting possibly the 14th of April. www.vermontactionnetwork.org, vermont.indymedia.org) is being used as the jump off point and it is strongly advised that those interested be at the convergence by the 17th for training, or by the 18th spokes council meeting at the very latest. This convergence will have teach-ins, workshops, bands, protests and much more. If you can't make it to Cornwall or Quebec you have to come to the convergence. Some realities about working with the Mohawks: Mohawk society, like most societies, is not politically homogeneous. There are Mohawk freedom fighters, but there are also Mohawk police, Mohawk venture capitalists, Mohawk reactionaries and Mohawks working with the Canadian Government. Just as there are Anarchists, Republicans and all kinds of people in U.S. society. This action is being called by a group of Mohawk Traditionalists with radical politics. (So understandably, they have welcomed the U.S. Anarchists to cross their land.) It is possible that we will come into contact with some Mohawks who don't support the action. We may in fact be confronting Mohawk police officers. If this happens we should deal with this in a principled way and stand up to them as police =AD and not fall into raising racial issues. When possible, we will take the lead from our Traditionalist allies on how to deal with these situations. Considering that the blood of 20 million Indigenous people has been spilled since imperialists first set foot on this country, and considering how fiercely these warriors have always resisted oppression, we consider it an honor to work with these uncompromisingly brave people. They are opening their land for us to reach Quebec City; we should open our hearts and raise our fists. ------------- Some sites related to the Cornwall caravan and the Vermont convergence: http://www.freespeech.org/yabasta/ http://www.vermontactionnetwork.org/ http://vermont.indymedia.org/ http://www.infoshop.org=20 =================================================================== The salsa revolution Sunday Times (South Africa) As the Zapatista Army of National Liberation arrived in Mexico City this week to campaign against capitalism and for the rights of the Maya, MICHAEL SCHMIDT recalls a trip he made to their stronghold in Chiapas Teased by Internet portrayals of a David-versus-Goliath insurgency in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, I flew off in search of a sort of political epiphany. The Mexican south has a pretty wild history that sets it apart from the rest of the country. This is feral territory, where the easiest way to become a saint is to kill yourself by falling off your horse in a drunken stupor during a festival, and where a very modern guerrilla revolt has produced a pin-up for the new millennium to rival Ché Guevara. Forget that limp-wristed Celestine Prophecies crap. The real ancient Mayans filed their teeth to sharp points, pierced their tongues and genitals with stingray spines, and delighted in ripping the beating hearts out of the team that lost the ball game. Then there were the pirate bands that razed whole towns, using nuns as human shields in their sieges; the new Catholic converts who presented a freshly crucified boy to their priest as a gift; and the modern, Mansonesque rituals of seaside satanic cults. This is the black-hearted backwoods of the "jungle novels" in which mysterious writer B Traven - more appopriately known as Ret Marut , or Storm Demon - immortalised the rough mahogany loggers of a hundred years ago, torching the haciendas of their cacique overlords. Such images no doubt strengthened the hand of Diego Garcia, communist lover of Frieda Kahlo, as he painted his monumentalist murals decades later. The insurrectionary spirit is long-lived here. It's 500 years after Columbus, and the Mayans, a stocky, pugnacious race, still don't believe they've been beaten. Villagers in Zinacantán, where men wear black ponchos festooned with fuschia pom-poms, once hammered some federal cops who trod on local traditions. They shaved the offenders' heads, starved them in jail for a week, then sent them packing, stark naked and on foot. The Federales are muscle for what was, until ousted in elections late last year, the world's oldest government and they rate more than a few entries under "torture" in Amnesty International's files. To land in Chiapas is to immediately be aware that the goon squad is in residence: sandbagged army posts line the runway; cops with submachineguns lurk around the hangars; and helicopter gunships nest on the tarmac like wasps. But everyday life has wound its tendrils around these obstacles. Military traffic gets jostled on the winding roads by new Hyundais, beat-up farm trucks from the 1940s and creaky retired US schoolbuses plastered with stickers of the brown-skinned Virgin of Guadeloupe and of pe roxide porno estrellas. In the mountain town of San Cristóbal de las Casas, with its cobblestones and courtyards, marimba band posters are more prevalent than political colours. The best indicator that I was off the beaten track was in Chiapas's conquistadore churches where confessionals stood unused, priests were often ignored and congregants essentially worshipped the old Mayan gods (minus, thankfully, human sacrifice). There are no pews behind the immense, fortress-like walls. In what looks more like santeria ceremonies, rows of candles burn on the palm-leafed floors before sad-eyed, menacing saints shrouded in dusty satin robes and choked with flower offerings. Supplicants down posh, a mind-blurring sugarcane witblits. I