Tag: protest

Remember, remember eleven september….1973


Salvador Allende’ last stand against the CIA-backed fascist coup of Pinochet!


My friends,

Surely this will be the last opportunity for me to address you. The Air Force has bombed the antennas of Radio Magallanes.

My words do not have bitterness but disappointment. May they be a moral punishment for those who have betrayed their oath: soldiers of Chile, titular commanders in chief, Admiral Merino, who has designated himself Commander of the Navy, and Mr. Mendoza, the despicable general who only yesterday pledged his fidelity and loyalty to the Government, and who also has appointed himself Chief of the Carabineros [paramilitary police].

Given these facts, the only thing left for me is to say to workers: I am not going to resign! Placed in a historic transition, I will pay for loyalty to the people with my life. And I say to them that I am certain that the seeds which we have planted in the good conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans will not be shriveled forever.

They have force and will be able to dominate us, but social processes can be arrested by neither crime nor force. History is ours, and people make history.

Workers of my country: I want to thank you for the loyalty that you always had, the confidence that you deposited in a man who was only an interpreter of great yearnings for justice, who gave his word that he would respect the Constitution and the law and did just that. At this definitive moment, the last moment when I can address you, I wish you to take advantage of the lesson: foreign capital, imperialism, together with the reaction, created the climate in which the Armed Forces broke their tradition, the tradition taught by General Schneider and reaffirmed by Commander Araya, victims of the same social sector who today are hoping, with foreign assistance, to re-conquer the power to continue defending their profits and their privileges.

I address you, above all, the modest woman of our land, the campesina who believed in us, the mother who knew our concern for children. I address professionals of Chile, patriotic professionals who continued working against the sedition that was supported by professional associations, classist associations that also defended the advantages of capitalist society. I address the youth, those who sang and gave us their joy and their spirit of struggle. I address the man of Chile, the worker, the farmer, the intellectual, those who will be persecuted, because in our country fascism has been already present for many hours — in terrorist attacks, blowing up the bridges, cutting the railroad tracks, destroying the oil and gas pipelines, in the face of the silence of those who had the obligation to act. They were committed. History will judge them.

Surely Radio Magallanes will be silenced, and the calm metal instrument of my voice will no longer reach you. It does not matter. You will continue hearing it. I will always be next to you. At least my memory will be that of a man of dignity who was loyal to his country.

The people must defend themselves, but they must not sacrifice themselves. The people must not let themselves be destroyed or riddled with bullets, but they cannot be humiliated either.

Workers of my country, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will overcome this dark and bitter moment when treason seeks to prevail. Go forward knowing that, sooner rather than later, the great avenues will open again and free men will walk through them to construct a better society.

Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!

These are my last words, and I am certain that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I am certain that, at the very least, it will be a moral lesson that will punish felony, cowardice, and treason.

Santiago (Chile), 11 September 1973 

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Violence is part of nature, right?


The political correct answer, especially in many new age groups would be : ‘no way, I’m a pacifist’

But:

Pacifism Vs. Rewilding states: “In order for things to live they have to eat, which means they have to kill. Whether you kill a plant or an animal, you use violence to do it. I don’t judge violence as “good” or “bad” because I see it as a simply function of nature…
Our culture conflates abuse with violence because those in power control us using violence or the threat of violence. To live as a domesticated human means to live by the wishes of rulers or face the consequences. Killing a life differs from torturing a life into submission. We have a name for that kind of violence; abuse.”

Remember: when the White Men came to Turtle Island, Hopi pacifism did not stop the domistication of the Native Americans, but the Lakota wars only delayed the inevitable.

Who was the most effective?

And then again:

When the Zionist entered Palestina, the Arabs responded in force when the Zionist state was founded.
Now the Native Palestine people are fighting their ghetto war in Gaza.

Time will tell who was the most effective….

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Shministim: Jews against Zionist agression


A few good humans can make a difference; a minyan can prevent disaster:

The Shministim are Israeli high school students who have been imprisoned for refusing to serve in an army that occupies the Palestinian Territories. December 18 marks the launch date of a global campaign to release them from jail. Join over 20,000 people including American conscientious objectors,Ronnie Gilbert, Adrienne Rich, Robert Meeropol, Adam Hochschild, Rabbi Lynn Gottleib, Howard Zinn, Rela Mazali, Debra Chasnoff, Ed Asner and Aurora Levins-Morales and show your support by contacting the Israeli Minister of Defense using the form below. 22,000 LETTERS AND COUNTING!

I support the Shministim and their right to peacefully object to military service. I call for the release of those teenagers who have been jailed for their principled refusal to serve in an army which occupies the Palestinian Territories. The imprisonment of these conscientious objectors is a violation of their human rights and contrary to International Law.

I am inspired by these caring students and their counterparts in Palestine, whose nonviolent resistance to the Occupation points the way to a just peace and security for all people in the region. They are our best hope for the future. I urge you to heed them, and not punish them.

Source:
Tell Israel: Free the Shministim!

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the Zionist war on Gaza children


The Hebrew advance, and again Philistine children and women die.

Daphna Baram made a poem on BBC:

“Silly children why do you die? Why do you die on TV? We took out our settlers, put a wall around you, locked you in, and still you are ungrateful. Can’t you understand our need to bomb you? Why do you die on TV? The world is all against us, it always will be, why can’t you help us a little, why do you die on TV?

