Young men from Beit Hanoun tell visitors what happened when Israeli rockets hit their neighborhood on November 15, 2012, killing two children. Photo credit: Johnny Barber

Kathy Kelly, who co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, just participated in an emergency delegation to Gaza. Learn more about how you can support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement with the Economic Activism for Palestine campaign.

Also see December 1, Truth and Trauma in Gaza and December 5, Israel’s Lesson to Palestinians: Build More Rockets?

On November 15, 2012, day three of the recent eight day bombardment of Gaza, Ahmed Basyouni and his family were watching news of the attacks on TV in their home in the eastern section of Beit Hanoun. He and his wife assured his older children that they would be safe because they lived in a calm area where there are no fighters. Two of his younger sons were asleep in the next room.  While they were talking, at approximately 10:35 pm, the Israeli Air Force fired three rockets from a U.S.-provided F-16 bomber into a nearby olive grove.  Ahmed’s house rocked, all his windows shattered, electricity went out plunging the family in darkness, and Ahmed’s fifteen year old son Nader screamed  from the next room that his brother was dead.

When Ahmed went into the room, he saw, with horror, that it was true.  A fleck of shrapnel from the rocket had killed his youngest son, eight year-old Fares Basyouni.  Fares had been completely decapitated but for a strip of flesh from the side of his face. The child’s blood covered the ceiling, the walls and the floor.

Fares’s father and mother spoke softly about their murdered son. “He was a kind boy, sometimes naughty,” said Ahmed, “but very kind.”  Fares’s mother told us that he was crazy about food.  He would finish his breakfast and announce that he was ready for seconds.  And he loved to play.  Once he completed his homework, he was ready for games.  “He was the life of the house,” the father added. “Now the home seems so quiet.”

Across the road, the home of Jamal Abdul Karim Nasser is uninhabitable.  The ruins of the home face directly onto the missile crater.  Young relatives explained to us that shrapnel from the missiles had killed Odai Jamal Nasser, age 15.  We were standing on the edge of the crater when Odai’s brother Hazem, age 20, asked us into what remained of his home.

The missile explosions had shattered every window, and done extensive damage to walls and floors.

Hazem and his family had been sleeping in a hallway, so as to be safer from attack, when suddenly the house was falling down on top of them.  “My father’s arm and head were bleeding,” said Hazem, “and he was looking for a flashlight to check on the children.”  Hazem’s mother took the two youngest sons out of the house and headed for their uncle’s home. Hazem’s father suddenly realized that the son sleeping next to him, Hazem’s brother Odai, was dead.  Hazem’s other younger brother, Tareq, started crying out for help and then lost consciousness.  After calling for an ambulance Hazem’s father began heading for the nearby mosque to seek help.  But the mosque was ablaze.  They waited ten agonizing minutes for the firemen to arrive.  The moment the firemen arrived, so did another rocket, injuring several of the first responders.

Only after Tareq was safely at the hospital did Hazem’s father dare tell his mother that her son Odai was dead. The burial was the following day.

“Our area was safe,” said Hazem, “and we couldn’t imagine that this would happen.  It was very strange.  No one could believe that the Israelis would target our area.” He paused before adding, “They want to clear everything.”

This memory will always be with Hazem.  “I will remember what happened to my brother and my house and that will affect my choices in the future.”  He asked us to tell this story to others. “Ask them to look at our suffering and how we are slaughtered every day,” he urged, speaking softly.

Outside the home, as we spoke, young men had arrived with a donkey, a cart, and plastic buckets.  They were filling the buckets with chunks of debris from the Nasser’s front yard and dumping the buckets into the cart before refilling them.  They estimated it will take a week to clear all of the wreckage and debris that surrounds the Nasser home and covers every floor inside.

We asked the young workers, most of whom were relatives of the Nasser family, and most of whom had known Fares Basyouni, if they had any messages they’d like us to convey to people who might see the photos we’d taken or read our account of what happened to this neighborhood on November 15th.

Mohamed Shabat, age 24, who hopes one day to become a journalist, quickly replied:  “We want to stop the killing of Palestinians.”

Kathy Kelly, who co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, just participated in an emergency delegation to Gaza. Learn more about how you can support the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement with the Economic Activism for Palestine campaign.

Also see December 2, We Want It to Stop and December 5, Israel’s Lesson to Palestinians: Build More Rockets?

Dr. T., a medical doctor, is a Palestinian living in Gaza City. He is still reeling from days of aerial bombardment. When I asked about the children in his community he told me his church would soon be making Christmas preparations to lift the children’s spirits. Looking at his kindly smile and ruddy cheeks, I couldn’t help wondering if he’d be asked to dress up as “Baba Noel,” as Santa Claus. I didn’t dare ask this question aloud.

“The most recent war was more severe and vigorous than the Operation Cast Lead,” he said slowly, leaning back in his chair and looking into the distance. “I was more affected this time. The weapons were very strong, destroying everything. One rocket could completely destroy a building.”

The 8-day Israeli offensive in November lasted for fewer days and brought fewer casualties, but it was nonstop and relentless, and everywhere.

