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"The UPGRADEmag is rapidly becoming the best compendium of topical sanity around." William Robertson, West London YogashalaRAVECULTUREFRONTLINE REPORT //UPGRADEmag// oct 30 2001 The UPGRADEmag (the Upgrade Emag, or just the "UP") is a global edutainment news round-up, ‘broadcast’ weekly to =[10,589]= Trance// New Age// Alternative// Activist// Zippy folks who have been recommended to the Parallel YOUniversity/ Megatripolis Dance Dept as "showing signs of life". Since many recipients choose to forward it to their own lists, we estimate 26,500+ recipients. Further, because of its less 'specialist' content, it's increasingly being posted on a variety of sites worldwide, making a total weekly ‘readership’ of 275,000+ H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H MAKE THE UPGRADE FIT YOUR SCREEN BY CLOSING ANY BOX ON LEFT "A fascinating mixture of information, speculation and controversy" Green University. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** OCT 31-NOV 6 ASTRO-ENERGY FORECAST * * * * * * * * * * * * HALLOWE’EN USHERS IN A LANDMARK WEEK Hallowe’en is an apt theme now. Its exceedingly transformative Full Moon features Neptune, planet of mystery. Strange things emerge from the darkness to inspire or frighten us. Our thoughts will feature selfish desires, or a wider peace and justice. Whichever we choose we will pursue forcefully for the next year. Huge changes continue, including financial. See www.daykeeperjournal.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * # _____________________________ LETTER OF THE WEEK RAVECULTUREFRONTLINE REPORT from Mattydredd & the Irish Massive Fraser, I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to you for your consistent circulation of information relating to the many hard truths emerging around current world events; they represent much needed sanity in a time of trouble. Didn't we all know it was coming? Please keep up the good work, and above all - look after yourself, stay healthy, keep dancing, raving, loving those members of the human race around you - this is what will get us all through the brutal times that lie ahead. I'm hoping that over the coming issues, you find sufficient time and space to continue your excellent coverage of world events from the 'Alternative' side - what's going on among the camps of those opposed to war, global terrorism, hatred and FEAR - PLEASE continue to highlight the MASSIVE efforts, conducted on a global scale, to create lasting peace through positive creation, intellectual endeavour and, most significantly, developing counter cultures of all kinds, in all nations. Your assertion that the meek shall inherit the Earth is justified and correct - those who choose to perpetrate crimes against fellow men, women and children across the earth shall be destroyed by the very negativity they seek to perpetuate - WE KNOW THIS, and although we cannot avoid the inevitability that the fiends who kill for profit, who inspire negativity and distrust for financial gain and foster a shortsighted totemic, destructive worldview are currently using the world as their playpen, we CAN and DO choose to continue with our efforts to create the cultural climate from which the new world order of UNDERSTANDING, UNITY and COMPROMISE will emerge. Your coverage of the Anti-War Marches in London earlier this month was exceptional, and points to the fact that in the New World Order, already present and long heralded by musicians, artists and activists of all persuasions in all walks of life, it is PEACE which shall reign. Humankind continues to grow in wisdom, self awareness and knowledge; an understanding of life as the cause for celebration among all people of all races and nations has become the unifying basis of life. We look forward to the day when we shall all live in peace - NOT TOO FAR INTO THE FUTURE, EVERYONE!! Please continue to highlight the injustices of the current global crisis as accurately as you have done until now (personal contribution: everyone check out Afghanistan Educational Website, excellent essays on the political situation from contemporary and historical perspectives) PLEASE also continue to highlight the fact that the WORLD MAJORITY is working intensely to create peace, celebration, music, art, justice, equality and respect throughout all nations by increasing coverage in your E-mag of peace events, rallies, raves worldwide, festivals of music and dance. Current crisis was predicted many many times by cultures ancient and modern; the words of the prophets are there, in EVERY spiritual and artistic tradition, for all to see, understand, and utilise as guidance. WE ARE ALL ONE PEOPLE - THAT'S NOT SOMETHING TO BE AFRAID OF, IT'S SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE!! DON'T LET THOSE WHO SEEK TO PREVENT THE EVOLUTION OF A PEACEFUL and BALANCED PLANET BLIND US WITH TALK OF MINDLESS WAR, or DIVERT THE TIDE OF POSITIVE CHANGE WITH MEDIA LIES AND WITH EVIL!! THERE'S NO GETTING AWAY FROM OUR FATE AS A RACE OF INTELLIGENT BEINGS CAPABLE OF LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING - THE ARRIVAL OF A PEACEFUL WORLD ORDER IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE!! LET'S LIVE IT NOW!! As a musician, I'll finish by offering a final AURAL RECIPE for all GOOD HEADS worldwide: CHECK as much GOOD music as you CAN in the coming MONTHS folks - I PERSONALLY RECOMMEND REGGAE, FUNK, SOUL on a daily BASIS, along with DRUM AND BASS AND AFRO BEATS OF ALL KINDS - AS YOU WILL!! Stay tuned, WE WILL WIN. INJUSTICE and EVIL SHALL BE DEFIANTLY DEFEATED. Hopefully, our universal message of UNITY shall reach the ears of Messes Bush, Blair, and ALL LEADERS ENTRUSTED WITH THE GUIDANCE OF THE WORLD'S POPULACE - It makes me smile to think of GWB and TB, along with their councils of war, getting on down to some FUNKYASS TUNES IN A FOREST SOMWEWHERES - do you think they'd take off the ties and cuff links??!! Fraser love your mag man, respect - we shall meet before long. Easy on the IRA references - some of us PEACE LOVERS hail from the Emerald isle, as I do!! Sensitive situation alert!! 'NUFF SPEC' to massives everywhere, keep up the fight for PEACE. LOVE TO ALL UPGRADERS EVERYWHERE, hope you post this one - Mattydredd & the Irish Massive # WAR OF TERROR: "HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOIN' O - ON?" COUNTRIES 'AMERICA' (not americans?) HAS BOMMED SINCE 1945 1945 1945 1945-46, 1950-53 1950-53 1954, 1967-69
