AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Thursday, August 31, 2006 ----- BODY:

Actually the title of this one has nothing to do with this article, really, apart from the fact that it's about a postal worker. But I have an obsessive love of crappy jokes and by god I'm gonna use 'em!

Some time ago I blogged about the intention by Royal Mail to franchise out crown Post Offices to the bookseller WH Smith. Fortunately, there are real signs of a fightback, with protests against this being held across England and Wales and a planned ballot for industrial action on the cards. This issue is part of a wider story, involving the opening up of Britain's postal market to competition, including competition from postal companies based in other countries. CWU general secretary Billy Hayes wrote quite a good article on the consequences of this a few months ago. Hayes is an old-fashioned Labour soft-left type, and not entirely opposed to commercialisation of public services, but nonetheless the article is worth reading. This bit in particular is worth highlighting:

"The effect of allowing private operators to cherry-pick profitable contracts
without any "social" obligation will be to cut Royal Mail's income. This will
see the company looking to replace the subsidy it in effect received from the
profitable side of the business by raising stamp prices and cutting the
workforce. As Royal Mail loses market share to entrants that do not have to bear
the fixed costs of providing a universal service, its revenues will shrink
relative to its costs. Royal Mail will have to support the same infrastructure
of mail-distribution centres and delivery vans, and its only option will be to
cut costs."

As Hayes says, this is the result of business mail being the profitable part of the service, and therefore the part that subsidises the more important part of the postal service - the delivery of ordinary letters and parcels. And his predictions of Royal Mail seeking to cut costs by cutting the workforce is coming to pass, as this article off the Socialist Party's website shows. The franchising out of mail delivery to a private bookseller is but a small part of this process, one designed to destroy the idea of a publicly-owned universal postal service and replace it with a free market free-for-all in which the universal service becomes gradually undermined. As a result of the policies being implemented, there is growing anger and resistance among postal workers.

Apart from cutting the workforce and attacking their pay and conditions, the Royal Mail is also attempting to find income from other sources. And this leads on the story of Roger Annies, which illustrates both the current rebellious mood of many postal workers and the sheer lunacy of privatisation as a process. Mr Annies decided to give his customers a leaflet he had himself designed in order to inform them about Royal Mail's internal 'opting-out' procedure whereby customers can fill out a slip advising Royal Mail that they do not want junk mail delivered to their door. This was unsurprisingly a popular service for the customers in the South Wales area where Roger Annies works - junk mail is in most cases a complete waste of time and frequently annoying for many. However, as Annies notes in his leaflet, Royal Mail is planning to "increase your advertising mail". The reason is very simple - Royal Mail makes a great deal of money out of having contracts with firms to deliver unwanted and unaddressed mail, the postal equivalent of cold calling, to residents.

And it was because of this reason that Roger Annies has been suspended from his job for "alleged misconduct" i.e. giving his customers a popular service by telling them about Royal Mail's policies, something the Mail should be doing themselves anyway. But of course, because the Mail needs to make cash due to the opening up of postal services, it is in their interest to not tell their customers how to opt out of getting junk mail. And that, comrades, is how barmy, and how contrary to the basic concept of public service, privatisation actually is.

UPDATEE: It turns out that the opt-out on junk mail offered by the Royal Mail actually only lasts for one year, thus necessitating constant annual renewal. Something else that they don't advertise... See here for more details. Scroll down to the comments.

-------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Monday, August 28, 2006 ----- BODY:

Stroppy tagged me for this particular viral whatever-it-is, which is nice except that answering 'what books did x for you' type questions has never struck me as being terribly interesting. Now one on music would have been great, but truth be told (and this will sound terrible to some I know) books have never been that important to me. Only in my childhood, when I used to spend copious amounts of time reading anthologies of old horror stories, have books ever been a central part of my life. Nowadays, although I still do lots of reading, it tends to be articles of one sort or another that I read, and when I do read a book a lot of the time I dip into one to look for info on a specific thing rather than read it cover to cover.

Still, there are some exceptions, and the next few questions will probably tell you what they are.

