December 29, 1999
Subject: Two more days to go before the Y2Krisis - Some feedbacks and a special spotlight on Starhawk explaining "How We Really Shut down the WTO"
Hello
Time flies so quickly! After hearing so much for so long about this coming Y2Krisis, we are finally just about to feel its bitter effect. No time to make more preparations except to pray and meditate so as to keep the inner world in balance despite the feeling of uncertainty sure to be felt worldwide as the Y2K dominos will fall in a rippling effect as the clocks tick to the fateful 00:00 01/01/2000 in each time zone.
I'll send you at least one last or perhaps 2 emails before December 31st, so make sure to empty your email box before the end of that day, but not too close from 00:00 because it is not recommended to have your computer online at that moment.
We definitely live in interesting times...
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
HERE ARE SOME FEEBACKS FIRST - AND AS USUAL THANKS A LOT FOR ALL YOUR COMMENTS AND INFO!
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999
From: Barbara Antrobus <ladihawk@mweb.co.za>
Subject: Re: Full Moon etc. message
Dear Jean
I want to say thank you for your courageous and relentless pursuit of truth and for keeping us informed. Some of the info is really hard to believe - not that I don't believe it - it's just hard to believe that people in power become so egotistical they lose all sense of compassion. It's hard to believe that a little power grows ones ego so much that greed and lust are allowed to take over ones personality, blinding one to the sufferings and needs of others. But then, is this not one of the legacies left to us, over the aeons, by the ruling patriarchal societies. These societies which we allowed to preach that 'might' is 'right' and 'to lose face' is a disgrace, or some such words? The society which taught it's men that it's a disgrace to cry - that's for sissies - "Cowboys don't cry". This is a fear-based belief. Yes, power is based in fear.
But do most folk know this? I doubt it. I'd like to ask, not only, the ruling patriarchy, but every person in the street, this question: "What is harder for you to do: to fight someone for something you want or to love them and thereby let go of your wants?" Hmm?
All of us, women and men, know that it's very easy to fight but how many of us know that it takes courage, sometimes a tremendous amount, to love? Unless our hearts are open, we have no courage. An open heart allows one to become vulnerable to love, and THAT is courage. Just pick up any newspaper or watch the news on TV and you see that it's far easier for most humans to become angry and attack one's chosen 'enemy' than it is to love, therefore love is for the courageous and fearless; violence is for the fearful.
Wishing you and yours a blessed Christmas and may * * * 2000 * * * be joy-filled.
Blessings of love, light and laughter,
Barbara Antrobus
HERE IS AN EMAIL SENT TO MY MEDIA LIST ON DEC 28 WHICH WAS ENTITLED:
"A New Dawning Reality + OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING"
Hello
A mere 4 days before the Y2K fateful deadline, here comes the damning evidence that the Oklahoma bombing was not only known to federal authorities prior to its occurence - hence they had all their ATF personel clear from the Murray Building before the blast - but they also apparently engineered this horrible human tragedy! - Do you have any idea from who the Elstine team took their cue to engineer similar bombings of appartments blocks in Moscow to justify a war against the so-called Chechen terrorists so as to prop up Putin as their replacement for Eltsine and have their Unity Party become a major player in the Duma?
Now it is not hard to imagine that the whole Y2K mess is a deliberate ploy to create global chaos... According to the Time magazine in its January 18, 1999 issue, Robert Bemer and 47 other computer scientists started lobbying in 1960 to have everyone switch to the four-digit year to avoid problems in 2000 and thus become Y2K compliant 40 years ahead of schedule. But despite repeated warnings about the catastrophic consequences we are just about to reap, - and I quote here from Time magazine - "In 1967 the White House orders the National Bureau of Standards to settle the date debate. Under pressure from The Pentagon, the bureau sticks with the two-digit year."
The traumatic events and worldwide depression that could possibly ensue would then be a perfect cover for the "Powers That Be" to come to the "rescue" through imposing a whole bunch of "emergency" measures in most countries - including martial law in some cases - that will erase in the twinkle of an eye all semblance of democracy and judicial rights for the sake of bringing back order.
However, it is very likely that, despite their "best efforts" and all the recent media frenzy to create an anticipation of terrorist bombings in the U.S. and God knows what else, none of those apocalyptic scenarios will occur. Yes there might very well be some major Y2K problems in a great number of locations around the world. Yes the economy might very well suffer for a good while. And yes there might very well be all kinds of shortages for a prolonged period until all the technical glitches are fixed. But no the people won't panic. No there won't be mass looting and mayhem in the big cities. And no this won't be the end of the world.
People will help each other and a great opening of hearts will occur as everyone will do their utmost best to bring succour to those in need. People will learn some greatly needed lessons as to the necessity to live a simpler and healthier life, much less dependent on technology and highly centralized systems prone to mass failures because of a simple bug. And above all, it will give us all some respite from the seemingly unstoppable headlong rush towards planetary ecosuicide as we will reassess our priorities and put the survival of our world ahead of the bottom line of the Megagreedy corporations and megalomaniacs bent on destroying the world for the sake of their own selfish profits.
