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Military Resistance 8H24

“The Most Amazing Thing Was

Troops In Buses Raising Clinched
Fists As Buses Drove By The
Protest. Solidarity!”
Activists Stood On The U.S. Route
190 Overpass And Hung Banners
That Read “Tell The Brass: ‘Kiss My
Ass.’ Your Family Needs You More.”
“Sick Of Fighting Your Wars”
 “They Gathered At Fort Hood In Killeen
To Be A Part Of A Direct Action Against
The Redeployment Of The First Group Of
Soldiers”
August 25, 2010 By Cindy Beringer reporting from Texas, Socialist Worker [Excerpts]

WHEN THE buses carrying the first group of soldiers of the 3rd Armored Calvary
Regiment (ACR) stealthily approached the gates of Fort Hood in Texas, the protesters
waiting outside had already won a victory.

Members of the regiment have seen some of the worst fighting of the war in Iraq over
the course of multiple deployments. At least 50 soldiers have physical and mental
diagnoses that should prohibit their return to military duty, and many others probably
have not sought treatment. And yet, the buses were there in order to deploy these
soldiers again.

A protest campaign against the 3rd ACR’s redeployment had already brought
unwelcome attention to the military’s lack of concern for its soldiers.

On August 22, activists and supporters were at it again. They gathered at Fort Hood in
Killeen to be a part of a direct action against the redeployment of the first group of
soldiers.

THE USUAL procedure is for family members of departing soldiers to gather in the
bleachers of a large gym on the post. Witnesses to these events report that family
members wait around for as long as two hours while soldiers display their colors and
perform their ceremonies, and then everyone says their final goodbyes. Soldiers often
balance infants on one hip and an assault rifle on another, then board the bus, carrying
with them as much pain as they leave behind.

Usually, the buses leave between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. At 4 p.m., word from inside
revealed that there were packed bags in the gym, but no family members.

Finally, at 6 p.m., we found out that the buses would not leave until around 2 a.m.

Many of the activists were unable to stay until the wee hours of the morning, but those
who left did so reluctantly, and those who stayed celebrated the knowledge that fear of a
tiny group of activists had forced the commanders on the biggest military installation in
the world to change their plans.

Five activists, including three veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an Army
spouse, successfully blockaded the six buses of soldiers outside Fort Hood’s Clarke
gate around 4 a.m. on August 23, forcing the convoy to a halt.
The activists covered the width of the road, holding banners that read “Occupation is a
crime” and “Please don’t make the same mistake we did: Resist now!” while shouting
from megaphones.

Other activists stood on the U.S. Route 190 overpass and hung larger banners that read
“Tell the brass: ‘Kiss my ass.’ Your family needs you more,” “Sick of fighting your wars,”
and “Col. Allen 93 ACR Commander: Do not deploy wounded soldiers.”

“The most amazing thing,” said James Branum, an observer and lawyer who
defends soldiers who resist military service and ill treatment, “was troops in
buses raising clinched fists as buses drove by the protest. Solidarity!”

Participants and observers expressed amazement that the military made no arrests, but
arrests would have brought even more of the unwelcome publicity that forced the
cowardly brass to pull the soldiers out in the dead of night in the first place.

And arrests might also have inspired more raised fists.

Additional buses carrying this regiment will leave the post at different times.

The organizers, who call themselves Fort Hood Disobeys, note that the
deployment of the 3rd ACR comes less than two weeks after President Obama
announced the second end to combat operations in Iraq.

The activists point to the deployment of these soldiers, clearly a combat regiment,
as proof that this is a lie.

Organizers and activists vow to continue to act to oppose the wars in the Fort Hood
community as long as troops continue to deploy.

Fort Hood is an enormous Army base, covering many miles and a very ugly past.

Delaying the deployment no doubt lessened the amount of publicity the protest would
have received earlier. However, a powerful lesson was learned by activists armed only
with truth and carrying justice on their side, who struck fear in the heart of this mighty
behemoth and caused it to tremble.

