The Coalition Against Occupation (CAO) has formed with unity and cooperation, and with the intention of organizing for a weekend of protest on March 21/22, at Stevens Creek Blvd. & Winchester Blvd, the weekend anniversary of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.  Students for Justice, along with various other South Bay organizations, will actively organize to stay in San José that weekend to broaden the activist movement, and develop activism in our own community.  Our common bond is to demand an immediate end to the illegal occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine, Stop Militarizing Our Youth, and to Fund the People’s Needs, Not War!

On Monday, March 16, thousands of California’s students and faculty will be marching through the streets of Sacramento to protest Governor Schwarzenegger’s draconian budget cuts against education. If these cuts are passed, the Community College League of California (CCLC) estimates that 250,000 students will be denied educational accessibility from CA’s community colleges.

In addition to this, the cuts hitting the CSU’s and UC’s would deny tens of thousands of freshman and transfer applicants.

“The destruction of the higher education system as we know it, is imminent unless something is drastically changed. People of color, low-income, international students, working class students, all those that cannot afford the price of a UC or a CSU will be shut out of the right to an education. Now, the cuts in the CSU and UC system will further hinder access to higher education, creating an effective elitization of education in our state – denying millions their rights and their hope of a better future for them and their families.”

- South Bay Regional Students For Justice, 2004

By E. Galen
26 January 2009

• An October report by the Kaiser Family Foundation stated that nearly half of Americans said a family member has cut back on medical care or skipped pills in the last year because of costs.

• The American Hospital Association reported in November that among 736 hospitals nationwide, 30 percent saw a decline in elective procedures and nearly 40 percent had a drop in admissions overall because of the economic downturn.

• A study by the AARP released in December stated that 15 percent of adults in the US have decreased medications or not filled a prescription because they could not afford the medicine.

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JERUSALEM – Human Rights Watch said Sunday that Israel’s military has fired artillery shells with the incendiary agent white phosphorus into Gaza and a doctor there said the chemical was suspected in the case of 10 burn victims who had skin peeling off their faces and bodies.

Researchers in Israel from the rights group witnessed hours of artillery bombardments that sent trails of burning smoke indicating white phosphorus over the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza. But they could not confirm injuries on the ground because they have been barred from entering the territory.

The chief doctor at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza said he treated several victims there with serious burns that might have been caused by phosphorus. He said, however, that he did not have the resources or expertise to say with certainty what caused the injuries.

The substance can cause serious burns if it touches the skin and can spark fires on the ground, the rights group said in a written statement calling on Israel not to use it in crowded areas of Gaza.

Military spokeswoman Maj. Avital Leibovich refused to comment directly on whether Israel was using phosphorus, but said the army was “using its munitions in accordance with international law.”

Israel used white phosphorus in its 34-day war with Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006. The U.S. military in Iraq used the incendiary during a November 2004 operation against insurgents in the city of Fallujah.

An AP photographer and a TV crew based in Gaza visited Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Sunday and recorded images of several burn patients.

One of them, Haitham Tahseen, recalled sitting outside his home with his family in the morning when something exploded above them.

“Suddenly, I saw bombs coming with white smoke,” said the man, whose burned face was covered with medical cream. “It looked very red and it had white smoke. That’s the first time I’ve seen such a thing.”

His cousin, in another hospital bed, was more severely burned, with patches of skin peeling off his face and body, and had to be wrapped with thick white bandages.

The hospital’s chief doctor, Youssef Abu Rish, said the burns were not from contact with fire, but he couldn’t say what sort of substance caused them. He said information he collected on the Internet indicated it could have been white phosphorus.

White phosphorus is not considered a chemical weapon, and militaries are permitted under laws of warfare to use it in artillery shells, bombs and rockets to create smoke screens to hide troop movements as well as bright bursts in the air to illuminate battlefields at night.

Israel is not party to a convention regulating its use. Under customary laws of war, however, Israel would be expected to take all feasible precautions to minimize the impact of white phosphorus on civilians, Human Rights Watch said.

“What we’re saying is the use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas like a refugee camp is showing that the Israelis are not taking all feasible precautions,” said Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst for the rights group. “It’s just an unnecessary risk to the civilian population, not only in the potential for wounds but also for burning homes and infrastructure.”