1980s
2001- "Eternal" # SUN NOV 18 The Love'n'Peace Ramble Against War. Full-on, full regalia, the Hippies Smoked The Russians Out Of Afghanistan, we've just won the Drug War, now Let's Smoke the Americans Out of Afghanistan too!! PRIZE FOR BEST BANNER. 12noon Assemble Hyde Park/Speakers Corner. Organised by Stop The War Coalition (Socialist Workers Party). 07951 235915 # Brilliant Upgrade, Fraser! Thanks for all the effort! mike synthum # Tales of Old Afghanistan.... There once was a beautiful land called Afghanistan, full of farms & exotic gardens.... Young folks all over the world regarded Afghani produce as the most special of treats & no young seekers world pilgrimage was complete without stopping off at Mazar-I-Sharif to sample the local specialties before they made their way down to India... Unfortunately all that changed in the 1970s - the day that TV came to Afghanistan... David was a very talented musician & was invited to appear on the opening day's broadcast extravaganza. The show went well, and he returned on foot to his hotel that overlooked the Royal Palace... To paraphrase his own words: "I had just got back to my hotel room when I heard a whooshing sound. I went to the window to see Russian jets starting to bomb the area around the Palace. I jumped back just in time as the window was blown into the room, showering glass everywhere....' He was very pissed off as he 'd looked forward to his visit there for many years.... `My night was ruined' he said `I got under the bed, but the building was shaking so much I couldn't even roll a joint!' The next day Kabul was in Chaos with troops & tanks everywhere & he decided to leave after eating... While in the restaurant he heard trouble erupting on the street outside, followed by an explosion that destroyed the front of the restaurant.... He ran out through the rubble only to be confronted by a tank in the middle of the street, with a man in the turret looking at him through the sights of a nasty looking machine-gun. Dave took to his heels, which seemed to excite the gunner who jumped down from the tank and started running after him, with his hand reaching into his jacket as if for a handgun.... Then Dave heard a voice behind him in perfect English: `Stop, please! I want your autograph!' The soldier had recognised him from TV the night before & wanted to thank him for his music! He then showed Dave what he'd been reaching for in his jacket - a huge chunk of hash! He tore off a 50 gram piece to offer as an apology which reduced Dave to laughing tears of relief... He told me he felt self conscious after that as people were staring at him laughing in the middle of an urban war Zone.... Still, he says he felt considerably better about his visit after that. s.gosiewski # ARE AMERICAN RAVERS READY TO GIVE PEACE A DANCE? YES!!! At the moment many people in the US seem like they're awaking from an ultra-patriotic bender and are hung over.... The bait & switch with the flag's meaning is dawning on many people (first it meant `Memento Mori' for the firefighters, then it turned out to represent `kill some more') but many of the old memetic tricks do not seem to be working... To go with a broad generalisation, it seems that most american RAVERS (ie 3rd millennium participants in the ancient traditions of ecstatic dance ritual) are anti war whereas american CLUBBERS (the drink, dance & sad sex crowd) seem as always to be still buying the line of convention.... More than ever, I am reminded that the opposite of courage is conformity... But it was ever thus - you have the lifers who explore the deepest aspects of being & then you have the crowd that just passes thru the scene looking for a suitable mate and sum laffs along the way! Yes, it seems that 9/11 will be the Catalyst that separates the countercultural wheat from the chaff.... but I sense strongly that even the clubbers are changing, we agree, yes? the old magic is waning. i reckon a whole planet-wide generation of ravers has one thing in common: every single one of them has stepped outside consensus reality. shamanism is uncovering your own space, and is the beginning of the Way Out of Consensus Reality. To give you a straightforward answer to the Question: ARE AMERICAN RAVERS READY TO GIVE PEACE A DANCE? YES! there are tons of anti war folks ready to stand up & be counted... The Republican party held a `SUPPORT THE WAR' demo recently that was heavily advertised in red, white, black & blue, & only 70 people showed up ... The counter demo drew 7,000! That old `Everyone's doing it! so you should too' meme has been flogged to death and barely works any more! like the tired descending fractal it represents. And has anyone been wondering why we've heard no more about the `Put Options' - where certain entities profited from the tragedy on the stock market through prior knowledge.... ? Well here's another clue for all u UPgraders - the Walrus was …. The Carlysle Group! ... Quite a few people 'in the NO' reckon this is the key clue that will lead to the darkest smoking gun in insider-trading history... Other interested parties: Unocal & the Oxford Group' (who among other things arrange seminars on anonymity for multi-billionaires)... Check for yourself... What I discovered would definitely seem nutty to those who haven't done the research (which I understand is not the //YOU's chosen