Is this a dream? No it simply is the true natural goodness and commonsense of humankind that will surface "en masse" and bring this world back from the brink of oblivion. It is you and me and everyone else discovering at the dawn of a new millennium that we have so much more in common than all the petty differences seemingly separating us that we will spontaneously choose to unify and co-create a new era of sustainable abundance, caring compassion and loving peace for all.
It is the new dawning Reality that will embody the best qualities inherently present in every human being. Some will call it Heaven on Earth. Others will simply say it was high time we stop wasting so much energy and resources fighting each other instead of helping each other to create a brighter future for all human beings and all other life forms sharing this blue pearl of Life with us.
May the future be clearly manifest before everyone's mind's eyes to see and behold.
Jean Hudon
Earth Rainbow Network Coordinator
http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000
P.S. Millions of people will meditate and pray for world peace and unity over New Year's Eve. If you care to report such a good news, check this Millennium Meditations Compilation at: http://www.cybernaute.com/earthconcert2000/MillenniumMed.htm
From: PLANETNEWS@aol.com
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999
Subject: PRIOR KNOWLEDGE evidence is overwhelming...
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
PLANETNEWS broadcast...
[I know we all know it...but I just have to say it...'our government
is rotten...'] Nancie
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING-Massive #
Links.
Received via E-mail
By Ian Williams Goddard
OKC BOMB: Prior Knowledge
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING
Evidence is overwhelming that federal authorities were aware that a
terrorist event was
going to take place in Oklahoma City before the bombing of the Murrah
Building took place. In fact, two law suits have been filed against the
federal government on the behalf of bombing victims for failing to give
warning to victims of the bombing. In the first suit, attorney Richard
Bieder will represent at least 44 victims.
[1] In the second suit, filed in the District Court of Oklahoma County
(4/18/97), O.J. Simpson's defence lawyer Johnnie Cochran will represent over
300 people who suffered losses in the bombing.
About that suit the Associated Press reported
[2]: More than 300 people joined the lawsuit against the government. They
claim the [ATF] had prior warning of the April 19, 1995 bombing and that
officials of the day care center in the federal building knew or should have
known about the attack. Indeed, the shocking claim by victims and family
members that the federal government had prior knowledge of the Oklahoma City
bombing is supported by an overwhelming body of evidence.
Evidence Of Prior Knowledge
The ABC program 20/20 recently reported (1/17/97) on its investigation into
the claim that the federal government had prior knowledge of the Murrah
Building bombing.
[3] The 20/20 program opened with the question asked by anchor Tom Jarriel:
"What did authorities know or expect before the explosion that federal
workers and the children arriving at the Murrah Building did not know or
were not told?" Jarriel continued, stating that:
For seven months 20/20 has looked into just that question and we have found
solid facts which tend to support... suspicions [of prior knowledge]. Our
investigation uncovered eyewitnesses and government documents which show a
lot of unusual activity was going on behind the scene shortly before the
explosion occurred.
20/20 interviewed several eyewitnesses who saw the Oklahoma County Bomb
Squad truck across the street from the Murrah Building shortly before the
blast. The 20/20 investigation even discovered and displayed several local
publications in which witnesses reported having seen the Bomb Squad before
the blast. These publications include:
* WORKIN' INTEREST, Parker & Rassley Petroleum USA Inc.
* THE PANOLA WATCHMAN, a local newspaper
* MASS MEDIA, an interoffice newsletter that reads:
M A S S M E D I A
Special Edition of the Oklahoma
County Assessors Newsletter
By J.D. Reed
As usual, I pulled into the parking garage about 7:30 and made my way into
our office building. Although it was unusual to see the Oklahoma County Bomb
Disposal Unit parked outside the courthouse, I assumed it was routine
business and thought no more about it.
The Oklahoma County Sheriff's Department claims that the large Bomb Squad
truck with trailer, which was used later that day to remove the unexploded
bombs found inside the Murrah Building [4], was outside prior to the bombing
because a deputy was using it for "routine errands."
One eyewitness, Claude Fritz, told 20/20 that he saw paramilitary Bomb Squad
personnel searching the outside of the courthouse across the street; he said
that prior to the blast "the presence of law enforcement was in the air, it
was everywhere downtown that morning."
In fact Fritz witnessed several fire trucks speeding toward the Murrah
Building with sirens blazing moments before the blast. When another ABC
program, EXTRA, contacted the Oklahoma City Fire Department to ask them
about Fritz's claim, the Fire Department told EXTRA: "We can't really
confirm or deny that claim." [5]
20/20 established, contrary to official denials, that the Oklahoma City Fire
Department received a call from the FBI five days before the bombing
(04/14/95) warning them that "there were some people coming through town
they should be on the look out for."
Perhaps most shocking, the 20/20 investigation discovered that someone had
called the Executive Secretariat's Office at the Justice Department in
Washington D.C. to report the Murrah Building bombing 24 minutes before the
blast. 20/20 quoted on screen the official government document reading:
The Department of Justice...received a telephone call ...twenty-four minutes
prior to the bombing... The caller said, "The federal building in Oklahoma
City has just been bombed."
20/20 anchor Tom Jarrel then noted that "no action was apparently taken" by
the Justice Department in response to that strange emergency call minutes
before the blast.