One book that changed my life
Moab is my Washpot by Stephen Fry, surely the best book about growing up ever written, and one that genuinely caused me to reassess life in general, to be honest. In political terms, tribute should be paid to Lenin's The State and Revolution which pretty much clarified for me what we revolutionaries are fighting for, and also a book, the title and author of which escapes me, which I picked up while rummaging around in Dundee University library where I was doing my undergraduate degree at the time. The book itself was some academic discussion of industrial theory I think (you know all that Fordism and post-Fordism stuff) but what struck me was that it gave a very restrained and sober analysis of the possibilities of capitalism coming to an end in the near future, and plausibly suggested that it was very possible. Up until then I was dismissive of the left in general, saw myself as a centrist, and longed for the day when Tony Blair would win the general election and sweep John Major out of office. That book started the political road I took that led to me eventually joining the SWP. Wish I could remember the title...

One book that you've read more than once
I can't think of a single book that I've read from cover to cover more than once. Books I've dipped into to read bits of again, yes, plenty of those. But no, not a whole book all over again. Frankly I wouldn't have the patience. Mind you, there is one author whose stories I would read over and over again just because he's that good and that is the inestimable (and, to be honest, horribly, horribly, reactionary) H. P. Lovecraft.

One book you'd want on a desert island
That is an aspie-unfriendly question if ever I heard one! Why would I want a book on a desert island, as opposed to anywhere else? Anyway, what kind of desert island? Are we talking about one with palm trees and fruit everywhere, and sunny beaches, or an 8 by 8 strip of wasteland? I've always assumed the question means that if I were only able to read one book and only that one book during the rest of my life, then which book would it be? It'd have to be something I haven't read yet to be honest - and which one to choose I really wouldn't know where to start.

One book that made you laugh
Oh an easy one. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pretty obvious answer, really. I mean, anyone who didn't laugh at Hitch Hiker is clearly an UTTER LOSER!! The very idea of keeping a straight face with that one, I mean, sheesh...

One book that made you cry
Song lyrics make me cry, not books. Sorry.

One book you wish you had written
I have never read a book and then wished I had written it. Mind you, I do harbour ambitions of writing some publishable material myself, although whether I'll get round to it I don't know.

One book you wish had never been written
Well I could say something obvious here like Mein Kampf but I won't. I suppose that any right-wing apologetics for capitalism, imperialism or racism, really. I won't name any names, suffice to say that I've never read any of them. I have dipped into a few of them, generally very quickly come to the conclusion: "What a load of old shite" and put them back on the shelf.

One book you're currently reading
Have been looking through the Lucian Seve archive on the Marxists Internet Archive. He was talking about the need for a Marxist theory of personality. Also reading The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, I think the 2005 edition. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it's an annual collection of new short horror stories, edited by a bloke called Stephen Jones.

One book you've been meaning to read
Well, list as long as my arm there, to be honest. The ones that come to my mind straight away are Paul Foot's The Vote, How it was won etc. (long title) and Christopher Hill's The World Turned Upside Down. Reading more of these top range texts is something I really know I should do, the fact that I haven't actually makes me feel guilty. One day I'll settle down somewhere (I hope) rather than go from bedsit to flat to student accom to flat, as I have been so far. Then I can build a library.

Five people to tag
Five? Oh for fuck's sake. Look I'm going to go with three. The first is Lenin's Tomb (he's probably been asked ten times already but what the hell), then there's Amanda Baggs at Ballastexistenz, and finally the Autistic Bitch from Hell.

Do you know, I actually enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would? Thanks, Stroppy.

-------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Saturday, August 26, 2006 ----- BODY:

It was reported in the news today that nations' representatives at the UN have agreed a wide-ranging and legally-binding UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This in itself is fantastic news, as it signifies the extent to which disability rights issues have entered the mainstream. The question is how good is the final document? After some rummaging around, I have found the full text of the draft treaty that was presented to the final session of talks on the Convention that have just taken place. This is not necessarily the final document, it should be stressed, and various revisions could have been undertaken during that final session. This text is available in its entirety here, and it is a very good one on the face of it. Of particular importance to my mind are the following two points. The first comes under the heading of 'General Principles' (it's Article 3), one of which is:

(d) Respect for difference and acceptance of disability as part of human
diversity and humanity

The other is Article 17, which states:

Article 17
Protecting the integrity of the person

1. States Parties shall protect the integrity of the person or persons with
disabilities on an equal basis with others.

2. States Parties shall protect persons with disabilities from forced
interventions or forced institutionalization aimed at correcting, improving or alleviating any actual or perceived impairment.

3. In cases of medical emergency or issues of risk to public health
involving involuntary interventions, persons with disabilities shall be treated
on an equal basis with others.