“At 1:00 a.m. the bank was bombed, and everyone in the area was awakened from sleep. Doors were broken and windows were shattered. There was an agonizing sound, as if we were in a battlefield.”

“The bombing went on every day. F16 U.S. jets were hitting hard.”

“This is more than anyone can tolerate. We were unsafe at any place at any time.”

U.S. media and government statements are full of accounts about the scattershot Hamas rocket fire that had taken one Israeli life in the months before the Israeli bombing campaign. The U.S. government demands that the Gazans disarm completely. Due to simple racism and a jingoistic eagerness to get in line with U.S. military policy, Western commentators ignore the bombardment of Gazan neighborhoods which has caused thousands of casualties over just the past few years. They automatically frame Israel’s actions as self-defense and the only conceivable response to Palestinians who, under whatever provocations, dare to make themselves a threat.

“Any house can be destroyed. The airplanes filled the skies,” Dr. T. continued. “They were hitting civilians like the one who was distributing water.” The Palestine Centre for Human Rights  report confirms that Dr. T is discussing Suhail Hamada Mohman and his ten year old son, who were both killed instantly at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 18, 2012 in Beit Lahiya while distributing water to their neighbors.

Dr. T. then mentioned the English teacher and his student killed nearby walking in the street. The PCHR report notes that on November 16, at approximately 1:20 p.m., Marwan Abu al-Qumsan, 42, a teacher at an UNRWA school, was killed when Israeli Occupation Forces bombarded an open space area in the southeast section of Beit Lahia town.  He had been visiting the house of his brother, Radwan, 76, who was also seriously wounded.

And Dr. T. mentioned the Dalu family. “They were destroyed for no reason. You can go visit there.”

The next day, I went to the building north of Gaza City where the Dalu family had lived. In the afternoon on Sunday, November 18, an Israeli F-16 fighter jet fired a missile at the 4-story house belonging to 52-year-old Jamal Mahmoud Yassin al-Dalu. The house was completely destroyed as were all inside.  Civil Defense crews removed from the debris the bodies of 8 members of the family, four women and four children aged one to seven. Their names were:

Samah Abdul Hamid al-Dalu, 27;
Tahani Hassan al-Dalu, 52;
Suhaila Mahmoud al-Dalu, 73
Raneen Jamal al-Dalu, 22.
Jamal Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 6;
Yousef Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 4;
Sarah Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 7;
Ibrahim Mohammed Jamal al-Dalu, 1;

On November 23rd, two more bodies were found under the rubble, one of them a child.

The attack destroyed several nearby houses, including the house of the Al-Muzannar family where two civilians, a young man and a 75year-old woman, also died. They were: Ameena Matar al-Mauzannar, 75; and Abdullah Mohammed al-Muzannar, 19.

One banner that hangs on a damaged wall reads, “Why were they killed?” Another shows enlarged pictures of the Dalu children’s faces. Atop the rubble of the building is the burned wreckage of the family minivan, flipped there upside down in the blast. The Israeli military later claimed it had collapsed the building in hope of assassinating an unspecified visitor to the home, any massive civilian death toll justifiable by the merest hint of a military target. Qassam rockets killing one Israeli a year are terrorism, but deliberate attacks to collapse buildings on whole families are not.

“All Palestinians are targeted now,” a woman who lives across the street told us. Every window in her home had been shattered by the blast. She had been sure it was the end of her life when she heard the explosion. She had covered her face, and then, opening her eyes, seen the engine from the neighbor’s car flying past her through her home. She pointed to a spot on the floor where a large rocket fragment had landed in her living room. Then, looking at the ruins of the Dalu building, she shook her head. “These massacres would not happen if the people who fund it were more aware.”

Mr. Dalu’s nephew Mahmoud is a pharmacist, 29 years of age, who is still alive because he had recently moved next door from his uncle’s now-vanished building to an apartment that he built for himself, his wife and their two year-old daughter who are also alive. With his widowed mother and several neighborhood women, he and his wife had been preparing to celebrate his daughter’s birthday. A garland of tinsel still festoons a partly destroyed wall. The blast destroyed much of his home’s infrastructure, but he was able to shepherd his family members and their guests out of the house to safety.  Several were taken to the hospital in shock.

“I don’t know why this happened to us,” Mahmoud says. “I am a pharmacist. In my uncle’s house lived a doctor and a computer engineer. We were just finishing lunch.  There were no terrorists here. Only family members here.  Now I don’t know what to do, where to go. I feel despair. We are living in misery.”

“Any war is inhuman, irreligious, and immoral,” my friend, Dr. T., had told me.

Dr. T. is afraid that Israel is preparing a worse war, one with ground troops deployed, for after its upcoming election. “We are hopeful to live in peace. We don’t want to make victims. We love Israelis as we love any human being.”

“But we are losing the right to life in terms of movement, trade, education, and water. The Israelis are taking these rights; they are not looking out for the human rights of Palestinians. They only focus on their sense of security. They want Palestine to lose all rights.”

Election logic aside, Israel has already violated the ceasefire – at any time the missiles and rockets could start raining down once more. Year round, that is what it means to live in Gaza.