With early warnings and with the heavy law-enforcement presence around the
Murrah Building that morning, it's surprising that the vehicles seen by
witnesses speeding away from the Murrah Building seconds before the blast
were not noticed by the law-enforcement officers.[6][7]
THE JUDGE WHO KNEW
U.S. District Judge Wayne Alley, whose office was in the federal courthouse
across the street from the Murrah Building, told Oregon's largest daily
newspaper, The Oregonian, that he had been warned to take "extra
precautions" several days before the April 19th blast.
Judge Alley told The Oregonian (04/20/97): "Let me just say that within the
past two or three weeks, information has been disseminated... that indicated
concerns on the part of people who ought to know that we ought to be a
little bit more careful." He said that he was told to keep an eye out for
"people... wandering about in the courthouse who aren't supposed to be
there, [and] letter bombs. There has been an increased vigilance." By an
amazing stroke of good luck, Alley did not show up for work on April 19th.
The forewarnings that Judge Alley received were reserved for only a select
few. And indeed, Alley was an important official, so much so that on August
10, 1995 he was assigned to be the judge in the Oklahoma City bombing case.
The defense tried for months to have Alley removed from the case, but to no
avail. Then the defense discovered Alley's statements in The Oregonian and
submitted them to the court on November 30, 1995. Within 48 hours, on
December 1st, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals removed Alley from the
case, ruling that because his office was across the street from, and damaged
by, the blast, he could not be considered an impartial party in the case.[8]
Yet no mention was made by the federal court of Judge Alley's forewarnings.[9]
ATF CLEARED OUT OF BUILDING?
While at least 10 ATF agents were at the Murrah Building moments after the
blast [10], it seems that the ATF office inside the building was empty at
the time of the blast. The ABC program 20/20 (01/17/97) interviewed a man
who, while looking for his wife at the Murrah Building, ran into an ATF
agent who said that he had survived the blast because "We were tipped by our
pagers not to come into work today."
That same individual, whose wife was injured in the blast, had been
interviewed previously along with two other witnesses by NBC's affiliate in
Oklahoma City, KFOR television (09/12/95). The second witness, the boss of
the first, told KFOR viewers that he had overheard the account of the first
witness just cited. The third witness, a rescue worker, had also been
informed that there were no ATF agents in the building that day. All three
witnesses spoke to KFOR, just as the first of the three spoke to 20/20, in
shadow for fear of ATF reprisal. [9]
Their fear of the ATF was well-founded: just ask former ATF agents Diane
Kipel and Mike Casali, who were targeted for harassment and intimidation by
the ATF after blowing the whistle on theft by ATF agents during raids in
Chicago. As a result, they lived in constant terror for months, even keeping
their children and themselves away from windows in their home through which
they feared they would be shot by ATF snipers. [11]
ATF COVERS-UP PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
In response to charges that the ATF had prior knowledge and had cleared its
agents out of the Murrah Building before the blast, the ATF scrambled to
cook up a cover story: the ATF claimed that its agent Alex McCauley along
with DEA agent David Chickendance, had survived the blast while inside an
elevator that fell five stories. After the free-fall, the two forced the
elevator doors open and proceeded heroically to rescue many other
survivors -- or so the ATF story went.
Not taking the ATF story at face value, 20/20 interviewed elevator
maintenance crewmen Oscar Johnson and Duane James of Midwest Elevator, who
said that the ATF's story was "pure fantasy." The crew had inspected the
Murrah Building elevators shortly after the blast on April 19 and found that
all the elevators were in perfect condition and could not possibly have
fallen as the ATF claimed.
Furthermore, according the Midwest Elevator, not only could the two federal
agents not have fallen or have opened the elevator doors, but they also
could not have survived a five-story fall without sustaining traumatic
injuries, and subsequently they could not have proceeded to rescue other
people.[9] The ATF must have been pretty desperate to have fabricated such a
fantastically false fable. By the way, according to 20/20, DEA agent David
Chickendance won the National Policeman of the Year Award for his "heroic"
part in that fraudulent federal fable.
PRIOR WARNING FROM ATF AGENT
The following evidence of prior knowledge by the federal government to the
Oklahoma City bombing, perhaps the most important in this case, revolves
around two undercover operatives, Carol Howe and Andreas Strassmeir. While
there are several possible suspects, some investigators believe that
Strassmeir is the elusive John Doe 2.
ANDREAS STRASSMEIR is the son of the German politician Gunther Strassmeir,
often referred to as the "architect of German reunification." According to
his lawyer Kirk Lyons, Andreas Strassmeir was trained in military
intelligence operations at the Bundeswehr Academy in Hanover, Germany. His
close friend Dennis Mahon, leader of the militant racist-group White Aryan
Resistance (WAR) in the U.S., says Strassmeir was a member of Germany's
elite counterterrorism unit, GSG-9. [12]
Strassmeir told Oklahoma City attorney John Michael Johnston that he did
undercover counterterrorism work while in Germany.[12] Strassmeir later told
London's SUNDAY TELEGRAPH reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard that he came to
the U.S. looking to do undercover work for the Department of Justice or DEA,
but he said such top secret employment was not acquired.[13] Private
investigators Glenn and Kathy Wilburn, whose daugther Edye Smith lost her
two children in the bombing, believe Strassmeir was an undercover operative
whom they identify in their law suit as a "U.S. federal informant with
material knowledge of the bombing." [13]
CAROL M. HOWE, a 26-year-old resident of Tulsa, OK, was a Miss Teenage
America semi-finalist and honors student who became active in the militant
racist group WAR. In 1994 Howe became an undercover agent for the ATF. She
had infiltrated the Christian Identity white-separatist commune "Elohim
City" in eastern Oklahoma and made more than 70 reports during 1994-95.
