Military Resistance 9E 8 : V-O Day

8/6/2019 Military Resistance 9E 8 : V-O Day

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Military Resistance: [email protected] 5.10.11 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.

Military Resistance 9E8

The Talibans Ability To MountSuch A Massive Operation In

Afghanistans Second-LargestMetropolis, Sustaining Two

Days Of Street Battles,Punctured The U.S. Militarys

Narrative Of Progress
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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This Is A Message That We CanCarry Out Huge Attacks Even In

The Heart Of Kandahar CityThe Kandahar GovernmentSpokesman, Conceded The TalibansWidespread Reach And Increasingly

Sophisticated TacticsAs Much As We Change And Improve

Our Security Tactics, They Are Able ToDo The Same

REUTERS/Ahmad Nadeem 5.8.11Dust billows from the roof of a government building which the Taliban took over during

an offensive in Kandahar city May 8, 2011.

MAY 9, 2011 By MARIA ABI-HABIB, Wall St. Journal [Excerpts]

KABULTaliban fighters flooded southern Afghanistans main city over the weekend,seizing key buildings to stage attacks on government agencies, in a two-day battle thatbrought Kandahar to its knees and showcased the insurgencys strength.

Fighting began Saturday at noon as up to 60 insurgents armed with explosive vests,vehicles and rickshaws crammed with explosives attacked the Kandahar intelligence


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service and police headquarters, the provincial governors compound, various policestations and coalition infrastructure, according to U.S. and Afghan officials.

Holed up in several buildings in central Kandahar, including the electric plant near thegovernors office, a three-story shopping mall, a school and the Kandahar Hotel, theinsurgents traded gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades with Afghan security forces well

into Sunday night. A bombing at 8 p.m. marked the end of the attack, 32 hours after itbegan, authorities said.

Helicopters are circling the area and have fired on buildings with Taliban fightersinside, said Janan, a Kandahar resident living near the intelligence service headquarters,under attack Sunday night. Many people who live around the area have tried toevacuate their houses. Everyone is fearful.

Residents in other parts of Kandahar said they were shut indoors, with coalition andAfghan forces patrolling heavily and preventing many Afghans from leaving their homes.All the shops are closed, and theres no traffic in the streets, said Kandahar teacherGhulam Shafi.

We are concerned that the government is not able to stop such attacks.

The Talibans ability to mount such a massive operation in Afghanistans second-largestmetropolis, sustaining two days of street battles, punctured the U.S. militarys narrativeof progress in pacifying Kandahar, the focus of President Barack Obamas military surgeand the Taliban movements birthplace.

Accounts of the fightings toll differed dramatically.

According to Zalmai Ayubi, the Kandahar provincial government spokesman, 22 peoplewere killed, including 18 insurgents, three Afghan security personnel and a civilian. The

Taliban claimed they killed 116 Afghan troops and public servants.

The insurgents usually exaggerate the toll of their attacks, while Afghan governmentofficials dont always report the full casualties.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmadi said the operation wasnt a reprisal for binLadens killing but marked instead the beginning of the insurgents spring offensive,dubbed Badar and announced late last month.

This is a message that we can carry out huge attacks even in the heart of Kandahar cityand bring high-profile government installations under attack for as long as we want, hesaid.

The operations are going well and the (government) gangsters of Kandahar cantcontrol our fighters.

He added that more than 100 insurgents staged the attacks, many of them Talibanfighters set free in a spectacular prison break from Kandahars Sarpoza prison lastmonth.


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Mr. Ayubi, the Kandahar government spokesman, conceded the Talibanswidespread reach and increasingly sophisticated tactics.

We have no doubt that the insurgency has strong hands behind it. As much aswe change and improve our security tactics, they are able to do the same, My.Ayubi said.

The Talibans ability to mount such a massive operation in Afghanistans second-largestmetropolis, sustaining two days of street battles, punctured the U.S. militarys narrativeof progress

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Resistance Action

A destroyed police car hit by a roadside bomb attack targeting a police patrol inBaghdad, Iraq May 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

May 9 (Reuters)

KIRKUK - Attackers in a speeding car opened fire and killed an off-duty policeman in thecity of Kirkuk, police said.

BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb in central Baghdad went off near a police patrol andwounded two policemen.


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BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded a policeman, in Sadr City, a district in northeastBaghdad.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Family Mourns Soldier Killed InAfghanistan

May 2, 2011 WISN

WALWORTH COUNTY, Wis. -- A father-in-law is mourning the loss of his daughtershusband after Sgt. Matthew Hermanson of Appleton died Thursday during a fire fight

trying to retrieve Taliban bodies.

He (Hermanson) was ambushed (and shot in the leg) by a sniper hiding behind a door.He went down, but he got up again to defend himself. And they shot him again, theRev. Donald Youner said.

Hermanson was supposed to come home this month, and Youner said he is having adifficult time, given the fact that he married his daughter and Hermanson in a churchnear Elkhorn just shy of a year ago.

Ive been a pastor a long time, and Ive conducted funerals for my family. But Ill behonest, when you bury a son-in-law, thats a life thats totally different. Youre never

prepared for that, Youner said.

(He was) a loving young man -- a young man who was taking his marriage seriouslyand wanted to be a good husband, said the Rev. Doug Anderson, of CalvaryCommunity Church.

Anderson said he provided premarital counseling for Hermanson and his widow, RachelHermanson, who sings in the choir at Calvary Community Church.

They had spoken via Skype on Easter Sunday afternoon as a family; and of course,they were talking about his (coming) return and their plans. Its a tragedy for us,Anderson said.

Youner said he hopes Osama bin Ladens death brings rest to the situation inAfghanistan. I believe that with Osama bin Laden gone, Matthews death hopefullywasnt in vain, Youner said.

Details of Hermansons funeral have not been released yet, but his family said they areexpecting his body to be returned to Wisconsin later this week.

Officials said 23 Wisconsin soldiers have died while fighting in Afghanistan.


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Foreign Occupation Troops Wounded InQarghai:

Nationality Not AnnouncedReuters 5.9.11

In Laghman province May 9, 2011 a bomber on a motorcycle wounded foreign troops,Afghan police and civilians, near the centre of Qarghai district in eastern Laghmanprovince, Afghan and NATO officials said.

ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT;

ALL HOME NOW

May 8, 2011: A U.S. soldier in a grape field near the city of Qalat in the Zabul Provinceof Afghanistan. REUTERS/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson-USAF/Handout

Resistance ActionMay 2, 2011 DPA & Daily Times & 05/09/11 TOLOnews.com & 5.10.11 BBCKabul - A bomber Monday attacked a joint patrol of foreign and Afghan forces insouthern Afghanistan, killing a policeman, officials said. The bomber rode a motorbiketowards the patrol, opened fire and killed one policeman. The attack took place inSangin district. There were no causalities among the foreign forces.


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At 10:00 am local time an attacker blew himself up near Qargha district office building,Faizanullah Patan, a spokesman for governor of Laghman told TOLOnews reporter.Two Afghan policemen were also wounded in the attack, he added.

*****************************************************

At least six Afghan police officers have been killed in an ambush in Ghazni province,officials have told the BBC.

The attack took place in Deh Yak district, several kilometres from the districtheadquarters. Police officials said a group of police was hit by a roadside bomb andthen came under gunfire. The police of Ghazni province, Dilawar Zahid, told the BBCthat six police officers were killed and four wounded in yesterday mornings attack in DehYak district

IF YOU DONT LIKE THE RESISTANCE

END THE OCCUPATIONS

SOMALIA WAR REPORTS

Government Troops Kill Each OtherAgain, As Usual

5.8.2011 Mareeg

Transitional Federal government of Somalias soldiers have clashed among them selfsin Dharkanley district of Mogadishu today, two soldiers were reported dead, and at leastfour civilian bystanders were critically injured.

The clashes erupted when TFG soldiers tried to stop some of their comrades fromlooting nearby Food-Aid warehouse where the distribution of food aid for internallydisplaced people and other volnurable groups have being taking place for months, thedistribution was disrupted by TFG soldiers who looted the shipment for their own benefit.

