Pat Korte (bullhorn) and Lauren Giaccone of SDS New York
New York NY - Saturday, August 26, 2006 SDSers joined CodePINK, We Will Not Be Silent, Jews Against the Occupation (JATO) and others in a boistrous protest in a Queens neighborhood that is home to a large Arab-American population.
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Check out the photos from 2006 SDS National Convention!
Click Here to see photos by Thomas Good taken at the recent SDS National Convention in Chicago.
An SDS Convention Flier on a University of Chicago bulletin board. (Photo: Donyal Svilar)
I - Beginnings
The last week before the Chicago convention was a flurry of activity. Having so many loose ends was maddening and finding housing was the most worrying of all. Thanks to Nick Kreitman of Chicago SDS, who secured the Unitarian Church in the final days before the conference, I was able to focus on finishing the buttons and the convention banner on my last day in NYC.
(AP Photo)
This is a photo of Miles of the Madison SDS being arrested while blocking two bus loads of neo-nazis. He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. His bail was $450 but was covered by the info shop bail fund.
The blockade consisted of about 100 protesters, 10 horses, and about 50 riot police. There was only one injury I witnessed and that was a women whose foot was stepped on by a charging horse.
Power to the People!
Jonathan Dedering
Mad SDS
Paul Krehbiel speaking at the Heartland Cafe
On March 20, 2003, the US military launched a massive war on Iraq, killing and wounding thousands of Iraqis. President Bush claimed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and had aided Al Qaeda, the group cited in killing nearly 3,000 people in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
Three years later, investigators have found no WMD in Iraq and no link to Al Qaeda. An estimated 30,000-50,000 Iraqis have been killed and over 100,000 wounded, over 2,300 US soldiers have been killed, and the war continues. Growing numbers of Americans are asking for the truth.
Why is the US in Iraq?
The Bush Administration wants to control Middle Eastern oil (65% of the world’s known oil reserves) and the world’s energy. Iraq’s oil resources are the second largest known in the world after Saudi Arabia. Gaining control of Iraq is key to this plan. However, it has caused great resentment throughout the Middle East and in many other countries. Here is a brief history.
1920:
Britain gained control of Iraq and selected and financed Emir Faisal to be King under British rule. The people revolted but the British crushed their rebellion. Britain took control of Iraqi oil operations.
Bernardine Dohrn at the SDS NE Regional Conference (NLN Photo)
As she was not able to attend the SDS 2006 National Convention in Chicago, Bernardine Dohrn sent the following greetings to the gathering. The statement was read by Thomas Good at the opening plenary:
Welcome to Chicago, Sisters and Brothers. The world you inhabit is daunting but you represent the spirit and hope of resistance and imagination - the insistance that what people do together can transform history - that we can make a difference. Here in the heart of empire, you represent a vital spark, a clear visision of the major forces at play and the determined vision to name our situation and to act to transform our circumstances.
Although I cannot be there in chicago, we have your back. May you stay clear about the challenges of movement-building: strengthening and connecting the widespread organizing work already underway, reaching out to engage new forces, and contending with principle and unity. As the great chicago poet laureate Gwendolyn Brooks said, “Live and have your blooming in the eye of the whirlwind.”
Next Left Notes (NLN) is an
independent New Left journal.
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Occupy Wall St - Anti-Brutality March
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