Garlasco was among researchers on a ridge about a mile (1.5 kilometers) from the Gaza border who observed the shelling from a 155mm artillery unit on Friday and Saturday.

Some of the burning trails of smoke caused fires on the ground that appeared to go out after a few minutes, said Garlasco, who formerly worked at the Pentagon where he was in charge of recommending high-value targets for airstrikes during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Each 155mm shell contains 116 of what Garlasco described as wafers doused in phosphorus that can be spread over an area as large as a sports field, depending on the height at which it detonates. The phosphorus ignites when it comes in contact with oxygen.

Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm whether there have been any civilian casualties from phosphorus. The group has a consultant working for it inside Gaza but he has been unable to move around due to the danger. Foreign journalists have also been barred from entering Gaza.

Garlasco said photos published Thursday in British newspaper The Times showed Israeli units handling American-manufactured white phosphorus shells with fuses on them.

Gaza: Israeli Attack on School Needs Full UN Investigation

Security Council Should Order International Inquiry into Violations by All Sides

January 7, 2009

Relatives of a Palestinian killed in a United Nations school after an Israeli air strike mourn at the school in Gaza January 6, 2009.

© 2009 Reuters

There must be a serious and independent investigation into the shocking loss of civilian life that took place near the UN school and that has characterized this conflict. The Security Council can provide the kind of impartial inquiry that can determine what happened.

Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch

Related Materials:

Q & A on Hostilities between Israel and Hamas

(Jerusalem, January 7, 2009) - The United Nations Security Council, meeting on January 7, 2009 in a high-level emergency session, should establish a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged laws-of-war violations in Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch said the investigation should include Israel’s January 6 attack just outside a UN school housing displaced persons in the Jabaliya refugee camp, as well as other alleged abuses by Israel and Hamas.

“There must be a serious and independent investigation into the shocking loss of civilian life that took place near the UN school and that has characterized this conflict,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “The Security Council can provide the kind of impartial inquiry that can determine what happened.”

The January 6 attack, which is reported to have killed between 30 and 40 people, illustrates the need for a wide-ranging independent investigation. The United Nations in Gaza said the school was clearly marked as a UN building and that it had provided GPS coordinates for the site to Israeli forces.

The consistent failure of both Israel and Hamas to investigate past allegations of laws-of-war violations by their forces underscores the need for an international investigation into this incident as well as other alleged laws-of-war violations by both parties to this conflict, Human Rights Watch said. The UN commission of inquiry should make its findings public, and offer recommendations for holding accountable all persons found responsible for serious laws-of-war violations.

Human Rights Watch is unable to conduct full independent research on this and other incidents at this time due to ongoing hostilities, and because Israel has severely restricted access to Gaza for all international media and human rights monitors since early November, and blocked access entirely since the fighting began on December 27.

According to officials from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and eyewitnesses who spoke to the media and Human Rights Watch, at around 3:45 p.m. on January 6, at least three Israeli tank shells struck around the perimeter of the UN’s al-Fakhora school, where hundreds were sheltered from the fighting in the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp. Other accounts have referred to an Israeli mortar or artillery attack.

An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman told Human Rights Watch that the IDF had come under mortar fire from inside the school, and the IDF returned mortar fire at the source. An IDF statement released on January 6 said an initial inquiry indicates that: “a number of mortar shells were fired at IDF forces from within the Jabaliya school. In response to the incoming enemy fire, the forces returned mortar fire to the source.”

An UNRWA spokesman, Sami Mshasha, told Human Rights Watch that several hundred people had sought shelter in the school to escape fighting in the area. UNRWA has established 23 impromptu shelters in schools and other structures throughout Gaza; as of January 6, UNRWA was providing shelter for about 15,000 displaced persons. UNRWA Director of Operations in Gaza John Ging said that the people in the school were all families seeking refuge from the fighting.

A subsequent IDF statement said that two “Hamas terror operatives and a mortar battery cell” were among the dead at the school. It identified two of the killed Hamas fighters as Imad Abu Askhar and Hassan Abu Askhar, but did not explain the basis for this information.

A witness told the New York Times that he saw a Hamas militant whom he identified as Abu Khaled Abu Askhar near the school right before the attack. The witness said he was there because he was responding to calls for volunteers to pile sand near the school at the time to “help protect the resistance fighters.”