According to an eye witness; TFG soldiers clashed in a battle lasted for approximately

an hour causing civilian injuries and serious damage to properties owned by civilians.

Its worth mentioning that, such incidents are on rising trend with the lack of any legalmechanisms or initiatives by TFG to make those responsible accountable for theiractions, if were not the UN recognition of the transitional government of Somalia wewouldve basically classified it as another warlordisim mentality manifestation.


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FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh hadI the ability, and could reach the nations ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream ofbiting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.

For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom theyoppose.

Frederick Douglass, 1852

Hope for change doesnt cut it when youre still losing buddies.-- J.D. Englehart, Iraq Veterans Against The War

Rise like Lions after slumberIn unvanquishable number,Shake your chains to earth like dewWhich in sleep had fallen on you-Ye are many they are few-- Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1819, on the occasion of a mass murder of British

workers by the Imperial government at Peterloo.


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Return To Vietnam

Vietnam veteran at the Moving Wall in Salem, Oregon in 1989.Photograph by Mike Hastie

From: Mike HastieTo: Military ResistanceSent: May 06, 2011Subject: Return To Vietnam

Return To Vietnam

You break it down,and you break it down,and you break it down,until you see the absolute truth.When the truth no longer hasdifferent opinions,


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the lies die a tormenting death.What you have left is the corpseof your old belief system.Betrayal forces you to see the real enemy.What you are is the survivor of all the liesthat took you to Vietnam in the beginning.

Freedom forces you to roll over in your grave.

Mike HastieU.S. Army MedicVietnam 1970-71May 6, 2011

Photo and caption from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio ofMike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work,contact at: ([email protected]) T)

One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or aso-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizenof Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.

Mike HastieU.S. Army MedicVietnam 1970-71December 13, 2004

NEED SOME TRUTH?CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER

Traveling Soldier is the publication of the Military Resistance Organization.

Telling the truth - about the occupations or the criminals running the governmentin Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do morethan tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance to Imperial wars inside thearmed forces.

Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-classpeople inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a

weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces.If you like what youve read, we hope that youll join with us in building a networkof active duty organizers. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/

And join with Iraq Veterans Against the War to end the occupations and bring alltroops home now! (www.ivaw.org/)
mailto:[email protected]://www.traveling-soldier.org/http://www.ivaw.org/http://www.ivaw.org/http://www.traveling-soldier.org/mailto:[email protected]


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GI Activists Should Remain On BaseAnd Work Directly With People At Their

Jobs And In The BarracksThis Should Be Part Of A General ShiftIn The Locus Of GI Action Away FromOff-Base Coffeehouses, Back To The

Barracks.

From: SOLDIERS IN REVOLT: DAVID CORTRIGHT, Anchor Press/Doubleday, GardenCity, New York, 1975. Now available in paperback from Haymarket Books. [Excerpts]

***********************

[By activists with the paper FighT bAckin Germany, 1973. Excerpts]

Radicals Must Join The Army.

The role of radicals who purposely join the services to organize has been importantthroughout the GI movement and remains so today. Within the FighT bAck grOup, in theGI Alliance in Tacoma, and at numerous other projects, former civilian activists, some ofwhom gave up deferments to join, have been a vital force in sustaining GI dissent.

The presence of even a few hundred committed activists could have great impact on thelevel of servicemens dissent.


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Civilian Support Is Crucial:

As we have seen throughout the history of the GI movement, such support has been acrucial ingredient of successful organizing. Civilian activists are most needed as politicalworkers and counselors at local projects.

Peace organizations should adopt programs for training civilians in military counselingand supporting them during a tour of duty working directly with servicemen at majorbases.

A Newspaper Or Newsletter Is Necessary:

Nearly every servicemens organization has coalesced around a newspaper as the bestmeans available for communicating with other GIs.

An important variation of this is unit newsletters, pioneered at Fort Lewis, to expose

abuses within individual units and mobilize political pressure at the local level. Unitnewsletters appearing on a biweekly basis could then be supplemented by a monthly orbimonthly base-wide newspaper.