project at this point) ... & will be scary to anyone who does! stefan / out here in america stefan added this post script: a pessimist is someone whose glass is half empty... an optimist is someone whose bong is half full! # Thankyou for an excellent Upgrade, still by far the best info & ideas input on the war. merrick / uk # THE NOBLE TOMB Afghanistan was the birthplace of the Sufi poet and teacher, Rumi, who wrote his first poem in Balkh, near Mazar i Sharif, which means "the noble tomb" since it's reputedly the burial place of the 4th Caliph Ali - also very important in Shiism and Sufi thinking. The Taliban capital, Kandahar, is named after Iskander ("Alexander" the Great who rebuilt it in 329BC) In other words - there are many spiritual currents of ancient lineage stirring around behind this conflict. Those interested in applied mysticism, like prayer - in the spirit of Rumi - could well invoke his Tolerance, Wisdom and Depth of Vision as guardian over this crisis, and pray that peace, justice, tolerance and wisdom be soon restored to this (once) fertile and beautiful country. thomas daffern / uk # A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G GG GG GG G G G G G San Francisco WED OCT 24 - SAT NOV 10
Bannam Place Theater. 8PM. Tickets $20 at the door (a date for less than an eighth!) with pay what you can afford shows on Wednesday nights. Come in costume on Halloween and get a free gift! Bannam Place Theater has only 50 seats, so serious dopers should cop now atWhen Sheldon Norberg was still ruining the Underworld Opera Company he thought he should do a show about his real work, but he was still a bust. He says he never intended to write a book, it just got... long. So long that it's taken him a couple more years to get it presentable for the stage. So come take a ride through his mind, heading right down the pipe, complete with disembodied voices, screaming FX, Pink Floyd, the Dead, my parents, talking nitrous tanks, revelations, delusions, and all the accoutrements one might expect as any bright eyed American enters the world of adventure and intrigue that dope dealing entails. "The most eloquent examination of the wonders & dangers of drugs I ever read" TRIP Magazine, http://www.ticketweb.com/user/?query=search®ion=xxx&category=misc&search=dope+dealer&submit.x=0&submit.y=0 A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A ADVERTISING G G G G G G GG GG GG G G G G G Friends, The evidence seems to be that more people will die in Afghanistan this winter than died in all of Hitler's concentration camps. During these last few weeks when something might still be done about it, the US-UK Axis continues the bombing raids and drops token food packages - not enough to feed a single village. And these are dropped in the wrong places, often in fields infested with land mines. There is no possibility that the Axis leaders are unaware of the genocidal consequences of their acts, and the token food drops amount to a cynical propaganda ploy to distract public attention from those consequences. Add this to the 1.5 million Iraqis killed by Axis sanctions, and millions killed by IMF/CIA actions in Rwanda and elsewhere in Africa - we are witnessing history's greatest intentional holocaust. disgusted, rkm http://cyberjournal.org # Re-Entering Civilisation Bivouacked deep in the desert, under a million stars, the milky way a clear blaze above us - and the only things moving fast are the shooting stars. I'm knocked out by the manners and customs of the people; effortlessly simple and graceful, and yet so sophisticated and superior that I feel immediately humble and joyful - a little cleaner, purer: I'm re-entering civilisation as it was meant to be. Greetings are warm and affectionate: a hand presses the heart and kisses the lips, bowing in salutation to the God within; everywhere there are welcoming smiles for strangers, and there has not been one hostile moment since we arrived. We speak openly about the terrible twin towers of disaster. No one likes war. Brahim our princely Berber guide, shakes his head sadly, the world is indeed a crazy place . He comes to our tent bowing and saying "Welcome Scottish, in the desert we drink Whisky Berber" - mint tea he explains, "You will like" he adds and laughs - "Not get drunk!" The origin of our own handshake comes to mind: look I have no sword to kill you with or defend myself. How tragic that we have ignored the Arab peoples and their great, perhaps even the greatest, contribution known to human civilisation. It's like ignoring your origins - where we and all we subsequently learned came from. We are so cut of form our roots... They were producing incomparable gems of Art, Architecture, Science and Religion when we were still painting our bodies... and to my mind we still seem at times as brutal and arrogant as a rampaging blood-soaked crusader. Enough of that. We sip in deep silence. I'm dressed like a native, the wisest strategy at this fragile time. And it's not Difficult for me, a westerner, to make the adjustment - by the ancient bones of Ai Baba, I'm home. And privileged to be here. james hamilton / in morocco # Nothing can excuse or justify an act of terrorism,