I decided not to bring up the Santa Claus question and instead thanked him for his honest reflections and bade him farewell.

Also see December 2, We Want It to Stop and December 5, Israel’s Lesson to Palestinians: Build More Rockets?

Arianna DeMario, Elect Democracy Campaign Intern Extraordinaire

The following is a guest post by Arianna DeMario. Arianna is currently supporting the Elect Democracy campaign as an intern/volunteer. Before moving to the States, she worked as a project manager at Citizens For Europe e.V., an NGO based in Berlin, Germany, mainly active in the field of European citizenship and migrants’ political rights in the European Union.

A European Perspective on the 2012 U.S. Election

In my past two months here in the States, I have been asked numerous times how it felt -from a European point of view- to witness the 2012 U.S. electoral campaign and presidential elections from here in the U.S. But actually no European could answer this question without referring first to the initial impact of the previous elections in 2008.

By 2008, after 8 years of Bush era, a big slice of the European public opinion had lost their traditional admiration and interest in American politics and in Americans in general. The American dream, from the point of view of the old continent, was long over, and the U.S. had become for many not much more than a synonym of imperialism justified by the war on terror, social inequality, and environmental unconsciousness.

Then Obama happened. The electoral campaign of 2008 was maybe more passionate for most Europeans than Americans, with people supporting the Democrat candidate and engaging in various ways from Scandinavia to Southern Europe, in some cases moving to the States for some months to work with the Democrats. In July 2008, 200.000 people went crazy in Berlin listening to his speech under the Victory Column. In Europe, Obama had won longer before the elections of November 4th, because he had managed to bring back to Europe the American dream. Some months later, Americans did elect him. And the vote was so strong that everybody on the other side of the Atlantic had to recognise the fact that in spite of all that came out of the Bush era, American citizens had the courage to renew themselves and believe that a better country (and world) was possible.

The truth is, despite the support that Obama gained in Europe, I doubt that Europeans would have had the same courage and elected him, if they were to go to polls. In fact, a few months later we elected the most right-wing and regressive European Parliament ever (EP elections in June 2009).

That year, for the first time after a while, the U.S. gave Europe a lesson of democracy.

Then reality bit back. A couple of years later, Obama had proved not to have the magic wand to solve problems accumulated by years of bad governance, and not to be able to live up to such huge worldwide expectations. Most of his 2008 promises hadn’t turned into facts, the U.S. economy was not exactly blowing, and little had been done to reduce the Wall Street power and redistribute wealth from the 1% to the 99% in the American society.

Disillusion was deep on both sides of the Atlantic, and especially after the mid-term elections of 2010 American politics seemed to be meant to go back to the bad loop once again.

As if it wasn’t enough, the story of the Super PACs entered the game with the 2012 elections. Billions of private funding to the electoral campaign allowed by a ruling of the Federal Court…this would be science fiction in Europe, where most countries don’t even integrate lobbying practices in their political system and reject the idea of group of interests being able to influence the policy making. If all the above-mentioned conditions would have happened in the disenchanted, critical and politically unfaithful Europe, you can be sure that it would have been enough for a significant part of the European electorate to turn away from the previously much beloved candidate and fall into the hands of the first talented populist passing by. Those less impressionable would have nonetheless turned away their vote and either have given it to the other main candidate as a punishment or done what Europeans can do better in times of political disillusion: abstain. But once again, in 2012, a big democracy lesson came from the American citizen: For better or for worse, voting still remains one of the strongest democracy tools in the hands of the people (though a healthy democracy needs much more civic engagement, of course). As long as we don’t have valuable alternatives, there is no point in not making use of it. Of course the American vote, in most cases, was not a vote for the best as 4 years ago, but just a vote for the less worse…but still it showed the courage of American citizens to believe that it’s worth to give democracy one more chance.

The results that Tuesday night shot down much of the billions of dollars spent by some Super PACs to indirectly support the Republican campaign and influence the election results. This showed that the system of the big interests and the big money has an Achilles heel- it still can be beaten by participation. It shows that if people don’t turn away from politics, there is always a chance to shape a future that if it’s not going to be much better, at least is not going to be worse. It showed that if Obama can’t bring the change that he promised in 2008 (be it because of a lack of political will, or be it because of a lack of political power, with the House in the hands of the Republicans), people can do it by choosing not to have their vote sold to the highest bidder…

The day after the election Wall Street opened down: It can be defeated after all, if people don’t give up the exercise of democracy in its various forms. Restiamo uniti per difendere la democrazia!

TAKE ACTION:
What is *your* perspective on the U.S. election? Leave a comment below!

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Arianna De Mario is currently supporting the Elect Democracy campaign as an intern/volunteer. Before moving to the States,  she worked as a project manager at Citizens For Europe e.V., an NGO based in Berlin, Germany, mainly active in the field of European citizenship and migrants’ political rights in the European Union. She has also worked at DPA, the German Press Agency, and volunteered in several human rights organizations. Arianna holds a MA degree in European Studies from the University of Bath (UK) and the Humboldt University of Berlin, and a BA in languages from the University of Milan, Italy.

