🔴 THE WIDER CONTEXT

🔴 There's a tremendous struggle taking place between currently two sections (power blocs) of the ruling class, one currently represented by The Donald, and the other one up until recently symbolized by former President Sleepy Joe.

🔵 Sleepy Joe's side represents "Conventional" Imperialism, which is in essence a vast coalition of forces directed by US-based global Finance Capital, including that of the Trilateral Commission; plus the Western global Deep-state and its associated State-and-Corporate sponsored Terrorist operations; plus the Corporate "mainstream" (regime) Media engaged in brainwashing the population of the West via lies, propaganda, disinformation, and manipulation. A recent and very powerful addition to the power bloc is a blend or hybrid between Finance Capital and a special branch of Industrial Capital, ie. the Capital involved in the "Big Digital" world ("Big Data" corporations plus "Big Tech" {Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla}). All these are mutually dependent forms of Capital which can not exist without each other - and exert a tremendous power in the world.

This side has ruled over the US for the last several decades, at least since Gerald Ford and Carter's time (it had been on the ascending since the early 1900's). 

Since the year 2000 this power bloc has taken over several important ramparts or sections of the Left and of the US and global Liberation Movement. These are now being used to deliver the politics of Imperialism in "progressive", "liberal", fake-radical, fake-left wrapping, delivered with the appropriate "leftist" slogans. 

This power bloc's project for a New World Order /Globalization /Great Reset has forced the US Empire to stretch too thin and is now reaping severe military, financial and political defeats.

The constituent parts of this Conventional Imperialist bloc has NOT dissolved since Sleepy Joe lost the White House. It's already carrying out its counter-attack.

Associated with them is the Western European axis under the Anglo-Franco-German power bloc, who recently became politically "orphaned". They are now constituting themselves into a Coalition of the Willing (War Party of Europe), aiming to militarize Europe and drag us into war against Russia. Alongside that, those forces are already taking more and more authoritarian initiatives to curtail democracy and constitutional rights within the European Union, and to increase conflict with non-existent "enemies". 

This Europe-based axis, together with the US-based sections of the Conventional Imperialist power bloc, essentially constitute the main bulk of the almost global Western Empire.

🔵 The other Tower, Trump's, is trying to save US Imperialism from itself.

It's trying to save US Imperialism from the blatant military defeat it sufferred in its proxy war against Russia in the Ukraine; reduce its over-extension into the realm of trade deficit; increase US-based production; decrease Government spending and its loans; and "rationalize" (repackage, re-orient) its domestic and foreign policy so that the US can keep functioning as an Empire. 

In other words, this power bloc is attempting to utilize both old and new Imperial techniques in order to patch up an Empire that's crumbling due to the contradictions built into its own system of political economy which it can not contain; it exerts desperate efforts to delay the damage brought on by the ever-decreasing rate of profitability and the increasing rate of Capital's devaluation.

To this, it has relied on a popular base that's easily labelled as "right wing". But in a political climate where Conventional Imperialism is marketed as "the Left", what is the meaning of a "right wing"? 

It represents a section of the ruling class that's primarily composed of domestic US-based Manufacturing Capital, plus some import-export merchants, and domestic distribution chains. This power of section of Capital has been plunging for decades, because manufacturing efficiency is very high (and therefore profitability very low), and has led to many industries to run away to establish manufacturing in other countries. 

This power bloc's tactics to "save the Empire" include "Old Imperial" tactics such as trade tariffs (echoes of the "Nixon shock" [1]); more emphasis on the power of the State (echoes of late 19th century European Empires) in order to accomplish strikes against illegal immigration; strikes against the expression of internationalist and (truly) progressive solidarity such as with the Palestinians; and also "New Imperial" tactics such as total alignment with genocidal zionism (a continuation of Sleepy Joe's project of "bomb 'em all to hell"). Plus a number of steps which I would consider progressive (only because of the surrounding reactionary context). Such as:
o- Pulling the handbrake on certain activities of the Empire that were served under the guise of "progressive /leftist" (fake-left) slogans which enabled MEN WHO CLAIM TO BE WOMEN to enter women's toilets and to compete in women's sports, or get transferred from men's to women's prisons by issuing the magical phrase "I identify as a woman"; and have forced the medical profession to refer to women as "people with a uterus",
o- Reducing funding to universities and other institutions who instead of pursuing EDUCATION, LIBERATION, and EQUALITY for all, have installed a tyranny of pronouns, an official "language of mindfuck", and a mythology of fake numbers of sexes;
o- Reducing the dominance of the Carbon Dioxide demonization propaganda and (hopefully) returning to what Science really says about its value, ie, that Carbon Dioxide is a VALUABLE resource for the planet and that we need more of it [2];
o- Installing RFK Jr. at the Dept. of Health where hopefully he can give us a breathing spell from the domination of Big Pharma over lives; the enforcement of lethal vaccines on us and lies about them; or perhaps protect us from the next Hygienic Dictatorship or biological warfare attack that the Conventional Imperialist forces is preparing against humanity.

There's more, but I won't dwell on it.

🔵 Since the capture of some of the (former) Left's ramparts and entire sections of the Movement, the distinction between Left and Right make no sense any more. 
(On the global level of political discourse, these distinctions have become as ridiculous as "Right" and "Left" have been in Cyprus since the 1950's. Cyprus has been an advanced laboratory where the Western Empire has been testing and enforcing for decades many new actual technologies; marketing campaigns; and "social technologies" such as the "bail-in" rescue of the local banks by robbing people's savings; and inversion of the "Left /Right" designations on many important issues.)

But assuming the older designations of Left and Right have some meaning, the two power blocs might be seen more clearly through the eyes of deranged former members of those political wings.

Deranged Leftists, see the US Manufacturing Capital power bloc variously as "ultra right; nazi; fascist; dictatorical; anti-American; racist; misogynist; biased; stupid, anti-science", etc. At the crudest and most shallow, coarse level of discernment, they identify it with the Republican Party.

Deranged Leftists, see the Conventional Imperialist power bloc as "progressive; liberal; leftist; liberation-oriented; democratic; feminist; green; pro-labor; pro-peace", etc. At the crudest and most shallow, coarse level of discernment, they identify it with the Democratic Party.

Deranged Right-wingers, see the Manufacturing Imperialist power bloc as "righteous; christian; humanitarian; a vehicle for free speech; all-american; a shield from crime; a wall to stop immigrants", etc.

Deranged Right-wingers, see the Conventional Imperialist power bloc as "ultra-left; communist; radical left; sexually degenerate; dictatorial; globalist, a vehicle for the New World Order; a vehicle for the Great Reset; a cabal that is planning a new covidian-style dictatorship, enemies of Jesus", etc.

🔴 True liberals, progressives, Leftists, radicals and revolutionaries of all brands, including Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Autonomists, radical Feminists, radical Greens, radical Sexual and Spiritual Liberationists have NO PLACE choosing sides in this conflict. 

Our aim must continue to be a total OVERTHROW the Western Empire, not just some section or faction of it, and to replace the entire system's power structures with a much better, people-oriented system of political economy founded on direct democracy; and on shared ownership and democratic control of all the means of production and natural resources, which are to be administered by people's councils at every level: neighborhood, town, city, state and country. 

The conflict between the Western Empire's factions must exploited to benefit the poor and the oppressed peoples of the world as much as possible, AND to build our Global Liberation Movement again with a true INDEPENDENCE and AUTONOMY from Conventional US Imperialism's loving and asphyxiating "liberal embrace".

