Comme toujours, de par le monde, des mouvements ouvriers nous montrent la voie vers ce qui devraient être possible pour tous. Les travailleurs syndiqués de l’usine Republic Windows and Doors ont fait acte de résistance en décembre dernier et ont gagné!

Les victoires de nos concitoyens méritent d’être partagées et célébrées!

When the workers at Republic Windows and Doors — in Chicago, USA — were notified their factory would close in three days, they took matters into their own hands. The unionised workers seized control of the factory for six days to demand the entitlements they were owed by law. They also demanded that Bank of America, which was « bailed out » with taxpayers’ money just weeks before, make funds available to the company to pay the workers. On the sixth day, December 10, 2008, of their occupation, they won all their demands, and showed the world’s working class a classic example of people’s power.

suite de l’article : Workers’ Republic – Scenes from a successful factory occupation, LINKS, déc. 2008.

Sans résistance, il ne peut y avoir de victoire!

[MàJ : Peter Dreier dans le Monde diplomatique du mois de janvier fait un travail remarquable de présenter cette victoire du syndicat de l'usine Republic Windows and Doors. On y apprend entre autre l'organisation dont ont fait preuve les leaders syndicaux et on y découvre aussi le contexte dans lequel s'inscrit cette l'occupation de l'usine. En effet, les gestionnaires de l'usine avaient non seulement acheté une entreprise concurrent où les employés n'étaient pas syndiqués au mois d'octobre et avait même commencer à y transférer des équipements.]

Je suis de plus en plus convaincu que l’équipe Obama profitera d’Internet et des outils de collaboration informatique comme nul autre auparavant.

Cette image de la fille d’Obama félicitant son père alors que la famille vient d’apprendre que son élection était confirmée est tout de même sans précédent.

J’ai bien hâte de voir la suite… Tant de possibilités!

Le grand journaliste et militant britannique George Monbiot, n’y va pas avec le dos de cuillère à la veille des élections états-uniennes.

How was it allowed to happen? How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind’s closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist?^[1]

J’ai toujours eu un grand amour pour le groupe de musique Rage Against the Machine. Leur implication sociale est hors du commun.

Le 2 septembre dernier, alors que les membres du groupe s’apprêtaient à offrir un spectacle aux manifestants réunis pour protester contre les politiques républicaines à la RNC, leur matériel de musique a tout simplement été confisqué par les forces de l’ordre.

Leur réponse :

BENJAMIN THOMPSON: One of my prisoners at Abu Ghraib, a place where you saw all those photographs come out—you didn’t know the half of it. Most of our people didn’t live in those cell blocks. Most of the people lived outdoors. They’re killed by enemy insurgents, in our camps. This prisoner—this means God hopes for peace.

We had ten-year-old boys in my camps. We had an eighty-year-old blind man in my camp. They were killed by enemy fire, because we did not protect them when they were in our custody. They were not worth protecting. The generals that came to my base came with three helicopters apiece. And when they left, they took them with them.

%We were giving them food that made them sick. We were giving them water that gave them kidney stones. We weren’t supplying them with medical attention. They were dying from lack of heart medication that they had been on for twenty years. You never heard about this, ever, because of the expletive photographs. The Department of Defense focused all of the attention upon those atrocious acts committed by war criminals, my brother and sister military policemen. And then everything else that happened at that prison, to the other 95 percent of those prisoners, went unreported in the media. This is not OK.

Democracy Now!, 2 sept. 2008.

Amy Goodman, journaliste indépendante, qui a entre autres fait sa marque par sa couverture des événements au Timor oriental dans les années 1980 et, depuis, par son animation quotidienne de l’émission Democracy Now! vient de faire l’objet d’une arrestation alors qu’elle cherchait à couvrir la convention républicaine qui se tient actuellement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
www.democracynow.org

September 1, 2008

Contact:
DennisMoynihan 917-549-5000
Mike Burke 646-552-5107

ST. PAUL, MN—Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was unlawfully arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police violently manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being unlawfuly detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

Ramsey County Sherrif Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.

Democracy Now! is calling on all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. These calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman’s office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350 (press extension 0).

Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amenmdent rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested during this action.

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism’s top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar is a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation’s leading independent news outlet.

Democracy Now! is a nationally-syndicated public TV and radio program that airs on over 700 radio and TV stations across the US and the globe.

Video of Amy Goodman’s Arrest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Le Sénateur Jesse Helms est mort!

J’évite de commenter de peur d’être trop expressif… Un extrait de l’article du Guardian d’aujourd’hui.

In domestic politics he denounced the 1964 Civil Rights Act as « the single most dangerous piece of legislation ever introduced in the Congress », voted against a supreme court justice because she was « likely to uphold the homosexual agenda », acted for years as spokesman for the large tobacco companies, was reprimanded by the justice department and the federal election commission for electoral malpractice, and compiled a dismal personal record as a slum landlord.

TheGuardian, le 4 juillet 2008.