Protests in Peru’s capital continue as the demonstrators who traveled from across the country for the “takeover of Lima” have been brutally repressed through mass arrests, the use of tear gas, rubber bullets and beatings, and the deployment of armored vehicles.
June 6, 2021, was the day which shocked many in Peru’s oligarchy. Pedro Castillo Terrones, a rural schoolteacher who had never before been elected to office, won the second round of the presidential election with just over 50.13% of the vote.
More than 8.8 million people voted for Castillo’s program of profound social reforms and the promise of a new constitution against the far-right’s candidate, Keiko Fujimori.
In a dramatic turn of events, the historical agenda of neoliberalism and repression, passed down by former Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori to his daughter Keiko, was rejected at the polls.
From that day on, still in disbelief, the Peruvian oligarchy declared war on Castillo. They made the next 18 months for the new president a period of great hostility as they sought to destabilize his government with a multi-pronged attack that included significant use of lawfare.
With a call to “throw out communism,” plans were made by the oligarchy’s leading business group, the National Society of Industries, to make the country ungovernable under Castillo.
In October 2021, recordings were released that revealed that since June 2021 this group of industrialists, along with other members of Peru’s elite and leaders of the right-wing opposition parties, had been planning a series of actions, including financing protests and strikes.
‘Many might be wondering why exactly the US dollar has yet to collapse. The United States maintains a $31.5 trillion national debt, runs an annual $1 trillion budget deficit, and forks out about $500 billion in interest payments. What’s the deal with the dollar?‘
For one thing, it helps that 90% of the world’s transactions are completed in Ponzi Greenbacks. If anyone dares dissent against US policy, the Washington leviathan and its many tentacles can cut off access.
US coercion is backed by sanctions control via the World Bank/IMF/Swift and over 900 military bases worldwide. We have to buy dollars to trade, and this is how the US can still JUST PRINT MONEY without collapse after all these years.
US debt impunity is a variation of a Ponzi scheme, enforced with sanctions and threats. But all Ponzi schemes are really giant Confidence Swindles, and finally face inevitable sudden and complete collapse.
Despite the RISE of the dollar at the end of 2022 and the huge US capitalist gains, due to oil and gas price inflation from sanctions on Russia, as well as the war profiteering boom of the key Military Industrial Complex, many economists still predict a great economic crash.
Now that Russia has defied the system, and profited economically, despite hundreds of economic sanctions and a full scale proxy war against it, many countries are beginning to break ranks and deal in their own currencies or in the ruble and yuan. Finally some nations are daring to not buy the now devaluing dollar from a USA again forced to increase its 31.5 Trillion debtlimit or face default and meltdown.
Defender la cultura africana y sus raíces es una forma de hacer activismo y luchar contra la discriminación racial, coinciden activistas cubanas.
“Elracismose elimina un poco cuando entendemos la cultura del otro, y que la gente pueda conocer la cultura afro por medio de la moda es algo positivo”, dijo la activista y educadora popularHildelisa Leal Díaz, en el Taller de prácticas culturales afrocubanas realizado en La Habana el 24 de enero.
El encuentro, convocado por la Cátedra de Estudios Nelson Mandela en alianza con el proyecto Afroestética, reunió a académicas y activistas para conversar sobre la historia y usos del turbante, una pieza con significados míticos, religiosos, estéticos, culturales y políticos.
«Los descendientes de las personas esclavizadas arrancadas de África han dignificado, explicado y defendido el significado de esta pieza. Los turbantes significan pertenencía, empatía, hermandad, jerarquía”, dijo Leal…
In this column, we present our monthly roundup of political prisoner, prison rebel, and repression news, happenings, announcements, action and analysis. Packed in as always are updates, fundraisers, and birthdays.
There’s a lot happening, so let’s dive right in!
Repression of Forest Defenders in Atlanta
“Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is trying to stomp out the protests by any means necessary, charging the demonstrators with terrorism and, on Thursday, calling up the National Guard to stand by to put down any further resistance. “
Eric is so grateful, overwhelmed and humbled by all of the support that has been coming in. Taylor Swift news. Feedback on his writing. Books, notes, letters. He had tears in his eyes this weekend when he was told about it. Life afterward has been on his mind a lot. Getting out, surviving and raising children. And also wrestling with the inadequate feelings when it comes to job prospects, housing and an incredible foreign world. When he entered prison there was not a ton of people lining up his support him. It took months to get a book purchased from his list. Seeing real tangible support is helping quiet those fears. Thinking about cars, computers and capitalism and how much closer he is to working it all out.