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net

[1].
■ Will Liberation Day transform the world? The Nixon Shock set a radical precedent | Defend Democracy Press
https://www.defenddemocracy.press/will-liberation-day-transform-the-world-the-nixon-shock-set-a-radical-precedent

[2].
Curated Study Sources

■ Nobel Prize winner Dr. John F. Clauser signs the Clintel World Climate Declaration - Clintel
https://clintel.org/nobel-prize-winner-dr-john-f-clauser-signs-the-clintel-world-climate-declaration/

■ 1600 Scientists, Including Nobel Prize Winners, Declare 'Climate Emergency' a Hoax - Slay News
https://slaynews.com/news/1600-scientists-nobel-prize-winners-declare-climate-emergency-hoax/

■ Facts Archive - CO2 Coalition
https://co2coalition.org/facts/

■ Greenhouse gases cannot physically cause observed global warming
https://whyclimatechanges.com/impossible/

■ About: Peter L. Ward - Detailed Biography
https://whyclimatechanges.com/about/biography/

■ Author's alternative theory of climate change spurs discussion - Chicago Tribune
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/elgin-courier-news/ct-ecn-elgin-library-climate-change-st-0226-20170225-story.html

■ Ivan Mikhnevich - Had to write the following letter to the... | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ivan.mikhnevich.5/posts/pfbid0MThZkuf88yQ8buGjE8hgn1b6xLC5ECPWiotaueRh7QiHdcwbVpyCx7SgbpDTvKfql

■ CO2 Beneficial to Earth, Impact on Global Warming Vastly Exaggerated | By Alex Nicolson and Dr. Lars Schernikau
http://www.dialogi.su/storage/b/2017/06/05/2017-05-Nicolson-Schernikau-Benefits-of-CO2-Coal-Asia-mail.pdf

■ CARBON DIOXIDE | The good news 
Indur M. Goklany | With a foreword by Freeman Dyson
The Global Warming Policy Foundation
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2015/10/benefits1.pdf

■ Carbon Dioxide Benefits the World: See for Yourself
https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/fc7c4946-11a3-4967-bf28-8d0386608d3e

■ Testimony of Professor William Happer on Kansas State Senate Bill No. 224, “An Act concerning environmental, social and governance standards” by the Committee on Federal and State Affairs
"...To help others judge my qualifications to testify, I provide a little biographical information here. In the summer of 2014 I retired from teaching at Princeton University, where I have been on the faculty since 1980. I left the University from 1990 to 1993 to serve as the Director of Energy Research at the United States Department of Energy in Washington, DC, and I also served for one year from 2018 to 2019 as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Emerging Technologies in the National Security Council of the White House. My DOE office supervised a research budget of some $3.5 billion, including environmental and climate science, along with physics, chemistry, biology, climate change and many other scientific areas. I have won a number of awards and I am an elected member of various scientific societies, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. I am a fellow of the American Physical Society. I have done research in nuclear physics, atomic, molecular and optical physics, atmospheric physics and other areas. I am probably best known for my invention of the “sodium guide star” concept, used in most modern ground-based telescopes to compensate for deleterious effects of atmospheric turbulence on astronomical observations. I know more than most scientists about the details of Earth’s climate."
https://kslegislature.gov/li/b2023_24/committees/ctte_s_fed_st_1/documents/testimony/20230307_01.pdf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  

🔵 WHAT DO I KNOW, AND HOW DO I KNOW IT?

■ Karl Marx and the Freemasons (no, it's not a new music band!)

A lot of material like the following has been circulating again among good and honest people who have been politically active recently in the Movement for Medical Freedom and the Movement to preserve our Constitutional and Human Rights, which mobilized in the face of the coronacrisis and the Medical Dictatorship that was set up almost overnight all over the planet. As we all know the dictatorship received support through authoritarian Hygienic Fascism initiatives by a large section of our terrorized and misinformed populations. These authoritarian initiatives included ALL sections of the (former) Left, the Right, the Center, the all around and in between, and all colors of political affiliation and identity who sided with illegitimate authority and State-sponsored terrorism.

From a friend's letter who has been active in the Movement:

"Scroll down to the photo of Karl Marx.  Notice his hand inside his jacket.  This is how Napoleon always posed, and how Ted Cruz poses.  Why?  Because it's a signal of being a member of a secret Masonic society called The Hidden Hand."

The material below is published in an effort to restore some clarity on this subject.


■ A Photograph, and the Private Property issue

A.
The way a person poses for a photograph is not necessarily "proof" of anything, especially during an era when photographers were known to pressure their subjects to appear this way and that, saying "this is how it must be done", or creating an atmosphere where a person fit a particular "composition" the photographer had in mind, or took ten different photos of varying poses under direction, and only chose to release one of them. In this article there's a number of authentic photos of myself which can be used to "prove" anything about me.

But closer to the substance of the issue, what people mean today when they say "Freemason" is entirely different from what it meant in the 1800's. And also very different from what it was in the 1700's.

In the 1700's, Freemasons were one of the organizations of the newly-formed class of the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois artisans, merchants and capitalists; they stood opposed to feudal ruling classes (kings, royalty, gentry, etc.) and were dedicated to the values that were embodied the French Revolution, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" - which eventually spread all over the world as feudalism came tumbling down with serial revolutions lasting about 150 years, especially in the West, and a new form of class society (somewhat more democratic) replaced it.

The Freemasons also had a spiritual dimension to their shared values, but it was not much more than a shared faith that the Divine is a unitary (single) spiritual entity.

Due to this, and especially due to their revolutionary character, the Freemasons were opposed vehemently by all supporters of the feudal ruling class, with the reactionary feudal church at the head of a propaganda machine aimed against them, demonizing them and targeting them with every imaginable accusation.

By the 1800's and as more and more countries tore down feudalism and installed bourgeois (capitalist) democracy, the Freemasons became one of the many unofficial formations and secret fora of the new ruling class - the capitalists - who soon became dominant the world over as they conquered, expanded, and embodied a global capitalist Imperium. This Imperialism became even more pronounced toward the late 1800's, early 1900's.

Marx was OPPOSED to the power of ALL formations of the capitalist class, and especially opposed to their secret societies.

By the mid-twentieth century the worldwide revolutionary movement of the nineteen sixties and seventies popularized the revolutionary Left's opposition and resentment of the secret societies that belong to the ruling class, and especially the Freemasons. And so a grand alliance was formed in the sphere of ideological warfare which brought together the medieval feudal church's argumentations and accusations against the Freemasons (they are "satanists"; they are "evil"; they "sacrifice children", etc.), with the argumentations and accusations of the modern capitalist class against the revolutionary Left in a very clever false-flag operation. The operation aimed to channel the natural hatred of the people against the rulers' secret societies and use that hatred against the revolutionaries themselves ("they will take away the little bit that you own"; "they will take away your freedom"; "they will install a dictatorship"; "they are working with the Freemasons", "they ARE Freemasons", etc.)

As we entered the reactionary era of the 21st century with its failed uprisings, failed mobilizations, extreme deepening of poverty and extreme centralization of the Empire's dictatorial structures, we witnessed an almost complete takeover and co-optation of most of the Left's organizations, institutions, and slogans, and the absorption of entire sections of the (former) Liberation Movement into the machinery of the Empire: our people were left rudderless, ideologically ungrounded, unprepared for this, helpless, and under constant bombardment from the propaganda war machine.  

