Category — Around the World

Forwarded to us by our comrade Regina… From Negrilstories.ca  This is a long though very thought provoking piece if you were wondering WTF around the Dudus saga so poorly reported or analyzed by our corrupt corporate media channels.

Tivoli Gardens is a manipulation
To create the outrageous situation
For a ‘legitimate’ American invasion

Sugarcane, bauxite, tourism - all locked up tight
Deep, deep oil - now seeing the light
Poverty and oppression - things still not right
Freedom from Babylon - bubbling into sight

Politicians in power - caught in a trap
Reaching for gold - can’t give it back
Jamaica’s new wealth - Babylon wants to tap
Satellite blackmail - no stopping that

 As the Dudus saga plays itself out in Kingston, two of the questions that remain unanswered are ‘why is the United States pushing so hard?’ and ‘why now?’. The world is full of dons and drug lords, not to mention the fact that the American plate is full with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a billion Muslims who are being encouraged to attack anywhere at anytime. You would think that they had more immediate things to concentrate on.

Yet they continued to poke and push, treating every Jamaican that went through U.S. customs like a criminal, openly questioned the personal honesty of the the Prime Minister Bruce Golding and even suggested that the Jamaican Labor Party were in violation of their mandate to govern Jamaica. In fact, the Americans haven’t even got an Ambassador to Jamaica anymore. Obama has left the position open, a serious diplomatic slap in the face. All of this tension is for the Don of Tivoli Gardens? Something isn’t right. Dudus just isn’t that big of a problem.

The idea that outside interests have manipulated the situation for a long time begins to form when you question the truth of what we are being told. For two years now Dudus has had an excellent run, controlling the docks in Kingston (on Tivoli Gardens turf, and the true value of the constituency) with his buddies running the government. He has grown more powerful than ever before, with so much money that he doesn’t have to rely on politicians for anything. In the old days back in the 1970’s, when the street gangs were first created by the political parties, they had to get their weapons and cash from the JLP or the PNP, but since the cocaine business showed up, that relationship has slowly turned full circle. Now the politicians need the gangs to control the vote, but the gangs don’t need the politicians for support. They have become an independent power. [Read more →]

At the beginning of January, a court in Berlin, Germany, reaffirmed that the local federation of the Free Workers’ Union (FAU) is prohibited from calling itself a union or a grassroots union. If the FAU Berlin were to dare to do otherwise, it would face a fine of EUR 250,000 (USD 357,000) or a prison sentence.This legal attack on the freedom of unions in Germany is the result of a labor dispute, which the FAU Berlin and cinema workers have been involved in for months with the management of the Babylon Mitte cinema. In the FAU’s opinion, it’s up to the workers to decide what a union is or which union they want and not the courts.

The FAU is intent on defending itself against the de-facto ban of its Berlin federation in a variety of ways. Thus, it was announced that the ban would be taken all they way to the Court of the European Union, if need be. The strongest weapon of the worker is, however, not our trust in the judiciary but our international solidarity and direct action.
Global day of protest…

We call on all union members, friends and comrades to mobilize globally in support of FAU Berlin. For this purpose, a global day of action has been planned for January 29 and 30, 2010. Protests in front of German diplomatic missions and cultural institutes have already been scheduled in many countries for this date.
…and further mobilization

In the coming days, the FAU will post suggestions of different ways to show support at www.fau.org/verbot. Needless to say, a wide-scale dissemination of all information regarding the call to action is very important. Please be sure to refer to our special website, www.fau.org/verbot, in all publications and send messages of solidarity, reports about actions and any further questions to soli-faub@fau.org.

