Zentropa Real's "Guerrilla Girl" follows footsteps of a young middleclass FARC

BELOW ARE SEVERAL OF THE BEST ARTICLES PUBLISHED ABOUT FINDING MEANING IN THIS WORLD. Activist leaders are afraid to promote or even discuss these articles – and yet we will continue to try to get the word out beyond the censors.

http://seattle.indymedia.org/en/2005/12/250570.shtml
If YOU WANT TO TRY AND FIND THE MOVIE Guerrilla Girl about the heroic FARC-EP insurgents in Colombia – good luck – OR try http://anncol.org/uk/site/doc.php?id=233


New documentary starring Colombian guerrilla girl
International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, IDFA
http://www.idfa.nl

Frank Piasecki Poulsen and Zentropa Real's "Guerrilla Girl", which follows in the footsteps of a young middleclass girl who joins the Columbian guerrilla movement FARC.

Danish Film Institute
Anne Marie Kürstein, +45 3374 3609, +45 4041 4697, kurstein [at] dfi.dk
Vicki Marie Synnott, +45 3374 3559, vickis [at] dfi.dk


This is a message to the women and Los Indios in Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru – and all those who sincerely defend these long oppressed people of the Andes. I applaud you... I love you. For many decades and even centuries you have struggled through waves of imperialism and elitism (una sopa mala de racismo y puro fascismo). Everything that you need to know about how bad everything is in the West (El Norte) and how dire is the condition of Pacha Mama (and the millions of endangered species and peoples) is presented below. We need you to be strong and victorious – we need you to save us from ourselves – The movements for change in the North are very weak and divided – few will give money or effort to your cause – This is sad but I believe that you no longer need us. You must go on alone to battle. Buena suerte y mucho mas...

Everything That You need to Know About the World:
Death to the Capitol of Capital (710 words)

1. A few million evil rich people have set up an economic system that supports about a billion people well while it dooms the other 5 billion and the whole ecology of a planet to misery, lies and death.

2. Billions of people are rising up in the Arab and Moslem worlds; in Latin America and in other regions.

3. Everyone is learning fast, but most leaders and even radical governments hold the people back from moving too quickly to war. These leaders wait for the people to learn, to organize and prepare. The leaders and many activists hope that a crisis of capitalism or of the environment will bring down (or fully discredit ) the rich – or weaken them enough that war will not be necessary.

4. These "go-slow" leaders are probably wrong. The USA/capitalist elite are much stronger and more ruthless than imaginable – they could kill off half of the planet in a week and hardly blink. And they will unless we strike them and the infrastructure of their system very hard right before the first signs of collapse. Few writers understand time and without time, timing is more difficult to grasp or execute – yet still most important.

5. In the West (USA-EU Empire(s)) the times of education and debate about the What we are fighting for have ended. Words are deaf and our ears can't hear anything useful above the crash of so many things and dreams and hopes. The time of recruiting warriors and their support groups is almost over. The final planning for how to fight is finishing up. All that is left to do from within the West is Guerillaism – a desperate struggle to stop the rich and their hundreds of millions of supporters from chocking off and crushing the people of the South who are determined to rise up and to be free. A fight to the death commences against the Hella USA! – a military and surveillance domination machine more fearsome than all previous evils combined. The Rules of War (and the lessons) are much different than the game of activism and safe civil disobedience.

6. Nation States no longer exist (under the WTO regime, among most indigenous leaders’ views or in our understanding of how the final struggle will unfold). An important effort for activists everywhere is to help people see the need to reject materialism and consumer fads because they are not sustainable and lead to wars and expectations of ever more consumption. The future is either one global Wall Mart or one where basic goods are sold in small open markets. Through communiqués in the West and demonstration projects in liberated zones, activists can explain how building community, regional cooperation and eco-social security are much more important – and fun! – than greed.

