Martial law, labor, globalization and...

[Ed Jewett]

Martial law, labor, globalization &

[size=12]the Baldwin-Felts phenomenon



[/SIZE][/FONT] What follows is the result of reflection and research after several Internet discussions about martial law (sometimes in the context of the outbreak of the pandemic-du-jour) and the prospect of protests at the forthcoming G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh, PA …

[See “Free Speech in Pittsburgh: A Test”
by Ron Jacobs, August 28th, 2009
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/08/free-spe...tsburgh-a-test/ and
“Go to Pittsburgh, Young Man, and Defy Your Empire”
by Chris Hedges, August 31, 2009
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/2009..._defiance/ ]


In Pittsburgh, “Expected participants in protests include peace, environmental, labor and social justice organizations.” http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/g20action.htm


“Alternate events will include a Peoples' Summit (not a protest) at the beginning of the week leading up the summit, followed by tent cities, demonstrations and other summits. Preceding the summit, there will be an alternative conference on Tuesday called Freedom Conference 2009 that stresses grassroots solutions and free-market approaches. During the first day of the Summit the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project will hold a march and a day of direct action. On the second day there will be Peoples' March and rally in downtown Pittsburgh. See http://www.webcitation.org/5jc5Q3suJ

For example: The National Council For Urban Peace, Justice & Empowerment is organizing a response to the G20 Summit. The purpose is to elevate discussion of the G20 beyond the narrow aspects of the health of financial markets, to addressing problems such as poverty, housing, employment, education, climate change, urban infrastructure, health care, economic development and other issues pertinent to the survival of disadvantaged peoples as part of the long-term answer to the viability of countries.”

“Security will be coordinated by the Pittsburgh Police working in conjunction with the United States Secret Service. It is estimated that 4,000 police officers have been requested, and the city currently only has 900 police officers. The Pennsylvania State Police have committed more than 1,000 officers for the downtown event, including SWAT, helicopter, mounted, undercover, bicycle and motorcycle officers. Allegheny County has had 75 officers specifically trained by and inbedded into the Pittsburgh Police Bureau for the event since June. New York City and Baltimore have committed some officers, as well as Pittsburgh suburbs. All officers regardless of department will be under the command of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and the Secret Service for the event days.”



This should lead immediately to the question as to why the presence of those interested in peace, the environment, labor issues, social justice, housing, employment, health care and the survival of disadvantaged peoples should be met with phalanxes of local, state and other authorities, but we don’t want to give away the ending on the first page.

In addition, numerous articles have been written about preparations by the US government for the imposition of martial law with a typical reaction that “it couldn’t happen here” or “no police or military personnel would ever use force against US citizens”.


One response:

“martial law makes one roll their eyes
the boy who cried wolf redux and redux and redux

the word does not even mean anything important

so what if someone is told to stay in their homes
if the house across the street is burning, i wouldn't want to be running into it either”


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A reminder:

“The first rule of propaganda is this:

If you can slide your premises past the people, you’ve got them…. “

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The thesis:

Indeed, it has happened here, and police and military personnel have used force against US citizens… indeed, arrested them, hurt them, imprisoned them, and killed them.

Here’s a bit of the history, and a bit of the modern day:

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The Lattimer massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattimer_massacre

The Lattimer massacre was an incident in which a sheriff's posse killed nineteen unarmed immigrant miners and wounded scores more. On September 10, 1897 at the Lattimer mine near Hazleton, Pennsylvania, men under the authority of the Luzerne County sheriff fired on a peaceful labor demonstration made up of mostly Polish, Slovak, and Lithuanian anthracite miners. This incident stands not only as the largest massacre of Central Europeans in the United States, but also as a turning point in the American labor movement…. The municipal governments in Luzerne County were essentially under the control of the local mining companies. Sheriff James Martin declared a state of civil disorder, which allowed him to deputize a posse of 87 men, most of whom were locally-born Protestants. They were armed with Winchester repeating rifles loaded with, it is reported, metal-jacketed bullets giving the rounds greater penetration, and shotguns loaded with buckshot..".[1] The posse was ordered to "use whatever means necessary to quell the strikes."[2] Reportedly, some of the deputies were intent on more violent confrontation with the strikers. While on a streetcar headed for Lattimer with the sheriff and his comrades, one deputy was overheard saying "I bet I drop six of them when I get over there."[3] When the demonstrators reached Lattimer, they were met again by the Sheriff and a semicircle of about 60 armed deputies. The sheriff again ordered the crowd to disperse, but this only served to raise the tension to a boiling point. The halted march had resulted in confusion, compounded by the fact that many of the marchers spoke different languages.