The Associated Press cited unnamed Palestinian witnesses as saying that several fighters ran toward the crowd, apparently to protect themselves, after the first shell missed them.

In an email to Human Rights Watch, Andrew Whitley, director of the UNRWA Representative Office at the UN, stated: “[T]here has been no recent abuse of our facilities in Gaza by Palestinian militants using them for cover or as firing positions. There were no, repeat no, mortars fired from the school in Jabaliya camp, although we cannot exclude that there was fighting nearby.”

Human Rights Watch spoke by telephone with two men who said they had witnessed the attack. Neither of them said they saw Hamas militants in the area at the time. According to Mouin Gasser, a 45-year-old teacher, about four strikes hit around the school, and he could not distinguish the type of shell. He said:

“I was walking on the street where the school is located in the Jabaliya refugee camp. I was 15 meters away from the school gate and I saw the people running towards me as soon as the sound of the shelling began. While I was walking I could not distinguish what kind of shelling it was because all of them took place around the same time. There were about four strikes, about a half minute between them. The shells landed just outside the school and one hit an electricity transformer on a pole just outside the school, and the shrapnel from that strike hit the people inside the school. There were different sizes of shrapnel, very sharp pieces of metal, most of them about five centimeters long. The tanks were about two kilometers away to the west in Beit Lahiya. I was offering first aid to the people on the street and at the gate of the school. We did not know how this large number of casualties came about. At the gate of the school there were donkey carts and people were transporting their belongings to the school. I did not see any militants in the area. The shelling did not cause that much damage to the building but it was the first time to see so much shrapnel spreading everywhere.”

Another man, Shadi Abu Shanar, worked as a guard at the school. In a brief phone interview, he said he was inside the gate of the school when the attack took place:

“Suddenly I heard a number of explosions at the gate. I went out onto the street and found dead bodies and wounded people lying on the ground. Most of them were cut into pieces. The street was full of people. I was about to pass out because of what I saw. The shells landed in a range of 20 to 40 meters around the school. The school was full of people.”

The laws of war require all parties to a conflict to take all feasible measures to protect the civilian population. Attacks must be made against only military targets. It is unlawful to conduct attacks that do not discriminate between combatants and civilians or when the expected civilian loss from the attack is excessive to the anticipated military advantage.

In addition, warring parties should, to the extent feasible, avoid deploying within or near densely populated areas and remove civilians under their control from the vicinity of military objectives. Even if Hamas combatants were firing from in or around the school, Israeli forces remain obligated to ensure that their attacks were directed only at military objectives and that they were not indiscriminate or would cause disproportionate civilian loss.

UN officials said they had provided the IDF with the GPS coordinates of all its installations in Gaza well before the current fighting began, including the UNRWA school where the attacks took place yesterday.

“Gaza’s borders are closed, so civilians can’t flee the territory and the only refuge they have is in places like UN schools,” Stork said. “Palestinian fighters should stay away from those schools but even if some were in the area yesterday, we question the firing of multiple shells at an area where civilians are seeking refuge.”

The January 6 attack appears to be the single-most deadly incident for civilians in Gaza since Israel’s current offensive began. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 640 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the fighting thus far, and 2,850 injured. According to humanitarian agencies, medical crews and ambulances are facing great difficulty accessing the wounded due to ongoing fighting, and hospitals have been overwhelmed with casualties.

In a separate attack on the night of January 5, three members of the same family were killed while taking shelter in the Asma elementary school run by UNRWA in Gaza City. An Israeli missile hit the building’s toilet facilities, UNRWA said, killing: Hussein Mahmoud Abd el Malik al Sultan, 24; Abed Samir Ali al Sultan, 19; and Rawhi Jamal Ramadan al Sultan, 25. The school was sheltering about 400 people who had fled their homes in Beit Lahiya earlier in the evening.

Meanwhile, Hamas continues to launch homemade and Grad-type rockets deliberately or indiscriminately at population centers in Israel. A rocket yesterday hit the Gadera area, 20 miles from Tel Aviv, wounding a 3-year-old child. Since Israel launched Operation Cast Lead on December 27, more than 500 rockets have been fired into Israel, the IDF said, killing three civilians. According to Magen David Adom, Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross, the rockets have also wounded 64 civilians, four critically.