Things have been ok. He has finally has his first phone call with his family since 2018, and first visit since the week after trial. He is a bit overwhelmed by the difference in respect that comes from the guards around him. Well trained guards, because the ADX demands that. Guards that know the law and are asked to follow it. It has definitely caused some reflection and wonder… what would it have been like if he were met with guards like this in Englewood? Florence medium? Leavenworth, USP McCreary? FTC Oklahoma? USP Atlanta? USP Lee?
He is safe and thinking about what it will be like ending this year on his way to freedom ❤ We have added some notebooks to his Amazon book list because he needs some paper that is a manageable size. As well as his current obsession and the goal reading every book Colum Mccann has written.
Feb 6th, 2023, will mark the start of Leonard Peltier’s 48th year of imprisonment. Leonard’s Defense Committee are calling for “Rise Up for Peltier” events to mark the date, with events planned for several countries and US locations including Rapid City, SD, Minneapolis, MN, Fargo, ND, Tampa, FL, Santa Fe, NM, Albuquerque, NM, San Francisco, CA, San Jose, CA, Sacramento, CA, Columbia, MO, Tulsa, OK, and Washington DC.
Joshua Williams #1292002 C/O Digital Mail Center-Missouri DOC PO Box 25678 Tampa, FL 33622-5678 Missouri prisoners can receive electronic messages via Securus Tech.
Urooj Rahman, convicted of molotoving a nypd cruiser in 2020, recently began her 15-month sentence and is now being held at philadelphia federal detention center.
EDIT UPDATE: the feds fucked up her entry in their database, left out the ‘j’ in her name… but here is the information to write to her:
Urooj Rahman #83822-053 FDC Philadelphia P.O. Box 562 Philadelphia, PA 19105
Her support group has put out a solidarity statement, highlighting the gendered islamophobia on display during her trial and the need for building stronger collective defense: https://bit.ly/SolidarityStatementUR as well a form if you want to get involved in her support, especially if you are in the area: https://form.jotform.com/230226019488153
Poland has ordered an additional batch of Javelin missiles from the US.
The $103.5-million purchase follows the receipt of a previous order worth $54.5 million in October.
The latest purchase comprises 50 launchers and 500 missiles, with additional logistics and training packages, according to MILMAG. The deliveries are expected to be complete by 2026.
The previous contract included 60 launchers and 180 missiles.
***
The purchase came a month after Warsaw approved an additional purchase of 116 Abrams tanks from the US for $1.4 billion. Poland purchased 250 Abrams last year.
The Russian State University for the Humanities (RGGU) has called for restricted access to ChatGPT after a student successfully presented a diploma thesis written by the program.
The AI-powered bot has garnered increasingly widespread attention for its text generation abilities.
The scandal unfolded after a graduate student with the university took to Twitter to share his experience of using ChatGPT to write his diploma thesis on management.
In a lengthy thread, the student explained how he had circumvented text length restrictions, also sharing insights into how to use the program to get a coherent text.
The thesis was successfully presented at the university. The student admitted that he received only a minimal passing grade, blaming that result on other factors, namely laughing at the purportedly sloppy presentations by other graduates.
All in all, it took the student around 23 hours to ‘write’ his thesis, compared to several weeks spent by his fellow students on their work, according to the thread.
‘Ask Oli’ chatbot starts AI revolution in children’s healthcare
The stunt has received a mixed reception from the Twitter crowd. Some have praised the student for his ingenuity, while others have accused him of cheating.
Several users were so enraged by the trick that they wrote complaints to the RGGU and the Russian Education Ministry, calling on officials to investigate and annul the thesis altogether.
The university was quick to condemn the student, urging the authorities to restrict access to ChatGPT for educational facilities. It was not immediately clear how exactly the RGGU seeks to achieve that, given that ChatGPT’s developers have already restricted access to the chat bot for Russian users.
“If decades ago the main problem for universities was plagiarism and unscrupulous borrowing, and this problem was successfully solved, now the educational community is facing a new challenge associated with the use of neural networks and artificial intelligence in scientific and educational activities.
Russian and foreign experts have expressed concerns about this issue, and finding a worthy solution is a primary task for the scientific community,” the university told Russian media in a statement.
In separate comments, the RGGU vowed to carry out additional “analysis” of the thesis, both internally and with the involvement of the scientific community.