According to NBC News: "The government acknowledges in federal documents
that she [Carol Howe] was their informant." [14]
Howe's reports, which she submitted to her ATF boss, Angela Finley, exposed
detailed plans by some Elohim City residents, such as Andreas Strassmeir, to
blow up federal targets including the Murrah Building.[15]
During Howe's infiltration of Elohim City, she also saw Timothy McVeigh and
the governments's star witness and long-time McVeigh friend, Michael
Fortier. At Elohim City, McVeigh was known as "Tim Tuttle," an alias he
frequently used. Yet after gathering such explosive intelligence, according
to the Associated Press, the ATF then fired Howe just days before the
bombing because her reports had suddenly become "unreliable." [14]
Howe's "unreliable" reports focused on Andreas Strassmeir. Howe was not
aware that Strassmeir was apparently also a federal operative, which would
explain why the FBI, even with Howe's reports in hand, did not pursue the
John Doe 2 look-alike Strassmeir after the blast. The FBI merely noted in a
summary of Carol Howe's reports:
Strassmeir has talked frequently about direct action against the U.S.
government. He is trained in weaponry and has discussed assassination,
bombings, and mass shootings. Strassmeir and Mahon [leader of WAR] have
taken three trips to Oklahoma City. [16]
This evidence not only proves (a) that the ATF and FBI had prior warning of
an action against the Murrah Building by a group of people associated with
Timothy McVeigh, and yet did nothing to stop it, but (b) after the bombing
the FBI did not pursue Strassmeir, a prime suspect fitting the John Doe 2
profile down to the scar on his face.
At the request of the ATF, the Oklahoma State Patrol did put out a "be on
the lookout for" alert for Strassmeir after the blast.[17] But Strassmeir
was never apprehended, and the alert was quickly suppressed and denied. [18]
Strassmeir, who had been in the U.S. with a passport that had expired in
1991, was allowed to return to Germany many months after the bombing in
early 1996 [14] in an apparent effort not to avoid authorities but private
investigators.
Furthermore, after first calling John Doe 2 "the most wanted man in
America," the FBI acted to suppress all official investigations of John Doe
2. As an internal FBI memo now proves [19], the FBI suspended their search
for John Doe 2 very early in the investigation -- contrary to their claims
that they were still looking for John Doe 2 at the time.[20]
The FBI went so far in their effort to suppress information about John Doe 2
that they even censured grand jurors who asked questions about John Doe 2,
such as former Oklahoma City bombing grand juror Hoppy Heidelburg, who
headed the grand jury's investigation before being thrown off the jury for
his persistent investigation into John Doe 2. Heidelburg had reached the
conclusion that John Doe 2 was an undercover federal agent.[21]
In an effort to fabricate the facade of investigation, the FBI finally
contacted John Doe 2 suspect Strassmeir by phone in Germany but only after
McVeigh's attorney Stephen Jones condemned the FBI for not following up on
leads. When Strassmeir was interviewed by the German publication Report
Baden-Baden, he said that when the FBI called him by phone they assured him
that "They would cover for me." [22]
IN CONCLUSION
This extensive body of evidence indicates not only that the ATF and the FBI
had prior knowledge of an impending terrorist act on the Murrah Building,
but that the FBI is guilty of the obstruction of justice by aiding and
abetting the escape from justice of a prime suspect, John Doe 2, who may
have been a federal operative involved in the worst act of mass murder in
U.S. history.
This evidence further suggests that some element within the federal
government may have actively participated in the mass murder in Oklahoma
City, which resulted in massive new powers being given to the federal
government through "anti-terrorist legislation" spurred on by the bombing of
the Murrah Building.
(c) 1997 Ian Williams Goddard - (*) free to copy nonprofit w/ attribute.
REFERENCES
[1] REUTERS: Families of Oklahoma City Victims to Sue U.S.. March 19, 1997.
Also see: http://www.cnn.com/US/9703/19/okc.bomb/index.html [2] ASSOCIATED
PRESS: 300 Families Sue Government, Day Care and Chemical Company. April 19,
1997.
http://xenocide.nando.net/newsroom/ntn/top/041997/topstory_17914_S1.html
[3] ABC's 20/20, 01/17/97. http://jbs.org/okc/mretruth.htm
[4] CNN reports videotaped, April 19, 1995.
[5] EXTRA: Prior Knowledge. 11/20/96. ABC program.
[6] THE WASHINGTON TIMES: U.S. Experts Begin Search for Killers. by Michael
Hedges, April 20, 1995, A1. Reports that a van with 3 men was seen speeding
away.
