“Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it.” — Rudolph Giuliani
Joe Krahn, a high school newspaper staff member at Wisconsin Dell High School in Wisconsin, was expelled for distributing his zine Difi on school grounds. In a closed hearing by the school board, the 16-year-old student was expelled until the age of 21, when the district is under no obligation to provide Joe with an education. The zine contained what administrators described as highly offensive material. The offensive materials included criticism of the school and school personnel, among them a suggestion that the school emblem and the American flag should be set ablaze. When it came to providing an explanation of its decision, school officials have been tight-lipped saying only that Krahn was punished for “repeatedly breaking school rules” that included “acts of insubordination and disruption of the educational environment.” Apparently, exercising independent thought and openly questioning authority pose dire threats to the “educational environment.” Mike Hiestand, an attorney with the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit organization that defends the First Amendment rights of high school and college journalists, harshly criticized the expulsion. “Students bringing weapons to school get far less punishment than this kid got for publishing a newspaper,” said Hiestand. It appears school officials find the pen more dangerous than the sword.
The oil giant Chevron must still be smarting over Pacifica’s shocking report of their involvement in the murder of two Nigerian villagers last May—a story that has prompted calls for a congressional investigation of Chevron’s practices in the Niger Delta. Chevron went into spin control mode and even went so far as to bar a credentialed Pacifica news reporter from attending a public news conference with US Senator Dianne Feinstein. Chevron now claims it did so because Pacifica is an advocacy group, not a news organization. Apparently, the Chevron flacks were unaware that Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” program which broke the Nigeria killing story, has been awarded the George Polk award for Radio Reporting, regarded as one of the most-prized in broadcast journalism. When asked why Chevron would make such an assertion, their flacks simply said: “That is our opinion.”
In May, more than 40,000 people in Canada were treated to a parody edition of Conrad Black’s National Post. The four-page satire, prepared to look like Conrad’s flagship Canadian daily, was produced by Vancouver’s Guerrilla Media (www.guerrillamedia.org) to highlight Canada’s increasingly obscene media ownership into fewer and fewer hands. More than 150 guerrillas and supporters in Toronto, Vancouver and Victoria handed out tens of thousands of copies of the bogus daily to commuters and placed several thousand more in the National Post’s own newspaper boxes. “Whether it’s print, radio or TV, the extreme levels of ownership concentration in Canada is a serious problem,” says Guerrilla Media spokesman Beau Gus Monniker. “Guerrilla Media has created this parody of the Post to point up the downside of letting a special interest group of a few wealthy men like Hollinger/Southam’s Conrad Black or Power Corp’s Paul Desmarais control the news we read.” Monniker also points out that Conrad Black doesn’t hide his intolerance towards editors who oppose his views and notes the media baron’s downsizing has severely curtailed local coverage in many small and medium-sized Hollinger/Southam papers. The 4-page Post parody features plenty of satire, a discussion of media concentration in Canada and its effects on editorial coverage, and a back page advertisement of a horror movie called The ConBlob, a “Megalomedia/TeleTubby/Cuts of Thousands co-production of a Conrad B. DeMillions film.” Expect future newspaper parodies from these direct-action media critics in the future.
Former CNN producer April Oliver filed suit against her former employer for wrongful termination over her controversial report on “Operation Tailwind” which alleged U.S. forces used nerve gas against American defectors in Laos during the Vietnam War. CNN retracted the story a few weeks after the broadcast. It also fired two producers and reprimanded Peter Arnett, who ultimately left the network. Oliver’s lawsuit charges CNN fired her last year “primarily on business and public relations concerns.” The lawsuit also claims that senior management at CNN and Time knew the Tailwind report was “inherently volatile” and that they “thoroughly reviewed and approved the sourcing and substance of the Tailwind report prior to broadcast and publication.” None of the senior managers were fired or reprimanded.
Over 250 arrests have been made at NATO headquarters in Brussels in the final days of May as “citizen inspection teams” organized by a group called For Mother Earth were attempting to gather evidence about NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group. The arrests followed the refusal by NATO to hand over the information. The citizen inspectors demanded the immediate release of data about NATO’s nuclear force, documents that they planned to turn over to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. While the citizen inspectors welcome the indictment of President Milosevic of war crimes, they also want NATO “brought to court for the preparation of crimes against humanity.” More than 130 policemen have been called up to prevent anybody from entering NATO buildings. “This is a war zone. We cannot tolerate anybody interfering with NATO,” declared the police officer in charge.
