ecopolis

Heavily armed troops and fascist paramilitaries are attacking workers across Bangkok.

I was at the major demonstration today site and saw tens of thousands of pro-democracy activists – men, women and children – enjoying a political festival whilst grimly aware of the hundreds of troops who were already attacking and killing their brothers and sisters in other parts of Bangkok.
Back home I hear that troops are entering the entirely peaceful compounds set up to protest against the current government (led bizarrely by Boris Johnston’s public school buddy). Media coverage here is dire and is painting a malign picture of red mobs attacking troops and burning vehicles (when it is not encouraging people to purchase mobile phones or passively consume reality tv). This is far from the truth. From what I have seen this is a mass non-violent protest pushed to its limits by state aggression and a general sense that there is nothing left to do but resist. As one middle-aged demonstrator said to me today, “We have nothing left to lose, they have taken everything else.”

What we can see on the international news channels is far from up to date and seems to be heavily influenced by state managed media (including massive internet censorship). The red shirts have asked all foreign supporters here to work the networks and spread the truth … a brutal attack on democracy and its champions is unfolding here in Thailand. People are being beaten, killed and terrorized for simply saying that enough is enough and democracy is possible. Please encourage others to check the truth at sites like New Mandala and raise the issue in their organisations/ networks.

*Of the Danger of Love, Refusal of Labor, and the Beauty of Autonomy * /-Proliferating and losing oneself. This was the sense of the collective enterprise that the movement was attempting in Italy at the time. -Franco Berardi /

Please join The Change You Want To See Gallery for a conversation with renowned philosopher, media activist and cultural agitator Franco Berardi (aka Bifo) and media theorist MacKenzie Wark, author of Game Theory and A Hacker’s Manifesto.

Bifo has been a pivotal figure in Italian social movements for that past 40 years. He co-founded the legendary Radio Alice (1977), the first pirate radio station in Italy, the magazine A/Traverso (1977-81), and Rekombinant (2000), an online network environment that focuses on radical philosophy, urban conflicts, media activism, networking art, knowledge economy, western psychopathology, autonomous universities, and institutions of the common. More recently he produced the autonomous street television network Orfeo TV (2002), which sparked a national network of pirate micro TV stations to counter the media monopoly of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

This event marks the long awaited publication of the first two Bifo’s books in English: Felix Guattari: Thought, Friendship, and Visionary Cartography (Palgrave, 2008); and Ethereal Shadows: Communication and Power in Contemporary Italy (with Marco Jacquemet and Gianfranco Vitali, Autonomedia, 2009).
The evening will be moderated by Marco Deseriis, member of Not An Alternative and Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU.

*The Change You Want To See Gallery
Monday, March 30th, 7:30pm (free)
84 Havemeyer St, at Metropolitan Ave
*
* Brooklyn, NY 11211*
***http://www.thechangeyouwanttosee.org*

The five detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The document, which the newspaper said may be released publicly on Tuesday, describes the five men as the “9/11 Shura Council,” and says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document read to a reporter by an unidentified government official, the report said.

“‘To us,’ the official read, ‘they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor,’” the paper said.

The document is titled “The Islamic Response to the Government’s Nine Accusations,” the military judge at the U.S. Naval base said in a separate filing, obtained by the Times, that described the detainees’ document.

The document was filed on behalf of the five men, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has called himself the mastermind of the attacks.

Some of the men had said earlier that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they wanted to be martyrs. The reason for the new filing, which the report said reached the military court on March 5, was not clear. The brief court order describing the filing said the men sought no legal action.
(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

via Reuters.

David Mills, lawyer husband of the British cabinet minister in the Blair government, had acted for Silvio Berlusconi in the early 1990s and has been accused by Italian prosecutors of money laundering and of accepting a gift from Berlusconi in return for friendly evidence given as a prosecution witness against Berlusconi. However, Mills has asserted that the money in question did not come from Berlusconi but from another client. No formal indictment has yet been issued but on 10 March 2006 it was reported that prosecuting magistrates in Italy had submitted evidence to a judge, seeking an indictment for bribery against Berlusconi and Mills27: all parties vehemently deny wrong-doing and Berlusconi commented that the timing showed that the prosecution is political. Berlusconi denied meeting Mills.

On 17 February 2009, Mills was found guilty of accepting a bribe of about 400,000 Sterling Pounds, allegedly from Silvio Berlusconi. Mills was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison. Appeal still pending. Thanx to the “Lodo Alfano”, approved by the Parliament, immunity is guaranteed for the four highest public servants, (President of the Republic, Speakers of the Houses of Parliament and Prime Minister), Silvio Berlusconi is currently Prime Minister…

http://lombardia.indymedia.org/node/13804

Tonight around 200 people re-occupied the COX18 social centre, the Kaluska Library and the Primo Moroni Archive that were evicted few weeks ago in Milan.

A demo for the self-management (autogestione) of social-spaces has been called for Saturday 28 Februray in Milan.
http://cox18.noblogs.org/post/2009/02/28/manifestazione-nazionale

COX18’s door is open again.
http://cox18.noblogs.org/gallery/4839/COX18-OPEN.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skMkz7Y8J0M

Al Jazeera have made available their exclusive Arabic and English video footage from the Gaza Strip produced by their correspondents and crews. The ongoing war and crisis in Gaza, together with the scarcity of news footage available, make this repository a key resource for anyone producing content on the current situation.

Dopo la strage di San Gennaro la polizia perseguita le vittime e non i carnefici!
Giovedi 20 novembre irrompe nel “palazzo degli americani” luogo simbolo dell’insediamento degli africani a Castelvolturno. Di fatto lo sgombera e deporta molti immigrati nei centri di espulsione. Sabato 22 nov. raccogliamo la testimonianza di un padre comboniano e un migrante nel palazzo visibilmente devastato