The following is a guest post from Kristen Beifus, Executive Director of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition, working on behalf of people and the planet for a fair global trading system and lead organizer of the December 1 Day of Action. Join Global Exchange staff members Hillary Lehr and Carleen Pickard, on the border this Saturday!

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Ten Reasons Why the TransPacific Partnership Matters…

1. It is only getting bigger by the day: Thailand knocking at the TPP Door
2. We have not learned from NAFTA: Mexico ordered to pay Cargill $95 million for attempting to keep out high-fructose corn syrup
3. In Free Trade Agreements, corporate profits always trump the environment: Canada/Quebec sued under NAFTA for its ban on fracking by a US corporation
4. It Doesn’t Matter if you are a sovereign nation with labor and environmental laws: Here is a list of the NAFTA chapter 11 cases
5. Or just trying to survive with a life-threatening illness on a few dollars a day: Public health advocates in Malaysia protest reduced access to generic medicines in trade deals
6. Congress is trying, but those who we elect are not part of negotiating this deal-our democracy is at stake! Take this recent Sign-On letter to President Obama from Senator Al Franken on the labor rights concerns in the TPP and urge Senators Cantwell and Murray to sign it!
7. Sweatshops still exist: Here is a recent report by Right2Work
8. Companies are willing to invest millions of dollars to keep consumers in the dark: Here are the corporations who defeated the GMO labeling initiative in California
9. Only when we connect our issues, and combine our strength can we succeed: Dec. 1st is also world AIDS Day
10. We are not alone, we are the majority, and our voices are needed for trade to ever benefit workers and support healthy communities and a sustainable planet: Sign the Avaaz petition to reach a million who say “Stop the Corporate Death Star”, stop the TPP!

TAKE ACTION!

Join Fair Trade bus against the TPP: Join trade justice advocates from Canada, Mexico, and the US from DC to Northern, California, Oregon and WA this December 1st and get on the Fair Trade Bus to the Canada/U.S. border (Peach Arch Park) & take action against the TransPacific Partnership!!

The day of action will include:

• A rally/action with Seattle’s Labor Chorus
• Seattle Fandango Project
• Movitas a radical marching band
• Speakers from First Nations tribes in Canada fighting to protect their sovereignty
• Workers from Kimberly Clark’s Mill in Everett who had their jobs off-shored this year
• Philippine-US Solidarity Organization sharing tales of free-trade in Asia
• Farm justice advocates from Community to Community and international advocates from the Council of Canadians, the national AFL-CIO, Washington State Labor Council
• Asuper fun TPP People’s Action!
• Backbone’s Free Trade My Ass Balloon and Flush the TPP will also be flying along the border and TPP: No New NAFTAs thanks to IBEW Local 46!

Then (there’s more?!):

• The People will jointly strategize on how to engage with social media with Global Exchange & Witness for Peace
• Get organizations onto a Tri-National Unity Letter with Citizen’s Trade Campaign
• Talk about the TPP in 2 minutes or less with SPEEA and develop and implement creative tactics to stop the TPP by the next round in March, 2013!

Want to get on the buses leaving from Seattle? Go to TPPxBorder.org and sign-up.
Buses will be leaving at 10:30am and returning to Seattle at 6:00pm. A delicious hot Mexican meal will be provided for everyone thanks to Community to Community!

Questions? Contact Kristen (at) washingtonfairtrade (dot) org or 206.227.3079

Follow along: Follow protest happenings on Twitter with hashtag #StopTPP.

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As a former Global Exchange staff member and current apprentice at Rudolf Steiner College’s biodynamic farm, Raphael Garden, I am writing to encourage you to educate yourself about the links between genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and human health before voting on proposition 37. If passed proposition 37 would require labeling of food that contains GMOs. Genetic Roulette, a new documentary by Jeffery M. Smith discusses these very important issues. Right now, you, your family and loved ones can watch this 85 minute feature film for free on You-tube (available in English, closed captioning and Spanish subtitles). In the film you will hear from farmers, doctors and mothers striving to protect the health of their children about Monsanto’s strong arm tactics, the FDAs fraudulent policies, and how the USDA ignores a growing health emergency.

You may have heard that in recent times, the nutritional value of our food has decreased. You may have also noticed that more than ever, Americans are getting sick, and that seemingly more and more people have food allergies. Recent studies, as well as countless stories from individuals and doctors show that the links between GMOs and our health are closer than Monsanto and other proponents of GMOs would like you to believe. Genetic Roulette, investigates the connections between round-up ready crops and nutritional deficiencies in our food systems, as well as connections between GMOs and food allergies, gastrointestinal disorders, inflammatory diseases and infertility. As frightening as it is to learn that GMOs are not only a danger to the economic lively hood of farmers, in the US and around the world, but also to our health, in California we are lucky. A few concerned citizens have taken steps to put proposition 37 on the ballet, an attempt to begin the process of labeling GMO food in California—allowing Californians to decide for themselves, what it is they want to put in their body for nourishment and sustenance. If passed, Proposition 37 will create a precedent for GMO food labeling in the United States.