MORE FROM FORT HOOD:

“35 Protesters Stood In The

Blazing Afternoon Heat Outside
The East Gate Of Fort Hood To
Protest The Deployment--Or
 Redeployment--Of Wounded
Soldiers”
“The Army Sent Out Word That
Any Active-Duty Service Members
Attending Would Be Arrested”
“Several Active-Duty Soldiers And
Former Soldiers Attended Without
Incident”
“Protesters Carried Signs That Read
‘U.S. Out Of Iraq And Afghanistan,’ While
A Banner Flapping In The Texas Wind
Stated ‘Col. Allen, 3 ACR: Do Not Deploy
Wounded Soldiers’”
Frustrated by their failure with repeated attempts to be heard within the military
chain of command, four wives of soldiers in the 3rd ACR approached Cindy
Thomas of Under the Hood Café, the antiwar, pro-soldier coffeehouse in Killeen.

After a series of actions to publicize the plight of these soldiers, three were
returned to Fort Hood and will not be redeployed.

Thomas thinks the Army relented in these cases to prevent a mushrooming

movement.

August 25, 2010 By Cindy Beringer

KILLEEN, Texas--At the corner of Killeen Street and Tank Destroyer Boulevard, about
35 protesters stood in the blazing afternoon heat outside the east gate of Fort Hood, the
world’s largest military installation, to protest the deployment--or redeployment--of
wounded soldiers of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (ACR).

According to active-duty and former soldiers at Fort Hood, members of the 3rd ACR saw
some of the worst fighting conditions of the U.S. war on Iraq. Many of these soldiers
returned home with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury and
other injuries that made them unfit to return to battle.
The casualty rates for this regiment are astronomical.

Soldiers and others became aware that redeployment was imminent when soldiers from
the regiment were sent to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., which is a
preparatory step before being sent to Iraq. The redeployment is expected to occur later
this month.

Dahr Jamail, who interviewed some of these soldiers before they returned from Fort
Irwin to Fort Hood, reports that at least 50 of the soldiers from this regiment received
medical diagnoses that would prohibit their receiving training, much less redeployment.

If a physician decides that a soldier’s medical condition requires treatment and makes
the soldier unable to perform his or her duties, that decision can be overturned by the
soldier’s commander on the basis that the soldier is “needed.”

Of course, if there are 50 diagnosed soldiers, there are undoubtedly many more who
have not yet received or have not sought treatment.

Frustrated by their failure with repeated attempts to be heard within the military chain of
command, four wives of soldiers in the 3rd ACR approached Cindy Thomas of Under the
Hood Café, the antiwar, pro-soldier coffeehouse in Killeen. Thomas works tirelessly to
get soldiers the rights that they were promised.

After a series of actions to publicize the plight of these soldiers, three were returned to
Fort Hood and will not be redeployed.

The soldiers have been promised help for the conditions suffered from previous
deployments. The fourth soldier elected to get out of the Army.

Thomas thinks the Army relented in these cases to prevent a mushrooming movement.

When the protest was publicized, the Army sent out word that any active-duty
service members attending would be arrested.

An attorney who works with Under the Hood quickly reminded the Army that this
was against Department of Defense regulations, which allow out-of-uniform, off-
duty soldiers the right to protest.

Several active-duty soldiers and former soldiers attended without incident.

Protesters carried signs that read “U.S. out of Iraq and Afghanistan,” while a
banner flapping in the Texas wind stated “Col. Allen, 3 ACR: Do not deploy
wounded soldiers.”

Each protest outside of Fort Hood nets new soldier visits to Under the Hood Café,
Thomas says.

While protesters were putting up the banner on a vacant spot next to a filling
station, a young woman with a car full of kids pulled up to describe her husband’s
frustrating and futile attempts to get help for his PTSD.
She was happy to know that people were organizing around the issue.

Meanwhile, plans for the deployment of these soldiers continue. Under the Hood has
launched a “Harass the brass” campaign, urging everyone around the world to call the
commanders of the 3rd ACR between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (Central time) by August 25.

According to Thomas, these calls have made a difference in the past.