When an unidentified member of the posse (unevidenced accusations later fell on the sheriff)[citation needed] reportedly yelled "Fire!" and "Give two or three shots!", the posse opened fire on the strikers, killing 19. Fourteen Poles, four Slovaks, and one Lithuanian were killed. About 40 more of the demonstrators were wounded, at least six of whom later died of their wounds. Exact figures regarding the wounded are uncertain, because many were afraid to seek treatment at the local hospital. The posse fired about 150 rounds, equivalent to emptying nine of the 16-round Winchesters.”
See also
Freedom to Assemble and the Lattimer Massacre of 1897

by Kenneth C. Wolensky
http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=1253
[URL="http://www.hsp.org/default.aspx?id=1253"]
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”Lawrence was the first time large numbers of unskilled, immigrant workers had followed the leadership of the IWW John Golden, president of the United Textile Workers denounced the strike as 'revolutionary' and 'anarchistic' and unsuccessfully tried to take the leadership of the strike away from the IWW and into the hands of the AFL in order to break it up. Failing this, the AFL offered token words of support to the strikers.

Less than a week later, dynamite was found in several places around Lawrence, and the press was quick to lay blame to the strikers. However, a local undertaker was arrested and charged with planting the explosives in an attempt to discredit the workers. He was fined $500 and released, President Wood of the American Woollen Company was implicated in the plot, but cleared by the court although he could not explain why he had made a recent large cash payment to the undertaker.”

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the Ludlow massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_massacre[/FONT]


“One of history's most dramatic confrontations between capital and labor….”



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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDd64suDz1A
Woody Guthrie


“The UMWA decided to focus on the CF&I because of the company's harsh management tactics under the conservative and distant Rockefellers and other investors. As part of their campaign to break or prevent strikes, the coal companies had lured immigrants, mainly from southern and Eastern Europe and Mexico. CF&I's management purposely mixed immigrants of different nationalities in the mines to discourage communication that might lead to organization…. Most miners also lived in "company towns," where homes, schools, doctors, clergy, and law enforcement were provided by the company, as well as stores offering a full range of goods that could be paid for in company currency, scrip. However, this became an oppressive environment in which law focused on enforcement of increasing prohibitions on speech or assembly by the miners to discourage union-building activity. Also, under pressure to maintain profitability, the mining companies steadily reduced their investment in the town and its amenities while increasing prices at the company store so that miners and their families experienced worsening conditions and higher costs. Colorado's legislature had passed laws to improve the condition of the mines and towns, including the outlawing of the use of scrip, but these laws were rarely enforced. In leasing the tent village sites, the union had strategically selected locations near the mouths of the canyons, which led to the coal camps for the purpose of monitoring traffic and harassing replacement workers. Confrontations between striking miners and replacement workers, referred to as "scabs" by the union, often got out of control, resulting in deaths. The company hired the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency to help break the strike by protecting the replacement workers and otherwise making life difficult for the strikers.
Baldwin-Felts had a reputation for aggressive strike breaking. Agents shone searchlights on the tent villages at night and fired bullets into the tents at random, occasionally killing and maiming people. They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a M1895 Colt-Browning machine gun that the union called the "Death Special," to patrol the camp's perimeters. The steel-covered car was built in the CF&I plant in Pueblo from the chassis of a large touring sedan….

Over 400 strikers were arrested, 332 of whom were indicted for murder. Only one man, John Lawson, leader of the strike, was convicted of murder, and that verdict was eventually overturned by the Colorado Supreme Court. Twenty-two National Guardsmen, including 10 officers, were court-martialed. All were acquitted, except Lt. Linderfe who was found guilty of assault for his attack on Louis Tikas. However, he was given only a light reprimand.”


New York Times' account of the massacre - April 21, 1914
“The Ludlow camp is a mass of charred debris, and buried beneath it is a story of horror imparalleled [sic] in the history of industrial warfare. In the holes which had been dug for their protection against the rifles' fire the women and children died like trapped rats when the flames swept over them. One pit, uncovered [the day after the massacre] disclosed the bodies of ten children and two women.”