This should be part of a general shift in the locus of GI action away from off-basecoffeehouses, back to the barracks.

Off-base locations are still needed for printing and counseling activities by civilianstaffers, but GI activists should remain on base and work directly with people attheir jobs and in the barracks

Regardless of what form it takes, though, citizen action must continue.

Continued work is necessary to establish democratic control over the institutions of warand to secure independence and dignity for people in the ranks.

DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND ORRELATIVE IN THE MILITARY?

Forward Military Resistance along, or send us the address if youwish and well send it regularly. Whether in Afghanistan, Iraq or

stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for yourservice friend, too often cut off from access to encouragingnews of growing resistance to the wars, inside the armedservices and at home. Send email requests to address up top orwrite to: The Military Resistance, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, NewYork, N.Y. 10025-5657. Phone: 888.711.2550


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NOT ANOTHER DAYNOT ANOTHER DOLLAR

NOT ANOTHER LIFE

The remains of Army Cpl. Kevin W. White of Westfield, N.Y. at Dover Air Force Base,Del. May 4, 2011. White died of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unitusing an improvised explosive device. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

POLITICIANS CANT BE COUNTED ON TO HALTTHE BLOODSHED

THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THEWARS

Troops Invited:Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service menand women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send email [email protected]: Name, I.D., withheld unless yourequest publication. Same address to unsubscribe.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

CLASS WAR REPORTS


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Workers Rebellion In The

Brazilian Amazon:More Than 80,000 Workers AllOver The Country Paralyzed The

Work Of ProgressThe Revolt Of The Laborers In Jirau

Took Everyone By SurpriseGovernment, Business Owners, AndThe Unions

Vctor Paranhos, President Of TheConstruction Consortium, Said: It Is

Troubling Because We Dont Know The

Motive. There Are Not Even Leaders

It all started with something very small, just like in Tunisia, the way all great socialevents begin.

It was a fight involving a worker and a bus driver, on the afternoon of March 15, atthe camp where thousands of laborers from the poorest regions of Brazil are


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building one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the country, a gigantic project onthe Madeira River that will cost ten billion dollars.

20/04/2011 by Ral Zibechi, Cipamericas.org via AmeriConscience [Excerpts]

Ral Zibechi is an international analyst for Brecha of Montevideo, Uruguay, lecturer and

researcher on social movements at the Multiversidad Franciscana de Amrica Latina,and adviser to several social groups. He writes a monthly column for the AmericasProgram (www.cipamericas.org).

************************************************************************

During the month of March 2011 the biggest social protest by workers in many yearserupted in Brazil.

More than 80,000 workers all over the country paralyzed the work of progress inthe form of hydroelectric plants, refineries, and thermoelectric generatingfacilities.

The spark of the protest was lit in Jirau, in the Amazon jungle, provoked byarbitrary action, violence, and authoritarianism.

It all started with something very small, just like in Tunisia, the way all great socialevents begin.

It was a fight involving a worker and a bus driver, on the afternoon of March 15, at thecamp where thousands of laborers from the poorest regions of Brazil are building one ofthe largest hydroelectric dams in the country, a gigantic project on the Madeira River thatwill cost ten billion dollars.

Soon after the fight, in which the laborer was beaten, hundreds of workers beganto set fire to the buses that take them from their barracks to the worksite.

Some sources mention 45 buses and another 15 vehicles burned, but others raise thetoll of buses burned to 80, in just a few minutes.

The offices of the construction firm, Camargo Correa, also burned, along with halfthe workers dormitories and at least three bank ATMs.

Some 8,000 workers went into the jungle to escape the violence.

The police were overwhelmed, and only managed to protect the facilities where the

explosives used to alter the course of the river are stored.

Calm was only restored when the national government headed by president DilmaRousseff sent 600 troops of the military police to take control of the situation.

But the workers, numbering around 20,000 in the Jirau site, went back to theirplaces of origin rather than returning to work.


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At the nearby Santo Antonio construction site a work stoppage began that involved the17,000 workers who are building yet another generating plant on the Madeira River nearPorto Velho, the capital of the state of Rondnia.