As biodynamic farmers at Raphael Gardens, we are committed to growing delicious food that exceeds current organic standards, using ecological farming practices to cultivate food rich in vitality, that is truly capable of nourishing our community. We believe that true nourishment can provide our communities with the vitality, will and energy needed to create peace, economic justice and environmental sustainability. Recently, a friend of Raphael Gardens, organized a large number of donations in support of efforts to make the full length version of Genetic Roulette available for free on You-tube, in hopes that this crucial information will be available to as many people as possible before election day. Please watch the film, share it with your friends and family, and show up on voting day to let your voice be heard. Doing so may protect your health and the health of someone you love.

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Elizabeth Lane is a Raphael Garden Apprentice at Rudolf Steiner College and a former Global Exchange staff member.

TAKE ACTION!

• Watch the film Genetic Roulette which Elizabeth recommended;
• Watch some celebrities speak out against GMO’s in this funny video short.

Chicago Teachers Strike, September 2012 Photo Credit: BLPerk/Brad Perkins

The following is a guest post by Nadia Jones:

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How the Chicago Teachers Strike Illustrates the Need for Education Reform

The recent teachers strike in Chicago sparked a firestorm of controversy in the US over many issues, chief among them being the current state of the country’s education policy. For more than a week teachers in the Chicago public school system protested against the city government’s woefully neglectful attitude towards public education.

A host of problems for educators

Educators in the city’s public schools found themselves overwhelmed by the magnitude of the challenge before them, and understandably so. Many public schools in the city’s system are understaffed and have access to significantly fewer resources than neighboring private and charter schools. Many of the students in these schools come from severely impoverished families, and come to the class without a proper learning foundation to build upon. Teachers have to start from square one with many of their students who haven’t had a proper lesson from an educator in years, if ever.

Moreover, educators in the public school system in Chicago have had to endure a number of budget cuts over the years. The city simply doesn’t fund many programs, services, and staff members that other neighboring schools take for granted. City and state officials agreed and passed legislation many times over to cut funding for the arts, for physical education, for a more complete medical and administration staff, and many other services integral to a well-rounded and robust education. But the funds have decreased with every subsequent education budget.

Despite these crippling handicaps and setbacks, educators in public schools are still expected to adhere to the highest standards of teaching. They’re expected to produce star pupils and shape the minds of tomorrow with just as much skill as teachers in much better prepared private and charter schools. Public schools and teachers facing hardships often score poorly on standardized test scores, and government officials wonder why this is the case when they come up against such odds.

Some signs of progress

And so the teachers of the Chicago public schools went on strike, and miraculously enough, the city’s government started to listen to their demands. As recently reported in The Wall Street Journal, the proposed new contract for Chicago’s included a number of sensible demands, including requests for longer school hours, lessening the focus on standardized testing, and improving the teacher’s morale through fairer treatments.

These teachers’ voices are being heard, and hopefully it will start a national trend. As the WSJ article put it, teachers have “changed the conversation from blaming and shaming of teachers to the promotion of strategies that parents and teachers believe are necessary to help children to succeed.”

The problem with US education and federal spending

I’d like to conclude this piece with a brief aside about the nature of federal government spending on US education. According to The White House’s own figures, there is a significant discrepancy between spending on education and spending on other services such as defense. The White House budget plan for the 2013 fiscal year allows for $69.8 billion in spending for the Department of Education, and yet they provide a whopping $525.4 billion in spending for the Department of Defense.

In other words, the federal government plans to spend over seven times more money on the military than on schools in the upcoming year. This has always been the case, but it seems particularly strange at this point in our history. We’re about to end a war in Afghanistan after recently ending a war in Iraq, two of the longest conflicts in our history are coming to a close. Troops are going home. Our schools are performing poorly and students need help to succeed. And yet the government is only increasing the education budget by little over a single percent? Something seems wrong with this picture.

What’s your take on the Chicago teachers strike and the nature of the US education system? I’d love to hear your feedback!

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Nadia Jones is a freelance writer and blogger who specializes in online learning and education policy. Nadia writes about online colleges, teacher’s rights, college student lifestyle, and student loans among other topics. Feel free to leave her comments or questions!

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Are You Down With the Global Frackdown?

On September 22, people across the world will be coming together for a day of action — a Global Frackdown— to call for a ban on fracking to protect our communities. Will you join us?

Drilling and fracking for natural gas and oil poses a direct and immediate threat to our drinking water, air, health and communities. Over the past couple of years as our movement has grown, the oil and gas industry has been ramping up its massive multi-million dollar PR campaign to convince the public and elected officials that its dirty energy is clean. Its time to fight back with a Global Frackdown!

As a movement to ban fracking, we have collectively achieved a tremendous amount. Working together just in the past year, we have: passed over 200 local measures across the United States to ban fracking, stopped fracking in Bulgaria, France and the state of Vermont, pushed for moratoriums in multiple regions in Europe, obtained a moratorium on fracking in South Africa, defeated state legislation that would have expanded fracking (like stopping plans to open the Delaware River Basin to fracking) and worked to stop pipelines and facilities to export fracked gas from coast to coast.