FAU-IWA International working group
English leaflet: http://www.fau.org/verbot/text/fau_01_29_en.pdf

Press release of FAU Berlin concerning the possible EUR 250.000 (USD 375.000) fine or alternatively 6 month of prison for the union secretaries: http://ainfos.ca/en/ainfos23540.html

Special page concerning the verdict against FAU Berlin:
http://www.fau.org/verbot

Blog of cinema Babylon Mitte workers:
http://prekba.blogsport.de <http://prekba.blogsport.de/>

Send e-protest:

http://fau.zsp.net.pl/send-a-protest-to-kino-babylon/emailpage/

Personalized e-protests to bosses:

grossman@babylonberlin.de, hackel@babylonberlin.de, timothygrossman@kinoundkonzerte.de, tgrossman@kinoundkonzerte.de.

http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/2009/12/walter-trochez-active-member-of.html

Walter Tróchez, the human rigths defender, member of the gay, lesbian, trans and bisexual community and active member of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d’Etat, was killed this morning. Below there is a denunciation from the human rights organization CIPRODEH, a press release from Feminists in Resistance, and a denunciation written by Walter before he died about the repression against the LGBTQ community in Honduras under the de facto government. Killing of human rights defender Walter Tróchez On December 4th the human rigths defender, member of the gay, lesbian, trans and bisexual community and active member of the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d’Etat Walter Tróchez was kidnapped and savagely beaten around the Obelisco Park of Comayaguela by four masked men who came in a gray pickup truck without plates, presumably from the police investigative unit (DNIC) (a vehicle of similar description that he had denounced a few months back had been watching his home, forcing him to move).

[Read more →]

The following is a very interesting read touching many issues around “Asian Queer Studies” and the import of Queer, a term rooted in an Anglo-American discourse. The piece is from: Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context, Issue 14, November 2

Introduction: Of Queer Import(s):
Sexualities, Genders and Rights in Asia

by James Welker and Lucetta Kam

This special issue of Intersections stems from the conference Sexualities, Genders, and Rights in Asia: 1st International Conference of Asian Queer Studies, held in Bangkok, 7-9 July 2005, and features articles by conference presenters, including both papers presented at the conference and new work.[1] The title of this issue, ‘Of Queer Import(s): Sexualities, Genders and Rights in Asia,’ both asserts the significance of ‘queer’ in Asia and draws attention to the question of the ‘importation’ of ‘queer’ when it comes to discussion of sexualities, genders and related rights in Asia.

Inspired by the tension that inheres in statements such as Indonesian gay rights, activist Dédé Oetomo’s assertion, ‘I’m gay when I’m speaking English,’[2] we sent out a call for papers that interrogate the border between local and global queer identities, communities and cultures. We posed a number of what we feel to be questions vital to the field: Does the ‘import’ of queer culture, in any permutation, serve to enhance or erase the indigenous? Under what circumstances might it be desirable to distinguish between the indigenous and the imported? Do queer identities, communities and cultures transcend the East/West divide? Or is this divide politically useful for local resistance to the globalisation of queer identities-if such resistance is a desirable project for local communities? How does intra-Asian cultural influence function with regard to flows of queer Asian cultures and identities? How does this tension play out in terms of activism related to LGBT rights and the rights of sex workers and people living with AIDS? The papers we have collected here offer meaningful responses to these questions, framed in terms of the disciplines of literary and film studies, queer theory, political science, sociology, history and sexology. We must, however, emphasise that, while papers in this issue represent a wide range of current research and writing on queer Asia, they only begin to suggest the immense diversity of scholarship and presenters at the Bangkok conference.[3] [Read more →]

forwarded from our comrade Billy.

Iranian  transsexuals in fact experience humiliation, assault and abuse, if not  outright death - and not just by government agents, but also by neighbours,  family members, and those considered friends.  We have received reports  very recently from our contacts in Iran exemplifying the torment endured by  transgendered persons.  On Saturday October 10, members of Basiji forces  fired a gun at Sahar, an Iranian transgender, in the Abbasabad Street of  Tehran.  Sahar was hit in the shoulder and was taken to hospital by her  friends.  Once she is out of hospital, however, her safety is not  assured.

