[compost_tea] [Fwd: [sf.june8] Update and some urgent info!]

From: Brian Everette <briansmcc_at_sbcglobal.net>
Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2004 11:45:09 -0700



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [sf.june8] Update and some urgent info!
Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2004 08:58:12 -0700
From: Starhawk <stella_at_mcn.org>
To: Starhawk <stella_at_mcn.org>, Living River <LivRiv_at_yahoogroups.com>,
pagan cluster <paganclu_at_lists.riseup.net>, <rwto_at_yahoogroups.com>, J8
List <sf.june8_at_lists.riseup.net>



Reclaim the Commons Update
By Starhawk
 
Abu Ghraib in Mexico: Martial Law in Georgia: Gardens in San Francisco
June 6, 2004
 
As we are madly rushing around organizing the details of our Reclaim the
Commons mobilization, we get terrible news about our friends in Mexico.
 In Cancun, we marched with students from Mexico City. Our training
collective RANT did trainings with them in Mexico City and got to know
and love many of them--bright, dedicated, warm and exuberant and joyful
young people, fired with the ideals we share of creating a different
world. On May 28, they marched in Guadalahara against a trade summit
between Latin American and Caribbean heads of state and the European
Union, demanding public participation and democratic debate about
development policies. They were met with severe repression: tear gas
and brutal beatins. One hundred were arrested, most as they were trying
to retreat to safety. The police have refused to release the names of
the arrestees, but accounts of what is happening to them are horrifying.
 Forty four are still in jail, being beaten and tortured. One young
woman has been raped, another has a fractured skull and brain swelling.
 Others have been tortured with electrodes to the genitals, forced into
signing false confessions. Two who have refused to sign are reported to
be covered with bruises and open wounds.
 
So we desperately need people to call the Mexican consulate and demand
their release. In San Francisco, the number is 415-354-1700. In
Washington DC, the number is And they desperately need money for
legal defense. So, once again, I'm asking for your help. You can
donate online at http://www.kloakas.com/aire.
 
I've been almost too busy to take this fully in, but at every bright
moment it surfaces. I'm looking at the garden or a trying to facilitate
a meeting and suddenly I'm staring into the face of hell, but removed,
as if hell were covered in bubble wrap. It used to be that when I'd
hear accounts of torture in Latin America or mass death in Palestine,
some part of me could secretly relax, that it wasn't happening to me or
people I know, that the people subjected to it were somehow better
prepared or fitted or different from us and able to withstand it. But
now I know those people, and I know that isn't true. They are no
different than these other exuberant youth around me, for whom torture
is still remote. I think about the Mexican students drumming and
dancing in the cacerolaza in Cancun, filling the Parque de Palapas with
pounding rhythms and sweat and leaping bodies, and I'm angry. I'm angry
that anyone would want to bruise and break those beautiful young bodies
and even more beautiful spirits. I'm angry that they should be
subjected to this brutality for standing up to a brutal system, that I'm
writing one more email describing horrors and asking for funds instead
of simply rejoicing in the garden and action we're creating, angry at
the ugly, brutal sadism that seems to rule in Mexico and Abu Ghraib and
Palestine he prisons and growing police state here at home, and the
complacency that lets it happen.
 
In Georgia, the groups who are organizing what will be some fairly
small, peaceful marches against the G8 are facing all the military power
of the state. Charles writes:
 
"Though I have been to many actions none of them have
prepared them for what I am seeing here. I wish I had
pictures to show you all. There are literally thousands
of police and military all over the town. Just of
give you an idea of the scale, Glen county (the sight
of the G8) is home to about 70,000 people, the latest
report is there are at least that many law enforcement
here or on the way. ..

"There is talk of a terrorist attack and the need to
protect the these 8 men as they talk. To protect them
there are multiple surface to air missile trucks,
tanks, Apache and cobra attack helicopters patrol the
air, AGS cursers are patrolling the harbors, and the
streets are teaming with marked and unmarked law
enforcement. ...Everyday there seems to be
another military encampment sporting up.
This level of militarization seems to be over kill for
the comparatively small march and rally we are
planning. Likewise they seem over kill for a terrorist
attack. The sheer numbers of military present and the
fire power they have brought into this small town
seems like they are preparing for a land invasion or
something."
 
The water truck promised to the demonstrators has been commandeered by
the military and they are asking people to call or write the governor
and demand that water be provided. The number is 44-651-7714 and the
address is JWatson_at_gov.state.ga.us. And Homeland Security has taken over
the hospital and will run background checks on anyone being brought to
the hospital for any reason. A chilling forestaste of the police state.
 
And meanwhile, here at home, everything about our mobilization has a
bright, happy though slightly frantic quality. The happiness seems to
emanate from the Garden Lounge, the first room you pass by as you enter
the convergence space. We've taken twenty-one oak half-barrels and
arranged them to define swirling garden beds that define seating areas,
some big enough for a small meeting, others good for an intimate
conversation. We've filled them with 'guilds', groups of related plants
that support each other, backed them with potted palms and small trees,
edged them with cuttings of herbs and starts for tomatoes and
strawberries, and placed a few strategic straw bales for sitting, along
with some old couches and comfy chairs. In the center, three barrels of
different heights make a pond with a bubbling fountain, where water
hycinths float and a red-leafed canna stands tall. Next door is the
kids' space, and further back in the space we have a wellness center,
filled with rugs and pillows and couches and plants. All in all, it
feels warm and welcoming, like a home, which is the atmosphere we wanted
to create, the vision of abundance and health that is possible.
 
We had a contingent on the march organized by ANSWER to protest the
ongoing occupations of Iraq and Palestine, and gave away nearly all of
the 10,000 postcards we've had printed up to bring people to the direct
action on Tuesday. And last night we had a really inspiring close to
the teach-in. Vandana Shiva spoke, and we filled the big sanctuary at
the Unitarian Church, which leads us feeling hopeful about numbers. And
without any advertising, which we never had the budget for, as all the
foundations seem to have deserted this issue just as we are gaining some
clear political victories. Everyone on the panel was inspiring and was
greeted with standing ovations. The energy is building for today's
events: a march from the demonstration opposing the occupation of
Palestine to the Really, Really Free Market at Union Square at 2 pm,
then on to the Food Fight which will greet the delegates outside their
gala. We're beginning the first day of the actions we have planned and
conceived, that we hope can bring our vision of the world alive in the
moments of confrontation themselves.

www.starhawk.org <http://www.starhawk.org/>
            
Starhawk is an activist, organizer, and author of Webs of Power: Notes
from the Global Uprising and eight other books on feminism, politics and
earth-based spirituality. She teaches Earth Activist Trainings that
combine permaculture design and activist skills, and works with the RANT
trainer's collective, www.rantcollective.org
<http://www.rantcollective.org/> that offers training and support for
mobilizations around global justice and peace issues.
 
To get her periodic posts of her writings, email
Starhawk-subscribe_at_lists.riseup.net and put 'subscribe' in the subject
heading. If you're on that list and don't want any more of these
writings, email Starhawk-unsubscribe_at_lists.riseup.net and put
'unsubscribe' in the subject heading. Feel free to post and forward
these stories for nonprofit purposes, all other rights reserved.
 
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Received on Sun Jun 06 2004 - 15:21:31 EDT

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