November 21, 2008
March 18, 2008
Latest news on Tibet
Now they're scrambling to react, with their revered spiritual figurehead, the Dalai Lama, saying he will resign as leader of Tibet's government-in-exile if violence committed by Tibetans in his homeland spirals out of control.
It's a warning he has used before. During unrest in 1989, for instance, he told Tibetans to return to peaceful protests. But there are deep divisions in the Tibetan community over the Dalai Lama's pacifist approach and an angry young generation's calls to action.
While the situation inside Tibet remained unclear, much of last week's violence appeared to have been committed by Tibetans — a fact that clearly troubled the 72-year-old leader, who has long called for Tibetans to have significant autonomy within China
"Whether we like it or not, we have to live together side by side," the Dalai Lama told reporters in the northern Indian hill town of Dharmsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. "We must oppose Chinese policy but not the Chinese. Not on a racist basis."
Today in Asia - Pacific
Though clearly fearful of the Chinese crackdown that has followed the protests — he compared the plight of Tibetans to that of "a young deer in a tiger's hands" — the Dalai Lama insisted he could not abide any violence by his own people.
"If things become out of control," he said, his "only option is to completely resign."
An aide later clarified that the Dalai Lama meant he would step down as the political leader — not as the supreme religious leader of all Tibetan Buddhists.
Still, his urging Tibetans to work with the Chinese stood in stark contrast to the "Free Tibet" chants of thousands of Tibetan youths, Buddhist monks and nuns who have marched up the steep paths of Dharmsala in recent days, their angry faces painted with Tibetan flags and bare chests smeared with blood-red paint.
They want action, not diplomacy. They want independence, not autonomy.
"I appeal to the protesters in Tibet to continue in their protests until China gets out of Tibet," said Tsewang Rigzin, head of the Tibetan Youth Congress.
While hesitant to directly criticize the Dalai Lama — who is deeply revered among Tibetans — and careful not to endorse violence, the younger activists warned that patience with his approach is running thin.
They believe the Dalai Lama is squandering a golden opportunity by not opposing China hosting the Olympics.
"We have to seize the opportunity of the Olympics," said Rigzin. "We have to shift the spotlight while the whole world is watching to show the true color of China."
To grab the world's attention, the Youth Congress and other groups decided to organize a march from Dharmsala to Tibet and started it on March 10 — just before Beijing was to launch its Olympic celebrations with a torch run through Tibet, and the anniversary of the 1959 failed uprising against China that forced the Dalai Lama to flee to exile in India.
When Indian authorities stopped the first march days after it began, the exiles started a second.
It is a far more confrontational attempt than the Dalai Lama would prefer. He called on them Tuesday to abandon the march, saying it would only spark confrontation with Chinese troops at the border.
He asked: "Will you get independence? What's the use?"
More disheartening for the Dalai Lama and his inner circle has been the violence in the unrest in Tibet and Chinese provinces with large Tibetan populations.
As the first march got under way in India last week, monks began holding peaceful protests in Lhasa, Tibet's capital. But the protests soon spread and turned violent, with Tibetans attacking China's majority ethnic Han Chinese. Beijing has encouraged the Han to settle in Tibet, where they are deeply resented.
China says 16 people were killed in Tibet before the situation was brought under control Saturday. Tibetan exiles say more than 80 people died.
While Beijing claims the Dalai Lama orchestrated the violence, he and other Tibetan groups insist the protests in Tibet were the spontaneous result of mounting resentment against Chinese rule — not of any action by the exiles.
"I'm sure they heard about our march. The news had been sent out. But I don't want to take credit, no credit at all," said Rigzin of the Youth Congress.
The turmoil in Tibet has also laid bare Tibetans' inability to capitalize on the intense exposure to their cause or to extract concessions from China.
"We are helpless," said Samdhong Rinpoche, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
There has been little coordination. The protests that have sprung up in cities worldwide have been spontaneous, organized by local Tibetan groups and sympathizers, said B. Tsering, head of the Tibetan Women's Association, which is taking part in the march to Tibet.
The Dalai Lama says that he understands young people's frustrations and that disagreements are proof that the democratic values he has pushed for among Tibetans have taken root.
But he insists his path is the only one that can save Tibet from "cultural genocide" in the face of massive Chinese migration and religious restrictions.
"Our only strengths are justice and truth," he said. "Force is immediate, But the effects of truth sometimes take longer."
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2. Poll: Tibet policy hurting China's image internationally | |
| LONDON (AP) - China's policies in Tibet are hurting the country's image internationally, according to a six-country poll published Tuesday as violent clashes in the region threaten to overshadow the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. search.aol.com/ | |
March 17, 2008
Activism: War Resisters League - Shut down the IRS
SHUT DOWN THE IRS / SHUT DOWN THE WAR
On March 19, 2008, we will set up a nonviolent blockade of the national Internal Revenue Service headquarters in Washington, DC, as part of the day of actions against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Just as military recruiters supply the bodies for the war, the IRS supplies the funding. Just as some soldiers have the courage to resist the war, we — as tax payers — should have the courage to resist paying the taxes that send soldiers to war. We call on all war opponents to help dramatize our opposition and to disrupt business as usual by joining this nonviolent blockade.