[7] OKBOMB! By Jim Keith. IllumiNet Press, 1996, p.11 & 19. Reports van and
McVeigh's car w/ two inside were seen.
[8] ASSOCIATED PRESS: Appeals Court Removes Oklahoma Bombing Judge. by Paul
Queary, 12/01/97.
http://www.arlington.net/archives/12011995.arc/news/daily/topstory.htm
[9] THE NEW AMERICAN: Evidence of Prior Knowledge. by William F. Jasper, May
13, 1996, pp. 31-35. http://jbs.org/okc/priorevd.htm
[10] OKBOMB! By Jim Keith. IllumiNet Press, 1996, p.71.
[11] TIME MAGAZINE: ATF Under Siege. by Erik Larson, 07/24/95, pp.26-7.
[12] THE NEW AMERICAN: More Pieces to the OKC Puzzle. by William F. Jasper,
June 24, 1996, pp. 4-8.
http://www.earthchangesTV.com
Earth Changes TV, PO Box 31286, Seattle, WA 98103
NOTE THE 2 FOLLOWING FEEDBACKS ALMOST MADE ME BLUSH. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME I HAD HEARD ABOUT THE ALLEGED PRESENCE OF ASBESTOS IN TAMPONS AND I HAD REPEATEDLY SEEN THE OTHER WARNING ABOUT ANTI-PERSPIRANTS ALLEGEDLY CAUSING BREAT CANCER - AND I THOUGHT BOTH WERE NOT FALSE RUMORS BUT DID NOT TAKE TIME TO TRY TO FIND OUT IF THEY WERE HOAX OR NOT. SO I PASSED THEM ON TO YOU UNCHECKED IN MY LAST GREENFILES SERIES. WELL! I APPARENTLY ERRED AND I APOLOGIZE FOR SPREADING SUCH FALSE RUMORS. NOW IF SOMEONE ELSE HAS RELIABLE EVIDENCE THAT SOME OF THESE WARNINGS ARE ACTUALLY BASED ON FACTS. I'LL BE HAPPY TO PASS THEM ON TO ALL -- JUST TO BE ON THE SAFE SIDE.
From: "Dave" <dave@asheville-computer.com>
Subject: RE: The Green Files #4 - asbestos in tampons
Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999
Hi Jean,
Tampon manufacturers deny this. I first heard of this rumor around a year ago.
I don't think it it true.
Thanks for all of your good work, and Happy New Year !
Dave Hartley
http://www.Asheville-Computer.com/dave
Anna Gyorgy <annag@afribone.net.ml> SENT ME THIS:
From: Ellen Schwartz <ellen@nicetechnology.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 30, 1999
Subject: Re: Breast Cancer - I don't think so
I looked it up on the Miningco.com urban legends archive, and there it was : http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/culture/beliefs/urbanlegends/library/blnote s8.htm#cancer
Here's the text from the miningco article, for those who don't have easy internet access: 05/25/99 - The latest medical rumor to strike needless fear into the hearts of Internet users makes the outlandish claim that the use of anti-perspirants is "the leading cause of breast cancer"
Thankfully, though it's been in circulation for less than 3 weeks (sic), the email rumor has already been trounced by reliable sources. Anti-perspirants have no known (or even suspected) connection with breast cancer.
Reliable sources:
American Cancer Society: 'Email Rumor' Urban Legends Reference Pages: 'Breast Defense' Salon Magazine: 'No Sweat'
The american cancer society link is to http://www2.cancer.org/zine/dsp_StoryIndex.cfm?sc=001
fn=001_05211999_0 which is a news bulletin from May 21. Look it up yourself! If you really believe that the American Cancer Society is totally in the pay of the pharmaceutical industry, you had also better just crawl under your bed and stay there!
(Clip - Read the rest at the first Miningco.co URL above)
From: "laine" <laine@dowen.screaming.net>
Subject: Re: a woman calling herself Starhawk
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999
Dear Jean,
A big 'Thank you' from us for including Starhawk in your posting.
I have always found her voice profoundly moving.
In the 70's, her political / spiritual synthesis supported a
human potential movement - spiritual awakening interface;
and she raised awareness through direct action re: nuclear power...
In the 80's and 90's she has worked to, among other things,
save Canadian Virgin Forrest.
Her book, The Fifth Sacred Thing, moved and uplifted me.
To read her own account of Seattle is just amazing.
We feel well gifted.
Yours in peace,
Laine and Shlo K. Dowen
AsIf Collective, UK
NOTE FROM JEAN: For those interested, I asked Starhawk about how people could get her book:
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999
From: Starhawk <stella@mcn.org>
Subject: Re: info on how to get my book
The Fifth Sacred Thing is published by Bantam (NY, 1992). It can be ordered from any bookstore or (shudder) amazon.com. My other books that deal a lot with direct action are
Dreaming the Dark: Magic, Sex and Politics (Boston, Beacon, 1982) and
Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority and Mystery (HarperSanFrancisco 1988).
