Unite against Oppression: Julian Assange

I am here because I cannot be closer to you.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for your resolve and your generosity of spirit.

On Wednesday night after a threat was s ent to this embassy and the police descended on the building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it and you brought the world’s eyes with you.

Inside the embassy, after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming into the building through the internal fire escape.

But I knew that there would be witnesses.

And that is because of you.

If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching.

And the world was watching because you were watching.

The next time somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend the rights we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark outside the Embassy of Ecuador, and how, in the morning, the sun came up on a different world, and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice.

And so, to those brave people:

I thank President Correa for the courage he has shown in considering and granting me political asylum.

And so I thank the government and the Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patiño, who have upheld the Ecuadorian constitution and its notion of universal rights in their consideration of my case.

And to the Ecuadorian people for supporting and defending their constitution.

And I have a debt of gratitude to the staff of this embassy whose families live in London and who have shown me hospitality and kindness despite the threats that they have received.

This Friday there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America in Washington D.C. to address this situation.

And so I am grateful to the people and governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and to all other Latin American countries who have come to the defence of the right to asylum.

To the people of the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia who have supported me in strength while their governments have not. And to those wiser heads in government who are still fighting for justice. Your day will come.

To the staff, supporters and sources of WikiLeaks whose courage, commitment and loyalty have seen no equal.

To my family and to my children who have been denied their father: forgive me. We will be reunited soon.

As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of our societies.

We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America.

Will it return to and reaffirm the values it was founded on?

Or will it lurch off the precipice dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?

I say that it must turn back.

I ask President Obama to do the right thing.

The United States must renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks.

The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation.

The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters.

The United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.

There must be no more foolish talk about prosecuting any media organization, be it WikiLeaks or the New York Times.

The US administration’s war on whistle-blowers must end.

Thomas Drake, William Binney, John Kirakou and the other heroic US whistle-blowers must - they must - be pardoned and compensated for the hardships they have endured as servants of the public record.

And the Army Private who remains in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth Kansas, who was found by the UN to have endured months of torturous detention in Quantico Virginia and who has yet - after two years in prison - to see a trial, must be released.

And if Bradley Manning really did as he is accused, he is a hero, an example to us all and one of the world’s foremost political prisoners.

Bradley Manning must be released.

On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815th day in detention without trial. The legal maximum is 120 days.

On Thursday, my friend, Nabeel Rajab, was sentenced to 3 years for a tweet.

On Friday, a Russian band was sentenced to 2 years in jail for a political performance.

There is unity in the oppression.

There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.

Julain Assange is founder of WikiLeaks

‘If we use Margo instead of Lifebuoy, they will comment’

Debabrata Mohanty : Bhubaneswar, Tue Aug 14 2012, 01:55 hrs

Days before the CPI(Maoist) central committee expelled top Orissa leader Sabyasachi Panda for “betraying the party and the revolution”, he had written to the leadership about mindless killings by cadres, harassment from seniors and general disenchantment. 

Panda, 43, wrote two letters on June 1 to CPI(Maoist) general secretary Muppala Laxaman Rao alias Ganapathy, politburo members Prashant Bose alias Sumit, Narayan Sanyal alias Vijay, and other Maoist cadres. It is not clear if they reached their intended recipients. “As I have not got proper democracy to discuss or write the political opinion... and as there is no scope for an immediate solution of our long-standing problems, I would like to write this,” Panda said in the letters, running into 39 pages and accessed by The Indian Express.

Excerpts:

London 2012 Olympic sponsors list: who are they and what have they paid?

How much are companies pouring into sponsoring London 2012? We've compiled the first list of how much they are spending. (Courtesy: Guardian Datablog)

Who is footing the London 2012 sponsorship bill? Thanks to the London 2012 site, we know who the sponsors are - but what we haven't had so far is what the individual deals are worth. This is, says London 2012, "confidential commercial information". So, we've been forced to put it together ourselves. Based on our reporting, this is how it comes out:

More IIMC passouts chosing not to be in media: MSG Research

An Evaluation of Journalism Training:  Social and Professional Utility

The report of the First Press Commission has recommended that minimum wage for journalists should be based on minimum eligibility criteria for entering the profession. Though the Commission was of the view that preference should be given to those holding a degree or diploma in journalism, it should not restrict others from entering the profession.¹ 

The Second Press Commission (1982), too, stressed the need for special training as criteria for entering the profession as in the case of a lawyer or a medical practitioner. “Training in journalism should be encouraged but it should not be made mandatory to require license”.² What the first and second Press Commissions had suggested, albeit cautiously, has now turned into the minimum eligibility to be a journalist or work with any media organization. With the availability of a good number of degree or diploma holders in journalism, it is important to know if the profession has really gained something worthwhile and if the journalists trained at various institutions are really enjoying the profession.