Your suffering masks our historical rights, your ghetto makes ours forgotten, you are the new martyrs, and what’s left for us, how dare you die in anonymous mass, we’ll send all our air force to punish you now, how dare you die on TV.

The public is calling for crushing you down, elections are due it’s a war of survival. It’s our homes we defend it’s our natural right, it’s the chair in the government for which we will fight, if you don’t understand, we shall show you our might, why do you die on TV?

You have to appreciate, time is now scarce, soon enough the tide is to turn. If you will in your cruelty make us march in, and our soldiers, our children, will start dying in your narrow alleys, our people will turn on us as swiftly as sin. The gung ho cries would stop, a new circle will begin: what are we doing there? Who sent us in? What is this folly? Why can’t we just win?

This is why, silly children, we don’t mean to kill you, but we need you do die fast, we need you gone as long as our permission lasts, we need your parents to learn to not mess with us. Can’t you do us this favor, for the sake of peace and trust? But please do not die on TV.

We tried it in Jordan, we tried it in Lebanon and when it failed we tried again. No one could blame us for lack of persistence; if our method is broken why fix it? It is your responsibility to make it work at last. It is your responsibility to make us right.

And you have no-one but yourselves to blame if you keep defying us, you have no-one but yourself to blame for turning our claim for victimhood into a farce. It is your fault that we expose out children to your pathetic rockets; it is your fault that not enough of them die to make us look good on TV.

We want to stop, we really do, but you are binding our hands. Why do you enrage us so, why do you die; why do you die on TV?”

Source of this poem: Why do you die on TV?

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Comments on my diary: China Journey 2007


Looking back at my journey:

For me, connecting with the ancestors is becoming a very important issue.
Not only the faraway mainland china connection, but also the more recent chinese diaspora to Java and Holland.

Often I feel on a gut-level during a meeting with somebody with these same roots: we are related, a few hunderd years ago…

The more I research on the shamanic roots of the chinese way of living, the more I discover:
chinese ancestor worship, gongfu (animal-styles, bagua), fengshui, divination (yi jing).

Fragments of my diary: China Journey august 2007:
At this moment I’m in Chongqing, the middle of china.
Already had a intense time in Shanghai-Yangtze river-Fengjie, later on I will visit Xian and Beijing.

Many things here remind me of Indonesia: the way people walk, the smells on the street, the shops, the slums.
I often have to explain that I do not speak chinese, but that my ancestors came from here.

Shanghai is weird: the contrast between sf and slum is great.

On the Yangtze I realised how this river is connected to chinese history. The great dam has already caused whole villages being displaced to outer provinces like Tibet and Xinjiang, imagine the suffering of the farmers of the displaced people but also on the receiving end in the outer provinces who have to cope with new invaders.
Many old ways are being destroyed in the name of progress.
At the dam I touched mother earth in a rock garden, it made me cry.

At Fengjie, city of ghosts, made for all the spirits from china, I realised how much has been destroyed by the cultural revolution.

Chongching is also very large and polluted, my stay here will be short.

I am looking forward to visit Xian, the tomb of the first emperor.
And of course in Beijing I will visit the great wall and TianAnMen square.

I hope to be back safe and well during Lammas…

…later…

Xi-an:

Terracotta army in the First Emperors’ tomb.
He was a real monster. Yeah, he ‘pacified’ China, but at the cost of many lives.

The Great Mosque of the Hui minority, fascinating to see all kinds of mythic creatures (like dragons etc) depicted despite the Muslim ban on depicting creatures.
Somewhere during the Tang-dynasty the Hui were invited in as mercenary troops to surpress peasant revolts, but now the Muslims are being distrusted as a possible source of terrorism.
Well, the Uighur in Xinjiang and Kazakhstan have cause to rebel against the pressure to be ‘assimilated’ as the Tibetans.

Beijing:

TianAnMen! Standing here, realising how the students’ movement was put down with tanks and guns,moves me to tears.
Weird to realize, that our guide (age 27) has never seen the pictures of that drama.
I brought a origami whitecrane all the way to Holland to here, originally to place it somewhere on this square to honour the fallen, but it was too crowded, so I gave it to our guide with the words: ‘in remembrance of the students that died, remember!’
…
Later on we had a tour through a Hutong, another ancient way of living that’s disappearing in the name of progress & profit: a network of old alleys & houses that form small downtown communities around a common well. The guide showed us a model-family (state-approved on show for tourists of course) who had many modern-day thingies like tv, refrigerator, dvd-player, piano; receiving tourists must be very profitable!.
…
Met some nice shopkeepers: one of them was very delighted to hear that my ancestors came from her home province Fujien, she was able to tell me that the dialect of my predecessors is still common in the area of the MinNan, another piece of the puzzle found!
….

Back home again: unpacking, cleaning myself & my stuff, opening my mailbox, calling friends.
Feels like I need to see some dear friends soon to reconnect to this land again!

When I was in china, I recoqnized many things I also saw in Java: the way people dress & move, the smells, the food, the housings. I never realised the great influence of the oversea chinese on the Javanese culture!”

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