In just a week the wave of strikes spread through the huge worksites: 20,000 workersleft their jobs at the Abreu e Lima refinery in Pernambuco, another 14,000 at the Saupe

petrochemical plant in the same city, 5,000 in Pecm, in the state of Cear.

What these strikes have in common is that they all have taken place in the giganticprojects of the Growth Acceleration Program (Programa de Acelerao doCrescimientoPAC), and they have challenged the biggest construction firms in thecountry, the Brazilian multinationals contracted by the national government.

The Madeira River is the main tributary of the Amazon.

Starting at the convergence of the Beni and Mamor Rivers near the city of Vila Bela onthe border of Brazil and Bolivia, it is 4,207 km long, one of the 20 longest rivers in theworld and one of the top 10 in volume. It is fed by runoff from the Andes mountains in

Bolivia and southern Peru, and thus has great potential for hydroelectrical generation.

Brazils growth plans require huge amounts of electrical energy, and national plannerstake the position that the rivers of the Amazon basin are underutilized.

The plan for the Madeira River is to build four hydroelectric dams, of which two, Jirauand Santo Antonio in the Brazilian stretch between the Bolivian border and Porto Velho,are already under construction. The Jirau dam, 150 km from the state capital, willproduce 3,350 megawatts, and Santo Antonio will have the capacity for 3,150megawatts. These two projects are priorities of the Growth Acceleration Program, whichseeks to connect the isolated systems of Acre state (adjacent to Rondnia) andMaranho (on the Atlantic coast to the north) to the national electrical distribution grid.

The two projects now under construction employ about 40,000 workers, 70% of whomare from other Brazilian states.

At Jirau alone there are some 20,000 employees, the great majority poorly paid laborers(wages are around 1,000 reais per month, about 600 dollars).

They come to the isolated jungle work sites from distant places in the northeast, farnorth, and even the south of Brazil, many times tricked by labor recruiters (called gatos,cats) who promise them wages and working conditions better than the reality.

All of them must pay the gatos for the services they provide.

When they arrive on the site workers are already in debt, and food and medicinesare more expensive because they must be purchased from company stores.

Many are housed in wooden barracks where they sleep on mattresses on thefloor.

The bathrooms are few and distant, there is no electricity, and they are crowded.Maria Oznia da Silva, of the Pastoral of the Migrant in Rondnia, says that the


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workers feel frustrated by their wages, and for the deductions from them madewith no explanation.

The first problem they complain about is that Camargo Correa, the company incharge of Jirau, does not pay overtime.

But the revolt of the laborers is not about wages, but about dignity, says journalistLeonardo Sakamoto.

The ten main demands of the protesters include: putting a stop to the aggressiveactions of supervisors and security guards, who use private jails; respectfultreatment of those who come into the barracks when inebriated; an end to themoral harassment of office workers and laborers; payment for transportation timewhen the trip to the worksite is long; efficient service in the dining halls so thatthe wait in line doesnt take up the time for rest after the meal; and payment forrations that is based on local prices.

According to Sakamoto the laborers of today have a profile quite different from those

who worked in construction in the 1990s.

Today they use cell phones and the internet, they know what is happening in world, theyare proud of dressing well, they demand respectful treatment and they often use theword dignity.

They are bothered by the precarious condition of the buildings and dormitories as well asthe isolation far from their families, and the least mistreatment sets them off.

Silvio Areco, an engineer with experience on large projects, notes the change:Before, whoever gave the orders on the worksite was almost a colonel, he hadauthority. Nowadays that doesnt work. A common laborer has more

independence.

The companies are in a hurry because the work tends to fall behind schedule, so theyput pressure on the workers.

In September 2009 the Ministry of Labor freed 38 people who worked in slavery-likeconditions, and in June 2010 it reported 330 violations of labor conditions at Jirau. Themain problem is insecurity. In Da Silvas opinion the migrants become an easy target forlabor recruiters and construction companies because they have no protection fromabuses.

But the problems are not limited to the workplace.

