How Workers are Using Globalization Against Walmart
25 October, 2012 – By Matthew CunninghamCook – truthout

The recent Walmart strikes — beginning first among warehouse workers in California, then spreading to others in Elwood, Illinois, and finally to Walmart retail stores across the United States — raise the possibility that workers may be able to crack the anti-union wall at the country’s largest employer. The new momentum seems likely to spread among many more workplaces to come. But these wildcat strikes are a reminder that, if American workers are to have a better-organized future, they will have to better understand where their corporate opponents are vulnerable.

The Walmart strikes are part of a significant reevaluation of organizing strategy by labor unions and activists in the context of the continuing decline of unionism in the United States — where fewer than 7 percent of workers in the private sector belong to a union. As Nadine Bloch pointed out two weeks ago, such wildcat strikes on multiple levels of the supply chain at Walmart are unprecedented, and groups like OUR Walmart and Warehouse Workers for Justice are planning to escalate the campaign in the coming weeks.

Over the past three decades, there has been a tremendous shift in the work lives of almost everyone in the United States wrought by processes of globalization. With the deregulation of trade in favor of multinational corporations (exemplified in trade deals such as NAFTA), and the emergence of hyper-specialization, most major commodities are now produced with components manufactured all over the world, selected through a competitive bidding process that aims to extract the maximum profit.

Few have expressed this brave new world better than former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, when he said to Lou Dobbs in 1998, “Ideally, you’d have every plant you own on a barge.” The 1 percent, that is, could move the points of production at a whim to wherever the cost of labor was cheapest and the regulatory environment was weakest.

Walmart led the retail industry’s embrace of this system, though most other retailers now follow the post-globalization model as well. In the past, most retail operations would take place at regional or national population centers, with considerably higher transit costs that made local and higher-priced labor a necessity. But with the increasing automation of ports — as well as the deregulation of containerization in 1984 and of the trucking industry at the end of the 1970s — the global and national supply chain transit costs have been reduced. The increasing mobility of production and distribution has spelled disaster for the once-powerful trade unions. Rather than relying on a stable pool of labor, the key to Walmart’s success has been getting low-cost goods to customers at precisely the right moment according to microanalysis of market patterns. But that is also what makes it so vulnerable to work stoppages. …more

Bahrainis to Stage Massive Anti-Regime Protest Rally in Manama Friday
24 October, 2012 – Fars

TEHRAN (FNA)- Bahraini activists invited people throughout the country to stage a massive anti-regime protest rally in Manama on Friday to show their wrath and condemnation of the several-day-long siege of the al-Akr town by the al-Khalifa army and security forces.

The opposition group, the Coalition of the Youth of the February 14th Revolution, in a statement, said that a massive protest rally will be held in Manama on Friday to voice sympathy and solidarity with the resistant people of the al-Akr town, adding that “Break the Siege of Al-Akr” will be the main motto to be chanted by the people in Friday rally.

Also, the Bahraini people are due to hold a ceremony after the Thursday noon prayers titled ‘Prayers Revolution’ to pray for the improvement of freedom and human rights situation in their country.

Bahrain’s police and security forces surrounded al-Akr town, South of Manama, last week and cut the roads and transfer of food supplies to the town after a bomb attack on Thursday allegedly killed one policeman and injured another following clashes between protesters and the Saudi-backed security services.

“The Al-Khalifa regime has imposed a siege on the al-Akr town and prevents its people’s access to food supplies under the pretext of the killing of one of its elements who was involved in the suppression of people’s peaceful protests in the town,” Secretary-General of Bahrain’s National Democrat Society Fazzel Abbas said on Sunday.

He stressed the necessity for an end to the al-Akr siege and investigations into the killing of the policeman in the city, and told the Iran-based al-Alam news network that the killed person was a foreign national.

Bahrain’s al-Vafa al-Islami stream also on Sunday condemned the al-Akr siege, and underlined, “The Bahraini regime’s story about the killing of a policemen in al-Akr village is an excuse to assume the extensive deracination of people as permitted.”

Anti-government protesters have been holding peaceful demonstrations across Bahrain since mid-February 2011, calling for an end to the al-Khalifa dynasty.