States have an obligation to investigate serious violations of the laws of war; when committed with criminal intent, such violations are war crimes. Where there is evidence that a war crime may have been committed, a state has an obligation to investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute the suspects. Non-state armed groups should take appropriate disciplinary and judicial measures against members of their forces who commit laws-of-war violations.

Human Rights Watch said that previous IDF investigations into alleged laws-of-war violations, when they have occurred, have been deeply flawed. Human Rights Watch found that an investigation into the killings of 27 people in the Lebanese village of Qana on July 29, 2006, during the Israel-Hezbollah war, for example, was incomplete and legally misguided, and its findings contradicted eyewitness testimony. Following Israeli military operations in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank in April 2002, Human Rights Watch provided Israeli officials with prima facie evidence of alleged “human shielding” and other war crimes by Israeli forces.

To Human Rights Watch’s knowledge, Israel never conducted impartial and thorough investigations of those incidents or held any of its military personnel accountable.

During Israel’s last major ground offensive in Gaza in March 2008, Human Rights Watch found that Israeli forces committed several targeted killings and other serious violations of the laws of war. To date, no IDF investigation has taken place in these cases.

Hamas is not known to have investigated or punished any of its members who were behind the unlawful rocket attacks into Israel since 2005 or other violations of the laws of war.

Human Rights Watch focuses on international law governing the conduct of hostilities by each party to the conflict, especially with respect to sparing noncombatants the hazards of war. Human Rights Watch does not address whether Hamas or Israel is justified in resorting to armed force or in the extent of forces deployed. Human Rights Watch believes this approach is the best way to promote the goal of encouraging all sides in armed conflicts to respect international humanitarian law.

Tonight, students of New School University in New York have occupied the University as an expression of solidarity with Greece, as well as to call attention to the rising price of education across the country, rapidly increasing unemployment rates in the U.S., and those who can no longer afford housing and are being forced to live on the streets of New York City and nationwide.

The students who have occupied New School have released a statement to the public tonight:

From New York City :

We have just occupied New School University .

We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us, for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece, Italy, France and Spain .

This occupation begins as a response to specific conditions at the New School, the corporatization of the university and the impoverishment of education in general. However, it is not just this university but also New York City that is in crisis: in the next several months, thousands of us will be losing our jobs, while housing remains unaffordable and unavailable to many and the cost of living skyrockets.

So we stress that the general nature of these intolerable conditions exists across the spectrum of capitalist existence, in our universities and our cities, in all of our social relations. For this reason, what begins tonight at the New School cannot, and should not, be contained here.

Thus: with this occupation, we inaugurate a wave of occupations in New York City and the United States, a coming wave of occupations, blockades, and strikes in this time of crisis.

Be assured, this is only the beginning,

With solidarity and love from New York to Greece,
To Italy, France and Spain,
To the coming insurrection.

-The occupied New School

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/12/102240.html

http://www.indymedia-letzebuerg.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14988&Itemid=28

Three days earlier, they learned the plant was closing. Bank of America, although flush with U.S. government bailout cash, had refused to extend Republic’s line of credit and had also refused to allow Republic to pay out what they were owed.

United — as a union of co-workers — they stood together and said “No!”

For the next five days they occupied their plant — something rarely seen in the U.S. since the 1930’s The worldwide reaction was stunning.

A World of Support

People organized demonstrations in dozens of cities across the country, from New York to San Francisco, from icy Buffalo to sunny Florida. Solidarity messages poured in from around the world. Their common theme was, “We’re behind you — and proud of you! Keep up the fight!“

The UE Local 1110 members had no way of knowing how deeply their courageous action would resonate. But it soon became clear that their action articulated the anger and frustration of millions of ordinary people in this worsening economic crisis.

A World of Hope

They inspired people fed up by the excesses of banks, corporations and the powerful who have led us into the worst economic crisis since the 1930s — and then got the government to bail them out with our money.

They gave hope to people who face the prospect of losing jobs, homes, healthcare, retirement, and for many, the hope for their kids to get a good college education.

A Movement to ‘Resist Economic Violence’

Rev. Jesse Jackson expressed it well when he said that, like Rosa Parks 50 years ago, the Republic workers stood up for justice by sitting down. “In many ways,” said Jackson, their action “is the beginning of a larger movement for mass action to resist economic violence.”

Now, it’s up to all of us to make sure this moment is a real turning point, when we begin to stand together as working people to demand an economy and government policies that put our needs first.