Kali Dances on My Bones: whether it's committed by religious fundamentalists, private militia, people's resistance movements - or whether it's dressed up as a war of retribution by a recognised government. The bombing of Afghanistan is not revenge for New York and Washington, but another act of terror against the people of the world. And what of the rest of us, the numb recipients of this onslaught of what we know to be preposterous propaganda? The daily consumers of the lies and brutality smeared in peanut butter and jam being air-dropped into our minds just like those yellow food packets. Shall we look away and eat because we're hungry, or shall we stare unblinking at the grim theatre unfolding in Afghanistan until we retch collectively and say, in one voice, that we have had enough!? http://www.liberalmafia.org/darkgoddesses/Kali.html # CASPIAN OIL: THE STORY STARTS TO COME OUT! Channel 4 News picked up the Caspian Oil story this last week. According to their report there are 3 trillion dollars worth of oil up there. Anybody know if that's a lot more than the Saudi fields (as some friends think) or about half (which others believe)? Meanwhile I've checked the area on a map in the local library and it looks to me that if they built the pipes running through afghanistan just east of the iranian border it looks like a pretty flat and well isolated route - looks pretty perfect to me. Fraser When the Taliban took Kabul in 1996, Washington said nothing. Why? Because Taliban leaders were soon on their way to Houston, Texas, to be entertained by executives of the oil company, Unocal. With secret US government approval, the company offered them a generous cut of the profits of the oil and gas pumped through a pipeline that the Americans wanted to build through Afghanistan. A US diplomat said: "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis did." He explained that Afghanistan would become an American oil colony, there would be huge profits for the West, no democracy and the legal persecution of women. "We can live with that," he said. Although the deal fell through, it remains an urgent priority of the administration of George W. Bush, which is steeped in the oil industry. Bush's concealed agenda is to exploit the oil and gas reserves in the Caspian basin, the greatest source of untapped fossil fuel on earth. Only if the pipeline runs through Afghanistan can the Americans hope to control it. So, not surprisingly, US Secretary of State Colin Powell is now referring to "moderate" Taliban, who will join an American-sponsored "loose federation" to run Afghanistan. The "war on terrorism" is a cover for this: a means of achieving American strategic aims that lie behind the flag-waving facade of great power. john pilger # Dear Fraser Wish to thank you for keeping us all informed. I get your e-mag every week and forward it on to friends. Keep shining the light man - we need it... Love, Melanie Blue Eagle x # is peace beginning to win? i think we're winning, don't you? i feel really encouraged today seeing George Monbiot's piece on the Caspian oil in the Guardian & yesterday seeing Paul Marsden speaking out (& that transcript of his dressing-down by Hilary Armstrong) plus good coverage of the sitdown & soak protest in Whitehall, not to mention George Galloway's commentary last Saturday - thanx for printing that in full in the latest upgrade - I felt like cheering when I read it, & shall be going back to read it again. anyway, a great big thankyou to you. last week I wrote & distributed my first 'Antiwar Newsreal' here in Oxford, & it owes a lot to your good self for bits & pieces straight from the upgrades (no copyright I hope :-), for ideas, esp on colour coding, & most of all for inspiration. wd love you to read it if you have time. forever in your debt penny / oxford # U.K. 'THOSE THAT ARE NOT WITH US ARE AGAINST US' Paul Marsden, newly crowned as the ruling Labour Party's highest-profile dissident, is "not a natural rebel", according to one of his fellow backbench critics of the bombing of Afghanistan. Izzit all part of a rapidly growing people's rebellion against war? The following is an edited transcript of the conversation between the Labour Party chief whip, Hilary Armstrong, and Shrewsbury MP Paul Marsden, as recorded by Mr Marsden in the Mail on Sunday. Hilary Armstrong: Paul, we are all comrades together in the Labour party and we are all supposed to be on the same side. I want to improve your communication skills. Paul Marsden: What do you mean? HA: I want you to join the mainstream of the party. PM: What do you mean by the mainstream? HA: Look, Paul, let me put it another way, those that aren't with us are against us. PM: Name names. HA: We don't really know each other do we? We haven't had a chance to speak properly in the last four years. [Marsden mentioned three previous meetings.] HA: Oh yes, I remember now. [She picked up an inch-thick brown file and waved it in his face, opening it to reveal articles written by Marsden for his local Shropshire Star newspaper; speeches he had made; transcripts of radio interviews he had given.] HA: I want a guarantee that you will not talk to the media unless you speak to me first. PM: I won't do that. I believe it is my right to speak to whoever I choose. HA: I have been looking at your file, you are clearly very inexperienced and your attendance record is poor. [Between 1997 and 1999 Marsden had spent a lot of time away from the Commons. His wife was seriously ill and had given birth. Ex-chief whip Nick Brown gave him compassionate leave.] PM: I take great offence at that. I am not inexperienced and my attendance record is certainly not poor. My wife was being cut open in the operating theatre and Nick Brown kindly allowed me extra time at home. You must know all that. What the hell has it got to do with all this? HA: Your attendance record was not good last year either. You missed more votes than most others. PM: That is not true. We were fighting a general election and you lot told us to go home and campaign to win it. HA: You made a complete fool of yourself the other day when you got up in the Commons. [Armstrong was referring to Marsden's question to Blair in the October 8 emergency Commons debate, when the MP said the decision to go to war should be approved by a vote of all MPs, not by the prime minister alone.] HA: You just don't understand the rules here, you're too inexperienced. PM: There's no need to insult me. I know the rules, I consulted the Speaker's clerk about voting procedures. HA: In fact we may well hold a vote, but if we do, it will be whipped. PM: That is outrageous. You won't even give us a