Violence against the defenseless people escalated after a Saudi-led conglomerate of police, security and military forces from the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states – Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar – were dispatched to the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom on March 13, 2011, to help Manama crack down on peaceful protestors.

Tens of protesters have been killed by the al-Khalifa’s security forces, hundreds have gone missing and thousands of others have been injured since the start of the Islamic Awakening in the tiny Persian Gulf country. …more

Revolt In The Middle East: Arab Monarchies Next? – Analysis
24 October, 2012 – By: James M. Dorsey – Eurasia Review

Arab monarchs pride themselves on having so far largely managed widespread discontent in their countries with a combination of financial handouts, artificial job creation, social investment and in the cases of Jordan and Morocco, some constitutional reform. Yet, in the shadow of the escalating civil war in Syria, it is monarchies like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan that are on the cusp of the region’s convoluted transition from autocracy to more open political systems.

To be sure, the situations in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Jordan differ substantially from one another. Yet, individually and taken together they feed the worst fear of monarchs and their Western backers: a successful popular revolt in one monarchy will open the door to serious challenges to autocratic royal rule in the rest of the region’s mostly energy-rich monarchies. And underlying the differing circumstances is a deeply felt sense of social, economic and political disenfranchisement of the people that fuels the discontent in all three nations.
Playing the sectarian card

A 26-year old Shiite in the Eastern Province, the oil-rich heartland of Saudi Arabia, has come to symbolise the threat to the kingdom’s ruling family. Khalid al-Labad, who was on a wanted list because of his willingness to protest in a country that bans all demonstrations, was killed last month by security forces as he sat on a plastic chair in front of his house in silent protest in the rundown town of Awamiya. Two of his teenage relatives also died in the attack. Their death brought to 16 the number of people killed in the last year in clashes between protesters and security forces.

As in Bahrain last year before the ruling family opted for the sectarian card and brutally cracked down on calls for reform, protesters in the Eastern Province are only calling for equal opportunity in employment, an end to religious discrimination, as well as the release of political prisoners, and not the departure of the ruling Al Saud family.

In Bahrain, the minority Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy succeeded in temporarily crushing mass protests by the majority Shiites and driving them out of the capital Manama. However the frustration and anger in Bahrain continues to bubble to the surface in protests mostly in villages on the Gulf island more than a year after the Saudi-backed crackdown. Two teenaged Shias killed in recent weeks symbolised the popular unrest. …more

Assad accepts Syria’s Muslim holiday truce, envoy tells UN
24 October, 2012 – By Louis Charbonneau, Michelle Nichols – Reuters

UNITED NATIONS: The U.N.-Arab League mediator for the Syrian conflict told the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has accepted a ceasefire for the Muslim holiday starting Friday, though a final announcement was expected to come later.

“President accepted, statement to be issued tomorrow,” a diplomat present at a closed-door briefing said mediator Lakhdar Brahimi told the 15-nation council via video link. He was speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Brahimi was expanding on remarks he made earlier on Wednesday to reporters in Cairo. After Brahimi spoke to the press in Egypt, the Syrian government appeared to contradict him, saying that its military command was still studying a proposal for a ceasefire with rebels on the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Asked if he could confirm Assad’s personal support for the holiday truce, Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari said to reporters: “Good to see you.”

On the way into the council meeting, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow hoped Brahimi’s plan for a ceasefire during the Muslim holiday of would be successful.

“We support it very strongly,” Churkin said. “We worked very hard in support of Mr. Brahimi in making sure there is a chance that might happen.”

Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong echoed Churkin’s remarks.

“We support a truce and we support Mr. Brahimi’s effort,” Li told reporters. “I think it’s important for all parties to understand the importance of peace and stability.”

“If there is 1 percent chance (of a ceasefire) then I think we should make 100 percent effort to make that happen,” he said.
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Syria amnesty must include peaceful activists: rights groups
25 October, 2012 – Agence France Presse

BEIRUT: International rights groups on Thursday urged Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to release peaceful activists, journalists and aid workers as part of an amnesty and to allow UN monitors inside prisons.

Assad, who is fighting a 19-month revolt against his regime, on Tuesday declared a general amnesty “for crimes committed before October 23,” except for those carried out by “terrorists” — the regime’s term for armed rebels.