7. In the poor countries the masses will line up firmly behind THE REVOLUTION, but not in the wealthy countries. In the USA the vast majority of people will line up behind fascist programs: domestic and international as they do now and have always done – only this time it will be much worse for all of us... Much worse

8. Wherever THE REVOLUTON wins, wherever people fighting the USA hold the land in solidarity, a great rejuvenation of the human spirit will explode all fears away. Never again need we fear totalitarianism from the Left – or ultimately from fundamentalist Islam either. Once free and empowered the people everywhere will express themselves sincerely and petty arguments will no longer hold them back or confuse. People power will for once be real and invincible for many of us sense that this is the Final Big War – the rich against the poor – and so we will all make the best of a hard won and difficult victory. Overcrowding, the ecological crisis and the impossibility of governing people will make decentralization a fact.

9. A general warning: If you live near an ocean, you must plan to relocate inland to areas at least 50 feet above sea level – 100 feet in stormy areas. Plan to move to areas that are not near coastal mega-cities or in the path of their relocation areas. Littorals are also high priority targets for the imperialist invader forces.

LINKS – What’s wrong with activist – The Middle Class Disease – Key Questions – How A revolution -

Chavez A Friend of All Things: Perspectives on Re-Thinking Revolutionary Meaning

A Response to Guerrero's Article on Chavez and Misperceptions –
1719

The article "The War of 100 Years" by Christian Guerrero (Earth First Journal Nov.-Dec., 2005) tries to portray the struggle for the Earth as the only thing that matters. Guerrero accuses Hugo Chavez of being on the same side as GW Bush because unless you are against harming the Earth then you are against Earth First! and those who hold the Earth as the highest priority.

Simplistic thinking and few examples terribly mar an otherwise nicely written essay. He calls the warmongering of Bush, Chavez and even the independent media groups a big hype designed to provide cannon fodder and justifications for each side to fight and to destroy the environment. I agree that all of these people have done a poor job of educating – though Chavez would come out the best and the Earth First! Journal the worst! To reduce politics to the personalities of Bush, Chavez, Castro or bin Laden is childish. Bush is not the enemy – he and his chumps have just stolen the stage for now – the enemy is the 600 to 800 million people around the world of the middle classes and another wanna-be contingent of 400 to 700 million confused people. All of those who support or tolerate capitalism and the abuses of the USA are the enemy. Capitalism has been evolving for 500 years, USA imperialism has been growing more virulent for 200 years, and the current aggressions of the US have been planed for decades. Bush is but the temporary Champion. The alternative media's portrayal of Bush as the problem is the worst form of education.

And the media, like Guerrero's article, is the kind of middle class (anti-environment) attitude so common in the USA and spreading into Europe: a purposeful mis-education about power and how to combat it.

It would help the debate if Guerrero or EF! would explain what a friend of the Earth is supposed to do or how EF! is helping. Since the US is an importer of coal how does it help the Earth to drive a coal company from Virginia to Colombia? As far as the Earth goes I am sure it would prefer to have the coal mined in Virginia since the US has better environmental laws and importing coal (or anything) wastes a lot of energy or habitat in transporting the coal and building the port facilities. Oh, and the exploited workers, I guess the Earth doesn't care about them. If this middle class nimbyism is environmentalism then I would say that Earth First! (or that form of thinking) is the biggest threat to the Earth!

What in the world does Guerrero mean when he says that "When the ecological collapse draws a line in the sand, Bush and Chavez won't find themselves on opposite sides." The average US citizen impacts the Earth about 10 times more than the average Venezuelan. How can any magazine publish such rubbish rhetoric? When the ecological collapse comes most Venezuelans will suffer terribly or be killed by the US which will continue to live comfortably behind their smart bombs or domed cities. Who cares who is on which side at the end? There won't be any sides except all of us against the elite – a fact which if promoted now might actually avoid the crisis.

Why does Chavez trade with the West? To feed, educate and arm the people. Why doesn't Guerrero give us examples of the "always" defeated mega-projects that Chavez is "forcing" on the people? I think that he made this up and even if he can provide the examples I am sure the history is quite a bit more complex than he suggests. One minor point: Guerrero makes it sound like the World Bank, IMF and other regional banks are not part of the USA Empire – if he thinks this, then he is mistaken. Chavez wants to do away with these and have banks fully controlled by the people of the South.