According to another report, on Wednesday October 14, Iranian  transgender Mahsa was knifed by two motorcyclists at an intersection in  Tehran.  Her lung injured, Mahsa was taken to hospital by a friend.   So far no one knows who attacked her. We asked one of our representatives in  Tehran to see Mahsa at hospital, but she is not allowed to accept visitors  now. Our representative did talk to her by phone and reported that she may be  well enough for release from hospital in the near term. 

[Read more →]

ISSUED BY:
Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, Toronto
Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
Queer BDS activists from Israel

On October 10-16, 2009, the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association (IGLTA) is planning to hold a tourism conference in Tel Aviv, Israel, aimed at boosting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) leisure tourism to Israel. The audience of this conference is expected to be made up mostly of travel agents who specialize in promoting LGBT tourism. With this conference IGLTA, in cooperation with an Israeli LGBT organization, the Aguda, will give its symbolic and financial support to a state that continually occupies, oppresses and dispossess millions of Palestinians and murders and imprisons many thousands of them.

We, queer activists and groups, call on LGBTQI people and friends around the world to join us in our protest against IGLTA’s promotion of leisure tourism to apartheid Israel. We demand that IGLTA cancel its planned conference in Israel and cease any promotion of tourism to this country.

For some time now, Israeli officials and organizations such as the Aguda, who are cooperating closely with IGLTA, have been promoting LGBT tourism to Israel through false representations of visiting Tel Aviv as not taking sides, or as being on the “LGBT” side, as if LGBT lives were the only ones that mattered. It is implied that it’s okay to visit Israel as long as you “believe in peace,” as if what is taking place in Palestine/Israel is merely a conflict between equals, rather than an oppressive power relationship. Consistent with globalization’s tendency to distance the “final product” from the moral implications of the manufacturing process, LGBT tourists are encouraged to forget about politics and just have fun in a so-called gay-friendly city.

This Zionist propaganda disguises the reality of anti-LGBT violence. Last month’s Tel Aviv shooting in a gay center has reminded us that it is not as friendly as it is depicted to be. Since that attack, numerous reports have been released on the prevalence of violence against LGBT people in Israel, including a state official report suggesting that “80% of gay teens in Israel suffer some sort of sexual orientation-related abuse” (Ynetnews.com). [Read more →]

Queers without Borders recognizes ASWAT ~ Palestinian Gay Women Organization (Haifa, Israel) that provides a safe space and serves as a critical resource for Palestinian women who self-identify as lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender or intersex. As they note, their mission is to raise our voices to echo in the corridors of our society, promote our existence to raise public awareness, and create a safe environment for gay Arab women within our Arab and Palestinian society.  According to Aswat, most of their members-enveloped by occupation, homophobia and misogyny-are closeted, and the very existence of these meetings is groundbreaking. Women travel from near and far, while enduring Israeli checkpoints or the loss of critical income from work. For many, it is the only time they can freely discuss their true selves in Arabic.

QWB has linked to a few excellent video’s produced by ASWAT and do check out their website or facebook, to learn much more  about their important work and how all queers around the world can be in solidarity with their amazing work.

QwB note: An excellent statement that embraces all peoples of diverse gender identities and expressions and their rights to not be coerced by a Transphobic Society into a medical system and/or diagnoses that simply works to subjugate ourselves into State mandated concepts of gender and sex!  As a result of these IDAHO 2009  actions, France on May 16, 2009 announced it will take Transgenderism and Transsexuality out of “mental disorder” category and on May 17, 2009 the Dutch minister of foreign affairs Maxime Verhagen acknowledged that the current Dutch law requiring irreversible sex reassignment surgery as a prerequisite for documentation changes, violates principle 18 of the Yogyakarta Principles (pdf) (the right to be protected from medical abuses).