“They need to know they won’t get away with this,” she said.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Roadside Bombs Kill 7 U.S. Troops In

Afghanistan:
Five Dead In Kandahar When Humvee
Blown Up

Aug. 30, 2010: A U.S. military vehicle caught fire after having been struck by a roadside
bomb in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar city. The armored Humvee was hit Monday in
a residential area of Afghanistan’s second largest city while returning as part of a convoy
from an unknown mission. (AP Photo/ Volatile Allauddin Khan)

8/30/2010 MSNBC
KABUL — Two separate roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan killed seven U.S. service
members in southern Afghanistan Monday, NATO said.

The deaths bring to 14 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in eastern and southern
Afghanistan over the past three days.

A spike in U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan to over 120,000 has brought increased
fighting and a rising death toll. Forty-nine U.S. service members have died in
Afghanistan this month.

One roadside bomb attack killed five troops, while a separate incident killed an additional
two.

No additional details were given of Monday’s attacks, although eyewitnesses in the

southern city of Kandahar told the Associated Press that an armored U.S. Army Humvee
hit a roadside bomb in the early afternoon.

Several bodies were seen being removed from the vehicle, which was on fire.

Local Soldier Killed In Afghanistan

Sgt. Patrick Durham

Aug 29, 2010 By WRCB Staff

SUCK CREEK, TN - Eyewitness News has learned a soldier with ties to the Tennessee
Valley has died while serving in Afghanistan.

Family members confirm Sergeant Patrick Durham was killed by a road-side bomb
sometime Saturday morning. Durham’s family was notified Saturday afternoon.

The 25 year-old was on his second tour of duty, and was scheduled to come home in
December.

Durham was stationed at Fort Campbell, and leaves behind a wife, two sons and a
daughter.

Durham’s cousin, Sissy Phillips, says he died on his fourth wedding anniversary. She
says she will remember him for his smile and sense of humor.
“He was such a fun-loving guy,” said Phillips, “he was a good dad, people just loved
him.”

According to family members, Durham’s brother is in the Air Force and stationed in
Valdosta, Ga. His brother and uncle plan to fly to Delaware on Sunday to bring
Durham’s body home.

Wisconsin 101st Airborne Solder Dies In

Afghanistan
August 30, 2010 AP

SAUK CITY, Wis. - A Wisconsin solder has died while serving in Afghanistan.

Pvt. Adam Novak had been serving in the 101st Airborne Division, based at Ft.
Campbell. The Hooverson Funeral Home of Sauk City says he was killed in the line of
duty last Friday in the Dzardan district of Afghanistan.

He was a 2008 graduate of Sauk Prairie High School. Novak and his family had lived in
Fergus Falls, Minn., for about 11 years before moving back to Wisconsin in 2008.

Funeral arrangements are pending the investigation and the release of Novak’s remains.

Novak is survived by his wife, Celeste Stuessy Novak, of Prairie du Sac; his mother, Sue
Block, of Prairie du Sac; two sisters and two brothers. One of his brothers is serving in
Afghanistan.

Army Ranger Lugo, Tucson High Grad, Is

Killed In Line Of Duty

Sgt. Martin Lugo / Photo courtesy of U.S. Army

August 20, 2010, Carmen Duarte Arizona Daily Star, Arizona Daily Star

Army Ranger Martin Lugo Jr., a 2004 Tucson High Magnet School graduate, was killed
in Afghanistan Thursday. The native Tucsonan’s family was notified of his death
Thursday morning, his uncle Jesse Lugo said in an e-mail.

Lugo, 24, enlisted in the Army after high school. He re-enlisted in February because “he
had a strong spirit to protect the freedom that we enjoy as Americans,” Jesse Lugo wrote
in the e-mail.

Friday morning, the Department of Defense said Martin Lugo was killed Aug. 19 in Puli
Alam, Afghanistan, of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit with small
arms fire. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, Hunter Army Air
Field, Ga.

His mother, Maria Marin, is the principal of the Tucson Unified School District’s Wright
Elementary School, 4311 E. Linden St. She has asked for privacy to grieve with her
family and friends, and said information about her son would be released later. As an
Army Ranger, Lugo was “a flexible, highly trained and rapidly deployable light infantry
soldier” assigned to special operations, according to an Army website.

Lugo is the 47th service member with ties to Tucson and Southern Arizona to be
claimed since combat operations began.