But nine international rights groups including Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders and the International Federation for Human Rights said in a statement the amnesty must also apply to the “many peaceful activists in detention”.

Rights groups say tens of thousands of people have been detained since the start of the revolt.

“If president Assad is serious about his amnesty, he should open the doors of all his prisons to independent monitors to check who is actually detained and why,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

“Otherwise, this amnesty will be yet another false promise, with released detainees soon replaced by other activists, humanitarians, and journalists locked up for peacefully doing their jobs.”

The statement said widespread rights violations were taking place in detention facilities.

“Peaceful activists, human rights defenders, aid workers, lawyers, doctors, writers, and journalists continue to be held, often arbitrarily, in incommunicado detention, and subject to torture and ill-treatment,” it said
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Judiciary System Proves One More Time Its Complicity with Bahrain’s Crackdown by Upholding The Convictions for Teacher Unionists
25 October, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Centre for human rights (BCHR) expresses its deepest concern over the recent court verdicts in appeal of the imprisoned prominent teacher unionists Mahdi Abudeeb the President of the Bahrain Teachers Association (BTA) and its Vice President Jalila Al-Salman due to their legitimate peaceful activism for rights and democracy.

On 22 October 2012, the appeal court in Bahrain sentenced Mahdi Abudeeb to five years’ and Jalila Al Salman to six months’ imprisonment. The new ruling reduces their initial sentence on 23 September 2011 when Abudeeb and Al Salman were sentenced to ten years’ and three years’ imprisonment, respectively, by a military court with charges of, among other things, inciting hatred towards the regime, calling for a teachers strike, participating and calling for illegal gatherings. AbuDeeb has been in prison since April 2011. Both of them have reported torture to the court, however the allegations went without investigation and the court issued its verdicts in the case.

YouTube (Amnesty International : Jalila’s urgent call to you, October 2012)

The BCHR believes that it is a politicized sentence; linked closely to the role the Teachers Association has played since the beginning of demonstrations in Bahrain.

The Association has shown solidarity with the people’s popular demands and has called on teachers to go on strikes to protest the fierce attack on peaceful demonstrators that took place in February 2011 and to put pressure on the government to respect human rights.

On 7 April 2011, the BTA was dissolved by the regime for “issuing statements and speeches inciting teachers and students” and “calling for a strike at schools”. The government’s accusations were made to delegitimize the Association, in order to start a campaign of repression and harassment against its members. Many members of the BTA were subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, military tribunals, suspension of work, salary cuts, prosecutions, investigation and harassment and violations continues till date.

The Bahrain Center for Human Rights call on the Bahraini government to revoke the sentence issued against Mehdi Abudeeb and Jalila Al-Salman and to respect the trade union’s freedom to work. We call on the authorities to stop arbitrary procedures against the Teachers Association of Bahrain and allow it to work freely. …source

Bahrain: ill-treatment and denial of medical care for political detainees
25 October, 2012 – Bahrain Center for Human Rights

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) urgently appeals upon the UN, the US, the UK and all governments that are close alleys of the Bahraini authorities to take action to stop the violations against prisoners of conscience. The BCHR expresses grave concern over the well-being of political detainees in Bahraini prisons who are having sham charges made against them, are being ill-treated and tortured, and are being denied adequate medical care. Many reports confirm the poor conditions of the prisons in Bahrain which adds to the suffering of their prisoners. Hussain Al Aali, Jaffar Eid and Mohammed Al Moghani are further examples of what prisoners are going through in Bahraini prisons.

ussain Abdulla Al Aali is a 28 year old father of three. He was arrested on 26 July 2012 after his house, his in-laws’ and his sister’s house were raided several times at dawn over a period of two months as his mother stated to a local newspaper. Hussain’s family started a search after his arrest but were told by the authorities that they did not have him in their custody. Finally, and after weeks of not knowing anything about Hussain’s whereabouts and well-being, they were allowed a visit him. According to his family, Hussain is in solitary confinement to date in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

He was allegedly subjected to torture to force a confession out of him and he was kept in a very small cell under intensive monitoring where he was not even allowed private time in the toilet where there are surveillance cameras and he had no exposure to sun for weeks. Hussain’s health is deteriorating because of the prison’s poor conditions, ill-treatment and insufficient medical care. He suffers from disc problems in his back and because he is being denied medical treatment, his condition is worsening daily. His family added that they have learnt he is not being given sufficient food which will cause him malnutrition and a worsening of his mental and physical well-being. Hussain’s family are gravely concerned about their son’s health condition. He is charged with “the making and possession of explosive materials”, though he only attended elementary school, cannot read and write and his family have affirmed that their son was far from the political situation.