Thanks so much,
Starhawk
http://www.reclaiming.org/starhawk/
NOTE FROM JEAN: I DID NOT THINK I WOULD RUN MORE MATERIAL REGARDING THE WTO MEETING BUT AFTER READING THIS MOVING ACCOUNT FROM STARHAWK DETAILING THE TRAINING AND STRATEGIES USED TO DEFEAT THE BRUTE POLICE FORCE IN SEATTLE, I FEEL MANY OF YOU WILL ALSO WANT TO GET A BETTER GRASP OF THESE NON-VIOLENT METHODS -- WHICH COULD PROVE VERY USEFUL IN THE NEAR FUTURE...
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999
From: Starhawk <stella@mcn.org>
Subject: More on WTO
Hi
Thanks for circulating my WTO letter--I'm glad you found it inspiring, and I thought you might also want to see this.
Blessings,
Starhawk
How We Really Shut down the WTO
by Starhawk
It's been two weeks now since the morning when I awoke before dawn
to join the blockade that shut down the opening meeting of the WTO. Since
getting out of jail, I've been reading the media coverage and trying to
make sense out of the divergence between what I know happened and what has
been reported.
For once in a political protest, when we chanted "The whole world
is watching!" we were telling the truth. I've never seen so much media
attention on a political action. However, most of what has been written is
so inaccurate that I can't decide if the reporters in question should be
charged with conspiracy or simply incompetence. The reports have
pontificated endlessly about a few broken windows, and mostly ignored the
Direct Action Network, the group that successfully organized the nonviolent
direct action that ultimately involved thousands of people. The true story
of what made the action a success is not being told.
The police, in defending their brutal and stupid mishandling of the
situation, have said they were "not prepared for the violence." In
reality, they were unprepared for the nonviolence and the numbers and
commitment of the nonviolent activists--even though the blockade was
organized in open, public meetings and there was nothing secret about our
strategy. My suspicion is that our model of organization and decision
making was so foreign to their picture of what constitutes leadership that
they literally could not see what was going on in front of them.
When authoritarians think about leadership, the picture in their
minds is of one person, usually a guy, or a small group standing up and
telling other people what to do. Power is centralized and requires
obedience.
In contrast, our model of power was decentralized, and leadership
was invested in the group as a whole. People were empowered to make their
own decisions, and the centralized structures were for co-ordination, not
control. As a result, we had great flexibility and resilience, and many
people were inspired to acts of courage they could never have been ordered
to do.
Here are some of the key aspects of our model of organizing:
Training and Preparation:
In the weeks and days before the blockade, thousands of people were
given nonviolence training--a three hour course that combined the history
and philosophy of nonviolence with real life practice through role plays in
staying calm in tense situations, using nonviolent tactics, responding to
brutality, and making decisions together. Thousand also went through a
second-level training in jail preparation, solidarity strategies and
tactics and legal aspects. As well, there were first aid trainings,
trainings in blockade tactics, street theater, meeting facilitation, and
other skills. While many more thousands of people took part in the
blockade who had not attended any of these trainings, a nucleus of groups
existed who were prepared to face police brutality and who could provide a
core of resistance and strength. And in jail, I saw many situations that
played out just like the role plays. Activists were able to protect
members of their group from being singled out or removed by using tactics
introduced in the trainings. The solidarity tactics we had prepared became
a real block to the functioning of the system.
Common Agreements:
Each participant in the action was asked to agree to the
nonviolence guidelines: To refrain from violence, physical or verbal; not
to carry weapons, not to bring or use illegal drugs or alchohol, and not to
destroy property. We were asked to agree only for the purpose of the 11/30
action--not to sign on to any of these as a life philosophy, and the group
acknowledged that there is much diversity of opinion around some of these
guidelines.
Affinity Groups, Clusters and Spokescouncils:
The participants in the action were organized into small groups
called Affinity Groups. Each group was empowered to make its own decisions
around how it would participate in the blockade. There were groups doing
street theater, others preparing to lock themselves to structures, groups
with banners and giant puppets, others simply prepared to link arms and
nonviolently block delegates. Within each group, there were generally some
people prepared to risk arrest and others who would be their support people
in jail, as well as a first aid person.
Affinity groups were organized into clusters. The area around the
Convention Center was broken down into thirteen sections, and affinity
groups and clusters committed to hold particular sections. As well, some
groups were 'flying groups'--free to move to wherever they were most
needed. All of this was co-ordinated at Spokescouncil meetings, where
Affinity Groups each sent a representative who was empowered to speak for
the group.
In practice, this form of organization meant that groups could move
and react with great flexibility during the blockade. If a call went out
for more people at a certain location, an affinity group could assess the
numbers holding the line where they were and choose whether or not to move.
When faced with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and horses, groups
and individuals could assess their own ability to withstand the brutality.
As a result, blockade lines held in the face of incredible police violence.
When one group of people was finally swept away by gas and clubs, another
would move in to take their place. Yet there was also room for those of us
in the middle-aged, bad lungs/bad backs affinity group to hold lines in
areas that were relatively peaceful, to interact and dialogue with the
delegates we turned back, and to support the labor march that brought tens
of thousands through the area at midday. No centralized leader could have
co-ordinated the scene in the midst of the chaos, and none was needed--the
organic, autonomous organization we had proved far more powerful and
effective. No authoritarian figure could have compelled people to hold a
blockade line while being tear gassed--but empowered people free to make
their own decisions did choose to do that.