For at least this one day — March 19, 2008 — we need to create a disturbance in the smug complacency of the IRS/Pentagon money-axis.
We will gather in our affinity groups at 7 am on Wednesday morning, March 19, at McPherson Sq., 15th & K Sts. NW. From these areas we will march — with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra — to the IRS main entrance at 1111 Constitution Ave. (at 12th Street), NW, and across from the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History. Once at the entrance, some of us will sit down to prevent the IRS from opening as usual, while others will hold signs and banners, pass out flyers, talk with passersby, and generally call attention to the cost of the war and our collective responsibility to stop funding it.
Legal Information
Click on this 5yearstoomany link to find a summary of legal information for Washington, DC, particular for those risking arrest.
Also, be sure to look at these other legal resources:
"Dealing with the Police” by the Midnight Special Law Collective
“Demonstration Manual — Know Your Rights!” by the DC Justice & Solidarity Collective
Nonviolence Guidelines
For the purpose of building trust and a common foundation for safety, and ensure that we act in the spirit of nonviolence, participants in the action agree to the following:
• Our attitude will be one of openness and respect toward people we encounter.
• We will not use physical violence or verbal abuse toward any person.
• We will not damage any property.
• We will not bring or use any alcohol or drugs other than for medical purposes.
• We will not carry weapons.
Affinity Groups & Nonviolence Training
March 16 (Sunday), Manhattan, Local 1199, 330 W. 42 St., 9th floor, 1 - 4 pm
March 17 (Monday), Washington, DC, Warehouse Theatre, 1017 7th St. NW, two sessions: 1- 4:30 pm, and 6 - 9 pm
March 18 (Tuesday), Washington, DC, Warehouse Theatre, 1017 7th St. NW, noon - 3 pm
FINAL AFFINITY GROUP MEETING: March 18 (Tuesday), Washington, DC, Warehouse Theatre, 1017 7th St. NW (near New York Ave.), 6 - 8 pm
Transportation and Housing
The United for Peace & Justice has set up a ride board and a housing board at its 5yearstoomany Web site.
Mass housing available Sunday night (Mar. 16) through Tuesday night (Mar. 18). If you need housing, please email Leslie Harris at jharris866@aol.com. Make sure to include your name, email, cell phone number, and which nights you will need housing. All housing available is floor space— please bring a sleeping bag and anything else you need. UfPJ also has a list of affordable housing in DC.
Public Buses from NYC: For Greyhound, there is an E-ticket discount (the code is NYDCR). The two main Chinatown bus companies leave from 88 East Broadway (near "East Broadway" stop on the F train). Apex has buses at 7 AM, 8, 9:45, 10, 11, 1 PM, 1:30, 3, 4 pm, drop off at 610 I Street NW in Washington, DC. New Century leaves at 7, 8, 9, 10:50, 1:30 and 3 pm drop off at 513 H NW in DC. Both buses are $20 each way and drop off near the METRO (Gallery Place). Greyhound leaves from the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 7 am, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1 pm, 2, 3, 4 and is $22 each way, if you use an E-ticket. The terminal in DC is at 1005 I St. NE, which is not close to a METRO station.
Sponsoring Organizations
War Resisters League, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, Socialist Party USA/NYC, Ground Zero for Peace, Jonah House, Brooklyn for Peace, Green Party of Brooklyn, Park Slope Greens, Witness Against Torture, National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, Ya-Ya Network, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS Staten Island, Jacksonville MDS, MDS Austin, Central Florida MDS, SF Bay Area chapters), Kairos, Raging Grannies/NYC, Granny Peace Brigade/NYC, Mouths Wide Open, ART, Artists Against the War, The Critical Voice, New York Collective of Radical Educators (list in formation)
March 13-16, Winter Soldier: UFPJ is committed to providing major support to Iraq Veterans Against the War and its Winter Soldier hearings in Washington, DC, on March 13-16. We will help local groups plan events that directly link to and amplify the Winter Soldier hearings, where those who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Iraqis and Afghans, will tell the nation the real story of this war.
March 19, Mass Nonviolent Direct Action in Washington, DC: UFPJ has initiated the planning and organizing for what we hope will be the largest day of nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience yet against the war in Iraq. We encourage people to be in Washington, DC, on March 19th to be part of the civil disobedience, or to assist in support work. We are working to have all 50 states represented in this massive action.
March 19, Local Actions Throughout the Country: We encourage those who are not able to make it to Washington on March 19 to organize local actions. These actions may vary in location or character, but they will all be tied to the protest in Washington and all sending a message to the policy makers: It is time to end this war and occupation!
For more information, go to www.5yearstoomany.org.
How to Get Involved
For more information about this action, to become a sponsor, or to learn how to get involved, e-mail us or call 718-768-7306.
cartoon by Rini Templeton
March 16, 2008
On Occupied Palestine . Starhawk's Denied Entry
Denied Entry
By Starhawk
Occupied Territories of the West Bank of Palestine with a group of
volunteers from the International Solidarity Movement, which supports
nonviolent resistance against the Occupation. We had gone because the
villagers were being menaced by tanks from the Israeli military, and
wanted witnesses, but by the time we arrived, the tanks had gone. Instead
we wandered through the olive groves, studded with pink cyclamen and
blood-red anemones, and ate barbecued lamb in the courtyard of an ancient
stone house with domed ceilings and arched portals. It was a strangely
idyllic day—until on our way back to Nablus we got a call.
