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DESCRIPTION:An International Day of Solidarity is being called for January 23, 2009, 
 for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the Greek Anarchists and other 
 anti-authoritarian activists in Greece. There are many overlaps between 
 these two struggles, and those similarities are explored below. The date of 
 the demonstration is to also commemorate the anniversary of the Riots in 
 the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland, during the period of Nazi Germany (1943), 
 where 70,000 Jewish people took this city back, and held it for a long time 
 before the Germans took over. The date and the atrocities exposed in this 
 article are highly ironic, given that the Jewish people of Israeli have 
 experienced a genocide of their own: the Holocaust.\n\nOn Saturday, 
 December 6, a 16 year old activist in Athens, Greece was shot \nand killed 
 by the police. He is only one of many other \ndemonstrators that have been 
 killed by the state. In an effort to take \nback their lives, anarchists 
 and anti-authoritarian activists have been demonstrating in Athens; \nmost 
 notably with the occupation of the Polytechnic Institute. The \nEconomic 
 and Law schools are also being occupied. Banks and poice stations \nare 
 also reported to be held to some extent by the \nprotesters. Riots have 
 broken out in neighborhoods all over Athens, as well as many other \ncities 
 in Greece, in an effort to protest the deprivation in the lives \nof the 
 people of Greece under an unfettered, free-market, Capitalist government. 
 \n\nGreek anarchists and activists are attacking police stations and public 
 offices (even the Parliament) \nin at least a dozen cities. Using home-made 
 petrol bombs, they are destroying property of the people \nin power and are 
 being falsely accused of being "violent" as a result. \nThese educated and 
 dedicated organizers are also being misdescribed as \n"angry youth." There 
 are also many strikes being carried out by unions. Ministers have taken 
 \nhundreds of dollars away from the people while lining their own pockets. 
 \n\nPeople are struggling in Greece to pay their bills. Youth who can't 
 afford to \nstudy abroad get lousy tuition to a Greek University, and few 
 chances \nof getting a job. Unemployment for graduates is now at 21%, 
 compared \nto 8% for the population as a whole. That unemployment rate is 
 going to \nget higher as this "global recession" continues for *all* of us. 
 The Greek people have been complaining for years that their 
 DUOPOLY(family-based) government does not represent the people.\nThe 
 wages/rates are not compatible with quality of life and sustaining a 
 living. \nPoliticians priorities are corrupt for the elite top rung of 
 society with nothing for the masses that are living in abject 
 poverty.\n\nProtests are also now happening in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians 
 there are trying to fight back against the "settlers" in Southern Israel, 
 who are (with the help of their right-wing Prime Minister) bombing them and 
 have already killed more than 700 Palestinians with air raids that began on 
 December 25, and a "ground offensive" by Israel that just started on 
 Saturday, January 3rd. As usual, the Palestinians are fighting back with 
 whatever small-scale weapons available to them: including home-made 
 "rockets" that have killed no more than 5 Israelis during this entire war 
 perpetuated by Israel against them. Israel is air-bombing towns and cities 
 across the Gaza Strip, and has virtually destroyed its infrastructure, 
 rendering the Gaza Strip depleted of electricity, water and medicine. They 
 are out to destroy the infrastructure created by the Palestinians, as well 
 as the Palestinians themselves. \n\nThe United States has supplied Israeli 
 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert with the weapons to pull off this genocide 
 against the Palestinians. The Israeli soliers have actually been 
 *applauding* when they hear a new airstrike in the Gaza Strip. And now they 
 are using United States manufactured and donated tanks and other weaponry 
 for the "land offensive" against the remaining Palestinians. The home-made 
 "rockets" that have been launched by Hamas and other resistance parties in 
 the Gaza Strip have destroyed almost entirely *property,* not people. They 
 are trying to fight against the violent infringement of their land by the 
 so-called "settlers" from Israel. In this regard, the Palestinians are 
 somewhat similar to the activists and anarchists in Greece right now, who 
 are simply fed up living under circumstances of abject poverty, 
 intimidation, and violence by the state of Greece. They are also ready to 
 take extreme actions to end this, and they are entirely destroying 
 property, not people, in their efforts. \n\nInterestingly, the Israeli's 
 interest in the Gaza Strip is similar to the corrupt government in Greece. 