half expected to be sprayed in black chicken blood. One of the major-domos who maintain the saints' statues came up to me, pointed at my then long hair and beard and then heavenward, saying "Jesus". I wickedly felt like confirming He was back and demanding 500 years' arrears rent. But I didn't because all outsiders to these mountain Mayan towns, whether gringo or mixed-race mestizo , must get the hell out of Dodge by sundown or face the wrath of a people who perfected open-heart surgery a thousand years before Chris Barnard. Or even anaesthetic. On the other side of the social spectrum to the major-domo squats Fat Manuel, an architecture student who will no doubt be designing exceptionally wide doorways. Fat Manuel toured me through the seedy underbelly of Mérida, a grim town on the Yucatán peninsula. Mexican strip shows have four parts. In parts one and two, dumpy girls in wedding-cake dresses play coy; in part three, they grind their buck-naked booties in your face; and in the last act, disappear upstairs with a client. So much for nightlife. Formed about 17 years back, the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional kicked off as a wannabe urban assault group named after moustachioed Emiliano Zapata, 1910 revolutionary and southern alter-ego to the northern arch-bandido, Pancho Villa. But, discretion being the better part of valour, they ran off into the Lacandón rainforest to commune with the bolshie Mayan peasants and remained total nobodies for the next decade. Then on New Year's Day 1994 they popped out into the sunlight in their black ninja jammies as harbingers of a full-nine-yards social revolt, catching the Mexican army with its pants around its ankles. Within 12 days they took a miltary base and six towns, including San Cristóbal. By dumping their authoritarian Maoism, putting themselves under indigenous Mayan civilian control and taking roundhouse punches at poverty instead, the Zaps, as Yankee hacks working the story nicknamed them, had mutated in the wilderness into desperadoes. It's been seven years of the kind of lying, cheating and general skulduggery that passed for "peace talks", and the Zaps's popularity has grown steadily. A sly, unspoken petty apartheid exists in Mexico, with Mayans effectively barred from the sidewalk cafés. But they get their own back in novel ways. Forced by starvation to build megahotels for reality-shy American tourists at resorts like Cancún, they build badly, in the cheerful hope that the structures will collapse. The Mayans are much reduced from the heights of a civilisation which equalled the Roman Empire and produced cities as awesome as Constantinople, now all succumbed to rainforest root and rot. Modern tribespeople work from the time they are children. One of the few beggars I saw was a young girl with jaguar-like blemishes all over her skin. In ancient times, she would have been revered as a messenger of Nahual-Bolom, the Spirit Jaguar, but instead she stood in rags. The other barefooted, pigtailed girls wear traditional blouses called huipils as they flog the ubiquitous dolls of Subcommandante Marcos, enigmatic spokesman for the uprising, complete with ski-mask and rifle. Even in the towns, most Mayans are in traditional dress. Western clothing is scorned. The colourful and pungent markets bustle with women selling woven cloth, tortillas and handcrafted leather, wood and ceramic goods. And among it all is the revolutionary kitsch: Zapatista T-shirts, key-rings, balaclavas. The state's massive 83rd Battalion base may be just outside town and the balance of forces stacked 10 to one against the Zaps, but that doesn't deter anyone from selling ugly pine wall clocks embellished with Marcos's hooded visage. The target of this bizarre fetishistic trade is, of course, the town's real occupational force, the scores of neo-hippie European and American backpackers who crowd the trendy coffee bars to moan about the nouveau-riche Russians, beet-red and half-naked, who sing rowdy drinking songs on the pyramids at Uxmal. Zapatista fans and Marcos groupies abound. I met two British women who thought Marcos was the hottest thing since the chilli tacos outhouse sprint. A dashing, mysterious figure married to his M-16 assault rifle and his trademark philosopher's pipe, "Sub" Marcos is enshrined as a latter-day Ché. The government believes he's a dissident writer named Rafael Guillen, but he has denied this. Like all the other Zaps, he never removes his mask in public, but his blue eyes reveal he is not Mayan (hence his status as a lowly subcommander, though his rumoured fiancée, Ramona, is a fully-fledged commander). But even Marcos's charm cannot explain why a full third of the Zapatista forces (up to 12 000-strong) are female. Many of them have led all-male companies in successful combat with the authorities: the taking of San Cristóbal itself was achieved bloodlessly by about 1 000 guerrillas commanded by 26-year-old Major Ana-Maria. Marcos has joked about the effect of having babes on board, telling journalists that combatants who want to sneak off for a bit of nookie must tell their commanders first: "If we are attacked, we can't have the whole defensive line having sex!" He's also candid about domestic disputes between his fighters: "We have to be careful in this respect, because both are armed, and if it occurs to one of them to shoot the other . . ." The anarchist orator Emma Goldman famously said: "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution!" And I can attest to the fervour with which these Latinas can salsa - occupied zone or