World Prout Assembly

People blindly follow even the unintelligent leaders

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:03:30 -0500

Today there is catastrophe and misery in the human society, and there is one reason: defective leadership of society. People blindly follow even the unintelligent leaders ... You should know that the poverty and misery of people in any country are the sins of the leaders. True leaders should always be vigilant and think how to work best for the human society; they must be ever cautious that under their guidance the people are not led to darkness, death and immorality."
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Shrii Prabhat R. Sarkar

'One Worker, One Vote:'US Steelworkers to Experiment with Factory Ownership, Mndragon Style

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:32:59 -0500

The core Mondragon model was developed in the 1950s by a Roman Catholic priest, Father Jose Maria Arizmendi. It starts with a school, a credit union and a shop--all owned by workers who each had an equal share and vote. The three-in-one combination allows the cooperative to rely on its own resources for finance and training. The worker-owners cannot be fired. In regular assemblies, they hire and fire their managers, as well as set the general policies and direction of the firm. The workers themselves decide on the income spread between the lowest paid worker and the highest paid manager, which currently averages about 4.5 to one. (Compared with more than 400 to one in the U.S.) As the worker-owners accumulate resources, they can encourage the formation of new coops, indirectly through their bank and directly through their firms, and bring them into the overall structures of MCC governance. This is how they grew from one small shop to 260 enterprises in the past 50 years. Finally, if a worker-owner retires, he or she can 'cash out,' but the share cannot be sold. It is only available for purchase by a new worker-owner at that firm. - Carl Davidson

BUNDELKHAND: Living with drought

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:29:15 -0500

Nathu Singh, a farmer with 15 acres land in Adhiyara village, district Chhatarpur has only one plea - "Please tell them to solve our drinking water problem." Paglu tells us he owns 2 acres but they are useless to him. There is no work to be had in the village even with the bigger farmers. He has worked in cities but he doesn't like it there and prefers to remain in his village. At one time, they used to hunt in the nearby forests but the government has taken away their firearm licenses. On our way out of the village we meet Nathu Singh. He has 15 acres land. Lest we think he is prosperous, he quickly explains that he has a large family - 3 boys and 3 girls. One can see that he is but a shadow of his former proud self. He has only one plea - please, please tell the authorities to solve our drinking water problem. All the villages we visit present the same story - complete crop failure for the small and marginal farmers who depended on the rains coupled with a lack of local employment opportunities. The much touted employment guarantee scheme of the government is not functional where it is most needed forcing large scale migration on the landless and even on small farmers. At close quarters, the picture of the panchayati raj is unedifying - viewed, as it is, as being all pervasively corrupt. The rains may have failed Bundelkhand but it is the governments of the two States, and at the Centre who have forsaken the people. - Kannan Kasturi

DISPLACED BY THE DAM: Living on the edge

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:25:30 -0500

Silence sometimes tells you what entire stories cannot. Such a silence pregnant with untold stories came my way during a visit to a resettlement site of the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat some nine years ago. Looking back, I don't remember the name of the place. I can't recall the face of my host. What I do remember distinctly, however, is the feeling of hesitation that came over me when I entered the tin shed where this adivasi man had been dumped for many years by the Gujarat Government. Having left his home on the banks of the Narmada and the field which sustained him behind, I had expected him to be full of things to say: about his uprootment, the desperation of his existence, the injustice of not receiving an adequate recompense for his field and home. Instead, he welcomed me with silence. A stoic, unnerving silence. He was sitting on the ground with his four kids, shelling tur pods. When I sat facing him, he refused to look up. We sat quietly for many minutes, when I could take it no longer. Are you tired of visitors? I asked, nervously. I'd been told that this particular site had been visited by three different sympathetic urban groups in the last three days. He looked up finally, with an expression conveying that he'd been pushed to the limits of his tolerance. "We are tired", he replied, "but what can we do? We must accommodate everyone." Are there opportunities for majdoori here? I asked again, wary of sinking back into silence. "Nothing", he said. "Aise hi chalta hai." Do the children go to school? "No." - Neeta Deshpande

DISPLACED BY THE DAM: A legacy of loss

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:22:20 -0500

Of the land acquired for the project colony and related works, a large part remains unused. But instead of returning this land to its rightful owners, the Gujarat Government now has an entirely different plan. A spectacular tourism project with private sector participation is now coming up, on these very lands once acquired for a 'public' purpose. The proposed features in the first stage of the project include restaurants, a food court, hotels, a rose garden, camping and adventure sports, among others. A fresh wave of police repression has been let loose on the villagers, to facilitate the progress of the project. At an NBA meeting that Lakshmibehn attended last year, she witnessed her fellow protestors being beaten and forced into police vans. Such repression, however, does not deter her from standing her ground. In this new scheme of things, with the Government's plans afoot for welcoming urban consumers to a tourist paradise at Kevadia Colony, Lakshmibehn is viewed as a mere obstacle, even a nuisance. In a developing, growing India, she must keep her truth, her loss, her hope, all to herself. For even if she speaks out, with her reservoir of courage and perseverance, who will hear her story? - Neeta Deshpande

Poor parents pushing children into English schools

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:17:54 -0500

Recognising that government schools with their Tamil medium education do nothing to ensure a good career path or ensure employment, parents are stretching themselves to make the shift in rural Tamilnadu. Still, plenty of challenges remain reports Krithika Ramalingam.

