Isocracy Newsletter #16, June 5, 2010
=====================================
I respect the man who properly named these villains land sharks. They are like the wretched ghouls who follow a ship and fatten on its offal.
The land, the earth, God gave to man for his home, sustenance and support, should never be the possession of any man, corporation, society or unfriendly government, any more than the air or water -- if as much.
- Abraham Lincoln
Isocracy Inaugural General Meeting
----------------------------------
The Isocracy Network is establishing a formal Melbourne group. This meeting will be held on Saturday, June 12 at 2pm at 110 Grey Street East Melbourne; the date coincides with the adoption of Virginian Declaration of Rights, one of the earliest and strongest modern statements on the limitations of government and the rights of individuals. Light refreshments will be provided.
The meeting will include the election of office-bearers, and planned actions for the upcoming year.
News
----
Lead Poisoning and Child Labour Kills 163
Lead poisoning has killed at least 163 individuals in Nigeria in recent weeks. Residents of remote villages in the north began illegally mining gold in areas of high lead concentration; 111 of the 163 recorded deaths have been children, many only several years old.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/10241647.stm
Israel Attacks Aid Flotilla
Israel has come under significant condemnation following the death of 19 activists at the hands of Israeli commandos as the latter forcibly boarded an aid convey in international waters bound for Gaza. The six vessels, called the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, were carrying 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid destined for the Gaza Strip, including water purifiers, prefabricated homes and medical equipment.
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that soldiers were acting in self-defence and that the activists "violent supporters of terrorism". Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that "the organizers are well-known for their ties with global jihad, al-Qaida and Hamas. They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror."
Following the attack, Egypt will open a Gaza Strip crossing for humanitarian and medical aid.
That the originator of the idea for the flotilla is a contributor to the Isocracy Network site.
On May 29, the Israeli government also refused to become accept the call of the 189 parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) agreed to a final resolution calling for steps toward the banning of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/report-at-least-10-activis...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6502H820100601
http://www.theage.com.au/world/seeds-of-flotilla-sown-by-melbourne-activ...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64S1ZN20100529
Oil Spills Around The Globe
The ongoing Deepwater Horizon oil spill is now considered the largest offshore spill in US history starting with an explosin that killed 11 workers on April 20. Current estimates of the amount of oil being discharged is an estimated 15,000 barrels (2,400,000 litres) per day. The exact spill flow rate is uncertain as because BP has refused to allow independent scientists to perform accurate measurements. The resulting oil slick covers a surface area of at least 6,500 square km.
On May 25 around 2500 tonnes of oil were spilled into the Strait of Singapore after two ships collided. The following day 800 miles of pipeline in Alaska was closed down with leakage of over 2.3 million gallons being held by containment tanks. The U.S. Department of the Interior has decided to halt all new Arctic exploratory oil drilling applications until 2011.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-05-27-oil-spill-news_N.htm?csp=...
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64O0JE20100525
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/15/national/15spill.html
http://www.adn.com/2010/05/26/1296014/arctc-drilling-suspended-at-least....
Actions
-------
The UN, EU, and nearly every other government and multilateral organization have called on Israel to lift the blockade, and now a UN body has called for an investigation of the flotilla raid. But without massive pressure from their citizens, world leaders might limit their response to mere words -- as they have so many times before.
Let's make the world's outcry too loud to ignore. Join the petition for an international investigation into the raid, accountability for those responsible, and an immediate end to the blockade in Gaza -- click to sign the petition, and then forward this message to everyone:
"We call for an immediate, international investigation into the flotilla assault, full accountability for those responsible, and the lifting of the Gaza blockade."
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_flotilla_8/?vl
Urgent Evoke - A crash course in changing the world. Evoke is a crash course in changing the world. Play your way through EVOKE's quests to learn all about social entrepreneurship.
Article: Nature of the Period: Background and Perspectives
----------------------------------------------------------
Social systems don't live forever. They have their own internal contradictions, which produce systemic crises. Capitalism is no different; someday it will end. The question we are addressing is whether it will be followed by barbarism, mass death, and barrenness, or by a better world. The current crisis is not only one of greatly increased attacks on the working class and oppressed people but is also a fundamental crisis of the system itself. We cannot predict the demise of the system, something in which the working class and oppressed people must also play a conscious part. We can, however, state that this is the most serious crisis of capitalism since the 1930's--and that one was only "solved" by World War II.
An understanding of today's world crisis must begin at the end of that previous crisis.
More at: http://isocracy.org/node/54