The Empire's propaganda war has been successful to a large degree, and it has managed to generate a large number of people who "know", or who believe that Socialism or Communism is a monstrous conspiracy of the ruling class itself, a campaign of the banksters, and that Karl Marx is this or that - without them having ever read a single book or pamphlet or even an article by Marx. They just "know" it all; memes and slogans on social media, or claims by people whose sources are entirely without validity... are all the "proof" they need.

A person needs to STUDY in order to understand what all this means and how to deal with it.

One fundamental question that EVERY person needs to grapple with is "WHAT DO I KNOW, AND HOW DO I KNOW IT?" "What are my sources? And how do I know they are valid? How do THEY know (or prove) what they claim is true?"

Instead of a large number of people within the Movement engaging in this self-appraisal - immersing themselves in the process of questioning everything they know or think they know, in order to arrive at what is truly valid - what we see is millions of people who are absolutely certain that they "know" the truth (about Marx, or about anything) without being able to trace within themselves a single clue about how they came to "know" this thing. Nor are they willing to engage in pursuing the answer.


On the particular questions regarding Karl Marx and the Freemasons, here are some very good starting points:

a.
Hand-written Manuscripts of Marx, prove that he wrote extensively AGAINST the Freemasons - here is an excerpt:
«...Marx is also of the opinion that the First International Organization (International Workers’ Association) was destroyed from within by the hidden hand of freemasonry. In the "Reports and Documents Published by the Socialist Democratic League and the International Workers’ Association in accordance with the decision of the International Hague Congress", Marx talked about "freemasonry" in two places. Marx clearly stated: "Hidden behind the international Geneva branch is the Central Bureau of the Secret League; behind the international branches of Naples, Barcelona, Lyon and Jura, the secret branches of the freemasons are hidden. This is a freemasonry organization, and ordinary members of the international community and their leadership centres should have no doubts about such a (destructive) organization."»  
■ The Opposition of Marx to Freemasonry - BUDDHIST - MARXISM ALLIANCE (UK)
https://buddhistsocialism.weebly.com/the-opposition-of-marx-to-freemasonry.html

Archived here:
https://archive.ph/NPIia


b.
There's been a long struggle waged by Freemasonry against the organized revolutionary labor movement, socialism and communism. The following article documents large sections of the history of this struggle. The authors belong to an anti-stalinist communist organization.
[The article contains some typographical errors, you may need to read some sentences twice to get the meaning. There are 8 occurrences where the word "the" is mistyped as "me.]
■Workers' Movement: Marxism against Freemasonry | International Communist Current
https://en.internationalism.org/content/3741/workers-movement-marxism-against-freemasonry

Archived:
https://archive.ph/Wka5y


c.
Freemasons themselves address the question of whether Marx was one of them. Their answer is quick and easy: "he would have never qualified" as a member!
■ Was Karl Marx A Freemason
https://free-masons.livejournal.com/46309.html

Archived:
https://archive.ph/AWjsB


d.
What did Marx himself say about the accusations that supposedly the revolution which gave birth to the Paris Commune was the result of a conspiracy by secret societies? Here is his answer given during an interview for the "New York World" magazine, July 18, 1871. This is from the Freemason website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia & Yukon.
■ Karl Marx on Freemasonry
https://freemasonry.bcy.ca/anti-masonry/marx_k.html

Archived:
https://archive.ph/ydvtT


B.
Regarding the issue of private property

The issue is very simple, but it appears complex. Marx and revolutionary Socialists use a specific terminology that contains particular meanings. When those terms are taken and twisted out of context, instead of history what we get is twistory.

Within the body of work known as Scientific Socialism, the phrase "private property" refers to the fact that the most important means of production (ie. factories, manufacturing facilities, mines, etc.) that produce and distribute what humanity needs (food, clothes, buildings, computers, vehicles, infrastructure)... are all held under private ownership. Even though they are operated collectively by working people, the fruit of that combined labor is stolen at the point of production and SOLD BACK to us at a price. If we want to have what we created together with our combined labor, we have to buy it as a commercial product at the market.

Scientific Socialism's primary tenet is that this conflict between the manner of production (collective) and the form of ownership (private), generates all of the modern world's strife and suffering. And it will be resolved only when all of the means of production and distribution (ie. factories, manufacturing facilities, etc.) come under our collective ownership. In that sense, they become the collective property of all of us combined together, ie. belong to all of society. So that what we produce together through our combined labor (everything that humanity needs such as food, clothes, buildings, computers, vehicles, etc.) will also be distributed to all of us collectively.

The phrase "private property" does NOT refer to your shoes, your clothes, other items of your personal usage, or anything that most people own that is outside of the cycle of
production->market->profits.

The aim of Socialism is to INCREASE what you own, so that in addition to whatever you use and own privately (toothbrush, shoes, clothes, your home), you will also become a co-owner of all the social means of production and distribution, and have a say in how they are used and to what purpose.

The way this happens is through the combined action of working people who seize and occupy the factories and other means of production, place them under a decision-making process of direct democracy where people decide things together in councils, and begin to operate them for human needs instead of profits. This act of expropriation is what Scientific Socialism identifies as "abolition of private property"; it is the act of rendering the means of production into collective property, owned by all of us together.

In contrast to this, the goal of most (especially the pettiest) of the members of the ruling class, is to actually take everything you own so that you'll be working all your life and never be able to get back even a small fraction of what you produce.

► Revolutionary Socialists want to take everything owned privately by the capitalists and render it into collective property - social property - that will be owned and controlled by you, and by all of us together, all of the people collectively.
► The pettiest of capitalists want to take everything YOU own.

The fact that some of our people confuse these above two types of appropriation is an act of mostly just plain ignorance, repeated without thinking about the meaning, or about the history of peoples' struggles through the centuries.

Among people who know what they're talking about, equating these two forms of "private property" expropriation is criminal propaganda It is aimed at poisoning people's minds against Socialism in order to support the capitalist ruling class in its war against the radical Left.


So to summarize:

► There is no proof that Karl Marx was ever positively involved with the Freemasons except a clever misinterpretation of a photograph. While there is PLENTY of proof in his writings, his statements, and his legacy that he stood against the Freemasons of his era.
► Claiming that Karl Marx wanted - or that Socialism wants - to take away the little bit that you own is a lie.

All you have to do is read and study a little, and talk with some Socialist you trust. You might discover a world of joyful truths and enjoy the relief of living without the lies that constrain you in your social activism for Freedom.

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net

Further Readings and Resources

■ Left Lockdown Sceptics
"Left Lockdown Sceptics is a forum for critiques of ‘new normal’ societal changes from anarchist, feminist, Marxist and socialist perspectives. We stand for an informed, open debate and discussion about everything relevant to the Covid phenomenon and its related issues..."
https://leftlockdownsceptics.com/about/?doing_wp_cron=1662649092.0787079334259033203125

■ Revolutionary Communist Group
https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/explore-topics/covid-19

"Humanity faces a profound crisis: a devastating pandemic, soaring poverty, inequality and insecurity, with escalating rivalries between the world’s wealthiest nations, leading to global conflicts and wars. Environmental destruction and climate change already devastate the lives of millions of people and threaten humanity’s extinction. We are in a race against time to prevent this outcome. The only answer is to fight for socialism: a system in which resources are democratically controlled and rationally organised to meet humanity’s needs rather than those of a tiny minority.
...No capitalist ruling class has ever given up power voluntarily; it will take mass direct action, a revolution led by the working class and its most oppressed layers. The RCG exists as a vehicle to strengthen the revolutionary anti-racist, anti-imperialist trend within the working class..."
https://www.revolutionarycommunist.org/about/6248-what-we-stand-for-2