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"(Matewan) has played not only an essential role in the formation of our culture and values, but to the industrialization of the United States. For it was places like Matewan...that a 'line in the sand' was drawn. Where the demand was made that human dignity, and decency, be recognized in the industrial workplace."
--Congressman Nick J. Rahall


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the battle of Blair Mountain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain

“Though tensions had been simmering for years, the immediate catalyst for the uprising was the unpunished murder of Sid Hatfield on the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse on August 1, 1921. Hatfield, the police chief of Matewan, was murdered by agents of the Baldwin-Felts private detective agency. He had been a long-time supporter of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) and their efforts to unionize the mines…. The first skirmishes occurred on the morning of August 25. The bulk of the miners were still 15 miles away. The following day, President Warren Harding threatened to send in federal troops and Army Martin MB-1 bombers. After a long meeting in the town of Madison, the seat of Boone County, agreements were made convincing the miners to return home. However, the struggle was far from over. After spending days to assemble his private army, Chafin was not going to be denied his battle to end union attempts at organizing Logan County coal mines. Within hours of the Madison decision, reports came in that Sheriff Chafin's men were deliberately shooting union sympathizers in the town of Sharples, West Virginia just north of Blair Mountain — and that families had been caught in crossfire during the skirmishes. Infuriated, the miners turned back towards Blair Mountain, many traveling in other stolen and commandeered trains.

By August 29, battle was fully joined. Chafin's men, though outnumbered, had the advantage of higher positions and better weaponry. Private planes were hired to drop homemade bombs on the miners. On orders from the famous General Billy Mitchell, Army bombers from Maryland were also used to disperse the miners, a rare example of Air Power being used by the federal government against US citizens. A combination of gas and explosive bombs left over from the fighting in World War I were dropped in several locations near the towns of Jeffery, Sharples and Blair. “


“The term redneck was also used in The West Virginia Coal Miners March (1921) or the Battle of Blair Mountain when coal miners wore red bandannas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize.[7]”

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See also “History and Violence of the Appalachian Coal Strikes”
oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ak832196/esp/HRM.doc

and do a little homework about the history at Hawk’s Nest.

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“The only thing that counts is the enthusiasm with which [/FONT]
the worker ruins his health for a few meager crumbs.”[/FONT]


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Sidebar … Update in the modern era
from El Cabrero at http://goatrope.blogspot.com/2009/09/labor-daze.html

“Labor Day in southern West Virginia traditionally means the United Mine Workers District 17 celebration in Racine in Boone County, which has traditionally drawn hundreds of workers, family and community members and any number of current or aspiring politicians.

This year's event had some competition, as anyone paying attention to what's going on in this state knows. Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, who has probably done more than anyone else in this state to damage the labor movement--and the UMWA in particular--spent God knows how much money on a "Friends of America" concert/propaganda event that featured Ted Nugent, Hank Williams Jr. and Fox "News" celebrity Sean Hannity.

The bushes were beaten to draw thousands of people to attend this free event on an old strip mine site in Holden in Logan County.

The aim of the event was to oppose any kind of proposed actions aimed at addressing climate change, which after all couldn't possibly be true because that might inconvenience the coal industry. Also targeted were any measures that might regulate or tax the industry. All things progressive came under attack as well.

[/FONT] Nugent is reported to have once invited President Obama to "suck on my machine gun."

Nice...

By the way, the WV Chamber of Commerce, International Coal Group, the WV Coal Association and other such groups also co-sponsored the event. The extent to which Nugent speaks for them is unclear.

The irony of union busters pretending to protect American workers would make a cat laugh. On the other hand, Blankenship has suffered some setbacks lately in his attempts to influence state elections and court decisions so this may be the latest strategy. Here's hoping this one works as well as the last few.

Anyway, I attended the UMWA event as usual. Even without the bells and whistles, it was a good crowd. I had to walk about half a mile to get there. It was also nice to see that a large number of state elected officials, including Gov. Manchin, Congressman Nick Rahall, Treasurer John Perdue, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, House Speaker Rick Thompson and many delegates and senators not only attended but stayed all day.