Reject Transphobia, Respect Gender Identity:
An Appeal to the United Nations, the World Health Organization and the States of the World

[from the International Appeal to reject Transphobia and to RESPECT Gender Identity]

Every day, people who live at variance to expected gender norms face violence, abuse, rape, torture and hate crime all over the world, in their home as well as in the public arena. Though most cases of violence never get documented, we know that in the first weeks of 2009 alone, Trans women have been murdered in Honduras, Serbia and in the USA. Trans men are equally victims of hate crimes, prejudice and discrimination despite their frequent social and cultural invisibility. [Read more →]

 From Wayne Besen Weekly Commentary

The latest anti-gay terrorism in Iraq — is gluing shut the anuses of homosexuals, while forcing the victims to ingest a form of Ex-Lax. The special glue can only be removed by surgery — thus often leading to a painful death.

It is challenging to know if such information is accurate. But, confirming the latest form of torture is beside the point, really. What we do know is that the news from overseas is rarely encouraging.

For example, in March “tens of thousands” of people from Burundi demonstrated to outlaw homosexuality [see related qwb piece on Burundi]. This destitute nation is the kind of place that you may have seen in late night infomercials where flies buzz around the lips of starving children. Eighty percent of Burundi’s population lives in poverty. Famines and food shortages have occurred and the World Food Program reports that 56.8-percent of children under age five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Yet, the good citizens of Burundi have time to chant and hold signs demanding the imprisonment of homosexuals. [Read more →]

[Excerpt from the world socialist website] In October 2008, Zelaya joined the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA in Spanish), a regional alliance organized by Chávez that includes Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda. Member states receive subsidies coming largely from Venezuelan oil earnings. One provision, which Zelaya chose not to ratify, calls for common defense in case one of the member states is attacked by the US.Zelaya’s efforts to hold a constitutional referendum that would allow him to run for a second term provoked an escalating conflict with the Honduran military, the Congress and the courts, which culminated in his ouster.

Seen in the context of Honduras’ historical role as a center of US-backed counterrevolution, the ouster of Zelaya constitutes a sharp warning to the working class in the Americas. Prompted by concern over the political ramifications of Zelaya’s links to Venezuela, a US-backed coup in Honduras could well be the signal for a broader regional campaign by US imperialism against Venezuela and allied regimes throughout the continent.

[Excerpt from Narconews.com] The coup d’état that rocked Honduras in late June and removed democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya from office, sending him into exile in Costa Rica, was preceded by a multi-million dollar build-up of foreign aid from a U.S. agency that includes on its board of directors the president of the International Republican Institute as well as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. [Read more →]

Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq

August 17, 2009, Human Rights Watch 

This 67-page report documents a wide-reaching campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and torture of gay men that began in early 2009. The killings began in the vast Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, and spread to many cities across Iraq. Mahdi Army spokesmen have promoted fears about the “third sex” and the “feminization” of Iraq men, and suggested that militia action was the remedy. Some people told Human Rights Watch that Iraqi security forces have colluded and joined in the killing.

Read the Press Release

Read the Report

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/22115

The Coming Insurrection, authored by the anonymous “Invisible Committee,” has been the subject of much controversy lately. Originally published in 2007 under the French title, L’insurrection qui vient (La Fabrique), the book has become focus of the “anti-terrorism” trials quoted in the above paragraph. The book is being published in English but its influence has already crossed the Atlantic.

Celebrating the English translation at an “unauthorized” Barnes & Nobel event in New York City last month, activists projected themselves and the Invisible Committee into a visible spotlight complete with photos in the New York Times and special coverage on Fox TV News. The Times reports, “As a bookstore employee announced to the milling crowd that there was no reading scheduled for that night, a man jumped onto a stage and began loudly reciting the opening words of the book’s recent introduction: ‘Everyone agrees. It’s about to explode’” (”Liberating Lipsticks and Lattes,” NYT, June 15). After the police arrived they continued in a similar fashion through other shops including a cosmetic store. Following suit Fox News’ Glen Beck reviewed the book in a near 7 minute verbal tirade assaulting not only the text’s contents but the Left in general while fear mongering to promote his own right-wing agenda. Commentator Nicolas Truong suggests that the text is “poised to become a real best seller” having already sold 27,000 copies (”The New Insurrectional Thinking,” Le Monde diplomatique, July 7). And Micah M. White, a Contributing Editor at Adbusters Magazine, wrote that the text “may become a key manifesto of our generation’s uprising” (”Who are the Tarnac 9?,”Adbusters blog, January 9th). Other reviewers provide much more detail, for example Alberto Toscano’s “The War Against Preterrorism,” (Mute, May 28) but ultimately still overlook the books many blemishes.