Bail comes as B'day gift for Seema a day later

The Allahabad High Court has granted bail to journalist and civil right activist Seema Azad and her husband Vishvijay. The couple were convicted by a lower court on June 8, 2012, on charges of sedition. They were accused of having links with banned Maoist outfit and were held guilty for 'waging war against the nation'.

Pune Blasts are Result of Caste War

By Feroze Mithiborwala & Kishore Jagtap

01 August, 2012

Low intensity crude bombs have exploded in 4 locations in Pune, though no causalities have been reported. But again, why have these blasts occurred at this very moment & what is the underlying political context of this terror attack, is the moot point & hence this analysis after conferring with our Dalit-OBC activists friends in Mumbai & in Pune.

In our analysis this is a Chitpawan Brahmanical-Manuwadi reaction to the restoration of the true Samadhi-Burial Shrine of Saibai, the first wife of Shivaji Maharaj.
It also marks a welcome, though a little too warm, for Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, the first Dalit (so-called untouchables) Home Minister of independent India.
Thus in our assessment, this series of terror attacks, is part of the ongoing caste war that has once again erupted all across Maharashtra, especially ever since the struggle over the true paternal lineage of Shivaji Maharaj, the widely loved, iconic & revered king.

But today marked a major historic turning point in the battle. The Samabhaji Brigade, led by the Maratha community (which in the last 2 decades, is rediscovering its non-Brahmin religio-cultural identity with the emergence of Shiv Dharma), but also includes activists from the Shudra-Ati-Shudra or the Dalit-OBC sections, destroyed the so-called Samadhi or burial site of Waghya, Shivaji's non-existent pet dog. This fact has been proved in a remarkable work of research by Shri Ananth Darvatkar – “Advaiti Chatrapti Shri Sambhaji Maharaj”.

The claim of the Bahujan movement is that this site actually marks the burial place of Saibai, the first wife of Shivaji Maharaj & the mother of his philosopher son, Sambhaji Maharaj , who again has been the target of Brahmanical calumny. The point to be noted is that neither did Waghya the pet dog exist & nor was Ramdas the Guru of Shivaji . In fact recent research shows that Ramadas never even met Shivaji Maharaj, but the attempt has always been to impose a Brahmin as the true brain & power behind the throne.

For the last few years, the Bahujan movement led by journalist Sudhakar Lad & by Vilas Kharat, a writer has petitioned the government of Maharashtra to put an end to this vile calumny. But the government failed to respond.

Thus at 3pm today, the activists of the Sambhaji Brigade destroyed the false site in Raigadh & restored it to the memory of Saibai.

Soon sms's were sent all across Maharashtra & the rest of the country to celebrate this victory after a long struggle. In the evening activists had decided to distribute sweets, burst fire-crackers & organize victory rallies. But now after the blasts, all plans have been cancelled & obviously so.

As one would recall, this is part of the ongoing struggle over the true legacy of Shivaji Maharaj, who until now has been misused & appropriated by the Hindutva-Brahmaical right wing, but now has been reclaimed by the Bahujan & progressive secular movements.

Also it is a historical fact that it was Krantiveer Jotiba Phule who discovered the Samadhi of Shivaji Maharaj, which was in ruins & unkown to the masses. He also founded the Satya Shodak Movement (The Movement to Seek Truth) on the 24 th of September, the day that marks the true Rajya Abhishek or the enthroning ceremony by the Shakya culture , which again was non-Brahmin. Later Balgangadhar Tilak a conservative casytest Brahmin appropriated the symbolism of Shivaji Maharaj. Whilst the liberal upper castes refer to him as Lok Manya Tilak, the Bahujan masses call him Bhatt Manya Tilak.

Due to the fact that Shivaji Maharaj was committed to the anti-caste struggle, his paternal lineage was a matter of extremely vicious whispering campaign by the Brahmanical sections for the past four centuries. The true father of Shivaji Maharaj was Shahaji, but the Brahmins made lewd jokes about Dadaji Kondev, a Brahmin as the real father & thus insulting the memory of Jijau Mata, who was both the mother & guru of Shivaji Maharaj.