Aluisio Vidal is the pastor of Jaci-Paran, a town near Jirau, and the president of theParty of Socialism and Freedom (Partido Socialismo e LiberdadePSOL) for the stateof Rondnia. He complains of the increase in crime and prostitution. Between 2008 and2010 the population of Porto Velho grew 12% (it has half a million inhabitants), but in thesame period homicides increased 44% and according to the child protection court theabuse of minors increased some 76% in that time.


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According to the social activist organizations in the region, joined together in the AmazonRivers Alliance (Aliana dos Rios da Amaznia), All possible problems are concentratedin Jirau: At an uncontrolled pace, the project has brought to the region the developmentof prostitution, drug abuse among young fishermen and in riverbank settlements, realestate speculation, a rise in food prices, unattended disease, and all types of violence.

Elias Dobrovolski, a coordinator in the Movement of those Affected by Dams (Movimentodos Atingidos por BarragensMAB) who has followed the situation of the workers sincethe beginnings of the project, states that the districts around Jirau are experiencing veryserious problems. Towns that had two thousand inhabitants now house 20,000. Thereis no infrastructure for so many peoplenot enough schools, health clinics, nor police tosupport all the people that came in with the projects.

In addition to all this, the huge projects of the Growth Acceleration Program have above-average rates of job-related deaths. The Brazilian construction industry has a rate of23.8 deaths per 100,000 workers, and in PAC projects the rate is 19.7. In the UnitedStates the equivalent number is 10 per 100,000, in Spain it is 10.6, and in Canada 8.7.The Brazilian figure is higher than it should be because the large construction firms

have sufficient technology to protect the workers.

The Movement of those Affected by Dams also denounces work days longer than12 hours, and epidemics in the worksites.

To make matters worse, the companies hired ex-colonels suspected of committingsabotage to bring criminal accusations against the unions.

The revolt attacked the symbols of power. Witnesses of the attacks said that themen who came to destroy the living quarters first set fire to those of thesupervisors and engineers.

Those employed in civil construction in Brazil exceeded 1.8 million in 2006, and 2.8million in 2010. Unemployment in the construction sector is only 2.3%.

The unions estimate that when the infrastructure projects are in full swing, includingthose related to the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games of 2016, the projectsincluded in the Growth Acceleration Program alone will have a million workers. This isoverwhelming to both the companies and the unions.

The revolt of the laborers in Jirau took everyone by surprisegovernment, businessowners, and the unions.

Vctor Paranhos, president of the construction consortium, said: It is troubling

because we dont know the motive. There are not even leaders.

The union leaders position is curiously similar. In these revolts in Jirau weperceive that there is no leader who could negotiate a truce, said Paulo Pereirada Silva, of the union group Fora Sindical.

The Central nica dos Trabalhadores (CUT), not to be left out, defended thegovernment against the workers: They have to return to work. I am Brazilian and Iwant to see this plant in operation.


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This shared culture of business and organized labor, which tries to redirect social protestinto institutional channels and smother it with the massive police presence (thegovernment sent in 600 members of the military police), fails to comprehend that therevolt is not only nor even mainly about wages.

Groups such as MAB, the indigenous people, and the church-affiliated socialmovements have a different reading of the situation. The revolt is a result ofauthoritarianism and the drive for accumulation of wealth through the exploitation of bothnature and the workers, says a statement by the Movement of those Affected by Dams.

In the opinion of the Instituto Humanitas Unisinos, neither the left nor theenvironmentalists were sensitive to what was behind the Jirau revolt. The sites ofthe movements barely covered the conflict. The violence of the revolt in Jirauand that of the Arabs is similar, but the reception here, in both cases, wasnegative, said the journalist Janio de Freitas.

On April 5 the workers of Santo Antonio returned to work after 10 days on strike,

following a vote of the membership in favor of an agreement between the CUT and theOdebrecht firm.

The accord includes an early increase in wages of 5% in anticipation of furthernegotiations, an increase in the food stipend from 110 to 132 reals, and five days leaveevery three months to make family visits home, with a right to airfare.

Work at Jirau remained suspended after 20 days, awaiting negotiations with CamargoCorrea.