UMWA president Cecil Roberts have his usual barn burning speech. My favorite part was when he said he received a call earlier in the week from Gov. Manchin asking if he was going to the Blankenship event. When Roberts said no, Manchin said that in that case he didn't have a ride and wouldn't be able to go either.”

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The Haymarket affair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_Riot

“I knew from experience of the past that this butchering of people was done for the express purpose of defeating the eight-hour movement."

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The Everett Massacre http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everett_Massacre

The Everett Massacre (also known as Bloody Sunday) was an armed confrontation between local authorities and members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union, commonly called "Wobblies", which took place in Everett, Washington on Sunday, November 5, 1916. The tragic event marked a time of rising tensions in Pacific Northwest labor history. … On November 5, 1916, about 300 members of the IWW met at the IWW hall in Seattle and then marched down to the docks where they boarded the steamers Verona and Calista which then headed north to Everett…. Local business interests, knowing the Wobblies were coming, placed armed vigilantes on the dock … As with previous labor demonstrations, the local business had also secured the aid of law enforcement, including the Snohomish County sheriff Donald McRae, who had targeted Wobblies for arbitrary arrests and beatings…. At the end of the mayhem, 2 citizen deputies lay dead with 16[5] or 20 others wounded, including Sheriff McRae. The IWW officially listed 5 dead with 27 wounded, although it is speculated that as many as 12 IWW members may have been killed. There was a good likelihood that at least some of the casualties on the dock were caused not by IWW firing from the steamer, but on vigilante rounds from the cross-fire of bullets coming from the Edison.[7] The local Everett Wobblies started their street rally anyway, and as a result, McRae's deputized citizens rounded them up and hauled them off to jail.[8] As a result of the shootings, the governor of the State of Washington sent companies of militia to Everett and Seattle to help maintain order.[8] There have been many efforts to find the IWW, a self-described radical union, at fault for the violence. However,


...historians Philip Taft and Philip Ross have pointed out in their comments on violence in labor history that "IWW activity was virtually free of violence... It is of some interest to note that a speaker who advocated violence at a meeting at the IWW hall in Everett [Washington] was later exposed as a private detective."[9]


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The Palmer Raids http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids

The Palmer Raids were a series of controversial raids by the United States Department of Justice and Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1919 to 1921 on suspected radical leftist citizens and immigrants in the United States, the legality of which is now in question. The raids are named for Alexander Mitchell Palmer, United States Attorney General under Woodrow Wilson…. In 1916, Wilson warned of:

Hyphenated Americans (who) have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life. Such creatures of passion, disloyalty and anarchy must be crushed out.[1]

On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. The law set punishments for actions interpreted as acts of interference in foreign policy and espionage - including many activities that would be seen by contemporary standards as dissent, such as the publication of magazines critical of the government. The act authorized stiff fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who obstructed the military draft or encouraged "disloyalty" against the U.S. government. After two anarchist radicals, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, continued to advocate against conscription, Goldman's offices at Mother Earth were thoroughly searched, and volumes of files and detailed subscription lists from Mother Earth, along with Berkman's journal The Blast, were seized. As a Justice Department news release reported:

A wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda material was seized, and included in the lot is what is believed to be a complete registry of anarchy's friends in the United States. A splendidly kept card index was found, which the Federal agents believe will greatly simplify their task of identifying persons mentioned in the various record books and papers. The subscription lists of Mother Earth and The Blast, which contained around 10,000 names, were also seized.

Congress also passed a series of immigration, anti-anarchist, and sedition acts (including the Sedition Act of 1918 and the Anarchist Exclusion Act) that sought to either criminalize or punish (through deportation) advocacy of the violent overthrow of the government or desertion from the armed forces, defiance of the draft, or membership in anarchist or revolutionary organizations.

In 1919, the U.S. House of Representatives refused to seat Socialist representative Victor L. Berger from Wisconsin because of his socialism, German ancestry, and anti-war views….

In 1919, [J. Edna Hoover] was put in charge of a new division of the Justice Department's Bureau of Investigation, the General Intelligence Division. By October 1919, Hoover's division had collected 150,000 names in a rapidly expanding index. Using this information, starting on November 7, 1919, BOI agents, together with local police, orchestrated a series of well-publicized and violent raids against suspected "radicals" and foreigners, using the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. Palmer and his agents were accused of using torture and other illegal methods of obtaining intelligence, including informers and wiretaps….