At the same time, the deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education, Aleksandr Mazhuga, urged the university not to annul the thesis, arguing that it has already passed the presentation.
“My opinion is that the result cannot be annulled. But this is a very important signal for our educational community that we need to carefully participate in the process of writing our students’ theses,” Mazhuga told Gazeta.ru.
Coronavirus Fact-Check #17: Masks STILL Don’t Work They’re trying to bring mask mandates back – but a new study says masks do exactly what they’ve always done: Nothing.
You can read all our previous Covid fact-checks here.
Both the US and UK have seen the (attempted) re-introduction of facemask mandates amid “surging Covid cases” in the New Year.
On January 9th, ABC news headlined:–
More US schools institute mask mandates as COVID cases rise
Reporting that public schools in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Michigan were re-introducing mask mandates. That follows late-December mandates imposed in Oakland and Iowa, among others.
It’s not much different in the UK, where there have been no mandates issued, but “experts” are “urging” people to wear masks to “limit the spread of flu, Covid and Scarlet Fever”, according to the Daily Mail. The OKHSA issued “guidance”, as they are wont to do.
Meanwhile, the Guardian is back to publishing manipulative op-eds attempting to “end the culture war” on masks, and turning the whole issue into nothing but a virtue signal.
All of this is, of course, pure propaganda that ignores actual science in favour “The ScienceTM“.
For over two years we’ve been publishing piles of evidence that face masks not only do nothing to prevent the spread of respiratory viruses but are actually harmful in myriad ways.
We really don’t want to have to go over all the old research papers again…
…and we don’t have to, because there’s a new one.
On January 30th the Cochrane Library published an updated literature review on facemasks from Dr Tom Jefferson et al..
On cloth masks, a review of a dozen studies found:
Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza‐like illness (ILI)/COVID‐19 like illness compared to not wearing
masks […] Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory‐confirmed influenza/SARS‐CoV‐2 compared to not wearing masks…
There you go. Maybe wear that quote on a lanyard instead of a mask this year.
You can read all our previous Covid fact-checks here.
A High Court judge has dismissed the appeal of climate campaigners and ruled that Bristol Airport expansion can go ahead.
Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) challenged the airport’s expansion plans in the High Court following their approval by planning inspectors at an inquiry in 2021. BAAN argued that the inspectors’ decision to discount climate change from their decision was legally wrong.
However, in an announcement published today (January 31) Lord Justice Lane ruled that the inspectors’ decision was valid and that the expansion should proceed.
Responses from campaigners
The decision comes as a blow to BAAN who have campaigned to stop Bristol Airport expansion since plans for expansion were announced in 2018. There were tears amongst the members of BAAN and their supporters as news of the judge’s ruling broke to those waiting outside the courthouse.
Hundreds gathered outside Bristol Civil Justice Centre, where the hearing was held in November, and cries of “shame” echoed out when the verdict was shared.
Speaking for BAAN outside the courthouse, Steve Clarke said: ‘The Government has policies in place which are designed to encourage the growth of airports and the number of people wanting to fly. This shows a total disregard for the climate emergency we are in.
‘In addition, this case shows that no one is taking responsibility for the extra carbon emissions from the 2 million additional passengers because they will not have been taken into account at any stage of the process either locally or nationally.
The Planning Inspectors who presided over the Inquiry stated that the responsibility lay with national Government however the Secretary of State has chosen not to consider the impact of the additional carbon; either at Bristol or other regional airport.
‘The end result of this decision is that the overwhelming voices of opposition of local people and their elected representatives have been ignored. This is despite the chaos that will be caused locally through extra traffic congestion, noise and air pollution and the fact that the airport is already the biggest carbon emitter in the region.’
Following speeches from campaigners, protesters from XR Youth Bristol sat in front of the courthouse as fake blood was poured over their heads.
How did we get here?
Thousands of local people signed petitions against the expansion and objected to the original planning application, outnumbering messages of support many times over.
Bristol Airport’s planning application to expand from 10 million to 12 million passengers a year initially went before North Somerset Council in February 2020. Councillors voted against expansion, many giving as their reason that airport expansion is incompatible with efforts to tackle the climate crisis.
Since then, further planning applications have been objected to, and the West of England Combined Authority and Bristol City Council joined North Somerset in formally objecting to expansion, although Bristol mayor Marvin Rees has always spoken in favour of the scheme.
The Free 