■ If you have the clarity and presence of mind to study the opposition, please see what a FORMER radical Leftist has to say in these troubled times. You can trace the ideological shift from radical Left opposition to the ruling class all the way to... not just acceptance of its propaganda, but a willing participation in the propaganda war being waged by the Corporate State, on their side! Here:
■ It’s shocking to see so many leftwingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories
George Monbiot
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/22/leftwingers-far-right-conspiracy-theories-anti-vaxxers-power

■ Thank You Greece! Thank You SYRIZA!
"...the political
program of the Left CAN NOT be actualized without active mobilization
and physical-emotional participation of the people, without a hands-on
tangible involvement of the population in the process...
...No one is talking about organizing the farming brigades and worker's
brigades that will be required to re-vitalize the country's ability to
feed and clothe itself; i.e. to create a self-sustaining economy for the
country. It seems that both the party and its supporters are assuming
that all that can achieved by conventional "investment and development"
procedures (State-directed investment by the banks; in other words a
humane management of capitalism). No one is talking about the need to
mobilize people for occupations and seizures of productive units (idle
factories, housing units, hospitals, etc.) No one is talking about
mobilizing the reserve soldiers into the self-organized defence teams
(some sort of militia) that will be required to protect the country from
Turkey's military aggression or from resistance to the popular
mobilizations mentioned above that might be thrown up by the fascist
elements of the Police.
Socialism cannot be "proclaimed"; it can only be achieved by active
participation of the multitude..."
https://web.archive.org/web/20150914184141/http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/4968

■ For a Hellenic Socialist Revival
"Some features of this project, or junctures of this political period, might necessitate some of the following:
    Seizure, occupation and operation by the people of many industries and branches of agriculture, and the introduction of workers' control with direct democracy;
    The establishment (and empowerment) of people's councils throughout the whole of the country, through which the day-to-day activities will be administered. These can be based in the neighborhoods, the workplaces, the schools, and within the security services (military, police, etc.);
    Social or State control of foreign trade;
    Self-organization of labour-brigades along the lines of a modern democratic People's Army, and militarization of labour (more on this below);
    Seizure or requisition of agricultural, industrial or trade surpluses for decentralized (community determined) distribution among the population;
    If social assets and production dwindle and the country is forced into a state of emergency, it might become necessary to introduce rationing of food and of most other commodities, with distribution to the people according to need and availability;
    Encourage and support small private enterprise alongside with enterprises by collectives, communes, bands, worker-owned businesses, which should receive priority;
    Social control of the railways, highways, airports, telephones, electricity, water and other large scale elements of the social and economic infrastructure, ensuring that these will serve the people's needs..."
https://web.archive.org/web/20161002011438/http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/5021

■ Endo~Media / Socialism
https://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/search/label/socialism

■ Endo~Media / Revolutionary Politics
https://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/search/label/revolutionary%20politics

* * *

What just happened? Did it "just" happen?

🟢 A Imperial Holy Alliance comprised of the US-based ruling class and the global deep state have just regained control of the White House. The world is bracing for new wars.

🟢 A racist, sexist, homophobic Populist movement represented and led by an independent billionaire failed to save the world, even though it held the White House for four years.

🟢 The morally and ideologically corrupt, organizationally failed and co-opted american Left knowingly sided with the Empire's Holy Alliance and became willingly assimilated into its machinery, claiming it was "fighting fascism".

🟢 The ultra-reactionary american right-wing that has gotten embedded within the Populist movement that just lost the White House, was used as a clever excuse ~ an alibi ~ for the Left to avoid joining the Populist movement and failing to help orient the mobilized population toward liberation from Capital and the State. A poor excuse, but what else could the Left come up with to justify its own alliance with Capital and the State?

🟢 We live in a weird era in which, as the song goes:

"Left is Right and Right is Wrong
better decide which side you're on..."
- Tom Robinson Band.

It will take many years, perhaps decades, for truly radical and alternative american organizations and activists to disentangle themselves from the chariots of the Holy Alliance and re-emerge again as a viable political option. And they won't be able to do anything useful at a socially meaningful scale until they understand that in the current era among the People - beyond slogans and behaviors - the concepts of left and right are mostly mixed up and very often inverted.

🟢 Liberation from the power of Capital and the State necessitates a Liberation Movement; not a contest of "politically correct speech", nor the tormented "politics of guilt". Identity politics can only have a meaning if they are part of a unified movement for collective and personal social liberation aimed at the overthrow of Capital and the State; otherwise those politics only serve the modern Empire and the empowerement of its Thought Police.

🟢 A contemporary Liberation Movement needs to be guided by an understanding of complex concepts; the mental-emotional numbness created by the Left's internal Thought Police makes that impossible and it cultivates political stupidity.

🟢 Components of reality which need to be recognised as parameters that together must determine the direction of the compass guiding the Liberation Movement include:

🟪 The fundamentals of political economy (relations of production, ownership and control of means of production and natural resources - the so-called Objective forces of History).

🟪 The fundamentals of Orgonomy (mass psychology, knowledge of the psychosomatic essence of authoritarianism, effects of the suppression and exploitation of sensuous and pleasurable experiences of the Erotic; personal and social liberation by restoration of Eros and self-regulation of the individual and social organism - all which sculpt the so-called Subjective forces of History).

🟪 The fundamentals of how the contemporary Society of the Spectacle operates, and especially how the Objective and the Subjective forces of History have come to be producing and reproducing it, ruled by it, identified with it, and are aware of themselves only through it. It has gone way beyond the world of Advertising and Propaganda; it is currently the process by which the current regime's narrative is experienced as "reality". Its modern evolutes, ie. the Society of Television, the Society of the Desktop or Mobile Screen, the Society of the Keyboard... all evolving together into the Society of Social Media, have given us the present stage of the Spectacle, which is a Participatory Dictatorship of Social Media: produce and reproduce a version of dominant "reality" of your own, with your own personal flavor. At the same time, it is the only unified culture shared by the majority of the global population.

🟪 Newly evolving paradigms of revolutionary societies with contributions from the Zapatistas and the Kurds.

🟪 Restoration of "old-fashioned" patterns of Liberation - such as ethnic and national liberation, community politics, etc. - can take totally new meanings in the present era of Empire which rules entire countries via globalization. Che Guevara's "Patria o Muerte / Homeland or Death" retains a global and glorious anti-Imperialist validity which the euro-american Left no longer understands. Patriotism, in the context of internationalism, continues to be one of the most powerful vehicles for Liberation.

🟪 The local and global working class has changed. We live in an era where the 99% of the population belongs to the working class, even though only 30%-60% of this class might be employed at any given time: the entire class survives on the combined incomes of those few. There's a need to recognize that the "new" working class includes very few industrial proletarians; more academic and highly technical proletarians; a large number of people who work either part-time or seasonally; that many people work at home; many people are in a "fluid" employment status somewhere between "self-employed" and "employed"; that more and more people work in an environment where "local" and "global" are intimately connected; more and more people possess many, many highly developed skills and yet they are employed as "unskilled workers", or their skills are under-employed; the working class includes a few farmers, many small business owners; it includes vast numbers whose social and self awareness is determined by their being shoppers and consumers; and similarly, it includes vast numbers whose social and self awareness is determined by their being Spectators and participants in the dictatorship of Social Media. All of the above belong to multitude of varied and different identities characterised by ethnic, national and cultural parameters, language and religion, gender and sexuality, location, and by their country's or community's status within the local and global hierarchy and relations of power. Collectively, they - we! - comprise a political Multitude, which is both the new Subjective force in History, and also part of the machinery of production and reproduction of Objective reality.