not. Marcos's thoughtful discourses, poetic, enraged and amusing by turns, have endeared him and his cause to the type of well-heeled white intellectuals who usually turn even paler at the mere mention of anything that waves a red flag at the market bull. Although the Mexican press includes anarchist rags as well as pinstriped finance journals, it is through the Internet that Marcos's ideas and appeals reached a global audience. When the official British war artist produced a series of sketches of the early stages of the conflict, his most enduring images were those of rebels bristling with antique rifles, sitting on logs in the jungle, tapping away at laptops. Runners get communiques by forked stick from the jungle to wired sympathisers who then post them on the Internet. In addition to the liberation army's website, http://ezln.org , there are at least 30 related ones put up by pro-Zap activists. Welcome to the first cyber-revolution. The Zaps's biggest achievement, akin to stepping on Superman's cape and getting away with it, has been the space for sane dialogue which they opened up in a society bound by tribal and religious taboos, plus the way in which their defiance has put real democracy and social justice at the top of the political agenda in Mexico and the rest of Central America. Like other armed insurgencies, they have their share of thugs and sharks, but their link with the vicarious world of cyberspace, their honourable conduct and their libertarian politics have earned them kudos as the world's first post-Soviet revolutionaries. But don't ask me. I never actually managed to meet anyone wearing a ski mask, kinda forgot the whole epiphany thing and became much more qualified at discussing the philosophical qualities of Mexican beer. =================================================================== European communications 'wide open' to interception http://www.silicon.com By Peter Warren, March 9, 2001 A leading British code expert has fueled widespread concerns that Europe's most sensitive electronic communications are open to interception. Desmond Perkins, a senior official in the European Commission's cipher unit, has claimed that the superior technology deployed by US authorities means there is little Europe can do to prevent them listening in to its communications. Perkins was speaking at a recent EU hearing into Echelon, the name given to a US monitoring system which is allegedly able to eavesdrop on all European electronic traffic. Perkins claimed he showed EU systems to his US counterparts, thanks to his "cordial" relationship with the US National Security Agency (NSA), the organisation widely believed to operate Echelon. "You have got to remember the Americans read no matter what is going on inside here. They read everything with their satellites lined up," he said. EU officials have since gagged Perkins from making further comments on the issue, and have claimed that his evidence has been misunderstood. They say he only meant to point out that the US had the technology to intercept messages, but could not read them due to encryption. They stressed that the EU has been using a Siemens system for secure communications for over a decade. But Perkins' claims have been backed up by former high-ranking intelligence sources contacted by silicon.com. A former Nato encryption expert, who advised the EU on communications vulnerabilities in 1996, claimed that the Commission had been in the habit of sending completely unencrypted information, throwing into doubt the EU claims that it had been using the Siemens system for a decade. "They were worried in the mid 1990s that the US may have been picking up messages, but they did not introduce encryption until 1998," said the expert, who asked to remain anonymous. He added that US intelligence efforts would almost certainly be focused on acquiring the keys needed to read intercepted messages - a process the former official hinted may have been made easier due to the long-established UK-US practice of exchanging classified codes. This is the kind of practice that could make sense of Perkins' claims of a "cordial" relationship with the US. Indeed, Perkins told the EU: "They usually check our systems to see they are being well-looked after and not being misused." Perkins' trust in the NSA is almost certainly misplaced, according to one former NSA employee. "I don't doubt it has been going on. I would also be fairly confident that they will have built back doors into any system they have been looking at," he said. =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ====================================================== "The world is my country, all mankind my brethren, and to do good is my religion." -Thomas Paine ====================================================== " . . . it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds . . . " -Samuel Adams ====================================================== "You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no results." -Gandhi ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ **How to assist RadTimes: An account is available at <www.paypal.com> which enables direct donations. If you are a current PayPal user, use this email address: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, to contribute. If you are not a current user, use this link: <https://secure.paypal.com/refer/pal=resist%40best.com> to sign up and contribute. The only information passed on to me via this process is your email address and the amount you transfer. Thanks! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