Jaffar Eid and Mohammed Al Moghani are also being detained in the same case. Jaffar is Hussain’s brother-in-law and his family said after their first visit that he was not well. On the second visit, he looked worse, he couldn’t walk or stand and the family noticed torture marks on his legs. Mohammed Al Moghani, 35 years old, was detained on 22 July from the airport after arriving in Bahrain. His family did not know anything about his location for a while and despite the fact that he was in detention, his house was raided several times and many personal items were taken.

Hussain, Jaffer and Mohammed are among hundreds of political detainees in Bahrain’s prisons who are being held on sham charges. Prisoners are being kept in poorly conditioned prisons, many are suffering from serious pre-existing illnesses or injuries caused by torture or excessive use of force by the authorities and are being denied medical care. Mohammed Mushaima, 22 years old, died from a lack of adequate medical care while in custody. Also, Mohammed Sahwan, Ebrahim Al Moqdad (15) and Sadeq Al Haiki are currently in detention and are also being denied proper medical care by the authorities.

Therefore, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights demands the following:

• To immediately provide the necessary treatment to Hussain Al Aali, Jaffar Eid and all other prisoners in need of medical care in the prisons of Bahrain
• For the authorities in Bahrain to commit to international conventions which they have ratified, especially the rights of prisoners to receive full medical care
• The release of Hussain Al Aali, Jaffar Eid, Mohammed Al Moghani and others convicted in cases where the judgment is only based on confessions extracted under torture, which is internationally prohibited
• Accountability against those involved in torture and bringing them to a fair and independent judiciary
Syndicate content

…source

Bahrain says it uncovered weapons cache inside unlicensed mosque
24 October, 2012 – By Al Arabiya

Police in Bahrain said on Wednesday they uncovered a weapons cache inside an unlicensed mosque where locally-made bombs were being produced.

Authorities said they seized electric detonators, stopwatches and other materials used to make bombs.

The cache was uncovered in the area of Abou Baham, a scene of violence attributed by official media to Shiite hardliners.

On Sunday authorities detained seven men over the killing of a policeman, as demonstrators tried to break through police checkpoints around the village where he lost his life.

Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has been convulsed by unrest since February last year following mass demonstrations led by majority Shi’ites demanding democratic change in the Sunni-led monarchy.

The ruling Al Khalifa family brought in Gulf Arab troops, mainly from Saudi Arabia, and imposed over two months of martial law to end the uprising.

The incident in the early hours of Friday was the first in which a policeman had been killed since martial law ended in June 2011. Policemen were attacked by rioters with petrol bombs and an unspecified “explosive device”, the authorities said.

“Seven Bahrainis have been detained and have been referred to the public prosecution in the case of a bombing attack in al-Eker … in which one policeman was killed and a second critically wounded during a routine patrol,” a statement from the government’s Information Affairs Authority said.

It named the slain policeman as 19-year-old Imran Ahmed but did not give his nationality. Many Pakistanis and some Arab nationals serve in Bahrain’s riot police – a source of friction with protesters.

The opposition, which says more than 45 people have died in clashes since martial law ended, want full legislative powers for parliament and for the makeup of the Cabinet to be approved by parliament too. The Cabinet has been headed by an uncle of King Hamad bin Isa since 1971. …source

Protesters, U.S. Call for the Reformation of Lebanese Government
24 October, 2012 – POMED

March 14 members rallied in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Beirut to protest the bombing assassination of General Wissam al-Hassan. The group issued a statement saying, “The fall of Hassan is the ultimate proof of the fall of the Lebanese state and its government. This is a new failure on behalf of this black government. We, as political parties and civil society organizations, have promised that we should not be cowardly, therefore, we will keep going until the end.” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, “We need a government that functions well, but more importantly, we need a government that can provide security in the country rather than insecurity, and that can work for a strong, pluralistic, unified Lebanon.” Pressed for specifics, Nuland said that “we support the process that [Lebanese] President [Suleiman] is undertaking, which is to form a new and responsible government.”