As the report on The Rebellion in Jirau notes, The Growth Acceleration Program is thesynthesis of the developmentalist model that reproduces the project of a grandiose

Brazil from the era of Getlio Vargas, Juscelino Kubitschek, and the military dictatorship.It is a model based on huge projects, in particular on the exploitation of energy and itsconsumption by an emerging nation focused on commodity export.

That plan for Brazils exponential growth ends up converting the Amazon and allits resources into commodities. It has few organized opponents, since the visionis shared by labor and business, left and right, government and opposition.

The Movement of those Affected by Dams (MAB) has been resisting what it considers adispossession for 20 years now.

Its motto is water and energy are not commodities.

The Jirau revolt is the response of the poorest sector, the laborers of Brazil, to theambitious project of modernization and the deepening of capitalism.

Gilberto Cervinski, of MAB, summarizes the problem: To build the generating plants ofthe Madeira River is to open the Amazon region to dozens of other hydroelectricprojects, without even discussing questions that we believe are fundamental: Energy forwhat? And for whom?


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RECEIVED:

I Am A Soldier In The US ArmyI Have Stumbled Onto Your Site And Am

Interested In Your Motives

From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXTo: [email protected]: Interested in your over all missionDate: May 8, 2011

I am a soldier in the US army, I have stumbled onto your site and am interested in your

motives.

I may be getting kicked out of the military soon, basically for not being willing to conformto their idea of a model soldier even though I do my job flawlessly.

Please if you find the time I would like to know more.

REPLY:

Inquiry received.

Information below.

There is also link to our publication Traveling Soldier. Half way through is a poem byBrecht. From your email comment, looks like he wrote it for you.

Please feel free to reply with any comments, questions or criticisms.

Respect,

TFor Military Resistance Organization

#1Link to Traveling Soldier: http://www.traveling-soldier.org/TS34.pdf

#2Information Requested:
http://www.traveling-soldier.org/TS34.pdfhttp://www.traveling-soldier.org/TS34.pdfhttp://www.traveling-soldier.org/TS34.pdf


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MILITARY RESISTANCE TEN POINTS

Mission Statement:

1. The mission of Military Resistance is to bring together in one organizationmembers of the armed forces and civilians in order to give aid and comfort tomembers of the armed forces who are organizing to end the wars of empire inAfghanistan and Iraq. The long term objective is to assist in eliminating all warsof empire by eliminating all empires.

2. Military Resistance does not advocate individual disobedience to orders ordesertion from the armed forces. The most effective resistance is organized bymembers of the armed forces working together.

However, Military Resistance respects and will assist in the defense of troops who

see individual desertion or refusal of orders as the only course of action open tothem for reasons of conscience.

3. Military Resistance stands for the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of allU.S. and other occupation troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Occupied nations have the right to independence and the right to resist Imperialinvasion and occupation by force of arms.

4. Efforts to increase democratic rights in every society, organization, movement,

and within the armed forces itself will receive encouragement and support.

Members of the armed forces, whether those of the United States or any othernation, have the right and duty to act against dictatorships commanding theirservices, and to assist civilian movements against dictatorship.

This applies whether a political dictatorship is imposed by force of arms or apolitical dictatorship is imposed by those in command of the resources of societyusing their wealth to purchase the political leadership.

5. Military Resistance uses organizational democracy.

This means control of the organization by the membership, through electeddelegates to any coordinating bodies that may be formed, whether at local,regional, or national levels.

Any member may run for any job in the organization. All persons elected aresubject to immediate recall, by majority vote of the membership.


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Coordinating bodies report their actions, decisions and votes to the membershipwho elected them, and may be overruled by a majority of the membership.

6. It is not necessary for Military Resistance to be in political agreement withother organizations in order to work together towards specific commonobjectives.

It is productive for organizations working together on common projects to discussdifferences about the best way forward for the movement.

Debate is necessary to arrive at the best course of action.

Membership Requirements:

7. It is a condition of membership that each member prioritize and participate in

organized action to reach out to active duty armed forces, Reserve and/or NationalGuard units.

