Sheffield Anti-militarism Newswire Archive

The show this week unmasks the moral pretensions of globalized imperialism run amok. Professor Anthony J. Hall speaks on the coming home to roost of USA's history of imperialism and globalization through force of arms. In our second hour, we begin reading A Brief Treatise on the Moral Grounds of Economic Relations, the next chapter of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years, on how the mentality and language of 'exchange' is used both to cloak such predatory hierarchical relations and to obscure our innate drive towards communistic relationships of mutual aid.

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Audio excerpted from a 2.5 hour Free Speech Radio fundraising special on KFPA. If you can spare a dime to help keep this invaluable resource going, please visit their site for details of how to donate.

Contributors included Andy Worthington who spoke about how courts in DC have watered down the Habeus Corpus rights which the Supreme Court said detainees were entitled to. As a result the only detainees to leave Gitmo in the last 13 months have been in coffins, despite the fact that over half the detained have been cleared for release. Special mention of Shaker Amer, the last British resident still being helf.

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The increasingly menacing character of US rhetoric toward Iran was underlined by the comments to the media on Sunday by Admiral Mark Fox, commander of the US 5th Fleet based at Bahrain in the Persian Gulf.

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It has been said that compassion is 'the only beauty that truly pleases' (Aryasura, The Marvelous Companion, Dharma Publishing, 1983, p.305). While beauty ordinarily provokes the fiery itch of desire or the sullen shadow of envy, compassion is cooling, blissful, inspiring awe and wonder. It implies an ability to stand outside our own needs as observers, to perceive the suffering of others as of equal or greater importance. But like all forms of beauty, compassion can be faked, exploited.

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Russia and China have vetoed the UN Security Council draft resolution on Syria pointing to the existence of armed groups involved in terrorist acts including the killing of civilians.

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Lisette Talate died the other day. I remember a wiry, fiercely intelligent woman who masked her grief with a determination that was a presence. She was the embodiment of people's resistance to the war on democracy. I first glimpsed her in a 1950s Colonial Office film about the Chagos islanders, a tiny creole nation located midway between Africa and Asia in the Indian Ocean.

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Demo on Thursday at 64 Scudamore Road, Leicester outside the Thales factory which makes Watchkeeper drones in partnership with Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit.

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The following article by John Pilger starts with a reference to 22nd May 2007 Guardian front page, which was the subject of the following UK Indymedia feature at the time:

Imperial Disinformation: The Guardian's Iran/Iraq Coverage
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/05/371753.html

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The concept of “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) essentially posits that a country’s independence is not a right and can be taken away by the international community when the need arises. The international community under the R2P paradigm has the responsibility to intervene in any independent country in order to protect that country’s citizens.

The Syrian Arab Republic now faces the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) as a threat. R2P is being prepped to be wielded as a weapon by Washington and NATO. It is a neo-imperialist device under the cover of sheep’s skin that appropriates the language of humanitarianism. The plan is to oust President Bashar Al-Assad from power and install a new client government in Damascus.

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According to numerous reports from the Western media, human rights organisations, as well as the UN, countless peaceful civilians have been killed by the Syrian forces since the beginning of the unrest in the country in mid March. But where do the numbers come from? Many media reports on the alleged deadly repression by the Syrian government fail to mention the sources of their information, which are very often referred to solely as "human rights groups" or "activists":

The reliance of the mainstream media on information emanating from anonymous groups provides a biased understanding of the Syrian protests, which in turn supports the broader objective of destabilizing the Syrian regime. When information from unknown sources pertaining to the death toll is published either by a mainstream media or a recognized human rights group, it is invariably picked up and considered as "factual evidence" by other news sources or think tanks, without further verification. Moreover, in the process the information is subject to further distortion.

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More of money's dark secrets this week. We begin with Edward Griffin on the connection between debt, central bankers and their direct financial interest in perpetuating war and the threat of it. We conclude by reading The Myth of Barter, chapter 2 of David Graeber's Debt, The First 5000 Years.

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On Monday 14th November, campaigners from Brighton came to talk at Occupy Sheffield about the campaign against the arms trade with Israel, and specifically the campaign to shut down the EDO factory, which supplies parts used against civilians in Palestine, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

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Smash EDO are touring the country gathering support for the 2012 Summer of Resistance, a summer of anti arms trade direct action in Brighton. The workshop will include a rundown of the campaign so far, a direct action workshop and a chance to plan actions for next Summer in Brighton. Come along and find out how to get involved.

The summer of resistance will be a summer of antics and opposition to Brighton’s very own peddlers of death. Start working on your cunning plans now and join in!

We will be at Occupy Sheffield at 1pm and 7pm on Monday 14th November

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Next week and the first week in December speakers from Smash EDO will be touring the north of England and Scotland to tell people about the summer of resistance.
The following dates and venues are confirmed - please spread the word and join us if we are coming to you.

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A Stop NATO feature in August provided an, admittedly incomplete, list of nations that NATO, actuated by its first Strategic Concept for the 21st century adopted at the bloc’s summit in Lisbon last November and its initial implementation in Libya this year, could attack or otherwise intervene in next: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Central African Republic, Chad, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cyprus, Ecuador, Eritrea, Iran, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mali, Moldova-Transdniester, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Palestine, Somalia, the South Caucasus (Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia), Sudan-South Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Uganda, Venezuela, Western Sahara, Yemen and Zimbabwe.

The time is ripe and in fact long overdue for issuing a call for an international anti-NATO initiative addressed to individuals, organizations, political parties and governments to convene an extraordinary session of the United Nations General Assembly to demand the disbanding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a – as the gravest – threat to world peace.

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Imagine Britain had been invaded and occupied by armed forces from another region of the world with China, for example, as a significant 'partner' in the 'coalition'. Imagine tens of thousands of Britons had been killed, and millions had fled as refugees. This is how the Chinese state broadcaster might report the invasion ten years hence:

'It's ten years this week since Chinese forces first became involved in Britain, and more than five years since they assumed responsibility for south-east England. So what's been achieved in that time?'

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Here's one for ya

The dudes from Rolls Royce are building even more funky shit up at the 'death park' in Rotherham. If it isnt plain as day that businesses at the AMP dealing in nuclear, aerospace, military, robotics, drones and death are working together for some sinister shit then you might as well go back to sleep! NO NUCLEAR NO WAY!

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The real shocking issue is the persistent denial of the genocide of Afghan people.

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James Corbett's humorous take on 9/11 has gone completely viral, amassing 500,000 views in just 5 days on youtube. This 5-minute satire of the 'Official Conspiracy Theory' uses factoids and hilarious graphics to drive home its points in what can only be called a masterpiece of reductio ad absurdum. Whatever it is, it's working. A half-million views in 5 days speaks for itself.

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War must become a taboo

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