Lotus/Melissa Fem Mag

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. -Karl Marx
company management in Iraq and Kuwait has cheated taxpayers out of millions of dollars through bribery and waste;*has increased its profits in Iraq by employing sweatshop Asian labor and refusing to pay injury claims;*senior management used worker's pensions to pay for management benefits, despite the fact that the soaring stock price has made the top managers tens of millions of dollars.Today as the military slows its purchases of Halliburton services in Iraq, the company is diversifying into such profitable areas as the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the Gulf States and the provision of direct services to the oil and gas industry abroad...this is just a sample of the mulitude of crimes of Halliburton

Leonard Peltier Jailed 30 Years Ago Today feb 6
Thus, marks the 30th anniversary of the imprisonment of Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Rallies are being held across the country to call for his release. He was convicted of killing of killing two FBI agents during a shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. But Peltier has long maintained his innocence. PELTIER, A citizen of the Lakota and Anishinabe nations, was an active member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the early 1970s in the upper Midwest and on the West Coast. AIM was a product of the militant struggles of the 1960s against racism and the Vietnam War. Its most important leaders during the 1970s--Dennis Banks and Russell Means--were inspired by the civil rights movement and, more importantly, the Black Panthers.

Original six Black Panthers (November, 1966) Top left to right: Elbert "Big Man" Howard; Huey P. Newton (Defense Minister), Sherman Forte, Bobby Seale (Chairman). Bottom: Reggie Forte and Little Bobby Hutton (Treasurer).

Love, Loyalty, Honesty, Trust, and Peace

In Chicago, the outstanding leader of the Panthers local, Fred Hampton, leads five different breakfast programs on the West Side, helps create a free medical center, and initiates a door to door program of health services which test for sickle cell anemia, and encourage blood drives for the Cook County Hospital. The Chicago party also begins reaching out to local gangs to clean up their acts, get them away from crime and bring them into the class war. The Parties efforts meet wide success, and Hampton's audiences and organised contingent grow by the day. On December 4th, at 4:00 a.m. in the morning, thanks to information from an FBI informant , Chicago police raid the Panthers' Chicago apartment, murdering Fred Hampton while he sleeps in bed. He is shot twice in the head, once in the arm and shoulder; while three other people sleeping in the same bed escape unharmed. Mark Clark, sleeping in the living room chair, is also murdered while asleep. Hampton's wife, carrying child for 8 months, is also shot, but survives. Four panthers sleeping in the apartment are wounded, while one other escapes injury . Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was executed, Mark was 17 years old. According to the findings of the federal grand jury, Ninety bullets were fired inside the apartment. 1 came from a Panther Mark who slept with a shotgun in his hand. All surviving Panther members were arrested for "attempted murder of the police and aggravated assault". Not a single cop spent a moment in jail for the executions.

.."0">
.."Georgia" color="660099" size="4">CopWatch is part of the Stop Terrorism and Oppression by the Police Coalition...PAY ATTENTION

Meena founding leader of RAWA

Ill never return

Im the woman who has awoken Ive arisen and become a tempest through the ashes of my burnt children Ive arisen from the rivulets of my brothers blood My nations wrath has empowered me My ruined and burnt villages fill me with hatred against the enemy, Im the woman who has awoken, Ive found my path and will never return. Ive opened closed doors of ignorance Ive said farewell to all golden bracelets Oh compatriot, Im not what I was Im the woman who has awoken Ive found my path and will never return. Ive seen barefoot, wandering and homeless children Ive seen henna-handed brides with mourning clothes Ive seen giant walls of the prisons swallow freedom in their ravenous stomach Ive been reborn amidst epics of resistance and courage Ive learned the song of freedom in the last breaths, in the waves of blood and in victory Oh compatriot, Oh brother, no longer regard me as weak and incapable With all my strength Im with you on the path of my lands liberation. My voice has mingled with thousands of arisen women My fists are clenched with the fists of thousands compatriots Along with you Ive stepped up to the path of my nation, To break all these sufferings all these fetters of slavery, Oh compatriot, Oh brother, Im not what I was Im the woman who has awoken Ive found my path and will never return.

The founding leader of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) of During her school days, students in Kabul and other Afghan cities were deeply engaged in social activism and rising mass movements. She left the university to devote herself as a social activist to organizing and educating women. In pursuit of her cause for gaining the right of freedom of expression and conducting political activities, Meena laid the foundation of RAWA in 1977. This organization was meant to give voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan. She started a campaign against the Russian forces and their puppet regime in 1979 and organized numerous processions and meetings in schools, colleges and Kabul University to mobilize public opinion. Another great service rendered by her for the Afghan women is the launching of a bilingual magazine, Payam-e-Zan (Women's Message) in 1981. Through this magazine RAWA has been projecting the cause of Afghan women boldly and effectively. Payam-e-Zan has constantly exposed the criminal nature of fundamentalist groups. Meena also established Watan Schools for refugee children, a hospital and handicraft centers for refugee women in Pakistan to support Afghan women financially. At the end of 1981, by invitation of the French Government Meena represented the Afghan resistance movement at the French Socialist Party Congress. The Soviet delegation at the Congress, headed by Boris Ponamaryev, shamefacedly left the hall as participants cheered when Meena started waving a victory sign. Besides France, she also visited several other European countries and met their prominent personalities. Her active social work and effective advocacy against the views of the fundamentalists and the puppet regime provoked the wrath of the Russians and the fundamentalist forces alike and she was assassinated by agents of KHAD (Afghanistan branch of KGB) and their fundamentalist accomplices in Quetta, Pakistan, on February 4,1987. Meena gave 12 years of her short but brilliant life to struggle for her homeland and her people. She had a strong belief that despite the darkness of illiteracy, ignorance of fundamentalism, and corruption and decadence of sell outs imposed on our women under the name of freedom and equality, finally that half of population will be awaken and cross the path towards freedom, democray and women's rights. The enemy was rightly shivering with fear by the love and respect that Meena was creating within the hearts of our people. They knew that within the fire of her fights all the enemies of freedom, democracy and women would be turned to ashes

Bursting Beauty by MC ~Pain discolored my life once - today that brought forth character, strength and yes, even beauty~
From "Visual Voices Against Violence" art exhibit created by survivors of domestic violence

You have these rights in the USA (regardless of your immigration status!):Say you want to see a lawyer.You do not have to sign any paper without a lawyer with you.You do not have to let the police, FBI, INS or anyone else come into your house without a "warrant" (special paper froma judge). Tell your roommates not to let them in without a warrant.You do not have to answer any questions about your immigration.

When the bananeras of Latin America, with their male allies, explicitly integrate gender equity into their organizing work as essential to effective labor internationalism-when they refuse to separate the global struggle against transnational corporations from the formidable efforts at home to achieve equity and respect-they inspire all of us to envision a new framework for internationalism that places women's human rights at the center of global class politics.

The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined non-conformists who are dedicated to justice peace, and human hood.

picture of affects of global warming..but, they say there is no such thing~blank stare~
national geographic