This fall, the oil and gas industry will be escalating its pro-fracking propaganda even further and our elected officials — some of whom are running scared — need to hear the truth in a powerful way from their constituents. It’s time to expose the oil and gas industry’s propaganda for what it is. It’s time to hold our elected officials accountable. It’s time for a Global Frackdown!

Communities are already coming together to organize actions as part of the Global Frackdown. From New Mexico to North Carolina and California to New York, events are being organized across the United States. In Europe, actions are already being planned in France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden and Belgium. They’ll include flash mobs, rallies, human signs calling for a ban on fracking and screenings of Gasland. In the coming weeks, these events will be put on a map at www.globalfrackdown.org, but in the meantime, you can go here to sign up an event in your community.

The Global Frackdown is supported by Food & Water Watch, Environment America, Democracy for America, 350.org, Friends of the Earth US, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace USA, Global Exchange, Ecologistas en Acción, Council of Canadians, Josh Fox (whose film Gasland has fueled the movement), and a host of other organizations across the world. Organizations large and small can add their name to the growing list of partners here.

Building on the powerful Stop the Frack Attack action in Washington, D.C. last weekend, three major events are happening in the U.S. over the next two months. From August 25-27, people will gather in New York to urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to not allow fracking in New York. On September 20 and 21, our friends at Protecting our Waters are organizing Shale Gas Outrage to protest a major industry conference in Philadelphia. And the Global Frackdown will follow on September 22.

Our opponents get their power from their deep financial resources and their ability to divide us. We have the power of our voices, our communities and our collective action. The next couple of months promise to be a powerful, unifying and exciting time for our movement against fracking. Add your voice to this effort and Get Down with the Frackdown — take action to ban fracking on September 22.

TAKE ACTION!

• RSVP on Facebook for the Global Frackdown
• Tweet this to spread the word about this important day of action
• Use the “Like” and “Retweet” buttons above right to share this post with your friends

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 A Global Boycott for a Global Corporation

Have you ever stayed in a Hyatt hotel? Did you enjoy the fresh sheets and fluffed pillows?  If so, there’s a good chance that you have a woman who was born in another country to thank.

Behind the luxurious exterior, an army of immigrant women from Mexico, China, Puerto Rico, and beyond work hard to create the aura of hospitality travelers enjoy away from home.  But at Hyatt Hotels, the conditions for immigrant workers are anything but hospitable.

That’s why this week Hyatt housekeepers are launching a global boycott of Hyatt. Please take two seconds to support them by voting Hyatt the Worst Hotel Employer in America.

Why is Hyatt the worst?  Hyatt’s aggressive use of subcontracting allows it to pay housekeepers poverty wages while evading legal liability for unsafe working conditions.  Subcontracting frequently leads to the exploitation of undocumented immigrants.  Hyatt housekeepers have heavy workloads that can lead to debilitating pain and injuries.  Hyatt posted E-verify posters at a non-union Hyatt property, causing concern among long-term immigrant workers.  Hyatt has even fired immigrant women shortly after they have spoken out about abuse and indignities at work.

The Hyatt Corporation is global and so are we.  While housekeepers from India and the Philippines struggle to clean up to 30 rooms a day in US Hyatts, supporters from around the world have taken action against Hyatt’s abuses.

Global Support: Delegates to the IUF, a global union federation that represents 12 million workers in 120 countries, voted unanimously in support of the global Hyatt boycott this May.  The IUF noted that “Hyatt’s business model relies upon the abuse and exploitation of women housekeepers and immigrants,” and that “IUF supports Hyatt workers in their struggle for dignity and justice.”  The global boycott of Hyatt has been endorsed by virtually every union representing hotel workers worldwide.

Protests in India: Hundreds of hotel workers in India have staged demonstrations outside Hyatt hotels in Delhi, Goa, and Chennai in support of the global Hyatt boycott.  Hotel workers are also fighting against subcontracting in the hospitality industry in India, where Hyatt has 56 hotels in development.

London calling: The United Kingdom’s largest union, Unite, pledged to support the Hyatt boycott on behalf of its 1.6 million members.  Members of Unite held a solidarity rally outside the Hyatt Andaz at Liverpool Street in London.  Another union, the GMB, is planning further actions during the week of the global boycott launch.

Solidarity in Manila: In the Philippines, several groups held a solidarity action in support of Hyatt workers.  The IUF-affiliated NUWHRAIN, the hotel workers union in the Philippines, joined with the Alliance for Progressive Labor (APL) and Sentro ng mga Progresibong Manggagawa (Sentro) to send a strong message outside the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila.  In a press statement by NUWHRAIN, workers expressed their “solidarity with the workers of Hyatt in the United States and elsewhere in the world who have suffered and continued to suffer from many forms of exploitation and abuses perpetrated by the hotel brands under the Hyatt Corporation.”

Worldwide, Hyatt housekeepers are calling on over two-and-a-half million people to take a stand and Vote Hyatt Worst.  By joining together, we will urge Hyatt to change its ways.

Hyatt Hurts! They’re the Worst!

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TAKE ACTION!