The main problem with his article – the tragedy of effort and utility wasted – is that he offers no examples or alternatives – except ALL STATES ARE BAD! I would rather have nine tenths (or even 110 percent) as much damage to Venezuela's ecology if it benefited and inspired the poor, than to have terrible impacts that primarily benefit the rich! The implication that Colombian guerrillas call the shots in Venezuela is a cheap shot since Guerrero knows how extremely ill-informed US people are about the struggle in Colombia. I wish it were true that the FARC ran Venezuela and everything! But it is silly to imply such in Venezuela's case.

Page 15 of the EF! Journal, "IIRSA can't be US expansionism in one country and revolutionary integration in another." Again extremely simplistic thinking... Chavez plans on kicking out the US and probably the EU from South America once he and the Left in the region have enough power and the people are ready and understanding the need for expropriation and a completely regional focus. Until that time he plays the game, garners investments, keeps the US from using everything he does as propaganda (like Guerrero does) and Chavez hopes and prays that the masses wake up and demand a new socialism. People like Guerrero should be down in Venezuela or Bolivia helping people believe in a new development path – one of lower expectations of consumption fantasies – rather than playing at arm chair policy making.

"It's obvious that we must end the destruction of the Earth – primarily caused by the industrialized countries" -- Guerrero (page 15, EF!J) .

O.K Thank you very much Guerrero, let's focus on the industrialized countries and put Chavez and other revolutions in that context. If Chavez can help us reduce the power and the waste of the industrialized countries then he will be an enemy of our enemy and a friend of the Earth – even if his people consume a bit more and cause a bit more destruction than they do now – but even that is questionable as once the rich and upper middle classes are gone there should be plenty for everyone and much less impact – especially if Guerrero and his ilk get down there and show people how to have more with less.

Having said that the industrialized countries are the primary problem Guerrero has to back peddle, creating a new form of circular reasoning – let's call it a noose! He says that the South American elite intend to destroy the Earth as much as the gringos – but this is not only wrong (no one is as good at ecocide as the rich) but also it is a crime to lump Chavez, the Indians of the Andes or the Colombian guerrillas in with the rest of the elite. They support getting rid of the old – US-backed - elite and once they raise their standards of living a bit and have the time to see how economics and government policy work they will move steadily toward sustainability – especially with help and advice from all the do-good activists of the North. In a revolutionary context that makes sense, the Indigenous people everywhere (Kurds, Lakota, Amayara, Penan…) will move in mass raising their voices and throwing their numbers into the battle. Activists can cheer on and steer the path of the revolution in beneficial ways if they go to Venezuela or Bolivia and invest some blood, sweat and tears into demonstration projects in rural areas. This will have a real instead of rhetorical impact. Otherwise they should just stay in the wealthy countries and fight viciously. Get rid of the old elite(everywhere) and that will weaken the US imperialist machine, then liberation, self rule and sustainable development are possible – until then only war and suffering exist. Give the people of the South and Chavez a chance and if he is a problem then we can go after him or just move on and ignore those countries that won't develop new ways.

Guerrero's article is sad in that it suggests that almost no one on the planet wants to be simple and live with little impact on the planet.

His effort is sad because he brings up issues like materialism that activists could help with, but he goes nowhere with these – the same things that EF! and many radicals have failed to make big issues of. Bolivia, Venezuela, and Ecuador support radical sustainable develop programs... Colombia would if the US stopped supporting and protecting the death squads. The debate in the South should be over how the government money is spent. Should infrastructure (roads, mass transit or power production) be prioritized or agriculture, education, environmental protection and re-tooling industry to produce useful products? Should the government buy sniper rifles or jet aircraft?