[4. States Parties shall ensure that involuntary treatment of persons with
disabilities is:
(a) Minimized through the active promotion of alternatives;
(b) Undertaken only in exceptional circumstances, in accordance with procedures established by law and with the application of appropriate legal safeguards;
(c) Undertaken in the least restrictive setting possible, and
that the best interests of the person concerned are fully taken into account;
(d) Appropriate for the person and provided without financial cost
to the individual receiving the treatment or to his or her family.]

The last paragraph is in square brackets, which may indicate that this paragraph was added later, or is in some doubt. Personally I can't tell. The declaration that disability is to be respected as part of human diversity, and that to seek to treat a disability without their consent is an attack on their integrity as a person, is of vital importance. One can be against discrimination in terms of employment, education, access to services, and so on, but unless one recognises that the disability is a part of the individual, and should not be tampered with or altered in order to suit the prejudices and preferences of the majority, one cannot truly count oneself as in favour of the rights of the disabled. To claim that you believe in equality and respect for all persons, and then in the next breath to talk of the importance of finding 'cures' for disabilities, is to contradict yourself, pure and simple. The rights of the disabled must include the right to be disabled and to be part of the disabled community.

However, paragraph 4 is in my view a very dangerous one, and one I hope has been excised from the final draft (unfortunately not available online yet as far as I can tell). It allows forced treatment in "exceptional circumstances" without specifying what they are. The rest, about how such treatment should take place in the "least restrictive setting possible", and that the use of such treatment should be minimised and where possible replaced with alternatives, is equally vague. Without specifying under what circumstances such treatment is permissable, then it is almost inevitable that people with certain severe disabilities will continue to be institutionalised and 'treated' against their will.

For autistic people this is particularly the case. There is an air of something close to open season against autistics these days, with organisations like Autism Speaks, Generation Rescue and even the group of parents in Canada who tried to get free access to intensive ABA for all autistic children, pushing the line that autism is devastating, in a way no other disability is, and that only treatment and a cure can prevent autistic people from being forever a burden to society. By allowing forced treatment under "exceptional circumstances", the activities and goals of such groups are in no way undermined by this Convention, as they will simply argue that the sheer (supposed) horror of being severely autistic in itself constitutes such "exceptional circumstances".

There is also another much broader problem, which is simply that although UN Conventions such as this one are legally binding, that in itself does not say much. The UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of thought and conscience, free speech and freedom of assembly and association, has been ratified by such paragons of human rights as North Korea, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and Israel. The similarly legally-binding Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has, amongst its signatories, Afghanistan, which signed in 1983 and where women have been systematically denied a right to education as specified in the Covenant. The fact is, although such treaties have in theory the force of law, there is in practice no enforcing mechanism. And indeed, how could there be? The UN isn't going to take military action against every state that fails to honour its treaty obligations! The only way that the rights of the disabled will be genuinely vindicated is if disabled people themselves fight together to seize their rights, not by relying on the supposed good intentions of political elites.

This isn't to say that this treaty is totally insignificant. Far from it - its importance lies in the fact that it signifies a recognition on the part of those elites of the importance of responding to these issues. Its usefulness lies in the fact that such a convention, and specifically the provisions above, make a powerful argument for activists fighting for the idea of 'disability pride', as it shows that such a concept has been accepted by the UN, no matter how toothless it may be as an instrument of implementation.

-------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Thursday, August 24, 2006 ----- BODY:

This article turned up on Lenin's Tomb recently, and it's so amazingly and unfathomably brilliant that I thought I'd reprint it here. The article is written by a certain Mr. Ted Ralls, who I believe is an American satirist. It's taken off the Information Clearing House, one of the myriads of anti-establishment websites that I've only vaguely heard of. The link is here. Here are the choicest and most informative bits:

"You know the U.S. has gone Third World when bombed-out Lebanese get a
better deal than we do. Remember how hurricane victims couldn't get through to
FEMA's perpetually busy hotline? Promising that Hezbollah personnel "in the
towns and villages will turn to those whose homes are badly damaged and help
rebuild them," Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah ordered Hezbollah militants to canvass
damaged neighborhoods and begin repairs at once. Hezbollah gives out "decent and
suitable furniture" and a year's free rent to all Lebanese who lost their homes.
Unlike the racist government officials who managed the botched response along
the Gulf Coast last year, where whites were rescued while blacks were shot, the
Shiite terrorist group's offer also applies to Sunnis, Christians and even
Jews.

