The value of these street interviews is up to the viewer but they show contradictions amongst the people and contradictions with the enemy the Kiev Putschists.
The Interviews follow on after another automatically.
Blog
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Clarksville SDS and community leaders prepare to confront Nazis
Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) is gearing up to confront a neo-Nazi conference this weekend at the Montgomery Bell State Park in Dickson County. SDSers are organizing a rally outside of the Montgomery Bell Park Inn and Convention Center at 4 p.m. on April 26. They plan to send a message that Nazi terror and white supremacy will not be tolerated in Dickson County. Speakers at the rally will include representatives from organizations such as the Dream Defenders and One People’s Project, as well as local community and religious leaders.
The white supremacist organization calls itself American Renaissance and its yearly conference draws fascists including the Klan, neo-Nazis, and other white supremacist hate groups to the park. Previous speakers at the American Renaissance conference included David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader and neo-Nazi who inspired and is greatly admired by Frazier Glenn Cross – the killer responsible for the recent brutal slayings in Kansas City. In fact, leaders from the White Patriot Party, which was a Ku Klux Klan faction founded by Frazier Glenn Cross, are among the previous attendees of American Renaissance conferences.
SDS member and native son of Dickson County Sean Collette said, “Nazis have murdered millions. The Klan has lynched and terrorized thousands. Recently, we were all horrified to hear that a white supremacist with ties to American Renaissance murdered several innocent people in Kansas City. It is very clear to us that these white supremacists are a threat to our lives and to the safety of our community. We want to send a message to these terrorists that their presence in Montgomery Bell will not be tolerated. And, we also want to send a message to the world that folks in Dickson County aren’t the type of people to stand idly by in the face of fascism. We are going to confront this issue head on and protect our community.”
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Teamster leadership hammers through UPS contract despite mass opposition by members
Atlanta, GA – On April 23, the leadership of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters (IBT) announced that the concessionary national UPS contract will go into effect this Friday, April 25. The contract – the single largest collective bargaining agreement in the country – was overwhelmingly opposed by Teamster members in Philadelphia, Western Pennsylvania and Louisville, Kentucky, who voted down their local supplements and riders twice. According to the terms of the national UPS master agreement, the contract cannot go into effect until all supplements have been ratified by the members.
The unilateral move to hammer through the contract without full approval drew harsh criticism from Teamsters locals around the country. Teamsters Local 89, which voted down their concessionary supplement by 94% earlier in April called the move, “the greatest display of failed leadership and cowardice by [International Secretary Treasurer] Ken Hall and his cronies.” The statement, a press release posted to their website, continues, “By selling out thousands of their fellow Teamsters, Ken Hall and his cronies are complicit in subjecting UPS workers to financial hardships, reduced benefits and inferior working conditions. It is sad commentary on the state of a once great and powerful IBT when its current leadership grovels for table scraps of its corporate master UPS. The membership fully expects the Company to attempt to destroy the rights of its employees – that’s just how UPS does business – but the IBT directly attacking good wages, benefits and workplace rights is not only shameful, it’s treasonous.”
UPS Teamsters voted down 18 local riders and regional supplements during the first round of voting in 2013 and a whopping 47% voted against the negotiated contract. Members overwhelmingly opposed the contract due to its major concessions, which included major increases in co-pays and deductibles in the company health care plan. Other concessions include an additional year required for package car drivers to reach the top rate of pay.
Several supplements were subsequently passed in a second round of voting, but the supplements in Philadelphia, Western Pennsylvania and Louisville were repeatedly rejected by the members. Louisville hosts the largest UPS hub in the country, the Worldport, which handles huge volumes of UPS air traffic. Louisville Teamsters rejected the original supplement and then rejected them again after UPS came back with a worse offer that in no way dealt with serious problems facing members, like pension contributions and long commute times for workers through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints.
Ken Hall, the lead Teamster negotiator for the UPS contract, cited article XII of the IBT constitution in an unsigned fax, which announced the leadership’s decision to push through the contract without full approval. Hall argues that the members of the three local supplements rejected the supplements purely because of dissatisfaction with changes to the company health care plan, which he says gives the international leadership the ability to force through the contract.
Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), the rank-and-file reform caucus of the IBT, led the campaign to win the right to vote on contracts in 1991. Rank-and-file organizing, along with critical support by TDU, was instrumental in coordinating the “Vote No” movement on the most recent concessionary contract. At the time of this writing, the “Vote No on UPS Contract” Facebook group, which Teamsters around the country used to oppose the concessionary contract, had over 5500 members.
Bobby Curry, a member of f Philadelphia IBT Local 623 and one of the lead organizers of the Vote No movement,. “It’s so wrong to have Teamsters’ voting power taken away from UPS Teamsters. This is definitely a low point in Teamsters history.”
“Since the start of the Vote No movement, part-timers and full-timers at UPS have been fighting for a better workplace,” said Jared Hamil of Teamster local 79. “Teamster locals like 89 and 804 should be looked up to. They’re the ones fighting the boss to get us better conditions. This company wants to take away everything we have. They want to make it worse for us and now Hoffa, Hall and the other sellouts are siding with the company over fighting locals like 89. Teamster leadership should be fighting tooth and nail for a better workplace, not siding with the company. For us in Tampa, we’re not going to stop. We know that the company doesn’t want to help us and we need to keep fighting back!”
The locals that have had their votes on the supplements overturned by the national leadership are looking into appealing the decision.
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Andhra Pradesh: Press Release on Tsundur Judgement of High Court
By Human Rights Forum Press Release 23-4-2014 Hyderabad The acquittal by a Division Bench of the AP High Court of all accused in the 1991 Tsundur massacre of dalits is brazen injustice. The Human Rights Forum (HRF) is shocked and anguished by the verdict in such a landmark case. It is highly unfortunate that the […]
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Some Myths About Muslims
By Shankar Gopalkrishnan As the 2014 elections begin, the time has come again to state the obvious. In the context of massive propaganda campaigns, the subtle use of stereotypes, and the fact that both the Western and the Indian media share certain basic biases, many people end up believing in a range of myths about […]
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On Mumia’s Birthday we say Free Mumia Abu Jamal
Saturday 26th April 1.00 pm, Rally at Windrush Square, Brixton, London, SW9 – Free Mumia Abu Jamal Now !
See Also : http://democracyandclasstruggle.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-unsilenced-voice-of-long-distance.html
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April 24: Dalit villagers attacked for casting votes in Giridih
http://www.thehindu.com/elections/loksabha2014/central/dalit-villagers-attacked-for-casting-votes-in-giridih/article5942636.ece?homepage=true Dalit villagers attacked for casting votes in Giridih Anumeha Yadav Dalit villagers were attacked lathis, with bricks and stones thrown at them by upper-caste Bhumihars when they tried to cast their vote in villages in Gardih village in Jamua block in Giridih. Jamua which falls in Koderma constituency was scheduled for polling in the […]
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April 24: Andhra HC strikes down all sentences in Dalit massacre case
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/401162/andhra-hc-strikes-down-all.html Andhra HC strikes down all sentences in Dalit massacre case In a dramatic judgment, the Andhra Pradesh High Court Tuesday set aside an order of a special court that sentenced 21 people to life imprisonment and 35 others to one year’s jail for the 1991 massacre of Dalits in Guntur district. The high court […]
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Larry Wilkerson on Obama’s Wrong Headed Approach to China
Larry Wilkerson: President Obama’s trip to East Asia exemplifies the need for the U.S. to control China’s influence instead of looking for ways to collaborate.
Since 2011 the Pivot to Asia has created tension in the Asia Pacific that tension is growing not diminishing just as the US pivot to the Ukraine has brought the highest level of tension since the Cold War in Europe.
Imperialism means
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"Russians" in Eastern Ukraine : The Obama administration and Kiev government have tried to base this claim on photographic evidence that the NYTimes recently had to retract
Pictures presented by Washington and Kiev as evidence of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine, and published on Monday by the New York Times, were unverified and in fact contradicted the claims they were to support.
The US State department acknowledged the error and the New York Times back-tracked on its Monday story, which claimed “photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine endorsed by the