🟢 All of the above are essential for re-aligning the compass of the Liberation Movement in the West - don't leave home for the Revolution without them!

🟢 A Left that is self-absorbed and entirely obsessed with its own internal Thought Police enforcing the Politics of Guilt and petty Identity Politics on its members and attempting to enforce that on the populatioin-at-large while it exists in a criminal co-dependance with the Imperial Alliance, is better Left Behind.

🟣 Integration is not Liberation!

🟣 All Power to the Imagination!

🟣 Onwards for a new Erotic Psychedelic Inter-Galactic Consciousness spanning both the Physical and the Metaphysical!

🟣 Revolt where you live ~ Live Everywhere!

🟣 Liberated Collective realities are crucial for the Liberation process: they can only be created by Love actively engaged in listening, participation in group dialogues structured as a shared experience of Direct Democracy; shared Work; shared Play. They can take a myriad forms: music bands; affinity groups; combat units; community power councils; collective households; communes; worker-owned businesses ; cooperatives; independent unions of working people, soldiers, neighbors; consumers' co-ops; Peoples' Armies; Liberated Countries.

🟣 All for One and One for All!

🟣

November 8, 2020
Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
~~~~~~~~~~~

Coronavirus tests: positive, negative, and the NYTimes

Many people who can not afford a subscription to the NYTimes are missing out by not having access to the this great article. We post it here in the same spirit that scientific journals have adopted recently, with which all information related to the corona-crisis is made widely available to everyone, in the hope that the free flow of information will contribute to protecting our communities.

■ Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be.
• The usual diagnostic tests may simply be too sensitive and too slow to contain the spread of the virus.
• Tests authorized by the F.D.A. provide only a yes-no answer to infection, and will identify as positive patients with low amounts of virus in their bodies.
By Apoorva Mandavilli
Published Aug. 29, 2020 | Updated Sept. 15, 2020, 9:28 a.m. ET

Some of the nation’s leading public health experts are raising a new concern in the endless debate over coronavirus testing in the United States: The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus.

Most of these people are not likely to be contagious, and identifying them may contribute to bottlenecks that prevent those who are contagious from being found in time. But researchers say the solution is not to test less, or to skip testing people without symptoms, as recently suggested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Instead, new data underscore the need for more widespread use of rapid tests, even if they are less sensitive.

“The decision not to test asymptomatic people is just really backward,” said Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, referring to the C.D.C. recommendation.


“In fact, we should be ramping up testing of all different people,” he said, “but we have to do it through whole different mechanisms.”

In what may be a step in this direction, the Trump administration announced on Thursday that it would purchase 150 million rapid tests.

The most widely used diagnostic test for the new coronavirus, called a PCR test, provides a simple yes-no answer to the question of whether a patient is infected.

But similar PCR tests for other viruses do offer some sense of how contagious an infected patient may be: The results may include a rough estimate of the amount of virus in the patient’s body.

“We’ve been using one type of data for everything, and that is just plus or minus — that’s all,” Dr. Mina said. “We’re using that for clinical diagnostics, for public health, for policy decision-making.”


But yes-no isn’t good enough, he added. It’s the amount of virus that should dictate the infected patient’s next steps. “It’s really irresponsible, I think, to forgo the recognition that this is a quantitative issue,” Dr. Mina said.
Latest Updates: The Coronavirus Outbreak
Updated 33m ago


The PCR test amplifies genetic matter from the virus in cycles; the fewer cycles required, the greater the amount of virus, or viral load, in the sample. The greater the viral load, the more likely the patient is to be contagious.

This number of amplification cycles needed to find the virus, called the cycle threshold, is never included in the results sent to doctors and coronavirus patients, although it could tell them how infectious the patients are.

In three sets of testing data that include cycle thresholds, compiled by officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people testing positive carried barely any virus, a review by The Times found.

On Thursday, the United States recorded 45,604 new coronavirus cases, according to a database maintained by The Times. If the rates of contagiousness in Massachusetts and New York were to apply nationwide, then perhaps only 4,500 of those people may actually need to isolate and submit to contact tracing.

One solution would be to adjust the cycle threshold used now to decide that a patient is infected. Most tests set the limit at 40, a few at 37. This means that you are positive for the coronavirus if the test process required up to 40 cycles, or 37, to detect the virus.

Tests with thresholds so high may detect not just live virus but also genetic fragments, leftovers from infection that pose no particular risk — akin to finding a hair in a room long after a person has left, Dr. Mina said.

Any test with a cycle threshold above 35 is too sensitive, agreed Juliet Morrison, a virologist at the University of California, Riverside. “I’m shocked that people would think that 40 could represent a positive,” she said.
Coronavirus Schools Briefing: It’s back to school — or is it?

A more reasonable cutoff would be 30 to 35, she added. Dr. Mina said he would set the figure at 30, or even less. Those changes would mean the amount of genetic material in a patient’s sample would have to be 100-fold to 1,000-fold that of the current standard for the test to return a positive result — at least, one worth acting on.


The Food and Drug Administration said in an emailed statement that it does not specify the cycle threshold ranges used to determine who is positive, and that “commercial manufacturers and laboratories set their own.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is examining the use of cycle threshold measures “for policy decisions.” The agency said it would need to collaborate with the F.D.A. and with device manufacturers to ensure the measures “can be used properly and with assurance that we know what they mean.”

The C.D.C.’s own calculations suggest that it is extremely difficult to detect any live virus in a sample above a threshold of 33 cycles. Officials at some state labs said the C.D.C. had not asked them to note threshold values or to share them with contact-tracing organizations.

For example, North Carolina’s state lab uses the Thermo Fisher coronavirus test, which automatically classifies results based on a cutoff of 37 cycles. A spokeswoman for the lab said testers did not have access to the precise numbers.

This amounts to an enormous missed opportunity to learn more about the disease, some experts said.

“It’s just kind of mind-blowing to me that people are not recording the C.T. values from all these tests — that they’re just returning a positive or a negative,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.

“It would be useful information to know if somebody’s positive, whether they have a high viral load or a low viral load,” she added.

Officials at the Wadsworth Center, New York’s state lab, have access to C.T. values from tests they have processed, and analyzed their numbers at The Times’s request. In July, the lab identified 872 positive tests, based on a threshold of 40 cycles.

With a cutoff of 35, about 43 percent of those tests would no longer qualify as positive. About 63 percent would no longer be judged positive if the cycles were limited to 30.

In Massachusetts, from 85 to 90 percent of people who tested positive in July with a cycle threshold of 40 would have been deemed negative if the threshold were 30 cycles, Dr. Mina said. “I would say that none of those people should be contact-traced, not one,” he said.

Other experts informed of these numbers were stunned.

“I’m really shocked that it could be that high — the proportion of people with high C.T. value results,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute. “Boy, does it really change the way we need to be thinking about testing.”

Dr. Jha said he had thought of the PCR test as a problem because it cannot scale to the volume, frequency or speed of tests needed. “But what I am realizing is that a really substantial part of the problem is that we’re not even testing the people who we need to be testing,” he said.

The number of people with positive results who aren’t infectious is particularly concerning, said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. “That worries me a lot, just because it’s so high,” he said, adding that the organization intended to meet with Dr. Mina to discuss the issue.

The F.D.A. noted that people may have a low viral load when they are newly infected. A test with less sensitivity would miss these infections.

But that problem is easily solved, Dr. Mina said: “Test them again, six hours later or 15 hours later or whatever,” he said. A rapid test would find these patients quickly, even if it were less sensitive, because their viral loads would quickly rise.

PCR tests still have a role, he and other experts said. For example, their sensitivity is an asset when identifying newly infected people to enroll in clinical trials of drugs.