On page 15 he says "there will be no wars in Latin America, other than the ones being fought..." You mean the wars against neo-liberalism (WTO) and "Drugs" and change, and democracy, and indigenous people, and environmental destruction, and militarization. and IRAQ (public opinion about just how evil the US is?) and economics and past war crimes (abuses sponsored by the US in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, El Salvador, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala (ad genocidium???). He triumphs that: “…sentiment for social change and justice ... we should support..." then somehow he miraculously avoids defining how these struggles are valid from an anarchists perspective or how we should support them and goes right into attacking Chavez's motives for selling cheap home heating oil in the USA - !!!!!!!!!! Guerrero seems to be switching back at the end of the article to where he began: suggesting that the hype over US invasions is a smokescreen – even though he spent most of the article showing how the US is intervening (invading) the South now and forever… I don’t get it – The whole article is misleading, has few coherent examples and teaches all the wrong lessons…

Guerrero doesn’t get the broader picture at all – that Chavez is making noise to inspire the people of South America and alert the US people to the evils which capitalism and Bush have or will spawn there.... the continuation of the 505 Years War...

Sadly "Our revolution will not be funded by oil " But it could be!


Green Means Green:

Green_meansgreen [at] lycos.com


A Social-Political Program for Human Development on a Collapsing Planet in Chaos



The three of us who are writing this statement have deeply studied all kinds of economic systems for our combined total of 49 years. We find that most academics (Chavez – not radical enough, Bookchin - boring utopian, Albert – impossible meetings, Chomsky – general vagueness, David Korten - no strategy for political power, Waldon Bello - no political strategy and Alan Woods (Though we like Woods the best of these!)) are either stuck in middle class and pro-economic growth paradigms or operate in a wholly utopian or abstract global analysis. There has never been and probably never will be anything resembling an informed debate on economics (political economy). How could there be a meaningful debate when even (or especially) the educated people would not understand much of the discussion.


Most economic analysis needs a reality check... Any significant economic change pre-supposes a radical political power, a civil struggle (if not war) and a people prepared and committed to poverty and US (elite) hostility.


We find that these conditions (preparations) are lacking in most of the world. The debate is non-existent. The time required to achieve these is indeterminate but long. The attitudes of these academics and most activists is elitist if not a form of denial that leads to or benefits fascism, global corporate governance and ecocide/genocide...


We are killing the future and the future choices that the people might have chosen with this refusal to discuss the current alternatives (What we should be fighting for) and how change happens.



To clarify and to simplify the options – the structure of a possible dialog – let us state that any group that refuses to explain how it disagrees with our – The Green Means Green – recipe is elitist and at least closet fascist. Please explain yourselves – even if you refuse to actually debate – the world is waiting – the clock is ticking...


Soon we will be forced to enter the Green fray again to shake things up – to force some kind of sense into the alternative. The lies of Nader and the Green Party Bureaucrats cannot stand unchallenged.



The Platform of Green Means Green:


1. End the Expansion of Mass Transit

2. No private cars in urban areas; motorized transport in urban areas primarily for business deliveries, the handicapped and elderly.

3. Very high fuel taxes (2-4 dollars per gallon) on all private fuel sales. High vehicle registration/disposal fees on all private vehicles.

4. Abolition/prohibition on corporate business structures employing more than 100 people.

5. Abolition/prohibition of all genetically modified organisms (GMOs) (and high restrictions on research); abolition/prohibition on toxic chemicals and the overuse of agricultural chemicals.

6. Beyond these restraints on transport, economic concentration and toxic materials we believe that a democratic and sustainable government will reduce imports, end dependency and invest in the localized production of basic needs goods (food, water, energy, building materials and all of the tools required to produce each of these necessities.).

7. The sign that a sane government is operating will be seen when the workers are given the factories they work in and people the homes they live in – debt free. Once that is done and food is prioritized we won’t have to worry about economics.


What is novel and truthful about this program is that it would work for 8 billion people. No other plan can make this claim

WE WANT YOUR INPUT – WE HAVE MANY PROJECTS FOR PEOPLE TO PLUG INTO NOW.



Until we agree more on what we are fighting for…. We cannot really discuss how to fight – or how to win.