This too erupted into a controversy due to the book written by James Laine & he was helped along in his research by the conservative Brahmin scholars of Bhandarkar Institute in Poona, a centre of extremism, with 3 of its “researchers” under investigation for the Malegaon terror attacks by the ATS then led by Shri Hemant Karkare , who as we were aware was martyred during the Mumbai 26/11 terror attacks.

The Sambhaji Brigade removed the statue of Dadaji Kondev from the rest of the family & this has truly angered the Brahmins, especially the most casteist & racist of them all - the Chitpawan Brahmins, who interestingly are also Israel's most important supporters in India.

An unholy alliance of casteists, supremacists, racists, Zionists & imperialists!!
Today after the destruction of the false burial site & its dedication to the memory of Saibai, the Bahujan activists had decided to organize a victory rally in Pune - & thus the terror attacks across Pune!!

Also the blast has occurred when Sushilkumar Shinde has been appointed as the Home Minister & it marks the first time that a Dalit has occupied this post in the history of independent India.

To go back into a similar context in history, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru the first PM of Independent India wanted to appoint Dr. Babasaheb Ambedar as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court , as he rightly felt that he would be the best person to uphold the legal & constitutional principles. But he was opposed by Vallabh bhai Patel on the grounds that “how can the lawyers from the upper caste Brahmins, Kayasthas & Banias, bow before an untouchable & say - My Lord”. This fact has been recorded in a book “25 Years of my Association with Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar” (pg 74), written by Sohanlal Shastri a very close companion of Dr. Ambedkar, one of the greatest revolutionary figures in the history of the world.

This also again symptomatic of the unfolding political crisis that grips the ruling caste-class elite, as we head for the crucial general elections of 2014. The ongoing ethno-communal clashes that have erupted in Assam, to more than the 40 riots in various towns of Uttar Pradesh, the relentless targeting of the Muslim community on false terror charges, even as the investigations into Brahmanical terror are covered up, basic charge sheets not framed & thus suspects released on bail. This even as the socio-economic & political crisis worsens on all fronts.

Thus the politics of terror & riots are a strategy of mass control.

We are indeed in for a long & dangerous haul.

Feroze Mithiborwala is a peace activist in Mumbai. He led the Asia to Gaza peace flotilla.

Kishore Jagtap is a Mumbai-based human rights and social activists
Courtesy: Countercurrents.org

समाजवाद आ तो गया है...




व्‍यालोक

अब आ गया है देश में समाजवाद,

नहीं होता इस देश में कोई भी बड़ा,

हो गए हैं सभी बराबर,

बौने, छोटे और टुच्चे..........

अब यहां पनपते हैं केवल कुकुरमुत्ते,

नहीं होता कोई भी गुलाब,

या फिर ओल ही सही,

सब हैं कुकुरमुत्ते,

छोटे और बराबर........

अब नहीं होता कोई,

तिलक, भगतसिंह, अंबेडकर या नेहरू भी,

होते हैं अब

अखिलेश, माया और राहुल

सभी बराबर, एक जैसे.....

देश में समाजवाद आ गया है......

नहीं होते अब,

प्रेमचंद, निराला, मुक्तिबोध या धूमिल भी

हो रहे हैं अब,

अ ब स......

सभी बराबर, एक ही जैसे.....

कहा न, देश में समाजवाद आ गया है......

नहीं होता अब,

हाजी मस्तान, अरुण गवली या दाउद इब्राहीम भी,

होते हैं अब,

दलाल सारे,

त्यागी, भाटिया, असगरी जैसे छुटभैए...

करते हैं जो बस उगाही....

सबके सब एक जैसे.....

समाजवाद जो आ गया है.......

नहीं होते अब,

चारु मजूमदार जैसे विप्लवी,

ऐतिहासिक परिवर्तनकामी....

हो रहे हैं अब,

अनाम, अज्ञात, तथाकथित माओवादी,

जिनकी जद में हैं...

वर्ग शत्रु के साथ ही,

निर्दोष, मासूम, सर्वहारा भी.....

यहां समाजवाद आया नहीं है...

लाया जा रहा है.....

नहीं होता अब,

कोई भी अनूठा या अकेला....

सभी बिल्कुल एक जैसे,

बराबर और बौने,

एक भीड़ का हिस्सा....

आखिर, देश में समाजवाद जो आ गया है..............................