District Governor Killed In Nangarhar

Police carry a wounded man from the scene of a bomb blast in Jalalabad, Afghanistan,
east of Kabul Aug. 30, 2010. District governor Syad Mohammad Palawan was killed by
an explosive device planted on his vehicle as he traveled to a meeting to discuss
security matters. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
August 30, 2010 by Sayed Salahuddin and Jonathon Burch, Reuters & DPA

Kabul - A bomb killed a district governor in eastern Afghanistan and injured four others
Monday morning, a government spokesman said.

The car bomb killed the district governor but the provincial governor escaped unhurt,
officials said. The bomb has been put in the vehicle of Sayed Mohammed Pahlawan.
His four bodyguards were injured in the blast.

The attack in the heart of Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, happened during
the morning rush hour as the governor of Lal Pur, a district of the province, drove into
the provincial governor’s compound.

Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai, target of several attacks by the Taliban in the
past, was inside the compound when the attack happened but was unharmed, his
spokesman said.

“It looks like the explosives were placed inside the district chief’s car. We are still
investigating,” Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said.

Flames could be seen rising from the site of the blast and security forces had cordoned
off several roads leading to the area in the city, which lies near the border with Pakistan.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the blast.

“‘We’re Ready To Go,’ The 23-

Year-Old From Camp Pendleton
Said Brightly”
“A Few Hours Later, He Was
Dead”
“As The Three Generals Watched The
Next Day, Oratowski’s Casket Was
Loaded Aboard A C-130 To Begin Its
Journey Home”
 “Within Days Of Oratowski’s Death,
Seven More Marines Died In Combat”
[Thanks to Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against The War & Military Resistance,
who sent this in.]

August 28, 2010 By Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times [Excerpts]

Reporting from Forward Operating Base Dwyer, —

If Marine Lance Cpl. Kevin Oratowski was intimidated about briefing three visiting
generals as he headed out on another overnight patrol chasing the Taliban, he didn’t
show it.

“We’re ready to go,” the 23-year-old from Camp Pendleton said brightly, his enthusiasm
seemingly undimmed by the fact that he had spent most of the last 60 days in the heat,
danger and uncertainty of Helmand province.

A few hours later, he was dead from a Taliban roadside bomb.

As the three generals watched the next day, Oratowski’s casket was loaded aboard a C-
130 to begin its journey home.

The massive assault in February on the Taliban-run town of Marja has not lived up to the
U.S. prediction that it would prove a “tipping point” for the province.

The provincial and national governments provide only a trickle of services. The vaunted
“government-in-a-box,” a promise to establish a government in Marja as soon as the
fighting stopped, was largely a flop.

In a statement this week, [Taliban] spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi boasted of

expanding influence in Kandahar and Helmand provinces, the insurgency’s
spiritual home.

“Helmand is … a great example of the defeat of the enemy,” Ahmadi said in a

statement posted on the movement’s website. “An example of this is the Marja
operation, in which thousands of [Western] and Afghan soldiers took part. They
made it sound as if World War III had started, but now they are ashamed to even
mention the name of Marja, due to their disgraceful defeat.”

As Marines have pushed into uncontested areas in the province, casualties have
mounted.

The majority of U.S. deaths are caused by roadside bombs that strike vehicles or foot
patrols.

Within days of Oratowski’s death, seven more Marines died in combat.

Marines have grown accustomed to the ritual of “ramp ceremonies.”

After Oratowski’s casket was lifted gingerly into the C-130, Marines were invited
by the chaplain to pay their final respects as the lance corporal from the 1st Light
Armored Reconnaissance Battalion began the trip to Wheaton, Ill.

Some knelt beside the casket, making the sign of the cross. Some leaned their
heads lightly on the American flag that was pulled tightly around the metal coffin.
As they left, some had tears in their eyes, others a faraway look.

U.S. Soldiers Dying To Protect An

Afghan Politician Helping Kill Them:
Afghan President Karzai Stops
Prosecution Of Governor Of Kapisa
Province Who Is “Colluding With
Insurgents”
August 28, 2010 By DEXTER FILKINS and ALISSA J. RUBIN, New York Times
[Excerpts]

KABUL, Afghanistan — One of the country’s most senior prosecutors said Saturday that
President Hamid Karzai fired him last week after he repeatedly refused to block
corruption investigations at the highest levels of Mr. Karzai’s government.

Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, the former deputy attorney general, said investigations of more
than two dozen senior Afghan officials — including cabinet ministers, ambassadors and
provincial governors — were being held up or blocked outright by Mr. Karzai, Attorney
General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko and others.

Mr. Faqiryar’s account of the troubles plaguing the anticorruption investigations, which
Mr. Karzai’s office disputed, has been largely corroborated in interviews with five
Western officials familiar with the cases. They say Mr. Karzai and others in his
government have repeatedly thwarted prosecutions against senior Afghan government
figures.

One of the most serious cases involves Khoja Ghulam Ghaws, the governor of Kapisa
Province, who was appointed by Mr. Karzai in 2007. According to Western officials,
Afghan prosecutors compiled a dossier against Mr. Ghaws that included telephone
intercepts and sworn statements from Americans and Afghans working in the province.

According to these officials, prosecutors have enough evidence to charge Mr. Ghaws
with colluding with insurgents and demanding kickbacks from contractors working on
American- and Afghan-financed development projects. Mr. Ghaws is also a suspect in
the killing of five members of a provincial reconstruction team last year.
Prosecutors turned over the Ghaws case to Mr. Aloko, the attorney general, four months
ago, said a Western official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mr. Aloko has
refused to sign either the warrant to arrest Mr. Ghaws or the warrant to search his
house, the official said.

“He’s the president’s ally,” the official said of Mr. Ghaws. “Obviously, Karzai
doesn’t want the case to go forward.”

UNREMITTING HELL ON EARTH;

ALL HOME NOW

A flight medic with the 101st Airborne Division, checks an IV drip after a medevac
helicopter team picked up a wounded U.S. Marine near the town of Marjah in Helmand
Province, August 17, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong

A U.S. Army medic, 101st Airborne Division, treats a U.S. Marine with a gunshot wound
in the side, onboard a medevac helicopter near the town of Marjah in Helmand Province,
August 19, 2010. REUTERS/Bob Strong
A cement barrier is erected in front of damage from a recent hit by the Taliban against a
brick guard tower at Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad, in Zhari district, Kandahar
province, southern Afghanistan, Aug. 24, 2010. The Afghan and American soldiers at
Howz-e-Madad operate in a district which continues to hold many well-armed fighters,
and a support network which provides the fighters with improvised explosives and safe
havens. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)

SOMALIA WAR REPORTS

Insurgent Offensive Moves To Cut Only

Road Between Airport And Presidential
Palace
28 August 2010 RFI website

Overnight fighting in Mogadishu left at least 11 civilians dead as Islamist al Shebab

insurgents advance into areas held by pro-government forces.

Pro-government fighters have retreated from positions in areas in the south of the city,
officials say, adding that they have sent in “heavily armed military units” and that the
situation is now under control.
But Shebab leaders claim their forces are still advancing. They are heading for
Maka Al-Mukarama road, the only direct supply route linking the presidential
palace and the airport.

“We have advanced onto the enemy lines and taken control of their barracks near
Maka Al-Mukarama road,” Sbebab spokesperson Sheik Ali Mohamoud Rage said.

“I tell you today that this war is aimed to finish the apostate regime and their
African invaders.”

MILITARY NEWS

HOW MANY MORE FOR OBAMA’S WARS?

A casket with the remains of Army Staff Sgt. Derek Farley at the Albany International
Airport in Colonie, N.Y., Aug. 25, 2010. Farley, 24, a native of Nassau, N.Y., was killed
in Afghanistan on Aug. 17, as he tried to defuse a roadside bomb. (AP Photo/Mike
Groll)

POLITICIANS CAN’T BE COUNTED ON TO HALT

THE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE

WARS
 DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE
MILITARY?
Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the address if you wish and
we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or stuck on a base in
the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off
from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the wars, inside
the armed services and at home. Send email requests to address up top or
write to: The Military Resistance, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
10025-5657. Phone: 888.711.2550
 Only 50,000 More To Go:
ALL Home Now!