Nicholas Blanford wrote an article that discusses why Lebanon has not been thrust into a new civil war. Despite General al-Hassan’s assassination and the spillover of violence from Syria, Lebanon has remained relatively calm. He pointed out that memories of Lebanon’s 16-year conflict are still raw in the public psyche. Blanford noted that in 1975, Lebanon’s military balance between the factional rivals was more equally matched than it is today. Meanwhile, contemporary “leaders agree on the importance of maintaining stability in Lebanon and not allowing Syria’s woes to trigger domestic violence.” Echoing that sentiment, Paul Salem, director of the Carnegie Endowment’s Middle East Center in Beirut said, “I don’t think there will be a civil war from this assassination because the leaders of March 14 and March 8 do not want instability at this time.”

David Schenker wrote a piece arguing that recent developments undermine Hezbollah’s position of influence in Lebanon. Schenker said “the organization has attempted to enforce ideological hegemony on its Lebanese co-religionists in an effort to assert political monopoly over Lebanon’s Shiite constituency,” which has not been well received. He concludes that Hezbollah’s support for the regime in Syria is evidence that the organization’s stature will be further diminished once Bashar al-Assad finally falls. …more

SEE Human Rights First article seeking to take an advisory role for US efforts in Syria HERE

U.S. FBI team arrives to help Lebanon probe blast
25 October, 2012 – Agence France Presse

BEIRUT: A U.S. investigation team arrived in Beirut on Thursday and began gathering evidence at the scene of a bombing that killed the country’s police intelligence chief, the Lebanese interior minister said.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation team is at the scene of the crime and has begun collecting evidence,” Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told AFP.

“The team was sent to Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government,” he added.

The United States announced on Monday it would send an FBI team to help Lebanon probe the rush-hour Beirut car bombing that killed police intelligence chief General Wissam al-Hassan and two others.

Washington has condemned the blast as a terrorist strike but said it would wait for the results of the investigation before determining any further response.

The opposition has widely blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for Friday’s attack, as it did in 2005 when former premier Rafiq Hariri was killed in a huge Beirut blast.
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Suspect in Libya US mission attack killed in Cairo: police
25 October, 2012 – Agence France Presse

CAIRO: A gunman killed during a police raid on an apartment in northern Cairo is suspected of involvement in a deadly attack last month on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi, police said Thursday.

Various media reports meanwhile suggested that the man who died in Wednesday’s raid was a Libyan citizen who is believed to be an Al-Qaeda militant.

“The gunmen who was killed when police raided an apartment in Madinat Nasr… is suspected of having connections with the group that carried out the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi,” an Egyptian police official said.

US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the September 11 attack on the US consulate in the eastern Libya city.

At the time, social networks blamed the hardline Salafist group Ansar al-Sharia for the attack.

The independent Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, quoting interior ministry official General Mohieddin al-Sayyed, said the suspect killed on Wednesday could be an Al-Qaeda militant.

“The Madinat Nasr police department received information indicating that a terrorist, a member of Al-Qaeda, was present in an apartment in Madinat Nasr,” Sayyed is quoted as saying.

As a result police raided the apartment and clashed with the suspect who was killed when he activated an explosive device, he said.
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U.S. offers $12 million reward for Iran-based Al-Qaeda members
18 October, 2012 – By RFE/RL

WASHINGTON – The U.S. State Department is offering up to $12 million in rewards for information on two men it describes as members of an Al-Qaeda network operating in Iran.

The State Department said on October 18 that they were “key facilitators” in sending extremists to Iraq and Afghanistan.

It says it will provide $7 million for information on Muhsin al-Fadhli and $5 million for information on Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi.

Also on October 18, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed financial sanctions against Harbi.

The move freezes any U.S. assets held by Harbi and also prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions with him.

Fadhli is already subject to similar restrictions.

The U.S. government says Iran gives the Al-Qaeda network on its soil “freedom of operation.” …source