 Control and ownership of the strategic gas reserves off the Gaza coastline 
 are currently owned by a British corporation (BG Group) and a Greek 
 corporation called “Consolidated Contracts International Co.” The deal 
 they made with the Israelis and their “acceptable” representative of 
 the Palestinians, the “Palestinian Authority,” gives these two 
 corporations a 25 year agreement for oil and gas exploration rights 
 beginning in November, 1999. However, Israel could not settle for this; 
 they decided to transfer ALL of the control over the sale of oil and 
 natural gas to themselves. So, after they had planned the “offensive” 
 over the Gaza Strip, they held “negotiations” with BG to channel an 
 undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Asukelon. The military 
 occupation of Gaza is intent upon transferring the sovereignty of the gas 
 fields to Israel, in violation (once again) of International Law.\n\nIn 
 destroying the infrastructure and the people who live in the Gaza Strip, 
 Israel has much to gain by gaining all of the rights to Palestine's 
 offshore drilling rigs. They have already destroyed much of the small 
 amount of land referred to as the “Gaza Strip,” and they have killed 
 off many of the people who used to live there (a tremendous amount of which 
 are actually children). All this was planned months in advance, and the 
 ultimate goal is to gain the rights to the offshore rigs, a pipeline, and 
 the oil produced. People in Israel already have a higher standard of living 
 than people in the United States, yet they keep pushing the Palestinians 
 into more and more densely populated places, like the so-called “refugee 
 camps,” which are more like concentration camps given that the people 
 there have no water, no food, no electricity, or medical resources. There 
 is nowhere to flee, and these people are simply just waiting to die due to 
 the Israeli offensive.\n\nSounds a lot like the Holocaust. But this time 
 the “jews” are the Palestinians. And the global situation is different: 
 the United States has a big stake in maintaining Israel as an ally. Israel 
 is the only ally the US has in the middle east. So no military coalition is 
 able to come in and rescue the dying and injured Palestinians, unlike when 
 the U.S. Military and “Allied Forces” liberated the concentration camps 
 toward the end of World War II in Germany. Any effort by the US to save the 
 Palestinians from the genocide Israel has in store for them would require 
 an entirely new global economic policy. This would require taking on the 
 Military-Industrial Complex, which is exactly what we (as conscientious 
 objectors and protesters) need to do. \n\nIn making these comparisons, I am 
 not saying that Hamas is akin to the Greek anarchists. Hamas is poised to 
 *kill* any Israelis that try to take over the Gaza Strip. There are other 
 Palestinian resistance parties, and Greek anarchists and 
 anti-authoritarians do not have such a violent agenda; they rather seize 
 the property of those in control, who are perpetuating a very oppressive 
 reality for the people in Greece. Occasionally riot police who are trying 
 to destroy them get injured. We need to march in Solidarity with both the 
 Greek anarchists and anti-authoritarians and the Palestinians, who have 
 both lived under a terribly controlling and violent regime for so many 
 years. The situation in the Gaza Strip, as well as the West Bank, is 
 extremely violent, and keeps getting worse. One of the Palestinian children 
 killed by the Israeli soldiers was *decapitated* by a bomb. And now that 
 the "land offensive" has started, who knows what will happen. \n\nJust as 
 in Greece, protests in Palestine are being broken apart by police 
 brutality, bullets, and arrests. But unlike in Greece, people who want to 
 flee and hide from this violence are also dying from US supplied weaponry. 
 This is, without question, an attempt at *genocide* of the Palestinians. 
 This brings us to the proposed date for this Solidarity March with the 
 Palestinians and the Greek Anarchists and Anti-Authoritarians. January 
 23rd, 1943, marks an important vicotry by the Jewish people against 
 genocide of the Jews by the Nazis. The Israeli attempt at genocide against 
 the Palestinians is unbelievable given their own history. The people in the 
 Warsaw Ghetto, like the Palestinians in Gaza Strip and the Greek Anarchists 
 and Anti-Authoritarians, were and are incredibly brave, and committed to 
 freedom, equality and democracy for everyone. We should all be inspired and 
 eventually we will also need such bravery to fight our own battles against 
 the ugly realities of imperialism, capitalism, and the global recession, 
 which will leave the majority of people in the *entire* world unemployed 
 and in poverty. \nEconomic problems and rising awareness that corporations 
 are actually running everything has motivated unions and others interested 
 in change from the current global economic policy to a whole new system.  
 By marching in solidarity with these people, we are making a lot of 
 statements about the power of the grassroots organizations to make change 
 in an insidious system where multinational corporations and banks are in 
 control, and they are making the lives of people everywhere more miserable 
 every day.  Politicians are unable to challenge the corporations, for a 
 variety of reasons. Authentic change has always come from the people who 
 are oppressed challenging those in power. It may not be what we learn in 
 our US History books in high school, but try reading Howard Zinn's People's 
 History of the United States for proof of this reality.  We have got to get 
 organized as the “rank and file” service workers, unions, 
 African-Americans, the homeless, the laid off workers, other people of 
 color, immigrants and people already doing activist work band together to 
 expose things like bank “bailouts,” consequential theft of wages, as 
 well as all the other crimes against humanity and the earth perpetuated by 
 corporations and their current rule over the earth.\n\nThis is happening 
 now in the 3rd World, with the rise of structural adjustment programs (the 
 removal of any kind of social welfare), and it will spread to our "service 
 economy" in the first world, where the rich keep getting richer and more 
 powerful, and the increasing number of poor keep getting poorer. Barack 
 Obama has *already* gone back on his word and is appointing neoliberal 
 economists as his "economic advisors." Obama is thinking about creating a 
 "stimulus package" that will be aimed at the *millions* in the US who have 
 already slipped or are about to slip from the middle class into poverty. 