1) Take a few seconds to support Hyatt housekeepers by voting Hyatt the Worst Hotel Employer in America.
2) Copy/paste this message to your Facebook Wall:

Hyatt housekeepers are getting hurt at work. Some need surgery or have become permanently disabled. That’s why I stand with them as they launch a global Hyatt boycott today. I’m encouraging all my friends (fans/supporters) to take two seconds and vote Hyatt the Worst Hotel Employer in America. Vote Hyatt Worst: http://ow.ly/ciecC

3) Spread the word about this by clicking the “Share” and/or “Retweet” buttons on the top right of this post

2012 Human Rights Award honoree, Annie Leonard from the Story of Stuff Project has launched another groundbreaking on-line video called The Story of Change. This post, written by Annie Leonard, is cross-posted from her site. 

I used to think the truth would set us free. Like many who care about the environment, I spent years thinking that information would lead to change. So I wrote reports, gave speeches, even testified before Congress.

Some things changed. Sadly, the big picture didn’t.

For a long time I couldn’t understand why. Now I’ve realized that it isn’t because we don’t have enough data, white papers or experts to tell us we’re in trouble. The problem is we’ve forgotten what it takes to make change.

My new movie, The Story of Change, argues that’s partly because we’ve gotten stuck in consumer mode.

I’ve come to see that we have two parts to ourselves; it’s almost like two muscles – a consumer muscle and a citizen muscle. Our consumer muscle, which is fed and exercised constantly, has grown strong. So strong that “consumer” has become our primary identity, our reason for being. We’re told so often that we’re a nation of consumers that we don’t blink when the media use “consumer” and “person” interchangeably.

Meanwhile, our citizen muscle has gotten flabby. There’s no marketing campaign reminding us to engage as citizens. On the contrary, we’re bombarded with lists of simple things we can buy or do to save the planet, without going out of our way or breaking a sweat.

No wonder that faced with daunting problems and discouraged by the intransigence of the status quo, we instinctively flex our power in the only way we know how – as consumers. Plastic garbage choking the oceans? Carry your own shopping bag. Formaldehyde in baby shampoo? Buy the brand with the green seal. Global warming threatening life as we know it? Change your lightbulb. (As Michael Maniates, a professor of political and environmental science at Allegheny College, says: “Never has so little been asked of so many.”)

Now, all of those are good things to do. When we shop, it’s good to choose products without toxic chemicals and unnecessary packaging, made by locally-based companies that treat their workers well. But our real power is not in choosing from items on a limited menu; it is in determining what gets on that menu. The way to ensure that toxic, climate-disrupting choices are replaced with safe and healthy alternatives – for everyone, not just those who can afford them – is by engaging as citizens: working together for bigger, bolder change than we could ever accomplish as individual consumers.

Look back at successful movements – civil rights, anti-apartheid, the early environmental victories – and you’ll see that three things are needed to make change at the scale we need today.

First, we need a Big Idea of how things could be better – a morally compelling, ecologically sustainable and socially just idea that will not just make things a little better for a few, but a lot better for everyone. Millions around the world already have that idea: an economy based on the needs of people and the planet, not corporate profit.

Second, we need a commitment to work together. In history’s most transformative social movements, people didn’t say “I will perfect my individual daily choices,” but “We will work together until the problem is solved.” Today, it’s easier than ever to work together, online and off.

Finally, we need all of us who share that Big Idea to get active. We need to move from a place of shared concern, frustration and fear to a place of engaged citizen action. That’s how we build the power to make real change.

We have to aim high, work together and act boldly. It’s not simple, and it won’t be easy. But history is on our side. Let’s get to work to make the kind of change we know is possible.

Farmers from Miyagi prefecture raise their fists along with other farmers from across Japan during a rally against Japan participating in rule-making negotiations for the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Tokyo October 26, 2011. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao

The following piece by Lori Wallach was originally posted on www.thenation.com. This article will appear in the July 16-23, 2012 edition of The Nation.

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NAFTA on Steroids

While the Occupy movement has forced a public discussion of extreme corporate influence on every aspect of our lives, behind closed doors corporate America is implementing a stealth strategy to formalize its rule in a truly horrifying manner. The mechanism is the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Negotiations have been conducted in extreme secrecy, so you are in good company if you have never heard of it. But the thirteenth round of negotiations between the United States and eight Pacific Rim nations will be held in San Diego in early July.

The TPP has been cleverly misbranded as a trade agreement (yawn) by its corporate boosters. As a result, since George W. Bush initiated negotiations in 2008, it has cruised along under the radar. The Obama administration initially paused the talks, ostensibly to develop a new approach compatible with candidate Obama’s pledges to replace the old NAFTA-based trade model. But by late 2009, talks restarted just where Bush had left off.

Since then, US negotiators have proposed new rights for Big Pharma and pushed into the text aspects of the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would limit Internet freedom, despite the derailing of SOPA in Congress earlier this year thanks to public activism. In June a text of the TPP investment chapter was leaked, revealing that US negotiators are even pushing to expand NAFTA’s notorious corporate tribunals, which have been used to attack domestic public interest laws.