But with 20 percent or more of people testing positive for the virus in some parts of the country, Dr. Mina and other researchers are questioning the use of PCR tests as a frontline diagnostic tool.

People infected with the virus are most infectious from a day or two before symptoms appear till about five days after. But at the current testing rates, “you’re not going to be doing it frequently enough to have any chance of really capturing somebody in that window,” Dr. Mina added.

Highly sensitive PCR tests seemed like the best option for tracking the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic. But for the outbreaks raging now, he said, what’s needed are coronavirus tests that are fast, cheap and abundant enough to frequently test everyone who needs it — even if the tests are less sensitive.

“It might not catch every last one of the transmitting people, but it sure will catch the most transmissible people, including the superspreaders,” Dr. Mina said. “That alone would drive epidemics practically to zero.”


► Correction: Sept. 8, 2020

An earlier version of this article, using information provided by a laboratory spokesman, misstated the number of positive coronavirus tests in July processed by Wadsworth Center, New York's state lab. It was 872 tests, not 794. Based on that error, the article also misstated the number of tests that would no longer qualify as positive with a C.T. value of 35 cycles. It is about 43 percent of the tests, not about half of them. Similarly, the article misstated the number of tests that would no longer qualify as positive if cycles were limited to 30. It is about 63 percent of the tests, not about 70 percent.


► Apoorva Mandavilli is a reporter for The Times, focusing on science and global health. She is the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. @apoorva_nyc

A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 30, 2020,
Section A, Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline:
You’re Positive. But Are You Contagious? Tests May Be Too Sensitive, Experts Say.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Was 1968 our global 1905?

■ A special appearance by friends and comrades Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers in Santa Fe - the precious town known to some Cypriots as "Kyrenia of the high-altitude desert".
■ "“Whatever the so-called ’60s was, it was mainly a prelude to what we need to do today”, said Ayers."
 

It's an essential and burning question that keeps recurring to people who are actively engaged in the revolutionary process, in the study of its history and the theoretical foundations that might guide better guide us in understanding its curious developments in order to help bring the revolution to a VICTORY (or to a new beginning): it's the question of 1968 - the need to understand the historical role of the planetary-scale revolutionary period of the "sixties and seventies" symbolized by the year 1968.

Students of revolutionary Socialist history often see the 1905 revolution in Russia as a launching pad (a dress-rehearsal) of the 1917 revolution in Russia which gave birth to the Soviet Union. Could it be that the revolutionary period exemplified by 1968 can act as a prelude to another and more SUCCESSFUL global revolution? Can this happen even though two whole generations have already passed, and we're in the process of losing many of the people who were the bearers of the Light, Love and Consciousness from that time?

Is it possible that the Socialist revolution possesses qualities that are transcendental (like a number?), going beyond the boundaries of the particular experiences of individual persons or specific populations, embodying a transpersonal reality capable of actualizing a "small 'c' communist" society all over the globe in the same sense that we witness the materialization of Archetypes? In that sense, it would be reasonable to assume that the next global prairie-fire can be self-igniting, without the necessity of being mediated by people who have lived through 1968. Or, to say it differently, it might be possible that those would who bring that spark over across time from 1968 to the present, might be able to re-ignite the prairie through a discarnate process, through an incorporeal abstraction acting on and through objective reality.

Could it be that the contradictions discovered within capitalism and global Imperialism by marxian science keep generating the Consciousness necessary for humanity to overcome them and replace them with the socialist ~ communist ~ anarchist ~ feminist ~ green ~ autonomist society we yearn for?

What about the social and political conditions? Is it possible to envision a global collective coordinating body that will harmonize and coordinate the Movement? Are modern populations emotionally and politically capable of overcoming the individualism and narcissism enforced on us by the commodity shopping culture and the Spectacle; by narrow perceptions of collective struggle confined by the mental borders of the nation-state; and move forward to removing the obstacles to unity found among the communities and populations of the present? Of the future?

Where is the radical culture that can bind us together? Where is the organizational structure ("One Ring to free them all: One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all, and in the Light to bind them")? Where are the radical Jedi, radical Bene Gesserit, the witches and guerillas, the musicians and healthcare workers, the geeks and "fairy weirdos" who will serve as the cadre of a future revolutionary party that can emerge as a Conscious force on the stage of history to embody the Last International?

Is it viable to work in that direction? Is it premature? Are there radicals consciously and knowingly engaged in building that network? Does it already exist, hiding in plain view and gently guiding us in the direction of planet-wide Liberation?

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Radical activists to discuss next steps of resistance
By Megan Bennett / Journal North Reporter
Friday, September 22nd, 2017 at 12:02am
https://www.abqjournal.com/1067393/radical-activists-to-discuss-next-steps-of-resistance-ex-former-weather-underground-members-to-join-sfais-equal-justice-residents-on-panel.html

SANTA FE, N.M. — Two members of the Weather Underground, the 1960s-70s radical activist group most famously known for protesting the Vietnam War and black oppression through bombings of government buildings, will speak at the Santa Fe Art Institute Sunday about current-day issues and creative solutions for fighting back.

Though they are most famous for their activism in their teens and twenties, husband and wife Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, both now in their seventies and living in Chicago, say they are not stuck in the past. The two are still activists in what Dohrn called “perilous times” with the election of Donald Trump.

“We’re not looking wistfully at a ship that already left the shore,” said Ayers. “We’re very much living toward the future. Whatever the so-called ’60s was, it was mainly a prelude to what we need to do today.” He said what he and his wife were fighting for then, like stopping the “underlying causes of war” and white supremacy, still need resolution today.

Both Dohrn and Ayers began their activism in college protesting against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and for the Civil Rights Movement, a period during which Ayers said he participated in sit-ins and was arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

They later helped organize the Weather Underground – sometimes labeled, then and now, as a terrorist group – that detonated small bombs at places like the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon to protest war and other social issues. Three members of the Weather Underground died in 1970 at a New York townhouse while creating an explosive.

Ayers and Dohrn, who was once on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, were on the run for several years until 1980 when they turned themselves in. By then, most of the charges against them had been dropped. Dohrn served less than a year of jail time for refusing to testify in a case, then went on to a career as a legal advocate and in teaching law. Ayers became an education professor in Chicago – whether he had any significant associations with Barack Obama there became an issue in presidential politics.

“My whole life I’ve been told that won’t work, that’s extreme or that’s crazy,” said Ayers about criticism of radical activism throughout the years. But he said activists can’t rely on what polls or powerful figures are saying about a movement and, sometimes, unpopular or new ideas are necessary.

Now, they’re retired college professors who keep up with movements like Black Lives Matter, as well as activism on climate change, women’s rights, protection of undocumented immigrants and other issues.

The two will participate in an “inter-generational” panel with several SFAI Equal Justice Residents, a group of local and national artists invited to work on political or social movement-related art pieces, to discuss alternatives to addressing today’s political climate.

The couple will offer a discussion of their lives, during which people can ask questions. They’ll be available afterward to sign copies of their books if audience members bring them. Dohrn said the couple welcomes all opinions and perspectives in the discussion, including those who disagree with their past tactics.

While there is no “road map” for activism, Dohrn says everyone has something they should be doing right now in response to today’s political situation. She hopes the conversation with artists will evoke some innovative ways of resistance.

