East Lansing - November 27, 2007. On Friday, November 30, 2007 BERT GARSKOF will address the Michigan State University Campus Community, in East Lansing. The reunion will be held at 107 South Kedzie Hall, MSU at 7 PM.

In the 1968-1969 school year, Garskof was an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department of Michigan State University. He was also the Faculty Advisor to MSU-SDS. Nominated by his department as TEACHER OF THE YEAR, he had the highest publication rating and best student ratings. In the Spring of 1969, the Administration of Michigan State University forced Bert out of his assigned classes and put him on “full time research.” The Administration subsequently denied Garskof tenure and he left MSU. With an extensive background as a peace and justice activist, Bert Garskof is currently a board member of Foundation for a Democratic Society and an active member of Movement for a Democratic Society. Returning to MSU for an SDS reunion and nonviolent protest, Garskof will address a new generation of MSU SDSers.

Bert Garskof (left) and Alan Haber are scheduled to speak at the Reunion

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SDSers protest war profiteering outside L3 Communications Corporation
(Photo: Thomas Good / Next Left Notes)

New York, NY - November 16, 2007. In NYC the third iteration of the Iraq Moratorium began with a press conference at City Hall. Called by the World Can’t Wait, the conference featured speakers from CodePINK, Granny Peace Brigade, Not In Our Name, Movement for a Democratic Society, Students for a Democratic Society, Peace Action and students from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. After a lively press conference marchers gathered at the south end of Union Square. From there a march processed up Broadway with stops at L3 Communications and Bechtel Corporation - ultimately ending dramatically at Times Square where protesters clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods knelt before the military recruiting center. It was a spirited protest - and a huge success by any standards.

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By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

A series of accusations raised by the U.S. military against an Associated Press photographer detained for 19 months in Iraq are false or meaningless, according to an intensive AP investigation of the case made public Wednesday.

Evidence and testimony collected by the AP show no support for allegations that Bilal Hussein took part in insurgent activities or bomb-making, and few of the images he provided dealt directly with Iraqi insurgents.

“Despite the fact that Hussein has not been interrogated since May 2006, allegations have been dropped or modified over time, and new claims added, all without any explanation,” said the nearly 50-page report compiled last spring by lawyer and former federal prosecutor Paul Gardephe.

The report, along with copious exhibits and other findings, were provided to U.S. and Iraqi officials in late June but have never been publicly released by the AP.

“The best evidence of how Hussein conducted himself as a journalist working for AP is the extensive photographic record,” Gardephe wrote. “There is no evidence — in nearly a thousand photographs taken over the 20-month period — that his activities ever strayed from those of a legitimate journalist.”

The U.S. military notified the AP last weekend that it intended to submit a complaint against Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29. Under Iraqi codes, an investigative magistrate will decide whether there are grounds to try Hussein, who was seized in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on April 12, 2006. The AP has retained Gardephe to defend Hussein before the Iraqi court.

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Support your local Wobs - buy a great t-shirt and help the IWW organize!

New York, NY - November 20, 2007. Support the IWW’s IU 460 and 640 organizing drives. For $12 (and $2 shipping) you can buy a great looking shirt and feel good about wearing it! Send the cash, your contact info - phone or email - and your size preference (medium, large or extra large) to: IWW, 14 Meadow Street, Brooklyn, NY 11206 USA

Click HERE for More Information

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Chicago, IL - November 15, 2007. CHICAGO CONFIDENTIAL! Report on the First National Convergence of the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), with the Participation of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

It was a hectic week for activists in Chicago. There was the Select Media Festival, a Teaching for Social Justice Conference, a SNCC commemoration, the Humanities festival, a National Convention to End the Death Penalty, and Bob Brown’s law-suit against the corporations. And in nearby Berwyn, 37 Morton West High School students faced expulsion for holding an antiwar sit-in.

Not least, the Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) held its first national convergence at Loyola University, from November 8 through 11 with the participation of the newly inspired SDS, Students for a Democratic Society.

Bill Ayers at the Resisting Endless War panel (Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Loyola provided fine meeting rooms in a maze-like setting on beautiful Lake Michigan. On Thursday night some eighty-plus people attended Manning Marable’s superb talk on South Africa, its increasing impoverishment and stratification caused by the demands of U.S. interests and investments. Marable spoke of the prison industry and observed that 1 in every 5 persons in the U.S. has a prison record. This has led to a mass disenfrachizment of black voters, especially in the south.

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On Tuesday November 6 there was a march and rally at the Port of Olympia
against the arrival of the USNS Brittin which came to the port carrying a
cargo of Stryker vehicles and other military supplies and weapons
returning from Iraq. At the rally Iraq War veterans and SDS members Seth
Manzel, and Josh Simpson both gave inspiring speeches as well as members
of Port Militarization Resistance and Peter Bohmer who is a member of
Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace and a former member of the 1960s
Rosa Luxemburg SDS chapter.

The Strykers were from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Stryker Combat
Team which resisters tried to prevent from leaving through the port in May
2006. Since then port actions have occurred in Tacoma and Aberdeen, WA
against military shipments. Most likely, the returning materials will be
shipped out again, even though the last tour of Iraq resulted in 48 deaths
of American soldiers and an unknown number of Iraqi civilian deaths. Also,
a high-ranking official in the US military leaked out that all the
vehicles and weapons aboard the ship are contaminated with depleted
uranium. The presence of the ship and the movement of Strykers act as a
hyper-militarization of an already militarized town.