"Hezbollah's reputation as an efficient grass-roots social service
network," reported the Times, "was in evidence everywhere. Young men with
walkie-talkies and clipboards were in the battered Shiite neighborhoods on the
southern edge of Bint Jbail, taking notes on the extent of the damage. Hezbollah
men also traveled door to door checking on residents and asking them what help
they needed." With terrorists like that, who needs FEMA?

A year after Katrina, officials are still pulling bodies out of the rubble.
Dozens of corpses remain unidentified; the president, governor and mayor
continue to pass the blame for their willful inaction. George W. Bush still
refuses to accept responsibility. Just one day after the Lebanese ceasefire,
however, Sheikh Nasrallah had already delivered a thorough accounting of the
damage caused by Israel's bombing campaign and launched a comprehensive
rebuilding program. "So far," said the Hezbollah leader, "the initial count
available to us on completely demolished houses exceeds 15,000 residential
units. We cannot of course wait for the government and its heavy vehicles and
machinery because they could be a while."

As often occurs during emergencies in the U.S., price gouging for housing,
water, gasoline and other essentials was rampant during and after Katrina. Bush
did nothing. Nasrallah, by contrast, warned businesses not to exploit the
situation: "No one should raise prices due to a surge in demand."

-------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Thursday, August 24, 2006 ----- BODY:

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

-------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Thursday, August 24, 2006 ----- BODY:

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

-------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Sunday, August 20, 2006 ----- BODY:

Well, it's about time I had an autism post, this being one of the main subjects of this blog (see the tagline above). So let me introduce you all to Estee Klar, the founder and director of the Autism Acceptance Project (or TAAProject). Based in Canada, this initiative is essentially a kind of consciousness awareness outfit which, to quote its mission statement, seeks to work "towards achieving acceptance and tolerance of autistic people in society". It aims to do this primarily via sponsoring conferences, exhibitions and public lectures on the subject of, essentially, why autism, even in its most severe form, is not the devastating tragedy that it is commonly made out to be.

The TAAProject is currently putting together a set of such lectures and art exhibitions under the title of 'The Joy of Autism', to be held in Toronto. The art exhibition will be in the Lonsdale Gallery from October 5 to November 5, while the lectures will run from October 10 to 12 and then on the 16th, and will be in the Al Green Theatre. For more details go to the home page, which I've linked to above. I've had a look at the listings and the speakers at the lectures (the most important part of the shindig in my opinion) will include some of the big names in autism rights activism, such as Montreal University researcher Michelle Dawson, head of ANI Jim Sinclair, and American psychologist Morton Ann Gernsbacher. It promises to be an absolutely fascinating set of talks, and I only wish I was able to go to Canada for it. Anyone who is in a position to go to Toronto this autumn should definitely make a beeline there for early-to-mid October. Tickets are being sold on the TAAProject home page.

Such initiatives are hugely important in my view, as the autistic pride movement (much better phrase I think than the much vaguer 'autism rights movement') has largely been confined up till now to the certainly very autistic practice of individuals propagandising on the web from their home PCs. There has been very little actual activism, although a few initiatives have taken place. Certainly, the movement has had something of an impact, with several articles discussing the ideas it is putting forward. However, even a million blogs are not going to change the world, and real-world initiatives such as the Joy of Autism event are hugely important. Consciousness-raising is only one aspect of this though, and if there is one point on which I would critique it, is that it is not terribly political. Beyond the idea that autistics are not suffering from a devastating disease and should be accepted by society, it is weak analytically. Having said that, at this point in time, making it as broad as possible is undoubtedly the best way forward.

Nonetheless, it is not enough in itself. Some on the blogosphere have been talking about the need for more activism on the ground, and my view is that for this to be effective activism, we need organisation on quite a large scale. We need in short to revert to traditional activist methods - the democratically controlled mass organisation, the demos, the pickets and protests, the public stalls and leafleting in public places, and all the rest of it. Unoriginal it may be, but history has shown that these methods work. This will be a challenge for would-be autistic activists, many of whom have issues with sensory stimuli and socialising which would make such things difficult. Nonetheless, I'm an optimist, and believe that if it is possible to structure large conferences in ways that do not cause autistics to suffer overload, then it should be possible to apply the same principles to any other activity.

Finally, please read this article by Ms Klee on her website, which I think does a great job of summing up the issues and the autistic pride perspective.