Workers have not only lost their jobs, but have lost their benefits as well, including health care for themselves and their families. Their main demand is that the company pay them for unused vacation time, along with 60 days severance pay, as required under federal law.

Muñoz continued, “Most of the employees have a lot of years working for the company. So the company, they just threw us on the streets, and I don’t see any good reason.”

The occupation of Republic has been met with a nervous reaction from the political establishment. President-elect Barack Obama, a former state senator from Chicago, was asked his opinion at a press conference on Sunday. “When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” he insisted.

See Full Article

Also see:

Associated Press article

Washington Post article

Sign the Petition! In Solidarity with the Chicago workers of Republic Windows and Doors

11/20: $44+ million contract for Northrop-Grumman for ICE detainees

Department of Homeland Security Awards Immigration and Customs Enforcement Infrastructure System Task Order to Northrop Grumman

MCLEAN, Va., Nov 20, 2008 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) — Northrop Grumman Corporation (NOC:
Northrop Grumman Corporation

NOC 36.45, +2.25, +6.6%) has been awarded a task order by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide an infrastructure system and commercial, off-the-shelf solution for bed space, transportation and detainee location tracking (BST&T) that will significantly increase safety and security, reduce processing time, minimize network and cellular traffic, and provide a common interface for DHS agents. DHS awarded the task order against the Enterprise Architecture Gateway for Leading Edge Solutions (EAGLE) Information Technology services contract vehicle.

The BST&T task order consists of a one-year, $14 million base period, with three one-year options for a total potential value of $44.35 million.

Under the terms of the task order, Northrop Grumman’s Information Technology sector will provide DHS Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations with an integrated system that will locate and track detainees, reserve detainee bed space among various facilities, and manage detainee transportation. Northrop Grumman will provide the infrastructure and integrate this system with other DHS systems and solutions.
“The team brings a depth of implementation experience needed for the BST&T system,” said Al Pisani, vice president for mission applications and IT infrastructure for Northrop Grumman’s Information Technology sector. “Our extensive knowledge of law enforcement applications and infrastructure tools make us uniquely capable to develop this significant capability.”

The solution provides commercial off-the-shelf integration with a tailored Web portal linking the systems together. During the first phase of the task order, the team will develop and deploy a wireless network infrastructure at detention facilities that will initially be used for detainee tracking and will be able to support evolving technology needs. Also during this first phase Northrop Grumman will deploy the central reservation capability.

“This key win helps to further expand Northrop Grumman’s expertise within DHS,” said Jerry Buckwalter, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of homeland security. “This project will help us continue our mission-focused approach to providing innovative solutions that ensure the most effective response to the Department’s needs.”

Work under the task order will take place in McLean, Va.

Northrop Grumman’s teammates include SoftBrands, Minneapolis; System Analytics, Inc., Fairfax, Va.; CoSolutions, Inc., Reston, Va.; Alanco/TSI Prisim, Inc., Scottsdale, Ariz.; Cogent Systems, Pasadena, Calif.; Cross Match Technologies, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; Dell Inc., Round Rock, Texas; IBM, Armonk, N.Y.; and Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores, Calif.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a global defense and technology company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in information and services, electronics, aerospace and shipbuilding to government and commercial customers worldwide.
This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com
SOURCE: Northrop Grumman Corp.

Juli Ballesteros
Northrop Grumman Information Technology
(703) 556-2736
juli.ballesteros@ngc.com

The United States was founded on racism- and our country was built on slavery, does that mean that we should go back to that also? Just because our country was founded on a flawed concept doesn’t mean that it’s just or fair.

Also, whatever happened to seperation between church and state? There are many religions in this country, not just Christianity. The great thing about America (or the supposed great thing) is that this country is a mix of all different races, ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, and religions. It doesn’t matter how many percent of the nation is Christian, religion has no place in government.

If marriage was just a Christian concept then the religious authorities could invent their own rules and regulations and conduct the ceromonies in any way that it pleased. However, marriage is not a one- religion ceremony. It takes place within every culture and within every relgion (including Agnostics and Athiests). So why then, does a group think that it can determine how marriage is performed for everybody? Why do they have a right to say who can and cannot get married? Marriage is a government issue (hense the marriage license), and therefore has nothing to do with religion.

peace,

Samiyah