On May 28, 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union published a report entitled Report of the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice which carefully documented unlawful Departmental authorization of the arrests of suspected radicals, illegal entrapment by agent provocateurs and unlawful incommunicado detention. The report was signed by prominent lawyers and law professors, including Felix Frankfurter, Roscoe Pound and Ernst Freund. Palmer was called before the House Rules Committee and strongly defended his actions and that of his department, saying "I apologize for nothing that the Department of Justice has done in this matter. I glory in it."[13][14]”

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more to come...

[Ed Jewett]

the Bonus March

“On 28 July, 1932, Attorney General Mitchell ordered the police evacuation of the Bonus Army veterans, who resisted; the police shot at them, and killed two. When told of the killings, President Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to effect the evacuation of the Bonus Army from Washington, D.C.

At 4:45 p.m., commanded by Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the 12th Infantry Regiment, Fort Howard, Maryland, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment, supported by six battle tanks commanded by Maj. George S. Patton, Fort Myer, Virginia, formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of Civil Service employees left work to line the street and watch the U.S. Army attack its own veterans. The Bonus Marchers, believing the display was in their honour, cheered the troops until Maj. Patton charged the cavalry against them — an action which prompted the Civil Service employee spectators to yell, "Shame! Shame!"

After the cavalry charge, infantry, with fixed bayonets and adamsite gas, entered the Bonus Army camps, evicting veterans, families, and camp followers. The veterans fled across the Anacostia River, to their largest camp; President Hoover ordered the Army assault stopped, however, Gen. MacArthur—feeling this free-speech exercise was a Communist attempt at overthrowing the U.S. Government—ignored the President and ordered a new attack. Hundreds of veterans were injured, several were killed — including William Hushka and Eric Carlson; a veteran's wife miscarried; and many other veterans were hurt.”

“Perhaps the Bonus Army's greatest accomplishment was the piece of legislation known as the G. I. Bill of Rights[citation needed]. Passed in July, 1944, it immensely helped veterans from the Second World War to secure needed assistance from the federal government to help them fit back into civilian life, something the World War I veterans of the Bonus Army had not received. The Bonus Army's activities can also be seen as a template for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and popular political demonstrations and activism that took place in the U.S. later in the 20th century.”

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Sand Creek


“ I saw the bodies of those lying there cut all to pieces, worse mutilated than any I ever saw before; the women cut all to pieces ... With knives; scalped; their brains knocked out; children two or three months old; all ages lying there, from sucking infants up to warriors ... By whom were they mutilated? By the United States troops ... ”

—- John S. Smith, Congressional Testimony of Mr. John S. Smith, 1865[15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre


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Wounded Knee

“By the time it was over, about 300 men, women, and children of the Lakota Sioux had been killed. Twenty-five troopers also died during the massacre, some believed to have been the victims of friendly fire as the shooting took place at point blank range in chaotic conditions.[3] Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, with an unknown number later dying from hypothermia. The massacre is noteworthy as the engagement in which the most Medals of Honor have ever been awarded in the history of the US Army.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre

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“We can change the world, Re-arrange the world,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4CmRB0hed8
It's dying ... to get better”

10,000 demonstrators came to Chicago for the convention where they were met by 23,000 police and National Guardsmen…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5wvCnkOnnA

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Kent State [/FONT]






“…The guardsmen fired 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds…”