I'm particularly interested, if there are any of my fellow SWP members reading this, on getting their comments on these issues. Our party has not as far as I'm aware, had any substantial debate on disability rights and disability pride, of which autism pride is a subset. So I'm very interested in comments from that angle. Any takers?

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

abfh COMMENT-DATE:3:29 PM COMMENT-BODY:Thaks for reminding me that I should write a post about the TAAProject lectures and exhibition, too. This initiative is indeed a big step forward for the cause, and it needs to be publicized as widely as possible.

I'd also like to remind readers that even if they cannot attend, they should consider sending a donation to help TAAProject fund future events. Even small amounts can add up to make a difference. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Sharon McDaid COMMENT-DATE:8:16 PM COMMENT-BODY:Hi Red Aspie

I like the blog; had a good read through the other day.

Have you any thoughts on the local (NI) autism organisations like PAPA (terrible name I know) and the NAS.
Do you think they could be used in an effort to re-educate people in this region? (I'm near Belfast.) -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:26 PM COMMENT-BODY:Hi Sharon. Not sure how useful such organisations are really, and I don't know much about PAPA. The thing is that such organisations are charities, and what I'm arguing is a political argument for the demedicalising of autism, and for the concept of 'neurodiversity'. Whether the NAS and other broad organisations are the best places to be or whether we need some kind of separate, much more directly political 'autistic pride' organisation is probably a very long debate in itself. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:5:19 PM COMMENT-BODY:Oh sorry you had to register! I thought my blog allowed anonymous comments. I'll fix that immediately.

I'm a little worried about sticking my email address on the website to be honest, as I suspect I'll get loads of spam.

Where are you based? -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:8:18 PM COMMENT-BODY:Yes, quite possibly. I'm not so keen myself to be honest. If you have an email address maybe I can email you?

I'm actually considering installing haloscan on this thing at some point actually. You don't need to log on or anything for that. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:12 PM COMMENT-BODY:An autism rights groups in Birmingham would be an idea worth considering. I intend to move to London in a couple of months, provided all goes to plan, and I'll hopefully be able to do something similar in London. -------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 ----- BODY:

We are now one day into the ceasefire in the Lebanon, and it seems to be holding, allowing people to return to the homes they fled from at the start of the conflict. This is good news in itself, but there are a number of reasons to suspect that this conflict is not yet over.

First of all, it is important to acknowledge one very important fact - Hezbollah won. They withstood a massive onslaught from the IDF, prevented the Israelis from advancing towards the Litani River, and gained the support of the Lebanese people and of Arabs across the region. Furthermore, Israel knows this, which is why there is now such a crisis in Israel. The future of Prime Minister Olmert and his government is now in some doubt. Furthermore, the Lebanese people are aware of this, and are celebrating. And the governments of Syria and Iran are shouting it from the rooftops. Israel failed in its attempts to get an armed multinational taskforce into the Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah on Israel's behalf. Instead they will have to deal with a Chapter 6 UN force, without authorisation or, presumably, the arsenal to use force. Nor does the UN resolution call for Hezbollah's disarming. What has happened is thus very clear: the IDF were battered about the head by Hezbollah and forced into a humiliating climbdown. There is even talk in Israel of opening negotiations with Syria.

So where does this leave us? There has been a lot of speculation about the aims of Israel's war, and I myself indulged in this in an earlier post, inspired by an article by Uri Avnery, which argued that it was a long-standing aim of Israel to have a puppet government in charge in Beirut. There has been talk a plenty over at Lenin's Tomb that Israel wanted to occupy the south of the Lebanon and seize control of the Litani River, an idea that George Monbiot is dismissive of. It is also widely believed that Washington saw this as a stepping stone to war with Iran or even Syria. I seem to recall making the point that it is a mistake to see the actors in any such saga as unified billiard-ball entities and that within national and international elites there are factions and tendencies with differing and sometimes conflicting aims. Once can imagine some in the Israeli elites seeing the Litani, or even Beirut, as objectives. One can imagine the neocons and possibly others in Washington, as imagining this in terms of preparing the ground work for a wider assault on the 'axis of evil'. However, what is important is that all these different goals required the defeat of Hezbollah, and instead it has emerged considerably strengthened.