free vote on whether we go to war - it is an issue which should be a matter of conscience. HA: War is not a matter of conscience. Abortion and embryo research are matters of conscience, but not wars. PM: Are you seriously saying blowing people up and killing people is not a moral issue? HA: It is government policy that we are at war. You astound me. We can't have a trusting relationship if you keep talking to the media without permission. PM: It would help if your deputy didn't send me snotty letters disciplining me. HA: I did leave a message at your office on Monday night saying to call me. PM: Are you sure? HA: Yes. Why? PM: You couldn't have phoned the Shrewsbury office because you didn't leave a message on the answer machine. You can't have left a message in London either, because I was in the office and there was no voicemail left there. HA: But I spoke to someone and left a message with them. PM: You didn't. I checked the telephone log and there are no messages left. HA: Er, perhaps I got the wrong number. PM: Let's get this straight. You did not call me. HA: Anyway, you must stop using the media. PM: That's a bit rich coming from people like you and Downing Street when Stephen Byers's spin doctor Jo Moore says September 11 is a good day to bury bad news. HA: Jo Moore didn't say that. PM: That is exactly what she said in her email. HA: We don't have spin doctors in Number 10 - or anywhere else. PM: (laughing) You aren't seriously telling me that you don't have spin doctors and they don't exist. You are losing it Hilary. HA: (shouting) You wait until I really do lose it. I am not going to have a dialogue with you about that. It was people like you who appeased Hitler in 1938. PM: Don't you dare call me an appeaser! I am not in favour of appeasing Bin Laden, I simply disagree with the way the government is going about stopping him. That's the official line now is it? We are all appeasers if we don't agree with everything you say? HA: Well, what would you do about Bin Laden, then? PM: I think we should indict him on criminal charges. It could be done very quickly and then the UN should take charge of the military action, not the USA. It would be much more effective. By all means send in the SAS, but let's get the UN onside first. HA: The trouble with people like you is that you are so clever with words that us up north can't argue back. PM: Do you mind? I am a Northerner myself. I was born in Cheshire. I spent four years at Teesside Polytechnic near where you come from. HA: You do realise that everything that is said in here is private and confidential, don't you? You cannot go out and tell the media. PM: I haven't got the media outside and I won't go to them. But if they come to me I will talk to them. # The Scottish Natiional Party came out against the war today. PAUL MARSDEN, LOYAL MP WHO JOINED THE AWKWARD SQUAD Lucy Ward, The Guardian, October 22 Paul Marsden, newly crowned as Labour's highest-profile dissident, is "not a natural rebel", according to one of his fellow backbench critics of the bombing of Afghanistan. He may have broken every rule in the political book by telling a Sunday tabloid the details of his clumsy dressing down by Labour's chief whip, but the mild-mannered MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham has been moved by real anger at the government's policy on the conflict rather than by any ambition to join the party's "awkward squad". Before the terrorist crisis, the former quality assurance manager from Frodsham in Cheshire had made little impact at Westminster beyond the near-miracle of reaching the benches at all in a traditionally true blue rural seat. Generally loyal, he served on the agriculture select committee, pushed for improved cancer care and, early in his first term as an MP, was permitted time out from the Commons by Labour whips to care for his seriously ill wife, Shelly, with whom he has two children. It was therefore a surprise, as well as a severe irritation, for the whips to see Mr Marsden rise to his feet during the third debate on terrorism since the September 11 attacks to complain - fruitlessly - to Tony Blair that parliament had been given no opportunity to vote directly on military action. After the MP addressed an anti-bombing rally in Trafalgar Square, the whips called him in for his fateful 45-minute "dressing down" with chief whip Hilary Armstrong. Even fellow critics of the military campaign find Mr Marsden's decision to go public tricky to fathom, but all agree that his feelings over both the bombing and his right to argue against it are genuine. "He was clearly very angry over the way he was treated, and their response has only provoked him more," said one MP. Attacking Mr Marsden over his poor voting record, when the whips themselves had granted him compassionate leave, was particularly cruel and foolish, the MP said. He described the Shrewsbury MP as "someone who came in as just a very loyal party member, and is obviously reasonable". Mr Marsden now faces more insidious assaults from Labour's spin machine. The whispers are out already that the gardening enthusiast is unpopular with colleagues and is even emotionally unstable. Yesterday, Mr Marsden was continuing to defend his views. Though unknown for his first term at Westminster, his second looks unlikely to be spent in similar obscurity. The Guardian # london SAT NOV 3 New venue, new club by some of the old Den of Enlightenment crew. With DJs AZ-TEK, ALEX SILVERFISH, PAT HURLEY(Den of Enlightenment), DJ ULTRA (Den of Enlightenment), MANDY MOOR (Den of Enlightenment), Arch 269, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton. FREE. £3 donation after 12. Compulsory membership. # ANTHRAX ATTAX HOME GROWN? Watch your back, Dubya! America, with its serial killers, mad supermarket shootists, right wing "freedom fundamentalists", and whose very children are starting to shoot each other, is no kind of hinterland from which to announce a War on Terrorism. Oh boy, was there ever such a vertical learning curve?! My friend Christine said the wisest thing I've heard so far about this war. "It's perfect that the Republicans were in power when this happened. They're the ones that most needed to learn all this stuff!" … The anthrax spores that contaminated the air in Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle’s office had been treated with a chemical additive so sophisticated that only three nations are thought to have been capable of making it. ‘In order for a formulation to do what this one appears to have done - be easily airborne - it would require special treatment.’ The US, the former Soviet Union and Iraq are the only three nations known to have developed the kind of additives that enable anthrax spores to remain suspended in the air, making them more easily inhaled and therefore more deadly, experts said yesterday. Each nation used a different technique, suggesting that ongoing microscopic and chemical analyses may reveal more about the spores’ provenance than did their genetic analysis, which is largely complete but reportedly has done little to narrow the field. A government official with direct knowledge of the investigation said yesterday that the totality of the evidence in hand suggests that it is unlikely the spores were originally produced in the former Soviet Union or Iraq. … Senior FBI and CIA officials believe the American anthrax attacks are being carried out by US extremists probably not connected to the al-Qaida terror network, the Washington Post reported today. A senior official was quoted in the Post as saying that "everything seems to lean toward a domestic source. Nothing seems to fit with an overseas terrorist type operation". But, even identifying the kind of coating may not solve the crucial question of who is perpetrating the terror, because little is known about how secure the stores of the three countries’ stocks have been during the past few years Authorities are considering many possibilities, the Post reports, including the associates of right-wing hate groups and people in the US sympathetic to Islamic extremist causes. … The conclusion that the spores were produced with military quality differs considerably from public comments made recently by officials close to the investigation, who have said the spores were not “weaponized” and were “garden variety.” Those descriptions may be technically true, depending on how one defines those terms, several experts said. But they obscure the basic and more important truth that the spores were treated with a sophisticated process, meaning the original source was almost certainly a state-sponsored laboratory. The finding strongly suggests that the anthrax spores in the U.S. mail attacks were not produced in a university or makeshift laboratory or simply gathered from natural sources. But it does not answer the question of whether a state-sponsored laboratory supplied the anthrax spores directly to terrorists or simply lost control of some stocks in recent years. The presence of the high-grade additive was confirmed for the first time yesterday by a government source familiar with the ongoing studies, which are being conducted by scientists at the Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick. Four other experts in anthrax weapons said they had no doubt that such an additive was present based on the high dispersal rate from the letter to Daschle (D-S.D.). … “The evidence is patent on its face,” said Alan Zelicoff, a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories’ Center for National Security and Arms Control. “The amount of energy needed to disperse the spores [by merely opening an envelope] was trivial, which is virtually diagnostic of achieving the appropriate coating.” # TWO WARS ENDED LAST TUESDAY YES, somewhat obscured by the fog of the New War, no less than TWO wars which have been going on all my adult life, came to a more-or-less end this week. namely: the Irish War, and the War on Drugs. did the latter get any coverage in the US i wonder. Home Secretary David Blunkett downgraded marijuana to category C, meaning it is no longer an ARRESTABLE offence! there is no doubt about it, this is the beginning of the de-criminalisation process. DID YOU HEAR ANYONE APOLOGISING??!!!! HAVING TRIED TO MAKE OUR LIVES A MISERY FOR DECADES, DEMONISING POT SMOKERS, LOKKING UP HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF THEM, TERRIFYING THEIR PARENTS AND NEIGHBOURS ALL THAT TIME, DID JUSST ONE OF OUR 'LEADERS' HAVE THE DECENCY TO FUKKIN' WELL APOLOGISE?!! THINK ABOUT IT FOLKS! ALTERNATIVE CULTURE IS TOO DAMN POLITE SOMETIMES! IF YOU RENOUNCE VIOLENCE U GOTTA SHOUT LOUDER, NOT GO ALL 'SIMPERING PEACEFUL'!!! THINK ABOUT IT: WILL THESE SAME PIGNORANT OBSCENELY REMUNERATED NIHILISTS (PORN) BOTHER TO APOLOGISE TO THE POOR AFGHANIS WHEN THEY FINALLY RUN OUTA BOMMS AND HALF THE HOME NATION IS SMOKING AFGHANI HASH MARKETED BY MARLOBORO??!! ”Having cannabis one level down from crack or heroin is not something young people find credible so they are more likely to ignore everything else you are saying,” a Home Office official said. well, well, when did I first hear that? 20 years ago? 30 years ago? 40 YEARS AGO? and if american upgraders find all this hard to believe in the midst of their other Holy War, the fact is that several national newspapers actually criticised the home secretary for NOT GOING FAR ENUFF:- “Parents are acutely aware that a war on drugs, while cannabis is still illegal, is a war on their children. Up to 50% try the drug. Where Mr Blunkett falls down is in failing to downgrade LSD and Ecstasy from A to B Class, as recommended by the Police Foundation National Commission, and rejecting its suggestion that possession of Class B and C drugs should be made non-imprisonable. The reason was pragmatic: prison does more harm than good.” The