Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Fernanda Gianassi Gets 13th Tajiri Award

Anti-asbestos campaigner, Fernanda Giannasi of Brazil has been a Labour Inspector in Sao Paulo State for more than twenty years. She has received both Brazilian and international honours for her work with asbestos victims. In 2001, she was a successful finalist in the prestigious Claudia Award for Brazil’s Woman of the Year and was elected a Fellow of the renowned Collegium Ramazzini.

As a civil servant, Inspector Giannasi has not had a salary increase in over seven years; the costs of Inspector Giannasi’s lawyers are being borne by the Inspector herself. Giannasi is still paying off the legal bills she incurred defending herself in the unsuccessful defamation action brought by the Brazilian asbestos company, Eternit S.A., in 1998.

She has received a threatening letter accusing her of being responsible for decreasing the use of asbestos in Brazil from 140,000 tonnes per year to 64, 000 tonnes per year.

Dr. SUZUKI Takeo, former Director of the National Institute of Health, as the chair of the Tajiri Muneaki Memorial Fund announced the Tajiri award in Tokyo on 11th June, 2004 informed Sugio FURUYA, Secretary General, Global Asbestos Congress (GAC)- 2004 Organizing Committee. Tajiri Muneaki Memorial Fund is one of the supposrting bodies of GAC-2004.

This award was given in memory of late Tajiri Muneaki, who campaigned against industrial pollution and occupational hazards in Japan. The award comprises of certification, gift and 300,000 yen of award money to Fernanda in November 2004 when she would come to Japan to attend the GAC-2004.

Muneaki, known and respected G-Man (agent anti-pollution), died of cancer in 1990 and was an untiring fighter against the industrial contaminations in its country. It was responsible for the launching of the campaign anti-asbestos in Yokosuka and created the BANJAN - the net of the banishment of the asbestos of Japan in 1987.

Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) congratulates Fernanda Gianassi and appreciates Tajiri Muneaki Memorial Fund for making the right choice.

Friday, July 02, 2004

-U.S. Role in the World

A briefing on U.S. military Interventions
by Zoltan Grossman

....One of the most dangerous ideas of the 20th century was that “people like us” could not commit atrocities against civilians. German and Japanese citizens believed it, but their militaries slaughtered millions of people.  British and French citizens believed it, but their militaries fought brutal colonial wars in Africa and Asia.  Russian citizens believed it, but their armies murdered civilians in Afghanistan, Chechnya, and elsewhere.  Israeli citizens believed it, but their army mowed down Palestinians and Lebanese.  Arabs believed it, but suicide bombers and hijackers targeted U.S. and Israeli civilians.  U.S. citizens believed it, but their military killed millions in Vietnam, Iraq, and elsewhere

Every country, every ethnicity, every religion, contains within it the capability for extreme violence. Every group contains a faction that is intolerant of other groups, and actively seeks to exclude or even kill them. War fever tends to encourage the intolerant faction, but the faction only succeeds in its goals if the rest of the group acquiesces or remains silent. The attacks of September 11 were not only a test for U.S. citizens attitudes’ toward minority ethnic/racial groups in their own country, but a test for our relationship with the rest of the world. We must begin not by lashing out at civilians in Muslim countries, but by taking responsibility for our own history and our own actions, and how they have fed the cycle of violence.

FULL ARTICLE
Killing Civilians to Show That Killing Civilians is Wrong: A Briefing on the History of U.S. Military Interventions.

or

A BRIEFING ON THE HISTORY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
http://www.zmag.org/grossmanciv.htm

Some other readings that will help you understand why so many people around the world have less than warm feelings about the government of the United States.  If you are in Japan, consider why many people feel helping the U.S. in Iraq is the same as getting into bed with the devil. All by Zoltan Grossman.

A CENTURY OF U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTIONS:
From Wounded Knee to Afghanistan
(revised 09/20/01)
http://www.zmag.org/CrisesCurEvts/interventions.htm

History of bio-chemical warfare
http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display/1519

New US Military Bases: Side Effects Or Causes Of War?
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=1924

-An Apology

AN APOLOGY (speech given by Richard Evanoff at the official launch of Edgar Henry’s book of poetry, Night Moves, June 5, 2004 at the Cerulean Hotel in Shibuya)

Since George Bush is visiting the Pope right now, I figure there are a few things Bush could learn from him.  A few years ago the Pope apologized for sins committed by Roman Catholic Church throughout history, and in a similar spirit, as an American citizen, I’d like to apologize for some of the sins committed by my country, the United States of America, against various people of the world.

There are, in fact, so many things to apologize for that I can’t mention them all, so I’ll just focus on some of things that have happened since the end of World War II.

As an American citizen living in Japan, I would like to apologize, first of all, for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The American government, of course, never apologized for this, but I think we should.

I apologize for the 70,000 Iranians who were killed after a U.S.-sponsored coup installed the Shah of Iran in 1952; for the 120,000 Guatamalans who were killed after a U.S.-sponsored coup against Guatamala’s democratically elected government in 1954; for the 30,000 Chileans who were killed after a U.S.-sponsored coup in Chile against the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende, which occurred on the original September 11, 1973; and for the 800,000 people killed in Indonesia following the U.S.-sponsored coup in 1965, and the subsequent slaughter of over 250,000 East Timorese by Indonesia with the direct complicity of U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

I apologize for the 4,000,000 people killed in Indochina between 1954-1975 during the Vietnam War.

I apologize for the 8,000 people killed when the United States invaded Panama in 1989 to capture a single man, Manuel Noriega, who, like Osama Bin Laden when he was fighting the Russians and Saddam Hussein when was he gassing the Kurds, was at one time supported by the American government.