“We need to talk to each other, we need to think deeply about other domains, other than just talking in which we can impact, inspire, ignite and imagine a different world,” said Dohrn.

If you go

WHAT: “SFAI Presents the Weather Underground: A Night of Radical Imagination” panel discussion, Q&A and book-signing.
WHERE: James A. Little Theater, New Mexico School for the Deaf, 1060 Cerrillos Rd.
WHEN: Sunday, 6-8 p.m.
TICKETS: Free, but comes with the option to include a $10 or $25 donation to help fund the Equal Justice residency. Go to sfai.org for tickets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Originally published here:

Was 1968 our global 1905?
http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/5166 

and archived here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20171003183813/http://cyprus.indymedia.org/node/5166

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

Death and Incontestable Reality

It matters not if we criticize North Korea's regime as stalinist, which it is, nor as a "deformed workers' state" or "state capitalist", which it might be. The incontrovertible reality though, is that the death of Kim Jong-Il who ruled from 1994 until a few days ago has triggered some of the most incredible revelations of the deep emotional bonds he had forged with the people of North Korea. The photos and videos below reveal a depth of human emotion that shocks those of us in the West who have been brought up with continuous lies about North Korea for three generations now.

Of course we would like to see the social and political process in North Korea to continue to advance toward more genuine and democratic forms of Socialism. And we feel that the depth of emotion that the Korean people are capable of is a definite guarantee that such a progress can continue. Emotional reality in most countries of the West is the total opposite of North Korea. Emotional capacity is deadened, especially when it involves social and political events. We live under a social pathology that is almost completely dominant everywhere, and which is directly related to the fact that people in the West "don't care" about politics. And even among those who care, most are incapable of emotional bonding with others into movements and political organizations that involve a sense of comradeship and true depth of shared feelings - which is what makes people comrades.

Who can imagine ANY of the "glorious leaders" of the Western world passing away and triggering a sorrow such as we see below?


The videos are heart breaking. We have three videos of 2, 3 and 4 minutes each that are astounding.

{click} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A3VLcdFnys {click} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmIzQs_pQYc {click} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkVlzdfZiAA

Frozen Hearts can not Attain Freedom

It's true that to this day we do not have a science or an understanding of human culture keen and discerning enough to fathom the depths or the heights of the human psyche.

But we do know one thing. That people who are collectively incapable of emotion, who do not care when their country is under the boot of a dictatorship or a foreign invader, or when their neighbors are being brutalized, who do not care when their economy is being destroyed or when their language, ethnic and cultural identity is being uprooted are both incapable - and undeserving - of freedom.

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The new issue of Europe 2012 magazine featuring Cyprus

Available at all newsstands:

* * *

Dana Beal Sentenced to Prison

Dana Beal, at age 64 is still a devoted freedom fighter and totally committed to the Medical Marijuana Movement - in the defense of which he is going to prison.

Please read the specifics of his sentencing below and details from the trial that include testimonies of support that were made in Court by witnesses. Also, watch the half-hour video of his statement to the Court that summarizes a lot of his work in setting up support networks for Cannabis patients and his promotion of the anti-addiction herbal medicine called Ibogaine.

Through his work with Ibogaine, Dana has helped a lot of addicts to become free from heroin, crack cocaine, alcohol and other killer chemicals.

Dana is a co-founder of the Yippies, comrade of notable revolutionary activists such as Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Stu Albert, and he is the "superpower", mastermind and initiator of the Global Marijuana March campaign that sees annual gatherings and protests by thousands of Friends of Cannabis in several hundreds of cities around the planet every MayDay.

Video: Dana's Statement to the Court {please click on the image, or the link below} http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKgOh_VSQe0&noredirect=1

Contact
You can communicate with Dana through his lawyer:
Byron Walker, Attorney At Law,
P.O. Box 10, La Farge, WI 54639

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beal gets prison, extended supervision
J. Patrick Reilly, Editor/Co-Publisher

Those who came to the Iowa County courthouse Tuesday to testify on Irvin (Dana) Beal's behalf would not be shocked if he walked on water.

Beal has that affect on those he has helped. But the fact the 64 year old Beal was transporting 180 pounds of medium grade marijuana through Wisconsin when his 1997 Chevrolet Astro van was stopped last January 6 for expired registration, missing bumper and cracked tail light couldn't let him walk out of the courthouse a free man.

Instead, Circuit Judge Robert P. Van De Hey sentenced Beal to five years in prison, 2 1/2 under incarceration and 2 1/2 under extended supervision. Van De Hey also gave Beal credit for time served (267 days) and granted eligibility for early release. That is a better deal than the four years prison and four years extended supervision asked for by assistant DA Timothy Helmberger.

It is a way better deal than the 15 years and $50,000 fine that is the maximum allowed by law. Van De Hey reminded the crowded courtroom that while the passionate testimony offered by people from as far away as New Zealand, California, New York and Minnesota made valid points, he was forced to make a ruling that includes prison time.

"We are a country of laws," he said. "People have acknowledged his deeds but it is not fair to give him a free pass especially with that much marijuana on board. He has committed the offense and now must be held accountable."

"I have no problem with medical marijuana," Van De Hey said. "But I have to keep in mind the 180 pounds he had in his vehicle." "I don't make the laws but I have to enforce the laws as they are written," he said.

This will be Beals's sixth conviction. He was convicted of drug related offenses in 1971, 1987, 1993 and 2006. He was on probation for an arrest in Nebraska when his vehicle was stopped in Iowa County.

Beal testified prior to sentencing and told the judge he would not do that particular thing again. "I am too old," he said. "I need a different job."

He said he was taking the marijuana to be used for medical purposes in Michigan, New York and Washington, DC where it is legal. "Would law enforcement be upset if I was moving medical marijuana to where it was legal?" he asked.

A woman from New Zealand told the court how Beal had come to her country to help set up clinics and with the use of ibogaine, a drug that cures heroin addiction. Ibogaine is not legal in the United States. "If you put Dana away his work will stop," she said. "He has helped a lot of human beings in New Zealand and was planning to do the same in Australia. He is an expert and has paid for those who need treatment. This will all stop if he goes away. Help save our people from drug abuse."

Ed Rosenthal came from California to testify. "I have known Dana for 30 plus years," he said. "Dana saves lives. He is not a drug dealer. You talk community service? Dana has put in 30 years of community service. Don't be part of a system where a person is jailed for his efforts."

Rabbi Issac Freese from Brooklyn said he has known Beal for 20 years and only knows good about him. "He helped us open a medical co-op. He sacrificed himself. He lost money. He went ahead and did it anyway, not for himself but so people could get the help they need." "Dana is needed today by the people he has helped. He has given them shelter, relief and a trusting heart."

A former meth addict credited Beal with getting her sober. "Dana helped me get treatment," she said. "Now I am sober and have a beautiful four year old daughter." Manhattan attorney Doug Green called Beal a champion of medical marijuana and ibogaine. Dennis Brennen, formerly of New York and now of Wisconsin, turned to Dana when he couldn't afford medical marijuana at $30 to $40 per gram. "He could get it for me at $10 per gram. He has helped many get affordable medical marijuana."

Jackie Rickard testified from her wheelchair and credited Beal with helping her get medical marijuana for her condition.

Paul DeReinzo, a school teacher in New York, compared Beal to Galileo who was eventually proven right in his theories after 300 years. "Let's not take 300 years to prove Dana right," he said. "Dana's been right all along. We can do the right thing here for future generations."

Beal may eventually answer charges against him in other states.

From: http://www.thedodgevillechronicle.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=8&ArticleID=1869

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valis is Valid
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Entheogens/message/3172

Free Dana Beal, Free Ourselves
http://www.facebook.com/groups/143405647913