A US army soldier from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion of the 3rd Infantry Regiment,
known as the Old Guard, carries two of his daughters as his wife holds a third after they
were reunited upon his return from a 12-month deployment in Iraq at Fort Myer, Virginia,
on the outskirts of Washington. Mothers cried and children squealed with delight as the
troops arrived back. (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had
I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of
biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”

Frederick Douglass, 1852

Hope for change doesn’t cut it when you’re still losing buddies.
-- J.D. Englehart, Iraq Veterans Against The War

I say that when troops cannot be counted on to follow orders because they see
the futility and immorality of them THAT is the real key to ending a war.
-- Al Jaccoma, Veterans For Peace

“What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to
time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”
-- Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.
The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a
so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen
of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004

The Social-Democrats ideal should not be the trade union secretary, but the
tribune of the people who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and
oppression no matter where it appears no matter what stratum or class of the
people it affects; who is able to generalize all these manifestations and produce a
single picture of police violence and capitalist exploitation; who is able to take
advantage of every event, however small, in order to set forth before all his
socialist convictions and his democratic demands, in order to clarify for all and
everyone the world-historic significance of the struggle for the emancipation of
the proletariat.”
-- V. I. Lenin; What Is To Be Done
A revolution is always distinguished by impoliteness, probably because the ruling
classes did not take the trouble in good season to teach the people fine manners.
-- Leon Trotsky, History Of The Russian Revolution

“The Nixon administration claimed and received great credit for withdrawing the
Army from Vietnam, but it was the rebellion of low-ranking GIs that forced the
government to abandon a hopeless suicidal policy”
-- David Cortright; Soldiers In Revolt

It is a two class world and the wrong class is running it.

-- Larry Christensen, Soldiers Of Solidarity & United Auto Workers

“We Have Created This Society

With Our Labor”
“We Should Decide How To Run It”
“We, Those Of Us Who Do The Work,
Can Do A Better Job Of Making The
Society Run”
As angry as people are, there could be a social explosion at any moment. You
can feel it. But if we back off the capitalists and their politicians for a moment,
that’s not enough.

The question is, if we lash out in anger, then what? What do we fight for?

August 2-16, 2010, Editorial, The Spark

Listen to the “experts” – people who study the way the capitalist economy works
for the capitalists – listen to what even they say about the current economic
“recovery.”

Here’s Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies: “I’ve never
seen anything like this: Bosses threw out far more workers and cut more hours
than they lost output. That kind of disconnect has never been seen before in all
the decades since World War II.”

Or here’s the opinion of Robert Pozen of Harvard Business School and former
head of Fidelity Investments: “Because of high unemployment, management is
using its leverage to get more hours out of workers.”
And here’s the view of Ethan Harris, chief economist for Bank of America/Merrill
Lynch: “There’s no question there is an income shift going on in the economy.
Companies are squeezing their labor costs to build profits.”

Of course, we didn’t need the “experts” to tell us how bad things are for us.

But it’s useful to get this reminder, from the “experts” themselves, that our misery
is what provided these profits.

Every job cut, every hour cut, ever bit of our wages cut, every furlough day
provided those profits – which increased by 42% this year!

Productivity – this vicious push to squeeze more work out of each hour of our labor –
ends up with more of us out of work, and with more money in the bosses’ pockets.

Having taken everything for themselves, the corporations are so awash in cash they
don’t know what to do with it. They hand it over to the banks to speculate, and they
speculate themselves – beginning the spiral that leads to the next financial explosion.
And, yet, there are people who tell us to wait, that things will get better.

Obama dared to do that just last week when he dropped into auto plants to justify the
concessions he wrung from the workers, bragging that he had saved their companies
and their jobs, telling them, however, that the companies still weren’t stable, and so the
workers had to ... wait!

Wait? No!

We have been waiting all this time, and where did it get us?

Waiting is a death sentence.

There is no hope for us, for our families and for the whole society unless we regain our
readiness to fight.

As angry as people are, there could be a social explosion at any moment. You can
feel it. But if we back off the capitalists and their politicians for a moment, that’s
not enough.

The question is, if we lash out in anger, then what? What do we fight for?