Guardian. “Mr Blunkett is to be congratulated. But now he should show he has confidence in his assessment that cannabis is not an unacceptable dangerous substance and have the courage to take the next logical step forward by legalising the drug for an experimental period.” Right wing establishment journal the Daily Telegraph Full facts: http://www.transform-drugs.org.uk # And yet, like Mad Dogs, the GLOBAL RAVE CRACKDOWN CONTINUES. Australia SNIFFER DOG POLICE RAID 5 SYDNEY CLUBS Over 300 Sydney police accompanied by sniffer dogs launched co-ordinated raids on 5 Sydney clubs last weekend in the latest police clampdown on drugs. Clubbers were forced to file past the dogs to undergo what police described as “passive searches”, resulting in just 18 people being arrested. DCM, NV, EP1, Embassy and Kings Cross’ Zen were hit in the raids, with Zen being the first ‘real’ club targeted, said local dance portal inthemix.com.au. “Now with a club like Zen being raided and possibly facing permanent closure, what next for Sydney clubbing?” they asked. “The net is tightening, not so much around clubbers but around venues. With a well documented chronic shortage of venues in Sydney, where now for the clubbing community?” (info from http://www.skrufff.com) # US ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT GROWS LA Times Scholars of peace and diplomacy say that with little effort - and no exaggeration - they could schedule three speaking engagements per night. Elder statesmen of this country's antiwar movement report a similar surge in demand since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Academics who study terrorism or the Middle East are taking part in teach-ins that generally are packed. Off campus, the voices of nonviolence are heard in such places as Worcester, a working-class city where a weekly vigil during rush hour draws cheers from passersby. And in Northampton, where a draft counseling center has opened - even though, at the moment, there is no military draft. Any organized campaign to oppose U.S. military force in Afghanistan "is still in the process of taking shape," said Joseph Gerson of the American Friends Service Committee in Cambridge. But, he said, momentum is building. "It's big and it's diverse," Gerson said. "I think it can be described as a peace movement and an antiwar movement and a justice movement." The energy is evident in increased traffic on the Internet, where new peace sites are complementing existing sources of information about the war. But along with the vast virtual audience, actual crowds are growing. In longtime centers of peace activity such as Berkeley and Madison, Wis., large demonstrations began before the first bombs were dropped. But New England, long a focal point for activism, is where much of the antiwar action is unfolding. The new pacifism feels almost polite, lacking the stridency of earlier generations of American protest. Resistance to the U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan is thoughtful, reflective. It is tempered by angst, anguish - and most of all, a fundamental abhorrence of what happened to this country when hijackers commandeered four jetliners and killed more than 5,000 people. The focus still is diffuse; there is no monolithic chorus of dissent. No charismatic leaders have yet stepped forward. And if there is a single defining trait, at present it is a thirst for information. With foundations in the vast and growing antiglobalization campaign, the evolving peace movement draws on long-standing, traditional organizations and philosophies. Days after Sept. 11, Quaker groups organized the first peace rallies. The War Resisters League, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and other old-time pacifist groups are back on the radarscope. Again and again, a well-worn chestnut from Mahatma Gandhi - "an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" - shows up on handouts and bulletin boards. "I'm seeing a lot less of the knee-jerk kind of stuff," said Stephen Zunes, a Middle Eastern specialist who directs the peace and justice studies program at the University of San Francisco. "People are concerned, and they oppose the war. But they realize this is a different kind of situation. They need the facts. They want more information." A recent two-day speaking swing took Zunes from the Bay Area to Los Angeles to Eugene, Ore. His audiences were "big and enthused and agitated, but I think in a more reflective, responsible way than we have seen sometimes. Certainly there is passion out there, but it is a responsible passion - one that's been tempered by the fact that we witnessed this enormous tragedy on Sept. 11." Boston University history professor Howard Zinn said he has been "besieged" by invitations to speak about terrorism and the war in Afghanistan, with "more requests than I could possibly deal with." At 79, Zinn approaches the stepped-up demand as an eminence grise of the antiwar movement and as a bombardier from World War II. What he sees, Zinn said, is a massive appetite for information and a resistance effort that is fast churning into action. "Things are starting earlier now than they did with the Vietnam War. In the spring of 1965, we had 100 people on the Boston Common. Just a week or so ago, we had 2,000 people at Copley Square. It's starting earlier, and I believe it will grow. "Immediately after Sept. 11, if you talked about American foreign policy as having anything to do with the problem, people were horrified. It was too close. People thought you were diminishing the tragedy. I think as time passes, it will be easier to think in more long-term ways." Out here in western Massachusetts, fertile territory for alternative views since the American Revolution, opposition to capitalism and corporate power was already fueling many students. Right away, said professor Michael Klare, head of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, "protests