I apologize for the 30,000 people killed in Nicaragua by Contra terrorists funded by the U.S., and for America’s mining of Nicaragua’s harbors, an act which resulted in the United States government being declared a “war criminal” in 1984 by the World Court.

I apologize for the 80,000 people killed in El Salvador in the 1980s and the 1,000,000 killed in Africa (especially Angola) as a result of U.S.-sponsored terrorism.

I apologize for the 1,000,000 Iraqis who died under U.S. sanctions against Iraq, including 500,000 children.  Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, when asked by a television interviewer whether these deaths were justified as a means of bringing down the regime of Saddam Hussein, replied, “It’s worth it.”

I’m sorry but I don’t have figures for the number of Palestinians killed with weapons and military aid given by the United States to Israel but I’d like to apologize for that too.  We also don’t know yet how many people will ultimately be killed by the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq since the number of victims in these countries is still growing, but certainly these deaths, along with the torture of Iraqi prisoners by the U.S. military, should also be apologized for.

Many other deaths have occurred as a result of American foreign policy, some of which we may never even know about.  According to an article which appeared in the Green journal Synthesis/Regeneration, from which all of the data presented here has been taken, a conservative estimate of the number of people “who have been killed by U.S. terror and military action since World War II is 8,000,000 people,” 90% of whom were innocent civilians.  This number 8,000,000 exceeds the number of Jews killed under Hitler.  It exceeds the number of people who died under Stalin and Mao Tse-tung combined.  The number of people killed in the name of democracy exceeds the number of people killed in the name of either fascism or communism.  America indeed is number one!

I know it would be better if the American government itself apologized for all of these atrocities rather than an ordinary citizen such as myself, but I doubt that such an apology will be forthcoming from the present regime.  Perhaps, therefore, I should also apologize for the fact that we, the American people, have permitted our government to commit such atrocities in our name.  We, the American people, are also responsible and we cannot use ignorance or the fact that we personally weren’t involved as an excuse.  We should have been fighting tyranny and working for regime change within our own country instead of abroad.

Instead of going around praising ourselves for how “great” America is, we need to learn humility.  True religion doesn’t consist in thinking that we are righteous and that our enemies are evil “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists,” as Bush says but rather acknowledging and openly confessing our sins, asking for forgiveness, loving our enemies, and seeking reconciliation.  And true patriotism doesn’t mean blindly following our leaders when they lead us into war and ask us to kill people in the name of freedom and democracy, as Bush continues to do, but rather using our power as citizens to stop the terrorism and oppression being committed by our own government.  That, indeed, is the only way to achieve true freedom, democracy, lasting peace, and security.

(All the numerical data is taken from Larry Mosqueda, “Shocked and Horrified,” which originally appeared in the Winter 2002 issue of Synthesis/Regeneration and was reprinted in the Spring 2002 issue of Alternative Press Review, pp. 46-47; 55.)

Thursday, July 01, 2004

-Organizing for Peace and Justice

THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE FIND WAYS TO OPPOSE WAR AND INJUSTICE BUT WHO ARE AFRAID OF CERTAIN GROUPS OR WHO DON’T KNOW WHICH GROUPS ARE RELIABLE.
A recent English commentary on ZNET by an organizer of the Stockholm Social Forum asks some important questions which can be applied to any similar attempt to organize anywhere. Or, from the perspective of people who WANT to get involved but don’t know how to, it can help us to find ways of helping people become more empowered and not controlled by any group which tries to dominate. (Yes, it seems that the actions of some groups actually serve to DISSUADE people from becoming more politically active!)

What are YOUR thoughts about the state of activism in your area? For example, if you are a student, do you hesitate to work with “more political” students because their rhetoric or actions seem “too radical” or “too narrowly focused”.

On my campus, that seems to be the case, with one group, World Action, apparantly composed of non-students (or students from another school). Although they do not say it directly, they seem to be aligned with one of several groups called Zengakuren, this one being affiliated with Chukaku-ha. If I were a student, I would be wary of them too, given their history of violence. On the other hand, the much more moderate Minsei, affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party does not seem to be active at all since the World Action people have come. But I have heard some students say they even hesitate to join actions even sponsored by this group because of pressure to become a member of the JCP. I know people in Minsei, and I like a lot of what they do, but I can understand why someone might choose not to join them even if they share a lot of similar beliefs.

Now I know there are a lot of factions and groups. And I know that the word “radical” in Japan has a more negative image than in New York, where I am from. When I use the word “radical” I am thinking of war or tax resistance, non-violent civil disobedience, or confronting war, violence, homelessness, globalization, racism, sexism and environmental destruction by creating alternative communities based on a different set of values.

In Japan being “radical” often seems to mean something like macho adventurism, and I understand why some of my students are scared of groups like World Action. (Or am I wrong about this group? Are they making an effort to disassociate themselves from helmets, bandanas and sunglasses?) Other groups are, as I wrote, fairly moderate (in the sense that they are not adventurist and looking for confrontations). But still they can be very dogmatic and closed, or pressure you to become subordinate to the group. I think I can understand why people would hesitate joining either group mentioned above, for example.

And so my question to you is what alternatives do you know of, that you can recommend, to people who neither want to become a part of a group with a history of violence or even to a more moderate group like Minsei? Building on that, are there opportunities for people to maintain their independenece and still choose to work with others who may have different views, philosophies and approaches, but in a way that can help students to become more activist?

Of course, if you have suggestions that apply to anyone--not just students--please feel free to post a response to this message. I have a feeling there are a lot of people who want to speak out but who are scared to, or don’t know how to.