ISA ABU JAMAL – [December 6, 2013] In a stunning turn of events today in Thailand, riot police yielded to the peaceful protesters they were ordered to harass and block. The police removed barricades and their helmets as a sign of solidarity.
Want to Win the Climate Debate? Stop Debating
LUCY EMERSON-BELL – In early November the Diane Rehm Show on NPR featured an episode on the natural gas boom in America. After panelists glorified the natural gas revolution, Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, chimed in by saying, “Nobody (on this panel) has mentioned climate change. What we should acknowledge is that production of oil and gas is undermining our goals to achieve a stabilized climate.”
Anti-Drone Movement Prepares for Take Off
KEN BUTIGAN – An organizing summit held this past weekend [November 23-24] at the Georgetown Law Center in Washington, D.C. — called Drones Around the Globe: Proliferation and Resistance — signaled another important milestone in the growth of the anti-drones movement. With 400 participants, including people from nations regularly under drone attack, the conference was a mix of research, analysis, networking and concerted movement building. The news delivered at the gathering was grim, but the convergence gave attendees a sense that the struggle is gaining traction, both in the United States and internationally.
Oregon Megaload Protesters Savaged by Police
LYNN FITZ-HUGH – Hyperbole? You decide if this is how you believe the police should behave when citizens are exercising their constitutional right to free speech. On Monday, December 16, 16 people were arrested at two different locations on Hwy 26 outside John Day, OR. They were there in response to Omega Morgan Company moving a heat condenser from the port of Umatilla to the Tar Sands site of the XL pipeline in Canada.
Japan’s Deadly New ‘Fukushima Fascism’
HARVEY WASSERMAN – Fukushima continues to spew out radiation. The quantities seem to be rising, as do the impacts. The site has been infiltrated by organized crime. There are horrifying signs of ecological disaster in the Pacific and human health impacts in the U.S. But within Japan, a new State Secrets Act makes such talk punishable by up to ten years in prison.
War or Do Nothing? Alternative Options for Iran Still Needed
TOM H. HASTINGS and ERIN E. NIEMELA – In the spirit of sharing what we’ve learned in our obscure field of Peace and Conflict Studies, let’s think about some possible conflict management methods unexamined by our decision-makers in their dealings with Iran and its uranium enrichment capacity.