We have to insist there be no more lay-offs, not one more.

We have to insist that everyone out of work should get a job.

If the capitalists don’t want to provide more jobs, than divide up the jobs that exist, put
everyone to work, everyone working fewer hours, but with no loss in pay.

Everyone needs a decent paying job – no two-tier. Bring everyone up.

Everyone needs a decent retirement when they’ve put in their thirty or even forty years –
no cuts in benefits, no scheming away what we get from our pensions or Social Security
and Medicare.

The capitalists have made a mess of everything.

Don’t leave them in control.

We, those of us who do the work, can do a better job of making the society run.

Don’t leave their banks in control – their speculation has created the crisis. Make them
open up the real financial books of every corporation and bank. Let’s see what really is
going on.

Let’s see how all the profits are made. Let us decide how society’s wealth shall be used.

We have created this society with our labor.

We should decide how to run it.

So Much For That “Democracy”

Bullshit:
A Tiny Minority Controls The U.S.
Senate:
“The 25 Least-Populated States Contain
Only 16% Of The U.S. Population But
Together Control The Rest Of Us With
Their Fifty Senators”
August 26, 2010 Van Gosse, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. [Excerpts]

[W]e do not elect the more powerful upper house of our national legislature by any kind
of properly representative process. Sure, we vote, but again in such a grossly
disproportional way as to make the idea of a Senate elected by popular choice absurd.

My favorite way of understanding this is to compare the population of Wyoming

with that of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where I teach.

They have about the same number of people (a little over half a million) but
Wyoming voters are represented by two United States senators, whereas voters in
Lancaster County are a tiny fraction of the statewide electorate (less than half of one
percent in the 2006 senatorial election); we are not “represented” in a fashion remotely
comparable to voters in small states, which makes us much less powerful in national
politics.

Once again, Pennsylvanians, like New Yorkers, Californians, Texans and the residents
of other large states are grossly disenfranchised, which was the point in 1787 --
“protecting” smaller states -- and remains the point today.

The 25 least-populated states contain only 16% of the U.S. population (49,341,957
people) but together control the rest of us with their fifty Senators, and (with a few
obvious exceptions like Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Hawaii), there are very few African-
Americans, Latinos, or Asians in those states.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Troops Invited:
Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service men
and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box
126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send email to
contact@militaryproject.org: Name, I.D., withheld unless you
request publication. Same address to unsubscribe.
 Sarah Palin Found To Be Russian
Robotic Device
03 Aug 2010 by R J Shulman, CLG’s BREAKING NEWS and COMMENTARY [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON - (PTSD News) - An explosive new post from WikiLeaks, the

whistleblowing website, has exposed Sarah Palin not only as an operative for Russia but
also as a robotic device.

The Preyat Yeletza Rawdeena XL-3 (roughly translated as “Homeland Girlfriend”), was
created by rogue KGB agents who wanted Russia to return to the old style regime of the
Soviet Union.

WikiLeaks documents reveal that this clandestine group, the Chashka Chayou Partenny
or Teacup Political Party (TPP), was bent upon destroying the American way of life.
TPP leader Yuri Boltnikov writes that he believed America could be fooled by an
attractive female robot “with an opiate of the people Bible in one hand and, in the other,
a flag of America waving.”

Boltnikov reflected upon his accomplishment. “They laugh at plans I think up, saying
Boltnikov is a bolt-head for thinking American imperialistic people are stupid in the head
enough to fall over such garbage as female robot talking trash to them. But look whose
faces I can laugh in now.”

“My little metal girlfriend soon to be next leader of the so-called free world.” Boltnikov
admitted there was one problem with his creation. “Only problem with robot,” he
lamented, “is once she gets to moving on, but too soon it quits.”

Boltnikov said the real Sarah Palin was killed by a charging moose in a hunting accident
in March 1989 near Chicken, Alaska. “It was much easy to have replaced her with robot
girl, as we from Russia can see Sarah Palin’s house.”

NEED SOME TRUTH?

CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER
Traveling Soldier is the publication of the Military Resistance Organization.

Telling the truth - about the occupations or the criminals running the government
in Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more
than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance to Imperial wars inside the
armed forces.

Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class
people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a
weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces.
If you like what you've read, we hope that you'll join with us in building a network
of active duty organizers. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/

And join with Iraq Veterans Against the War to end the occupations and bring all
troops home now! (www.ivaw.org/)

CLASS WAR REPORTS

 A Small Town In Rural Illinois Backs
Its’ Striking Teachers Union:
“This Is Clearly An Anger Level Never
Seen”
August 26, 2010 By Jesse Phillippe, Socialist Worker

MAHOMET, Ill.--Teachers in the Mahomet-Seymour school district, a small community in

rural Illinois, held a two-day strike in mid-August to defend their pay raises and health
care benefits.

The Mahomet-Seymour Education Association (MSEA) represents teachers, aides,

janitors, bus drivers and other support staff in the Mahomet-Seymour school district. On
August 18, members voted 211-25 to strike after the school board’s bargaining team left
the table and refused to respond to the union’s proposal.

The board wanted to decrease the step raises that all employees would earn, but the
district has regularly failed to follow through with giving employees their step raises.

The town of Mahomet has a population of approximately 7,000, and the surrounding
area of middle-class subdivisions adds a few thousand to the overall population, putting
the high school at roughly 800 students.

The board also offered a measly $25 increase in health insurance compensation--up
from its previous offer of $5. This amounts to only 14 cents per contract day.

“The $25 offered by the board would bring the coverage to $570,” said Brett Hersom, a
teacher at the high school. “However, the single plan is $620 and it’s approximately
$1,560 to cover your family. The net result of the negotiations is that almost every
teacher in the district providing family coverage will receive less net income next year
than last year, and this would happen even if the board accepted the union’s offer.”

The school board claims that the economic recession is to blame for the cutbacks it is
trying to enforce. But at the same time, the district has a $1.5 million education fund and
a $3 million working cash fund that comes from high property taxes in the Mahomet
area, where many of the residents live in comfortable housing subdivisions.

Nonetheless, Mahomet also has a sizeable working-class population that lives in

the center of town, in apartment buildings throughout town and in trailer parks on
the outskirts.

Thus, despite what seemed to be everyone’s calculation that the majority of the
Mahomet citizenry would be against the strike and the union’s demands, there
was actually considerable community support.
Many people donated money and other items during the strike. Various local
businesses and institutions supported the strikers, including the Olive Garden in
Champaign, which provided lunch, and the local American Legion, which rented
its legion hall at a discount rate so that the strikers could use it as a home base!

Gene Vanderport, a local member of the Socialist Forum and leader in the Illinois
Educators Association that is the affiliated statewide union, expressed excitement at the
energy of the strikers.

“This is clearly an anger level never seen,” said Vanderport. “This is a very strong local,
and once the union voted overwhelmingly to strike, they went to work immediately in a
very spontaneous fashion, yet they were very organized in that everyone immediately
pitched in to do whatever tasks needed to be done.”

The strike was settled on the afternoon of August 20 with a tentative one-year contract,
foreshadowing a possible confrontation next year. The school year has now resumed,
but as state and local governments continue to push through budget cuts, it is likely that
we haven’t seen the end of struggles around education in Illinois or anywhere else.

Vietnam GI: Reprints Available

Vietnam: They Stopped An Imperial War

Not available from anybody else, anywhere

Edited by Vietnam Veteran Jeff Sharlet from 1968 until his death, this newspaper
rocked the world, attracting attention even from Time Magazine, and extremely
hostile attention from the chain of command. The pages and pages of letters in
the paper from troops in Vietnam condemning the war are lost to history, but you
can find them here.
Military Resistance has copied complete sets of Vietnam GI. The originals were a
bit rough, but every page is there. Over 100 pages, full 11x17 size.

Free on request to active duty members of the armed forces.

Cost for others: $15 if picked up in New York City. For mailing inside USA add $5
for bubble bag and postage. For outside USA, include extra for mailing 2.5
pounds to wherever you are.

Checks, money orders payable to: The Military Project

Orders to:
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All proceeds are used for projects giving aid and comfort to members of the
armed forces organizing to resist today’s Imperial wars.

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