Consensus decision making:
The affinity groups, clusters, spokescouncils and working groups
involved with DAN made decisions by consensus--a process that allows every
voice to be heard and that stresses respect for minority opinions.
Consensus was part of the nonviolence and jail trainings and we made a
small attempt to also offer some special training in meeting facilitation.
We did not interpret consensus to mean unanimity. The only mandatory
agreement was to act within the nonviolent guidelines. Beyond that, the
DAN organizers set a tone that valued autonomy and freedom over conformity,
and stressed co-ordination rather than pressure to conform. So, for
example, our jail solidarity stategy involved staying in jail where we
could use the pressure of our numbers to protect individuals from being
singled out for heavier charges or more brutal treatment. But no one was
pressured to stay in jail, or made to feel guilty for bailing out before
the others. We recognized that each person has their own needs and life
situation, and that what was important was to have taken action at whatever
level we each could. Had we pressured people to stay in jail, many would
have resisted and felt resentful and misused. Because we didn't, because
people felt empowered, not manipulated, the vast majority decided for
themselves to remain in, and many people pushed themselves far beyond the
boundaries of what they had expected to do.
Vision and Spirit:
The action included art, dance, celebration, song, ritual and
magic. It was more than a protest; it was an uprising of a vision of true
abundance, a celebration of life and creativity and connection, that
remained joyful in the face of brutality and brought alive the creative
forces that can truly counter those of injustice and control. Many people
brought the strength of their personal spiritual practice to the action. I
saw Buddhists turn away angry delegates with loving kindness. We Witches
led rituals before the action and in jail, and called on the elements of
nature to sustain us. I was given Reiki when sick and we celebrated
Hanukah with no candles, but only the blessings and the story of the
struggle for religious freedom. We found the spirit to sing in our cells,
to dance a spiral dance in the holding cell, to laugh at the hundred petty
humiliations the jail inflicts, to comfort each other and listen to each
other in tense moments, to use our time together to continue teaching and
organizing and envisioning the flourishing of this movement. For me, it
was one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life.
I'm writing this for two reasons. First, I want to give credit to
the DAN organizers who did a brilliant and difficult job, who learned and
applied the lessons of the last twenty years of nonviolent direct action,
and who created a powerful, successful and life-changing action in the face
of enormous odds, an action that has changed the global political landscape
and radicalized a new generation. And secondly, because the true story of
how this action was organized provides a powerful model that activists can
learn from. Seattle was only a beginning. We have before us the task of
building a global movement to overthrow corporate control and create a new
economy based on fairness and justice, on a sound ecology and a healthy
environment, one that protects human rights and serves freedom. We have
many campaigns ahead of us, and we deserve to learn the true lessons of our
successes.
The Direct Action Network needs your help to cover expenses and legal fees
which are still mounting up. Any donations will be appreciated. Please
show your support! Checks can be made to Cascadia Art and Revolution and
sent to DAN at PO Box 95113, Seattle, WA 98145.
Thanks and blessings,
Starhawk
http://www.reclaiming.org/starhawk/
AND JUST TO KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS BATTLE IS FAR FROM FINISHED...
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999
From: Bob Olsen <bobolsen@interlog.com>
Subject: NAFTA will make WTO irrelevant
The WTO will be irrelevant as NAFTA creeps
across the Americas, Africa and then Europe.
"The world will consist of a single deregulated market,
controlled by multinational companies, in which no
robust law intended to protect the environment or human
rights will be allowed to survive."
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999
From: H J Affleck <101521.3515@compuserve.com>
Subject: European roundtable of Industrialists: US/Europe trade bloc?
Still bent on world conquest
Forget Seattle. Our ministers do what corporate lobbyists want
World Trade Organisation: special report
George Monbiot
The Guardian, Thursday December 16, 1999
When the world trade talks in Seattle collapsed, British ministers
indicated that they would never again try to force the world to accept a
regime which threatened democratic government, developing nations and human
health. This is the third time they have made this promise: already, for
the third time, it has been broken.
Eighteen months ago, when the proposed Multilateral Agreement on Investment
(MAI) first foundered, the British government assured us that it had
learned its lesson. The new treaty it was brokering would defend the
environment and developing countries. When that turned out to be untrue,
and the agreement collapsed again, ministers swore that the environment and
human rights would be central to any future treaty. Within a fortnight,
leaked documents show, European officials had decided to shift the entire
MAI agenda to the world trade summit in Seattle. They did so and, exposed
and divided at the beginning of this month, they failed. Again, they waited
less than a fortnight to launch the next attempt to facilitate a corporate
takeover of the world. At the Helsinki summit of European leaders last week
the fallback scheme began to be implemented.
European expansion has several potential benefits for the people joining
the European Union - democratisation, human rights and peaceful relations
with their neighbours - but these are not the main issues driving
enlargement. The growth of the EU is one of the two central projects
formulated and controlled by a shadowy lobby group which has, for the past
15 years, exerted an iron grip on policy-making in Brussels.