PS – Americana: In the wealthy countries consumption needs (and will) fall by 60 to 90 percent. Here are a few moderate policies to get things going:

Green Pub Policy:

Ban Electric Water Heaters – phase out gas ones.
2. Fuel Tax Increases; 1-2 dollars a gallon on fuels and petroleum based products – to pay people without cars not to get cars.
3. Ban drive-throughs, drive-ins, car washes, and ban cars from many roads.
4. Fewer Cops and prisons and wasted lives; De-Criminalize drugs and increase volunteer and paid drug treatment and poverty relief efforts.


A CALL FOR EMERGENCY Bushwacker VOLUNTEERS:

THE PROJECT FOR A NON - AMERICAN CENTURY



WE HAVE A NUMBER OF IMPORTANT ESSAYS AND DOCUMENTS THAT WE BELIEVE MUST BE DISSEMINATED TO THE WIDEST AUDIENCES POSSIBLE in the shortest time...


Please cut and paste the following articles into any indymedia website or to resist.ca, infoshop.org, Democracy Now and any blog or other paste and cut (publish or send to) sites of interest or need.




Links:

1. Hugo Chavez a Friend to All Things: A Response to UIS Anarchists Confusion




2. MANY FRENCH UPRISING ARTICLES TO POST (or post as shorter ones too!)

a. Demands of French Youth: Paris Uprising 2005
ALIVE WITH FIRE: Death to Cars and the Politics of Defeat!
http://quebec.indymedia.org/en/node.php?id=22801
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/1721830.php
http://print.indymedia.org/news/2005/11/1986.php

b. The four part series by Marcel Dilessi:
RIOTS OF PASSION AND BLOOD
http://www.indymedia.be/en/node/274


3. Green Means Green Platform: Call for Volunteers
http://indymedia.us/en/2005/11/11895.shtml


4. Away All Cars
http://paris.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=45501
http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/2005/11/827262.shtml


5. How a Revolution
http://colorado.indymedia.org/newswire/display/11936/index.php
http://cvilleindymedia.org/newswire.php?story_id=1978


6. CUBA: Balloons of Shame for Bush/Cheney Torture Regime
http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/2005/10/826667.shtml
http://miami.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/2592.php


Relevant viewpoints at:

Homepage: http://www.londonclasswar.org

Note :

You can use the pictures provided in the articles or use other appropriate or interesting ones that you find (discretion and taste please!)


If the article comes out to be rejected because of duplicate or previous post – you can add or subtract from it or just change the title slightly or more – and/or change the author – and try it again – otherwise continue down the (Your) list of publishing and send to sites.


Suggestions:

Pick one or two articles and send them out to as many places as you can and then pick one or two more and send them.

Please send the links that you create when you publish or any links to other articles from the list that you find to: email: green_meansgreen [at] lycos.com


AND also to: peacepixels @rock .com


Another Idea We don’t have time for:

Dear Volunteer Bushwackers :::

IDEAS FOR HOLIDAY Celebrations:

Help Fund Peace and the Oracle of Peace! Peace Pix –
Buy your X-Mas presents here, or purchase pixels for a picture of your loved one or pet!

Spare Some Change for the Planet = Peace in Iraq

No. We don’t want your money – or if you are reading this actually you did pay some time anyway – but the secret to peace is to not spend money. 10% saved or not spent for peace. Use money to make peace happen. If the 20 to 30 percent of US people who really want to do something to create a peaceful world would just cut back by 10 percent it would send a strong enough message to the “Bosses” that they have to change or lose.

For some people (the poor) this may be difficult. So, just cut back 2 or 5 percent – whatever you can will help. And hopefully enough people will pledge to cut back on spending – and follow through – that they will make up the difference from those who cannot cut back as much. From each according to their ability to nothing…

Put off buying a new or a second car for a few months or a year. Take the Pledge to only give homemade items (cookies, hand-me-downs, or art) as Christmas presents. Move your dollars into Euros or Bolivars.

But this is just the first step – the easy one.

google millionaire homepage -- million peace votes – peacehomepage – or ?? -- PEACE SELLS – PEACE ADDS – or " Google For Peace " --
Below are sound ideas for how you can maximize the impact of your spending choices.
You might as well get the most out of your sacrifices and get the changes over quicker.
A louder message – a stronger effect – and there will be more hope and effort in response.