“Just five days after the shootings, 100,000 people demonstrated in Washington, D.C. against the war and the killing of unarmed student protesters. Ray Price, Nixon's chief speechwriter from 1969-74 recalled the Washington demonstrations saying, "The city was an armed camp. The mobs were smashing windows, slashing tires, dragging parked cars into intersections, even throwing bedsprings off overpasses into the traffic down below. This was the quote, student protest. That's not student protest, that’s civil war."[8] Not only was Nixon taken to Camp David for two days for his own protection, but Charles Colson (Counsel to President Nixon from 1969 to 1973) stated that the military was called up to protect the administration from the angry students, he recalled that "The 82nd Airborne was in the basement of the executive office building, so I went down just to talk to some of the guys and walk among them, and they're lying on the floor leaning on their packs and their helmets and their cartridge belts and their rifles cocked and you’re thinking, 'This can't be the United States of America. This is not the greatest free democracy in the world. This is a nation at war with itself.'"[8] … President Nixon and his administration's public reaction to the shootings was perceived by many in the anti-war movement as callous. Then National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said the president was "pretending indifference." Stanley Karnow noted in his Vietnam: A History that "The [Nixon] administration initially reacted to this event with wanton insensitivity. Nixon's press secretary, Ron Ziegler, whose statements were carefully programmed, referred to the deaths as a reminder that 'when dissent turns to violence, it invited tragedy.'…. After the student protests, Nixon asked H. R. Haldeman to consider the Huston Plan, which would have used illegal procedures to gather information on the leaders of the anti-war movement. Only the resistance of J. Edgar Hoover stopped the plan.[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings#cite_note-Nix_Prez_Rev-7"][8]
[/URL]
Ten days after the Kent State shootings, on May 14, two students were killed by police at the historically black Jackson State University under similar circumstances, but that event did not arouse the same nationwide attention as the Kent State shootings.[25] ….

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings




http://www.ohiomm.com/mp3/news/ksu/ksu_s..._tapes.mp3


http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05...ate&st=nyt
[URL="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/an-order-to-fire-at-kent-state/?scp=1-b&sq=kent+state&st=nyt"]
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Wounded Knee II

“During the preceding months of the Wounded Knee occupation, civil war brewed among the Oglala people. There became a clear-cut between the traditional Lakota people and the more progressive minded government supporters. The traditional people wanted more independence from the Federal Government, as well as honoring of the 1868 Sioux treaty, which was still valid. According to the 1868 treaty, the Black Hills of South Dakota still belonged to the Sioux people, and the traditional people wanted the Federal Government to honor their treaty by returning the sacred Black Hills to the Sioux people.

Another severe problem on the Pine Ridge reservation was the strip mining of the land. The chemicals used by the mining operations were poisoning the land and the water. People were getting sick, and children were being born with birth defects. The tribal government and its supporters encouraged the strip mining and the sale of the Black Hills to the Federal Government. It is said that at that point in time, the tribal government was not much more than puppets of the BIA.“

http://www.essortment.com/all/siegewoundedkn_rmpq.htm
[URL="http://www.essortment.com/all/siegewoundedkn_rmpq.htm"]
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The Myth of Protest Violence

By David Graeber, The Nation
Posted on August 26, 2004, Printed on September 7, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/19676/

It is a little-known fact that no one at an anti-globalization protest in the United States has ever thrown a Molotov cocktail. Nor is there reason to believe global justice activists have planted bombs, pelted cops with bags of excrement or ripped up sidewalks to pummel them with chunks of concrete, thrown acid in policemen's faces or shot at them with wrist-rockets or water pistols full of urine or bleach. Certainly, none has ever been arrested for doing so. Yet somehow, every time there is a major mobilization, police and government officials begin warning the public that this is exactly what they should expect. Every one of these claims was broached in discussions of the protests against the Summit of the Americas in Miami in November and used to justify extreme police tactics, and we can expect to hear them again approaching the Republican convention in New York.

Such claims have an interesting history. They first emerged in the months immediately following the WTO protests in Seattle in November 1999, with a series of pre-emptive police strikes against activist threats that, much like Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, never quite materialized:

[/FONT] April 2000, Washington, DC[/FONT]

Hours before the protests against the IMF and World Bank are to begin, police seize the activists' Convergence Center. Chief Charles Ramsey loudly claims to have discovered a workshop there for manufacturing Molotov cocktails and homemade pepper spray. DC police later admit no such workshop existed (in reality, they'd found paint thinner used in art projects and peppers being used for the manufacture of gazpacho); however, the center remains closed, and much of the art, including the puppets, has been appropriated.

July 2000, Minneapolis

Days before a scheduled protest against the International Society of Animal Geneticists, local police claim that activists detonated a cyanide bomb at a local McDonald's and might have their hands on stolen explosives. The next day the Drug Enforcement Administration raids a house used by organizers, drags off the bloodied inhabitants and appropriates their computers and outreach materials. Police later admit there never was a cyanide bomb and they had no reason to believe activists were in possession of explosives.