The European round table of Industrialists (ERT) is an alliance of the
chief executives of Europe's largest companies, whose purpose is to
formulate policies for adoption by the European Commission. It has, so far,
been astonishingly successful. The Single European Act was framed not by
the EC but by Wisse Dekker, the president of Philips and subsequently
chairman of the ERT. His proposal became the basis of the EC's 1985 white
paper. The ERT has scheduled and steered the implementation of the act ever
since. The enlargement plans just approved by the European heads of
government were mapped out by Percy Barnevik, head of the Swedish company
Investor AB and chairman of an ERT working group.
The round table insisted not only that the EU be expanded in precisely the
sequence agreed at Helsinki, but also that new entrants be forced to
deregulate and privatise their economies and invest massively in
infrastructure designed for long-distance freight. The EU has agreed to all
of its principal demands. Until July this year the British minister
responsible for approving these changes was Lord Simon. Before he became a
minister, Lord Simon was vice-chairman of the ERT.
The thinking behind these schemes becomes clear when you discover what else
the corporate lobby groups have been doing. Since 1995, the EC, pressed by
the ERT and other trade bodies, has quietly been preparing for a single
market with the US.
The Transatlantic Economic Partnership is a slower and subtler creature
than the World Trade Organisation or the MAI. One by one it aims to pull
down the "regulatory barriers" impeding the free exchange of goods and
services between Europe and America. What this will mean in practice is
that once a product has been approved in one part of the new trading bloc,
it must be accepted everywhere. If the US government, for example, decides
that injecting cattle with growth hormones is safe, Europe will have to
adopt that as its regulatory standard.
The master plan is now falling into place. A greatly expanded Europe will
form part of a single trading bloc with the US, Canada and Mexico, whose
markets have already been integrated by means of the North American Free
Trade Agreement, or NAFTA. NAFTA will grow to engulf all the Americas and
the Caribbean. The senate has already passed a bill (the Africa Growth and
Opportunity Act) forcing African countries to accept NAFTA terms of trade.
Russia and most of Asia are being dragged into line by the International
Monetary Fund.
Before long, in other words, only a minority of nations will lie outside a
legally harmonised neoliberal world order, and they will swiftly find
themselves obliged to join. By the time the world trade agreement is ready
to be re-negotiated, it will be irrelevant, for the WTO's job will already
have been done. The world will consist of a single deregulated market,
controlled by multinational companies, in which no robust law intended to
protect the environment or human rights will be allowed to survive.
As the previous failures to impose such plans have shown, schemes like this
can survive only in the dark: exposure makes them shrivel and die. If this
new global master plan is to be thwarted, we must drag it into the light.
George Monbiot
The Guardian, Thursday December 16, 1999
NOTE: Bob Olsen <bobolsen@interlog.com> also sent some info in another email about the Jubilee 2000 campaign planning a mass mobilization on April 9 called Days of Action Against Corporate Globalization. Many organizations are already preparing for days of protest, education, training and direct action because on April 16-17, the IMF and the World Bank are having their Spring meetings in Washington. More on this later!
From: "Tech" <tech@transnationale.org>
Subject: French organization: Transnationale
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1999
Hello,
The website of the french organization Transnationale is now
on-line at http://www.transnationale.org. You will find:
* reference articles on more than 40 essential topics, from
GMO (transgenic organisms) and baby milk to offshore banking,
the world trade organization, privatization of education,
retirement pension, human cloning ...
* the list of relevant transnational corporations
* answers and alternatives.
Thanks to information collected by our network of correspondants,
already 3000 corporations are listed, with their brand names,
subsidiaries, major shareholders, manager compensation, social
policy, lobby membership, corporate image...
For instance, Nestlé, Monsanto, Hachette ou Chiquita.
A search by corporation name or brand name is possible.
The website is updated daily and now largely translated in english.
Access to the entire website is free and unrestricted, a CD-Rom is
available for offline browsing for 25 Euros.
Sincerely, Coordinator,
tech@transnationale.org
From: Jeremy Burnham <cogmotics@icon.co.za>
Subject: Re: Dali Lama story
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999
I was present at the Dalai Lama's talk, and he made three main points.
I don't claim this represents him accurately, but this is how I remember him:
a.. If you want to survive, religion is not necessary; if you want to enjoy life, or have a good life, then religion can help a great deal.
b.. A good way to help or support your brothers and sisters is to encourage them in their own religion. You can use your own religion to help you do this, but it is not helpful to try to foist your own religion upon them. [We had a noisy protest from Muslims Against Global Oppression who would not participate in the Parliament because they were convinced it had a "hidden agenda".]
c.. If you want to make change happen, you'll have to act. "Sorry", he said, "but meditation and prayer by itself is not enough. To create results you have to act!"
It was as always a privilege and a joy to have him with us here.
The World Parliament of Religion was for most participants I talked with a powerfully uplifting experience. It filled three venues for a week with a huge variety of workshops and presentations. I felt a little swamped by the large American presence, but this brought with it quite a refreshing world view that many of us here think of but have little opportunity to live.
Love
Jeremy
Cape Town
THANKS A LOT JEREMY FOR SHARING THESE FIRST-HAND INSIGHTS ;-)