LOW INCOME PEOPLE :
Apply for Food Stamps and Welfare (AFDC or income (cash) support – and child support if your delinquent ex-parent will not join the revolution!). Also seek out anything else offered by churches, local/state government and your job. Go dumpster diving and alley scrounging. It's easy, fun and not that messy. Go to your local health food store or gourmet/yuppy food store (Traitor Joes or Wild Oats) around 9 or 10 PM. Look in their garbage bin
There is usually lots of food. Try grocery store (chains) dumpsters too, but often they are locked or use the immoral compactors. Other ideas (sure that you have more): buy your kids clothes / toys at the thrift stores. Share and mend and fix things rather than buy new. Do without or reduce, re-use, recycle. Help others avoid spending money too. Borrow from your wealthier friends and relatives so that you can keep them from spending and maybe quit your job or work part-time and live off of the savings (borrowings). If you feel really compelled you could even work for the revolution for a few weeks or years... You can save the money that you are savings from cutting back – but read on /....
It is only for a few months – not a life of frugality – although that IS OK too!
http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/rate/11254/index.php#Article-11254


Misc… Notes on the impossibility of serious education or communication…

When people give me their rap or an example to dispute me, it is often like they are arguing that we should grow a crop that went extinct 10,000 years ago. Yes, it would be a good idea. Yes, it is a very good crop, just the kind that we need. Maybe we should commit many of our resources and efforts to finding or re-breeding this crop to match the old one (20 to 100 years of work?).

But somehow these people are answering my immediate question of: "What crop shall we plant this season? (How a Revolution)" with an answer that is wrong in terms of time and possibility – and shows that they were not listening well or have a fuzzy idea of what thinking is.


THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE _ MUST Enter all discussions - ! It helps you learn to think -



Balloons of Shame for Bush/Cheney Torture Regime

If the US Congress does not immediately establish a very broad Special Investigation of torture by the US administration, then this is a text book case where the International Criminal Court should initiate proceedings against the suspects (Dickey Chenney, Karpinsky, CIA Directors Tenet, John McLaughlin and Porter J. Goss, Major General Geoffrey Miller, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld – among dozens.).

Join the Organizing Committee for Guantanamo Protests


Green_meansgreen [at] lycos.com


A Desperate Letter to the Cuban People:


Dear Comrade Fidel Castro and the People of Cuba,


We are tired of listening to the reports of US torture and criminal activity in the Middle East and at the Cuban territory illegally occupied by the US at Guantanamo. We seek your permission to allow a few US citizens to approach the base and to float some large green balloons saying: “Shame GW Bush – Shame the ICC” and STOP THE TORTURE & ILLEGAL DETENTION!”




Published on Sunday, November 20, 2005 by the lndependent/UK

The Big Thaw: Global Disaster Will Follow If the Ice Cap on Greenland Melts Now scientists say it is vanishing far faster than even they expected.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1120-03.htm


by Geoffrey Lean: Greenland's glaciers have begun to race towards the ocean, leading scientists to predict that the vast island's ice cap is approaching irreversible meltdown, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. Lines on this satellite image of Greenland's Helheim glacier show the positions of the glacier front between 2001 and 2005. Image: I. Howat et al.

Research to be published in a few days' time shows how glaciers that have been stable for centuries have started to shrink dramatically as temperatures in the Arctic have soared with global warming. On top of this, record amounts of the ice cap's surface turned to water this summer.
The two developments - the most alarming manifestations of climate change to date - suggest that the ice cap is melting far more rapidly than scientists had thought, with immense consequences for civilisation and the planet. Its complete disappearance would raise the levels of the world's seas by 20 feet, spelling inundation for London and other coastal cities around the globe, along with much of low-lying countries such as Bangladesh.


More immediately, the vast amount of fresh water discharged into the ocean as the ice melts threatens to shut down the Gulf Stream, which protects Britain and the rest of northern Europe from a freezing climate like that of Labrador.