From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [pttp] Toronto Anti-War Rally Targets Racist Media -Sat.Oct.13.2001 Subj: Toronto Anti-War Rally Targets Racist Media -Sat.Oct.13.2001 Date: 10/13/01 8:58:22 PM Mountain Daylight Time From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Gary Morton) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Toronto Anti-War Rally Targets Racist Media -Sat.Oct.13.2001 By Gary Morton for http://CitizensontheWeb.com Photos of demo: Sallmah Valiani speaks at Toronto Peace Rally http://home.eol.ca/~command/oct13a.jpg Police Block March http://home.eol.ca/~command/oct13b.jpg At the HQ of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp http://home.eol.ca/~command/oct13c.jpg Banners http://home.eol.ca/~command/oct13d.jpg The Coalition Against War and Racism met near the U.S. Consulate today to oppose the war, Canada's involvement in it and the biased media coverage that has been prevalent since September 11th. Sallmah Valiani of the coalition noted that the Canadian Broadcasting Corp has agreed to President Bush's demand to screen messages from Osama Bin Laden and the Middle East. She says the CBC should probably screen the messages of Bush and some of the leaders. In agreement with her is the Belgian foreign minister, as he was in the news today attacking the war-mongering speeches of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Surprises came when a thug showed up to pick a fight with anti war folks, and later when uniformed and horseback police blocked the march, leading to a standoff that went on for several minutes. A second thug showed briefly when the march got to the CBC. He loudly denounced the speakers as Terrorists. Police, present in large numbers, simply watch such occurrences, apparently hoping violence will break out. There is some question as to whether the first troublemaker was genuine. While taking photos I heard two CTV reporters talking about creating a news story. Shortly after that a loud and profane thug arrived, circling to the back of the demo to scare some Islamic people also arriving. Cameras rushed in to do a feature on him. The media has turned the coverage of the War on Terrorism into a new form of racist terror that several speakers denounced Š and if the media doesn't directly send in racist thugs, they do a good job of creating them through their biased and paranoid coverage. Anthrax is the current scare and as Sallmah noted in her talk, it is big corporations that are really behind the germ scare. She didn't mention it but outfits like Monsanto and Novartis that aid the war machine have also sponsored out of control genetic engineering in university, hospital and private labs. Jeremy Rifkin has a post out on the net describing how anyone with ten thousand dollars can build their own bio-terror lab. Groups like GeneAction - see www.geneaction.org - have protested dangerous genetic engineering for a long time and the government has paid little attention. Now politicians are exploiting fear to pass legislation (some of it racist) that removes civil liberties. Private companies are also exploiting fear. Today I got a post called Protect yourself against CRIME and TERRORISM! By buying things like Hidden Cameras, Pepper Spray, Blowguns, Crossbows, Handcuffs, Throwing Stars, Stun Guns and Tasers. So has the War on Terrorism succeeded? We know George Bush fears new TERRORIST Attacks. His fears and news reports on them happened to occur when a bill to give police expanded powers was before the senate. Of course there are legitimate reasons to fear new attacks. Bush's war coalition has succeeded in killing the Taliban leaders' ten-year-old son and grandfather. Following those deaths a little bird informed Bush that there may be retaliation. Sort of like a mafia thing where we kill their children and they strike back. Overall the bombing of Afghanistan is killing and crippling innocent civilians by the hundreds. Today a residential area was hit in Kabul. There are riots in Pakistan and across the Middle East people are rising up with thoughts of revolution and vengeance against the USA. Our brilliant foreign policy of war has created an entire army of new enemies that could resort to terror. Instead of winning Afghanistan, we might lose Pakistan (a nuclear power) to rioting and unrest. Even Tony Blair admits that support for the war is waning in the Islamic and Arab nations and elsewhere. So to put it bluntly, the war on terrorism is a total failure. We've created more terror, destabilized the Middle East, murdered innocent people, stirred up hatred and racism and removed civil liberties. It's time to talk about peaceful solutions while there is some peace left. Next demo Sat Oct.20 I pm North Side of Queen's Park info: CAWR_Toronto@. yahoo.com -------- _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