8. Military Resistance or individual members may choose to support candidatesfor elective office who are for immediate withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan,but do not support a candidate opposed to immediate, unconditional withdrawal.

9. Members may not be active duty or drilling reserve commissioned officers, oremployed in any capacity by any police or intelligence agency, local, state, ornational.

10. I understand and am in agreement with the above statement. I pledge to

defend my brothers and sisters, and the democratic rights of the citizens of theUnited States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

----------------------------(Signed

(Date)

----------------------------- (Application taken by)

Military Resistance: [email protected] 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

888-711-2550

MILITARY RESISTANCE MEMBERSHIPAPPLICATION

Name (please print): __________________________


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Armed Forces? (Branch) ____________

Veteran? Years: ____________

Union: ____________________

Occupation: _________________________________________

Mailing address: ______________________________________

E-Mail:_____________________________

Phone (Landline):_______________________________________

Phone (Cell):___________________________________________

$ dues paid and receipt given by _________________________

(Calendar year basis.)

Armed Forces Members @ Dues waivedCivilians @ $25Students/Unemployed @ $10Civilian/Military Prisoners @ Dues Waived

Comments:

Military Resistance: [email protected]

Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657888-711-2550

People Need Not Be HelplessBefore The Power Of Illegitimate

AuthorityMILITARY RESISTANCE:

Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. [email protected]

[Based on a statement by David Cortright, Vietnam Veteran.]

In the final analysis the stationing of American forces abroad serves not the nationalinterest but the class interest of the corporate and political elite.


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The maintenance of a massive, interventionist-oriented military establishment isbased on the need to protect multinational investment and preserve regimesfriendly to American capital.

Imperialism is at the heart of the national-security system and is the forcefundamentally responsible for the counterrevolutionary, repressive aims of U.S.

policy.

Only if we confront this reality and challenge it throughout society and within theranks can we restore democratic control of the military.

Of course nothing can be accomplished without citizen involvement and activepolitical struggle.

During the Vietnam era enlisted servicemen created massive pressures forchange, despite severe repression, and significantly altered the course of the warand subsequent military policy.

To sustain and strengthen this challenge we must continue to build politicalopposition to interventionism and support those within the armed services,including national guard and reserves, who defy the goals and program of Empire.

The central lesson of the GI movement is that people need not be helpless beforethe power of illegitimate authority, that by getting together and acting upon theirconvictions people can change society and, in effect, make their own history.

The Military Project

Military Resistance: [email protected]

Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657888-711-2550

A Vietnam Soldier Wrote The BookAll About How Armed Forces

Resistance Stopped An Imperial War

Active Duty who want one:Free with APO/FPO/DPO or BAH address.


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SOLDIERS IN REVOLT: DAVID CORTRIGHT, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City,New York

Requests to:

[email protected]

OR:Military Resistance

Box 1262576 BroadwayNew York, N.Y.

10025-5657
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Military Resistance Looks Even Better Printed OutMilitary Resistance/GI Special are archived at websitehttp://www.militaryproject.org .The following have chosen to post issues; there may be others:http://williambowles.info/wordpress/category/military-resistance/;[email protected]; http://www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/;http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?header=res1&mod=gis&rep=gis

Military Resistance distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always beenspecifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advanceunderstanding of the invasion and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. We believe this constitutes a fair use of anysuch copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed withoutcharge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the includedinformation for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. Military Resistance has noaffiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is Military Resistance endorsed or sponsored bythe originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research,education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice. Go to:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site forpurposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If printed out, a copy of this newsletter is your personal property and cannotlegally be confiscated from you. Possession of unauthorized material may notbe prohibited. DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2.
http://www.militaryproject.org/http://williambowles.info/wordpress/category/military-resistance/mailto:[email protected]://www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/http://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?header=res1&mod=gis&rep=gishttp://www.albasrah.net/pages/mod.php?header=res1&mod=gis&rep=gishttp://www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/mailto:[email protected]://williambowles.info/wordpress/category/military-resistance/http://www.militaryproject.org/

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Military Resistance 9E 8 : V-O Day