 This package does not address the millions of Americans who are moving from 
 working poverty to desperation. Originally Obama claimed to want to help 
 this class of people, but under his new advisors, it looks like they will 
 be targeted for programs the neoliberal economic advisors (such as Dallas 
 Mayor Ron Kirk whose been a big backer of NAFTA) describe as "digging 
 holes." These manufactured schemes basically put poor people to work 
 accomplishing "tasks" that are totally unnecessary (unlike the New Deal). 
 Obama's chief concern when it comes to the “recession” is to prove the 
 resiliency and health of the “free market.” His idolatry of the 
 “free” market prevails over common sense. \n\nObama wants to be seen as 
 the founder of a new “New Deal.” But it is important to remember that 
 it was only after militant challenges by the labor movement (including the 
 IWW) that Roosevelt changed his economic policies to help enfranchise the 
 poorest and most brutally hit people from the Depression. Obama's plans do 
 not solicit the voice of the working people. Obama faces a global economic 
 challenge: foreign policy cannot be put “on hold” while a new 
 international economic policy is put in place that fosters rising wages, 
 decent work, and balanced growth (as he claims to be working toward). And 
 wars no longer create a “boom” economy like they used to. The US is 
 actually in a lot of debt now for all of its military spending under George 
 W. Bush, Jr. It is this financial crisis alone that inspires many Americans 
 to to ask for withdrawl from Iraq and Afghanistan; wars which are simply 
 draining our federal budget by using weapons created in the United States 
 and used by the US Military to destroy the lives of people, the 
 infrastructure of these countries, and also the land of our so-called 
 “enemies.” The ultimate ideal here is something like the 
 “restructuring” of Iraq, where multinational corporations come into the 
 ravaged countries and claim its resources as their own. In Iraq, companies 
 like Shell and Exxon/Mobile have already been competing for the rights to 
 all Iraq's fossil fuels when the war is over. That will only be one of 
 several “resources” in Iraq that will be “privatized” by 
 corporations if the “restructuring” is allowed to happen. \n\nObama's 
 plan is to repair schools, make federal buildings “energy efficient,” 
 and to extend Broadband service everywhere. He is not talking much these 
 days about the increasing number of people who are losing their jobs and 
 are hungry and need basic welfare programs. This is likely to only get 
 worse. Obama's appointed head of the economic council, Lawrence Summers, 
 served as chief economist of the World Bank in the 1990s. Summers, along 
 with the IMF, threatened to withhold $1.5 billion from Russia unless they 
 abided by a structural adjustment program that demanded “privatization, 
 stabilization, and liberalization” for international corporations that 
 wanted to get into the “free market” in Russia under Boris Yeltsin. 
 This ended in catastrophic results: 72 million people were seriously 
 impoverished as a result of this policy over the course of 8 years.\n\nThe 
 "free market," capitalist states are using GATT, the World Bank, \nthe G8 
 and NAFTA to enforce structural adjustment programs on the Third \nWorld, 
 who are losing so many social programs that people are actually 
 \n*starving.* It's going to happen *everywhere* if we allow this to keep 
 \nhappening. So let's follow the lead of the Palestinians, as well as the 
 Greek \nanarchists and anti-authoritarian activists and take to the streets 
 to fight against \nthis nightmare the capitalist regimes are creating for 
 all of us. \n\nThese protesters in Greece are actually bold enough to take 
 over banks and \nthey are being met with bullets, tear gas, and beatings. 
 That 16 year \nold protester who was killed by the police on December 6th 
 was only \n*one* of several who have died at the hands of a right-wing, 
 \npro-capitalist administration. \n\nThese brave protesters in both 
 countries have been met with chemical gas, bombs, beatings, and \nbullets. 
 They continue to revolt in a struggle for freedom and equality that truly 
 \naffects us all. It may be the Gaza Strip or Greece today, but the 
 economic recession, authoritarian rule by CEOs and their pawns, and the 
 loss of welfare programs and jobs will soon be affecting us all, if we are 
 not feeling it already. \n\n-Julia Smedley \n\n"WE BELONG TO EACH OTHER; WE 
 BELONG TO OUR TIME; PUSHING RELENTLESSLY TO RESHAPE THE WORLD TO OUR 
 VISION." \n--Eldridge Cleaver \n\nP.S. If you are in any way interested in 
 coordinating an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians and 
 the Greek Anarchists, please contact me ASAP at the email below (We don't 
 have much time; but I can supply the literature--you'd mainly just need to 
 do a flyer to put up in your area.) \nCONTACT: julia.smedley2@gmail.com\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/21/18565014.php
SUMMARY:Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians and the Greek Anarchists and Anti-Authoriarians
LOCATION:
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/21/18565014.php
DTSTART:20090123T190000Z
DTEND:20090123T210000Z
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