were organized by students who were already geared up for antiglobalization protests." They have a perspective that makes them distinct from many other undergraduates Klare has encountered in his post-Sept. 11 flurry of speeches and seminars. "Most students don't even have that. They're just bewildered," he said. But some students - and many nonstudents as well - crave involvement as a way to stave off feelings of helplessness. Over lunch one recent day, a table full of Hampshire College students talked about how and why they have plunged into action, forming a local branch of a group born at UC Berkeley on Sept. 12: Students for a Peaceful Response. Their principles of unity, they explained, begin with a condemnation of the attacks of Sept.11. From there, said 21-year-old Kai Newkirk of Shepardstown, W.Va., "we have the priority of stopping the mass murder of millions. We have a window of a few weeks." Sydney Hoover, 17, a freshman from Upper Coe, Md., said she already was involved in an antiglobalization protest aimed at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. After Sept. 11, that effort hastily shifted focus to initiate a campus dialogue with a group called Activating Peace. The loosely knit group launched nonviolence training seminars and began preparing speakers, Hoover said. With the goal of creating "some kind of visible dissenting presence," they reached out to local high schools and community groups, organized teach-ins and held a daylong walkout at Hampshire, a private school with 1,200 students. The process unfolding at Hampshire reflects a powerfully American quality, said Dale Bryan of the peace and justice studies program at Tufts University, near Boston. "This voice that for many represents rancorous discourse actually it is bona fide, genuine American participation," he said. "It is what the country does well, to assemble and participate freely, and we always have. And sometimes it is directed at the government, and the Constitution says, well, sometimes it should be." For those in "the movement" - a timeworn sobriquet that the peace effort has clung to - "this is how it is being realized: in day-to-day, face-to-face, ordinary conversations," Bryan said. At Lincoln Square in Worcester, an industrial-era city in central Massachusetts, this theory plays out each Tuesday at a street vigil. Mothers, lawyers, clergy, students - the number stays constant at about 50, though the participants change -stand at a busy intersection. They chant, wave signs, hand out leaflets and often hold conversations with people who come to a stop in their cars. Out on the street in his suit and tie, Philip Stone, a 47-year-old attorney, said: "I think this is a fairly typical example of the kind of grass-roots peace activity that you will see going on all over the country. This is a location with high visibility, a place where we can demonstrate that there is thoughtful opposition to the policies of the current administration." Kindergarten teacher Kathleen Connelly Legg, a 45-year-old mother of three, said she never protested during Vietnam and thought hard before showing up at Lincoln Square. She was troubled, Legg said, that "we, as the most powerful nation on Earth, are bombing the most destitute." Though small, the weekly demonstration will help the seeds of a new peace effort to take root, Legg said. "It spreads and it spreads as information gets out. I am hoping we are laying the groundwork for something much larger. I am hoping that we get that kind of time." # YOU FEEDBACK = 11 Oh my God! How worried should I be? There are 11 letters in my name "David Pawson!" I'm going into hiding NOW. See you in a few weeks. Wait a sec ... just realized "YOU CAN'T HIDE" also has 11 letters! What am I gonna do? Help me!!! The terrorists are after me! ME! I can't believe it! Oh crap, there must be someplace on the planet Earth I could hide! But no ... "PLANET EARTH" has 11 letters, too! Maybe Nostradamus can help. But dare I trust him? There are 11 letters in "NOSTRADAMUS!" I know, the Red Cross can help. No they can't... 11 letters in "THE RED CROSS," can't trust them. I would rely on self defense, but "SELF DEFENSE" has 11 letters in it, too! Can someone help? Anyone? If so, send me email. No, don't... "SEND ME EMAIL" has 11 letters.... Will this never end? I'm going insane! "GOING INSANE???" Eleven letters!! Nooooooooooo!!!!!! I guess I'll die alone, even though "I'LL DIE ALONE" has 11 letters..... Oh my God, I just realized that America is doomed! Our Independence Day is July 4th ... 7/4 ... 7+4=11! Dave Pawson (never David!) PS. "IT'S BULLSHIT" has 11 letters also. # Dear Fraser, Sorry to burden your inbox, but listening to a "religious" programme on the TV just now left me a bit peeved. I know that, having read your newsletter, I should be able to make some sense of things, but with three nippers, a dog and a wife, the old brain gets a bit tangled. They keep on about the event that "Changed the World". In reality, it was a New York tower block that was demolished. Taken in perspective, it was a very small part of the world, yet we have this incessant ranting on the mainstream media. I believe there was a city in Morocco that had an earthquake, in recent years, where about 30,000 people died. It was fenced off and left. Did anyone have three minutes silence for these people? I just cannot understand what is going on. Yours, baffled, Bryan Lawrence & Family / Hants UK # london upcoming peace protests please forward! SAT NOV 10 http://www.cnduk.org TUESDAYS WEDNESDAYS SUN NOV 18 The Love'n'Peace Ramble Against War. Full-on, full regalia, the Hippies Smoked The Russians Out Of Afghanistan, we've just won the Drug War, now Let's Smoke the Americans Out of Afghanistan too!! PRIZE FOR BEST BANNER. 12noon Assemble Hyde Park/Speakers Corner. Organised by Stop The War Coalition (Socialist Workers Party). 07951 235915 |