On May 7th, a formal complaint by a group of 15 lawyers and law professors from several countries charging Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Tony Blair, Robin Cook, Wesley Clark and 60 other government and NATO officials with war crimes committed in NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia was lodged with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The list of crimes includes “willful killing” and “willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, extensive destruction of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.” The complaint also alleges “open violation” of the United Nations charter, the NATO treaty itself, the Geneva Conventions and the Principles of International Law Recognized by the Nuremberg Tribunal. One of the law professors, Michael Mandel said: “The bombing of civilians is not only immoral, it is criminal and punishable under the laws governing the Tribunal.” A copy of the formal complaint is posted on the Internet at www.infoshop.org/complaint.html.
On May 25, 1999, a historic event occurred. It marked the first time since the enactment of the 1973 War Powers Resolution that a President has openly violated the termination requirements of that law. That law requires congressional approval if the U.S. military is to engage in hostilities for more than 60 days. If the President does not have explicit authorization, he has 60 days to terminate any use of force. On April 28, the House of Representatives refused to give approval for the war with a tie 213 to 213 vote. Legal scholars Michael Ratner and Jules Lobel – who litigated Dellums v. Bush, the case that forced President Bush to obtain congressional approval for the Gulf War in 1991 – are representing Rep. Tom Campbell (R-CA) in Campbell v. Clinton. In a joint statement Ratner and Lobel said: “The President was violating the Constitution on the first day of the war; now amazingly enough he becomes the first President ever to violate the termination provision of the War Powers Resolution. Bombings and killings are being carried out in our names, but without the consent of the American people through their representatives. It’s a very sad day. The imperial Presidency has reappeared with a vengeance.” So much for the “rule of law.”
In the wake of recent school shootings in Colorado and Georgia, the U.S. Senate has passed the Juvenile Justice Bill (S.254) which contains provisions designed specifically to target animal rights and environmental activists. The bill calls for the creation of a national database of animal and environmental activists and their “crimes” that would be overseen by the FBI. The bill also allows for selective prosecution, singling out those activists for increased prison sentences above and beyond those they would normally face for criminal convictions. The bill also seeks to target websites and publications that contain information on bomb-making which could have a chilling effect on free speech.
These words were uttered by presidential candidate George W. Bush during a press conference in reference to a satirical website GWBush.com, which parodies Bush’s official site and discusses his past cocaine use. This outburst followed attempts by Bush campaign attorneys to have the site shut down. Bush’s legal efforts began with a cease-and-desist letter claiming that GWBush.com violated copyright laws. After noticing the website lampooning Bush, the Bush campaign scrambled to reserve up to 260 ‘bush’-related domain names including bushsux.org, in an attempt to prevent further embarrassment. Now Bush has filed a legal complaint against the owners of the website with the Federal Election Commission. Most of the content on the website was provided by RTMARK, a group that specialized in calling attention to corporate subversion of the U.S. political and electoral process. “George W. Bush Jr. apparently thinks small-time folk should have to register with the government before exercising free speech on the internet,” said Rita Mae Rakoczi, a lawyer and RTMARK representative.
MCLIBEL
VOLUNTEER PASSES AWAYDavid Linn Briars, 52, died Feb. 26, 1999, at his home in Craftsbury, Vermont, after a long battle with cancer. David was best known for his work with the McLibel defendants, setting up the U.S. McLibel Support Campaign to spread the news about the landmark case across the U.S. and around the world. Fellow activist Brian Tokar credited David with literally inventing the model of electronic activism that is used today by everyone from Greenpeace to the Zapatistas.
Back in the 1980’s, you could purchase and display "Die Yuppie Scum" posters, t-shirts and bumperstickers without much fanfare. Post something like that today in liberal San Francisco and you’ll be accused of engaging in hate crimes. Not only that, you’re liable to be charged with making terrorist threats. In fact, that’s exactly what happened to anti-yuppie crusader, Kevin Keating. Keating allegedly heads the Mission Yuppie Eradication Project (MYEP), a grassroots group with some rather creative ways to raise awareness about gentrification issues in the Mission district of San Francisco. MYEP flyers posted around the neighborhood urge folks to vandalize upscale restaurants and yuppie cars such as sports utility vehicles (SUVs) by keying them and slashing their tires. The flyers called for vandals to "be creative, take action, don’t get caught." Keating was arrested and charged with making terrorist threats and malicious misconduct in connection with the flyers. The police also went to Keating’s apartment and confiscated dozens of books, computer disks, tapes and writings related to anarchism, communism and revolution. Activists rallying to Keating’s defense are angry about the "yuppie carpetbaggers" who want to turn the Mission into a collection of upscale businesses and expensive loft and condo complexes — spaces that will displace mostly long-time working-class and poor residents. And now the yuppies, who thought nothing of ignoring the concerns of long-time residents and treating the Mission district as their personal little playgrounds, are whining because some residents aren’t properly welcoming the yuppie invasion. Die Yuppie Scum.
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Updated: 5/8/2000