There may be some who see this as meaning that the hawks in Washington and Tel Aviv have been undermined, but that is not necessarily the case. Olmert may be in trouble, but the most likely beneficiary is Netanyahu, uber-hardline leader of Likud. And in Washington, there does not appear to be much sign of anxiety. Indeed one can almost hear the calculation that the PNAC brigade are making: Olmert proved to be unreliable, too gentle, too pragmatic, too weak. Netanyahu and the right are now clearly the way forward, and once they are in power, then the fun can begin again, with twice the ferocity. It seems likely that this will have been a prelude to something much greater.

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Julaybib COMMENT-DATE:5:56 AM COMMENT-BODY:I recall an ultra right wing Zionist lecturer at Leeds Uni - Nina Collins - interupting a tutorial on ancient Near East geography as it pertained to the Book of Daniel to proclaim that Israel should expand its borders by x number of miles for some military defence purpose I didn't quite comprehend - apparently, it would give sufficient time for Israeli fighter to scramble once enemy aircraft crossing below radar into Israeli air space were spotted. I'm not sufficient informed about such matters to know whether this argument is even sane. I suspect Nina was barking, although anyone who can compete a PhD in two years deserves some respect.

Wasalaam

TMA -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:8:05 PM COMMENT-BODY:Anyone who completes a PhD in two years is obviously not human if you ask me (speaking as one who has done a PhD). And yes she very obviously is completely mad. The idea doesn't even make logical sense - once the enemy aircraft are in Israeli airspace, then they're in Israeli airspace, and expanding the number of miles Israel owns won't change the length of time it takes for planes to scramble. So the idea just doesn't make sense. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Tom COMMENT-DATE:10:48 PM COMMENT-BODY:Hmm. If this causes Israelis to elect another Likud-based government this could really suck. We'll have to see.

I think Israel won out of this too, because it is in their long term interest to become more peaceful in the way they behave.

A victory for peace, I'd say.

Julaybib, I can't understand the logic of her reasoning; surely if Israel expanded it would have to guard the part it expanded into too?

Doesn't sound that smart to me... -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Redaspie COMMENT-DATE:1:01 PM COMMENT-BODY:That's the problem, El Tom. The response of the hardliners to this won't be to cave in, but to say that Israel needs to strike harder and more broadly. Take the war to Tehran and all that. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Minge COMMENT-DATE:2:58 PM COMMENT-BODY:It's all got rather nasty. The Israelis should elect a woman PM to see if that would make a difference. -------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Tom COMMENT-DATE:1:13 AM COMMENT-BODY:Yeah, Israeli hardliners really piss me off. When will their public get the message?

They will only live in peace once they themselves are peaceful.

Thanks for your post at mine, by the way. I have responded.

Peace. -------- AUTHOR: Redaspie DATE: Thursday, August 10, 2006 ----- BODY:

Yesterday was a very exciting day for Derry activists, who successfully stormed the Raytheon plant in Derry, wrecking the computers in the place and tossing all their documentation out of the window. Full details of the occupation can be found here. I was there in my morning, before I had to hurry off to work, so missed most of the action. I understand the police cordoned off the immediate area and that in fact it took the whole day to get the nine involved out of the building. Among the nine is Eamonn McCann, who was actually filmed talking to the TV crews from the window. If you can get it to work (my computer just blocks it as a pop-up) you might want to click on the link to the right of the BBC article and play the RealVideo footage of the protest. McCann and the others are now under arrest, and there were apparently bail hearings this morning. According to the latest reports, they were remanded in custody rather than getting bail. Which frankly is a surprise and more than a little worrying.

On vaguely related news, worldwide alerts are declared at airports! I'm not going into the details of this, as anyone not living in a hole in a forest would be aware of this situation after today. We don't know of course, at this stage, whether there was actually a plot of any real description, and past events (tanks at Heathrow, the ricin 'plot', the Charles de Menezes and Forestgate shootings) should give us cause to be suspicious. Of course, equally as 7/7 showed us, the danger is a ral one, and I'm not going to complain about the arrests made today if there was actually a plot. But why up the threat level to 'critical' and cause all this disruption to the airports after making the arrests? John Reid in one of his press conferences stated that he was satisfied that all the main players in this supposed plot were under arrest, something backed up by the BBC report. One gets the feeling that, whatever the truth of the matter, the powers that be are milking this for all the propaganda mileage they can get out of it.

-------- COMMENT-AUTHOR:

Anonymous COMMENT-DATE:9:10 AM COMMENT-BODY:Looking for information and found it at this great site... » » » --------