Kill them

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:13:46 -0500

"Join the Army, visit far away places, meet interesting people, and kill them."

Suspect surrenders, puts hands on squad car -- then gets Tased in neck

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:04:25 -0500

By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer - Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Police quietly removed safeguards against Taser-related brutality

A Minneapolis man who was Tased by police after surrendering and putting both hands on the hood of a squad car says he wants restitution from the police. On Monday, Rolando Ruiz's lawyer released dashcam video of an April 30 incident in which Ruiz can be seen with his hands on the hood of a car when a police officer approaches him and Tases him in the neck. Ruiz then falls to the ground, and can be heard screaming in agony as the officer kneels over him. As WCCO-TV in Minneapolis notes, the video begins moments before the Tasing, so it's unclear whether there was a physical confrontation beforehand. But it is clear that Ruiz was not being aggressive at the moment he was hit with a conducted energy weapon. Ruiz' attorney, Albert Goins, says his client's civil rights were violated, and he wants the police department to settle out of court for $75,000 or he says he will bring a federal lawsuit against the officers and Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan.

Eyewitness: Fleeing Waziristan's war

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:58:19 -0500

Most of our relatives are now in Punjab. All of them are financially weak. We are farmers, so we are hoping we can sow some crops here to earn money. We miss our home and we pray for the success of the army, so that we can go home soon. The killing of Baitullah Mehsud, the supreme commander of the Taliban, was, of course, a great victory. He damaged not only South Waziristan, but the whole of Pakistan. He allowed foreign militants to come and get trained in South Waziristan. The militants inflicted massive damage on our home town. They are robbers. They used to steal our animals. I would like to tell the West that Pakistan is a moderate and positive country. We, ordinary people from South Waziristan, are against the militancy of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. We hate them and this is the truth coming from our hearts.

President Obama's Deep Love Of Peace?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:52:52 -0500

Somalian civil society and court system are so devastated from decades of war that one wouldn't expect its citizens to have the means to raise serious legal challenges to Washington's apparent belief that it can drop bombs on that sad land whenever it appears to serve the empire's needs. But a group of Pakistanis, calling themselves "Lawyers Front for Defense of the Constitution", and remembering just enough of their country's more civilized past, has filed suit before the nation's High Court to make the federal government stop American drone attacks on countless innocent civilians. The group declared that a Pakistan Army spokesman claimed to have the capability to shoot down the drones, but the government had made a policy decision not to. - William Blum

To the sound of trumpets

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:49:10 -0500

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."

- Voltaire

America is Performing its Familiar Role of Propping Up a Dictator

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:47:06 -0500

But it's part of a dreary pattern. US forces were participating in a civil war in Vietnam while claiming they were supporting democracy and the sovereignty of the country. In Lebanon in 1982, they claimed to be supporting the "democratically" elected President Amin Gemayel and took the Christian Maronite side in the civil war. And now, after Disneyworld elections, they are on the Karzai-government side against the Pashtun villagers of southern Afghanistan among whom the Taliban live. Where is the next My Lai? Journalists should avoid predictions. In this case I will not. Our Western mission in Afghanistan is going to end in utter disaster. - Robert Fisk

Who Are The Six Uighurs Released From Guantánamo To Palau?

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:44:32 -0500

The "do-over" tribunals were a low point, even for the Bush administration, with its complete disregard for fairness, justice and the law, but with a massacre, human trafficking for bounty payments, cynical deals between the US and Chinese governments, and hunger strikes and force-feeding as part of these men's experience of US custody, it remains a disappointment to me that they have now -- apparently for nearly $100,000 a head -- been thrown on the tender mercies of the people of Palau, rather than being allowed to settle in the United States. - Andy Worthington

Italian court sentences 23 CIA agents over rendition flight

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:41:28 -0500

At the time of his abduction, Abu Omar was under surveillance by the Italian authorities on suspicion of recruiting Islamic extremists to send to Iraq, and was noted for advocacy of violence in his sermons at his mosque. In June Lady spoke to Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by Mr Berlusconi's brother Paolo, about the affair. "Of course it was an illegal operation. But that's our job. We're in a war against terrorism," he said. He added: "I am not guilty. I am only responsible for following an order I received from my superiors. It was not a criminal act, it was an affair of state." Joanna Mariner of Human Rights Watch said that the case had put the war on terror on trial. She added: "There should be dozens of CIA rendition cases in the US courts, but unfortunately there are none. By meticulously investigating the facts and surmounting formidable obstacles, Italian prosecutors have set an example that US prosecutors should follow." - Richard Owen

The people

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:39:41 -0500

"In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the people who get killed."

- Eduardo Galeano