Down in Rafah, in the Gaza strip, a young volunteer named Rachel Corrie
had been crushed to death by a an Israeli military bulldozer as she
attempted to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family’s house.
Today I sit in a room in Washington D.C. overcome by grief as in the next
room my new friend Laurie writes out card after card with the names of the
dead—American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, pile after pile of them. I’m
grieving for all the dead, and a bit for myself, because I meant to be
back in Palestine, or at least in Israel, now. But I have been denied
entry and sent home, because of my past work with the ISM. I have been
denied entry, even though my intentions this time were strictly to work
with permaculture and ecology groups, including the three Israeli groups
that have sent me formal invitations, and even though Israel claims to be
a refuge of last resort for everyone born Jewish, as I am. The fact that
I’m here, not there, is a measure of how much the Israeli authorities fear
a movement of nonviolent resistance in general, and the ISM in particular.
Why is nonviolence so threatening? Violence attacks the body, but
nonviolence threatens something deeper and more tenuous—the
self-perceptions and rationalizations that let basically good people act
in cruel and heartless ways. The Israel/Palestine conflict enacts on a
mass scale some of the same dynamics as family abuse. Israel is like the
abused child who grows up to be an abuser.
Abusers generally feel like victims—and truly the Jewish people have been
victimized, again and again in history, culminating in the still unhealed
wounds of the Holocaust. Every rocket attack, every shooting spree in a
Yeshivah, every suicide bomb in a bus reinforces that sense of fear and
persecution that seems to cry out for violence in return.
Once in Germany I walked through an exhibition on the propaganda of the
Holocaust. One cartoon seemed to illuminate the dynamics of the current
conflict: a burly, blond, muscle-bound body-builder of a German clubbing
a weak, cringing, forelocked Jew. Israel was founded by a generation
that said, “Never again will we be the ones who cringe and get clubbed.”
Instead, she has spent sixty years on the Nautilus, building her military
muscle. But somewhere deep inside is still the perception that Israel is
tiny, fragile and weak and anyone who attacks her is the giant with the
club. And so the suffering of the Palestinians, the real disparities in
power, become invisible.
Nonviolence dramatizes and makes visible the true power differentials.
Week after week, unarmed Palestinians and their allies march to the Wall
to face tear gas, rubber bullets, clubs, and at times, live ammunition.
Women sit in front of bulldozers, children march out of school to confront
soldiers.
Nonviolence humanizes the enemy. When the Palestinians are seen as
‘animals’, as filled with blind, irrational, implacable hatred, it is easy
to hate them in turn and to justify every system of control and every
incursion. But nonviolence gives the enemy a face. Moreover, in the
demonstrations against the Wall and the peace camps set up in the
villages, Israeli peace groups often come to stand with their Palestinian
allies, shattering the myth that Israelis and Palestinians can never get
along, never collaborate or work together for common ends.
Abuse is perpetuated by secrecy and silence. The ISM and other peace
groups such as the Women’s International Peace Service and the Christian
Peacemaker Teams have brought thousands of witnesses into the places that
outsiders are not supposed to go: into refugee camps under siege, into
villages and streets and checkpoints and the daily, dehumanizing grind of
life under occupation. They witness, they write, they take pictures and
videos, and then they go home and talk to people. They go where the
mainstream media is unwilling to go, and tell the stories that are not
being told.
And the ISM, in particular, has heroes and martyrs. Working with the ISM,
I’ve been privileged to meet people of truly staggering courage—among whom
I do not rank myself. My own courage is middle rank. Yeah, I’ll stand in
front of a tank, but at the end if it doesn’t stop I’ll get out of the
way. I’ve known a woman who would walk up to artillery and put her hand
over the mouth of the gunbarrel. Rachel and her team stood out in front
of Palestinian wells, day after day, under fire from Israeli sniper towers
in the distance. Tom Hurndall ran under bullets to rescue children under
fire from Israeli snipers, who targeted and murdered him. And there are
many, many more.
I feel somewhat overrated to be counted among their company. My plans, as
I’ve said, were actually different this time. I had hoped to work with
the land, to teach some of the techniques of bioremediation that I know
and to learn from the many wonderful groups there. I feel great grief
that I cannot do that work. But if that is the price of my commitment to
justice and nonviolence, I am willing to pay it. It’s a tiny price,
indeed, a miniscule sacrifice, compared to those, like Rachel, who have
given their lives.
Starhawk
www.starhawk.org
October 02, 2007
Important Reminder
| When I Despair |
| When I despair, I remember that all through history, the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and, for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it, always. |
Mahatma Gandhi (October 2, 1869–January 30, 1948) Political and spiritual leader of India Pioneer of Satyagraha, resistance through mass civil disobedience strongly founded upon ahimsa, total nonviolence |