Wednesday night over 150 people gathered at the Port of Olympia to
demonstrate against the militarization of the port. Demonstrators, both
members of PMR (Port Militarization Resistance) and others, decided to
block the convoys. People sat down in lines to block convoys leaving the
port and cops came in to push them back and assault them. The next several
hours saw similar displays of civil resistance. More cops came onto the
scene. More convoys left the port, running into resistance on many
streets. Several people came close to getting run over by Stryker vehicles
that were traveling at high speed. Small barricades went up as well and a
number of people defended themselves and their community from the cops by
pushing them back. People were chased by cops and in return cops made
fools of themselves by tripping over their own feet, falling down and
being too out of shape to run after and catch up with the evasive
resisters.

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(Photo: Thomas Good / Next Left Notes)

New York, NY - November 3, 2007. Braving a windy, cold November day, peace activists on Staten Island attended the fourth annual Freedom and Peace Festival on Saturday, November 3, 2007. Organized by Peace Action Staten Island (PASI), the event was help in Stapleton’s Tappen Park and featured performers, speakers and tables staffed by local peace and social justice organizations. Performers included the Bread Is Rising poetry collective, political rapper Spiritchild, and the Robert Ross Band. Speakers included Mitchel Cohen of the Brooklyn Greens, Chris Bustamante of Iraq Veterans Against The War, Elaine Brower of the World Can’t Wait, Frida Berrigan of the War Resisters League and Tom Good from Movement for a Democratic Society.

Longtime Staten Island activist Angelo DeAngelo, who tabled the event, said: “I wonder how many of us realize how fortunate we are to have all these amazing creative progressive activists in our midst? I feel privileged to consider these neighbors and friends part of my life!”

     

Activist Frida Berrigan speaking at the Peace Fest
Click on the images to access a video clip.

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Vigilers outside the St. George Recruiting Center
(Photo: Ron Romano)

New York, NY - November 2, 2007. Peace activist Rita Dougherty recently received the kind of news every parent dreads - that her child was “seriously injured” while serving in Iraq. Dougherty, a librarian at a Staten Island high school, has been active in the peace movement since she was 12 years old - and is a familar face to borough organizers and activists. When the SI community of activists received word that her son Ryan had been badly wounded - Army docs at Landstuhl, Germany told Rita it may be a year before they know the extent of his injuries - they organized a vigil at what was regarded as the most appropriate location: the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in St. George, Staten Island. Members of Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) and Veterans For Peace (VFP) formed up at the Recruiting Center at 7 pm Friday night, November 2, 2007. During the two hour vigil three Vietnam War veterans who were dining at a local restaurant walked across busy Bay Street to stand with the protesters and sign the large card that will be sent to Rita and her son, now undergoing surgery at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, DC. Later a group of neighborhood kids ran by - stopping to ask what the protest was about. They appeared stunned when they heard the story: Ryan Miller’s newly re-armored Stryker vehicle hit a similarly new and improved roadside bomb - killing the soldier sitting next to Ryan and doing severe damage to Ryan’s abdomen and left leg. One of the young men was visibly moved. He asked to sign the card. Shortly before the vigil ended a photographer from the NY Post stopped and asked if the local press (SI Advance and NY 1’s SI bureau) were covering the vigil. Dismayed that the press had been notified but not shown up, the photographer grabbed his gear and snapped a group shot that he emailed to the Advance. It has yet to appear. The Advance had previously run an article that minimized Ryan’s injuries.

The vigil ended with organizer Tom Good (MDS) reading a statement from Rita Dougherty:

Even though my son is home there’s no way I’m going to stop. I marched after my brother came home from Viet Nam. I was only 12 at the time but I marched with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and I didn’t stop until Saigon fell. So I’m not stopping until Bagdad falls. I’m in this for the long haul.

MDS Organizers, who called the vigil, report that protests at local Recruiting Centers will continue.

View Photos From The Vigil…

Click on the above image to sign the “In Defense of the Morton West Antiwar Students petition”

Berwyn, IL - November 2, 2007. Over 70 students participated in a sit-in against the Iraq War on All Saint’s Day, Thursday, November 1st. It began third hour when dozens of students gathered quietly in the lunchroom at Morton West High School and refused to leave. The administrators and police became involved immediately and locked down the school for a half hour after class ended. Students report that they were promised that there would be no charges besides cutting classes if they took their protest outside so as not to disturb the school day. The students complied, and were led to a corner outside the cafeteria where they sang songs and held signs while classes resumed.

Despite a police line set up between the protestors and the student body, many other students joined the demonstration. Organizers say they chose November first because it is the Christian holy day called the feast of All Saints and a national day of peace. They wrote a letter and delivered it to Superintendent, Dr. Ben Nowakowski who was present at the time, stating the reason for their protest.

Deans, counselors and even the Superintendent tried to change the minds of a few, mainly those students with higher GPA scores to abandon the protest. The school called the homes of many of the protestors. Those whose parents arrived before the end of school and took their students home, or left before the protest ended at the final bell, received 3-5 days suspension. All others, an estimated 37 received 10 days suspension and expulsion papers. Parents report that Nowakowski stated those who are seventeen will also face police charges.

Sign the “In Defense of the Morton West Antiwar Students petition”

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