[Read more →]

A new list was created to facilitate relations between LGBTQI people and their friends around the world interested in solidarity with Palestinians by learning, promoting and actualizing the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

About The BDS Initiative
The Nakba (1948’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine during the formation of Israel) still occurs for 61+ years to this very day. Millions of Palestinian are living as stateless refugees. Gaza is the world’s largest open prison, forcefully separated even from the West Bank. The West Bank itself is divided into separate segregated areas, sometimes even sole cities - by the apartheid wall, apartheid (Jewish only) roads, and a set of blockades and checkpoints.

[Read more →]

Photo: In this Feb. 22 picture, a protester carries a banner that reads in Arabic, “My body is not public property” during a sit-in for gays and lesbians in Beirut. Issues of gender and sexuality remain highly sensitive in the Arab world, especially in Saudi Arabia where Filipino men were recently arrested on suspicion of dressing up like women at a party.

Saudi Arabian authorities have charged 67 men detained at a party for reportedly wearing women’s clothing.

Most of the men were Filipino and were arrested while standing outside a private party held in a villa near  the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on the occasion of Philippine Independence Day.

According to the Saudi daily Al Riyadh, the police questioned the men after spotting “suspicious behavior” and then proceeded to raid the party. More women’s clothing, cosmetics, and alcohol were reportedly found in further investigations. [Read more →]

The International Queer Solidarity Network calls for a European mobilization, with support from the United States, that will stand in solidarity with Queer Bulgaria. On June 28th 2008, neo-Nazi groups aggressively attacked the first LGBTQ Pride march in Sofia, Bulgaria. A week before the march, the Bulgarian National Alliance, the most visible nationalist organization in the country, called for a “week of intolerance.” The BNA strongly encouraged nationalistic groups to organize themselves against the right of the queer community in Bulgaria to peacefully march, which resulted in loosely organized violence during the festivities.

BNA members and other neo-Nazis threw molotov cocktails and small explosives at the participants of the Pride march. Fortunately, no injuries were reported. However, more than eighty skinheads, including Boyan Rasate (head of the BNA) were arrested for their attempted harm and direct violence toward pride participants. This year neo-Nazi groups are once again organizing themselves against the march and Bulgarian queers’ ability to defend their human rights. The Bulgarian government not only tolerates but also encourages such attitudes. Two of the parties in the Parliament of Bulgaria are nationalistic and one of them, Ataka, called for “the men to beat up the gays.”

In addition, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria and head of the “socialist” party, Sergei Stanishev, subtly, through hidden sparks of hatred, said that he did not like the “manifestation and demonstration of such orientations.” Even though the rights of LGBTQ people in Bulgaria are protected by the constitution, this is yet more empty rhetoric in the hands of the powerful. The queer community refuses to give up its rights to a free assembly. There will be another Pride march on the 27th of June 2009. Let’s unite and stand together against the homophobic and transphobic state of Bulgaria and growing neo-Nazism in Europe.

The International Queer Solidarity Network calls for a European mobilization, with support from the United States, that will stand in solidarity with Queer Bulgaria. For more information on how you can help you can contact: iqsn@riseup.net or sofiagaypride2009@gmail.com If you cannot attend the Pride, visit www.iqsn.org for more information on how you can help.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6oz3yeW5yo

e-mail: iqsn@riseup.net