Think of the TPP as a stealthy delivery mechanism for policies that could not survive public scrutiny. Indeed, only two of the twenty-six chapters of this corporate Trojan horse cover traditional trade matters. The rest embody the most florid dreams of the 1 percent—grandiose new rights and privileges for corporations and permanent constraints on government regulation. They include new investor safeguards to ease job offshoring and assert control over natural resources, and severely limit the regulation of financial services, land use, food safety, natural resources, energy, tobacco, healthcare and more.

The stakes are extremely high, because the TPP may well be the last “trade” agreement Washington negotiates. This is because if it’s completed, the TPP would remain open for any other country to join. In May US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said he “would love nothing more” than to have China join. In June Mexico and Canada entered the process, creating a NAFTA on steroids, with most of Asia to boot.

Countries would be obliged to conform all their domestic laws and regulations to the TPP’s rules—in effect, a corporate coup d’état. The proposed pact would limit even how governments can spend their tax dollars. Buy America and other Buy Local procurement preferences that invest in the US economy would be banned, and “sweat-free,” human rights or environmental conditions on government contracts could be challenged. If the TPP comes to fruition, its retrograde rules could be altered only if all countries agreed, regardless of domestic election outcomes or changes in public opinion. And unlike much domestic legislation, the TPP would have no expiration date.

Failure to conform domestic laws to the rules would subject countries to lawsuits before TPP tribunals empowered to authorize trade sanctions against member countries. The leaked investment chapter also shows that the TPP would expand the parallel legal system included in NAFTA. Called Investor-State Dispute Resolution, it empowers corporations to sue governments—outside their domestic court systems—over any action the corporations believe undermines their expected future profits or rights under the pact. Three-person international tribunals of attorneys from the private sector would hear these cases. The lawyers rotate between serving as “judges”—empowered to order governments to pay corporations unlimited amounts in fines—and representing the corporations that use this system to raid government treasuries. The NAFTA version of this scheme has forced governments to pay more than $350 million to corporations after suits against toxic bans, land-use policies, forestry rules and more.

The slight mainstream media coverage the TPP has received repeats the usual mantra: it’s a free-trade pact that will expand US exports. But trade is the least of it. The United States already has free-trade agreements that eliminated tariffs with most TPP countries, which highlights the fact that the TPP is mainly about new corporate rights, not trade. Besides, under past free-trade agreements, US export growth to partner countries is half as much as to countries with which we do not have such agreements. Since NAFTA and similar pacts went into effect, the United States has been slammed by a massive trade deficit, which has cost more than 5 million jobs and led to the loss of more than 50,000 manufacturing plants.
How could something this extreme have gotten so far? The process has been shockingly secretive. In 2010 TPP countries agreed not to release negotiating texts until four years after a deal was done or abandoned. Even the World Trade Organization, hardly a paragon of transparency, releases draft negotiating texts. This means that although the TPP could rewrite vast swaths of domestic policy affecting every aspect of our lives, the public, press and Congress are locked out.

Astoundingly, Senator Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate committee with official jurisdiction over TPP, has been denied access even to US proposals to the negotiations. But 600 corporate representatives serving as official US trade advisers have full access to TPP texts and a special role in negotiations. When challenged about the conflict with the Obama administration’s touted commitment to transparency, Trade Representative Kirk noted that after the release of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) text in 2001, that deal could not be completed. In other words, the official in charge of the TPP says the only way to complete the deal is to keep it secret from the people who would have to live with the results.

The goal was to complete the TPP this year. Thankfully, opposition by some countries to the most extreme corporate demands has slowed negotiations. Australia has announced it will not submit to the parallel corporate court system, and it and New Zealand have rejected a US proposal to allow pharmaceutical companies to challenge their government medicine formularies’ pricing decisions, which have managed to keep their drug costs much lower than in the United States. Every country has rejected the US proposal to extend drug patent monopolies. This text was leaked, allowing government health officials and activists in all the countries to fight back. Many countries have also rejected a US proposal that would forbid countries from using capital controls, taxes or other macro-prudential measures to limit the destructive power of financial speculators.

However, we face a race against time—much of the TPP text has been agreed on. Will the banksters, Big Pharma, Big Oil, agribusiness, tobacco multinationals and the other usual suspects get away with this massive assault on democracy? Will the public wake up to this threat and fight back, demanding either a fair deal or no deal? The Doha Round of WTO expansion, the FTAA and other corporate attacks via “trade” agreements were successfully derailed when citizens around the world took action to hold their governments accountable. Certainly in an election year, we are well poised to turn around the TPP as well. To learn more and get involved, go to tpp2012.com <http://tpp2012.com> .

 TAKE ACTION TO STOP THE TPP:

• Sign Public Citizen’s petition imploring US Trade Rep Ron Kirk to stop the secrecy and publicly release all TPP proposals;
• Read this timely report from the Vancouver Sun which shows how even the countries involved in negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership are highly skeptical about whether it is a good thing;
• Watch this new music video created by Public Citizen, which makes clear why the stakes are so high and what we can do about TPP.

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Lori Wallach is the Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch division, co-author of Whose Trade Organization? Public Citizen, a leader in organizing the 1999 Seattle protests, has joined the Steelworkers and others to launch WTOturnaround.org, where activists can sign a petition to President Obama urging him to turn around the WTO.