Dana Beal is out of Jail - Freedom for all Friends of Cannabis! http://cyprusindymedia.blogspot.com/2009/11/dana-beal-is-our-of-jail-freedom-for.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reconciliation and Reunification: exploration of difficulties

South Africa is an excellent point of reference for us in Cyprus who struggle both for Reconciliation and Reunification of our country's two main communities.

Exploration and awareness of the difficulties involved in this, and also the path to successful solutions, are often blocked by the interests and forces of local and global State and Capital who act to bury them under political party slogans, misdirection, and political manipulation.

We are especially in tune with the saga of the South African liberation movement for many reasons. But one in particular has become even more relevant for us in the recent decade, in that the imperialist powers and our local politicians are working to impose a racist Bizonal Apartheid regime on us (a new version of the Annan plan), just like the one that tormented South Africa until 17 years ago. Same as the apartheid regime that continues to torment the people of Palestine who live under zionist Israeli domination.

The process of Reconciliation and Reunification is very difficult, both before and after any solution - even if the solution is functional.

In South Africa, as the article below shows, even after a formal dissolution of the regime problems remain because unofficial Apartheid and the objective domination of one race over another never ended, and this generates racial hatred that is a bitter part of the social justice movement.

In Cyprus we are in an even worse position: because we have not even managed to get the occupation army to allow our people to Reunite and attempt to live together again in the same neighborhoods, workplaces and schools, as we used to in the past.

Reunification is the direction in which every person with a conscience wants us to move in. But the obstacles are tremendous. Military, economic and political obstacles are of course the most difficult, and any effort to examine the effect of social consciousness, psychology, feelings, etc. must take a secondary place.

Nevertheless, emotional and psychological factors are generated by the military, economic and political obstacles, which then take a life of their own.

Occupation, genocide and social injustice breed hatred. Hatred fuels the liberation struggle but it also makes Reconciliation and Reunification more difficult. It's a terrible cycle but it's a part of the truth, and we need to find ways to deal with it.

At the same time we need to recognize that hatred will only be gone when both the formal and the informal (de facto) structures of domination, occupation, ethnic cleansing and genocide are removed.

If our two communities succeed in removing them together, by joined action, then the dissipation of hatred will occur at the quickest rate possible, and it will gone forever. I look forward to that beautiful day.

Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SAfrica rules against youth leader for hate speech
http://news.yahoo.com/safrica-rules-against-youth-leader-hate-speech-094521756.html
By DONNA BRYSON - Associated Press, Sep. 12 2011

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The black man who leads the youth wing of South Africa's governing party has no right to sing a song some whites find offensive, a judge said Monday. Judge Collin Lamont went further than AfriForum, the white rights group that brought the hate speech suit, had demanded by saying that all South Africans, not only Julius Malema, should refrain from singing "Shoot the Boer."

Under the ruling, criminal cases can now be brought against those who sing the song or quote its lyrics. In a ruling broadcast live on national television, the judge said that while such anthems had their place during apartheid, they constitute hate speech in a society now struggling to redefine relations between the races.

Monday's ruling comes four months after hearings in Malema's hate speech trial that were broadcast live on national television. The court case is separate from Malema's ongoing African National Congress disciplinary hearings, which also have drawn wide attention.

While Monday's judgment could be seen as a setback for the embattled Malema, the lightning-rod figure might use it to rally support from South Africans who see "Shoot the Boer" as part of the heritage of the anti-apartheid movement. "Boer" means farmer in the language of South Africa's Dutch descendants known as Afrikaners, and is broadly used to refer to whites in general and Afrikaners in particular.

In a statement, the ANC said it was "appalled" by the decision, but would respect it while deciding what steps to take next. Malema, who was not in court Monday but testified at length during hearings earlier this year, had argued the song was not a literal threat against whites.

Malema and the ANC said it was a symbolic call to fight oppression, both under apartheid and 17 years after the end of white rule in a society where the black majority largely remains poor. After the ruling, crowds outside the downtown Johannesburg courtroom sang the song in defiance of the judge.

ANC Youth League leaders urged them to respect the ruling while they consulted with their lawyers about whether to appeal or take other steps. Malema, 30, has forced South Africa to confront its racial divide, insisted on trying to set his party's political and economic agenda, and claimed to represent the country's restive, poor, black majority.

The disciplinary hearings, which could lead to Malema's suspension or expulsion from the party, focus on accusations he is undermining President Jacob Zuma.

The ANC leaders who make government policy have consistently — and at times mockingly — rejected Malema's calls to nationalize mining or confiscate property from whites to hand over to blacks.

But he cannot be ignored. The vehemence and volume of his rhetoric could, over time, be influential. And his Youth League's reputation for getting voters to the polls means it has influence when the party draws up candidate lists.

Malema took credit for putting Zuma at the top of the ANC list in 2009, though he now accuses the president of being too moderate. The next election is in 2014, but the ANC could replace Zuma before that in a process akin to a vote of confidence within the party.

Malema was raised by a single mother who worked as a maid in one of South Africa's most impoverished regions. He shares those biographical details with Zuma, and they explain some of his appeal among poorer South Africans. His appeal has not been undermined by his recent acquisitions of expensive cars, flamboyant friends and a home in one of Johannesburg's most expensive neighborhoods.

Critics question whether he's sold political favors to get his wealth, charges he denies even as police and an anti-corruption office investigate. Critics also say he sets an example that feeds materialistic aspirations among young South Africans that their elders fear have crowded out the previous generation's goals of replacing apartheid with a just and humane society.

In the hate speech case, AfriForum chief executive Kallie Kriel said at court Monday his group respected the heritage of the anti-apartheid movement, but agreed with Lamont that South Africa now should move on.

"We need to find mutual recognition and respect among communities," he said, calling the ruling a victory over Malema's vision of South Africa. Leslie Mkhabela, Malema's lawyer, said he did not believe courts were the right forum to debate such social issues.

The judge had made a point similar to Mkhabela's during the trial, urging the parties to find a mediated settlement. Monday, he said he hoped the attention the trial had drawn, and his decision to allow much of it to be broadcast, would help South Africans heal by learning about each other after decades of being separated by the violence and injustice of apartheid.

Lamont spoke for nearly two hours before delivering his ruling, touching on South Africa's colonial history, the struggle against apartheid and the media attention and public outrage Malema had drawn with his insistence on singing such lyrics as "shoot the boer, they are rapists, robbers."

Lamont also spoke of the limitations of the law, acknowledging that while he could issue an order banning a song, many South Africans "are passionate about the right to sing the song." He urged South Africans to "pursue new ideals and find a new morality. They must develop new customs and rejoice in developing society by giving up old practices which are hurtful to members who live in that society with them."

___ Donna Bryson can be reached on http://twitter.com/dbrysonA

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An earlier version of this article can be found at the Turko-Hellenic Friendship and Dialogue group named KaliMerhaba:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kalimerhaba_HellenoTurkish_Community/message/2612

Images The photo of the mangled Hellenic statue is from the occupied ancient city Salamis, where illegal excavations and commercial exploration are part of an ethnic cleansing process that continues to this day, throughout almost 40 years of occupation.

Republished from here:
http://www.parathyro.com/?p=4028

Childrens' paintings of occupation, division and war atrocities against civilians are from an article published in the Electronic Intifada, titled:
Gaza children’s images of war censored under pressure from US Israel lobby
http://electronicintifada.net/content/gaza-childrens-images-war-censored-under-pressure-us-israel-lobby/10373

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