August 2000, Philadelphia:

Hours before protests against the Republican convention are to begin, police, claiming to be acting on a tip, seize the warehouse where art, banners and puppets are being prepared, arresting the seventy activists inside. Chief John Timoney announces the discovery of C4 explosives and water balloons full of hydrochloric acid. Police later admit that no explosives or acid were found; those arrested are not, however, released. All of the puppets, banners, art and literature to be used in the protest are destroyed.

[/FONT] While it is possible that we are dealing with a remarkable series of honest mistakes, this looks more like a series of attacks on the materials activists were intending to use to get their message out to the public. Certainly that's how the activists interpreted the raids. One of the big discussions before every new mobilization has now become where to hide the giant puppets. In Miami the City Council actually made the display of puppets illegal during the month of the summit – ostensibly because they could be used to conceal weapons – and the police strategy consisted almost entirely of pre-emptive strikes against activists, hundreds of whom were swept up and charged with planning, but never quite actually performing, unspeakable acts.

The press, meanwhile, has been airing increasingly outlandish accounts of what happened at Seattle. During the WTO protests themselves, no one, including the police, claimed that anyone had done anything more militant than break a plate-glass window. Yet just three months later, the Boston Herald reported that officers from Seattle had come to brief the local police on how to deal with "Seattle tactics," such as attacking police with "chunks of concrete, BB guns, wrist rockets and large capacity squirt guns loaded with bleach and urine." When a few months later New York Times reporter Nichole Christian, apparently relying on police sources in Detroit, claimed that Seattle demonstrators had "hurled Molotov cocktails, rocks and excrement at delegates and police officers," the Times had to run a retraction, admitting that Seattle authorities confirmed no objects had been thrown at human beings. Yet somehow the exact same claims continue to resurface. Before the Miami protests, for example, circulars distributed to local businessmen and civic groups, attributed to "police intelligence" sources, listed every one of these "Seattle tactics" as what should be expected, insuring that when the protests began, most of downtown Miami lay shuttered and abandoned.

[/FONT] Some police officials have become notorious among activists for their Gothic imaginations. Timoney, the former Philadelphia police chief who took over Miami's department before last fall's protests, is fond of peppering his press conferences with stories of activists caught planning to release poisonous snakes and reptiles among the citizenry, officers hospitalized because of acid attacks and activists assaulting his troops with a variety of bodily fluids. Such charges invariably make splashy headlines at the time, only to be later exposed as false or fade away for lack of evidence. Timoney has also become notorious for brutal tactics: In Miami his men opened fire on activists with an array of wooden, rubber and plastic bullets, tazer guns, concussion grenades and a variety of chemical weapons.Despite calls from groups ranging from the United Steelworkers to Amnesty International for an investigation, Timoney continues to be hired as a security consultant for major protests and appears on television frequently as an expert on protest movements.

Probably one of the police's purposes is simply to rally the troops. As commanders discovered in Seattle, police often feel a little uncomfortable about orders to conduct a baton charge against a group of unarmed 16-year-old girls. A deeper reason, though, may have been a perceived need to address a crisis in public perception. To the frustration of high-level officials who were finding their meetings regularly ruined by acts of civil disobedience, the American public largely refused to see the global justice movement as a menace to society. True, the media tried to create hysteria over a few broken windows, but to surprisingly little effect. The question then became, What would it take to cast protesters in the role of the villain? The answer appears to have been a calculated campaign of symbolic warfare: Remove the images of colorful floats and puppets; replace them with images of bombs and hydrochloric acid. And if it has worked – which seems to be the case, considering the public's relative indifference to police destruction of protest art and banners in Philadelphia, or to the extraordinary preemptive violence in Miami – it is because on matters of public security, it rarely occurs to most Americans that so many of the officials charged with protecting them could be intentionally, systematically lying.

http://www.alternet.org/election04/19676..._violence/
[URL="http://www.alternet.org/election04/19676/the_myth_of_protest_violence/"]
[/URL]
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"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations [sic] were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence.”

Samuel Huntington


"If violence accomplishes nothing, how do these people believe the civilized conquered in North and South America and Africa, and before these Europe, and before that the Middle East, and since then the rest of the world?! The indigenous did not and do not hand over their land because they recognize they're faced with "a higher stage of social and cultural development." The land was (and is) seized from and the people living there were (and are) slaughtered, terrorized, beaten into submission. The tens of millions of Africans killed in the slave trade would be surprised to learn their slavery was not the result of widespread violence. The same is true for the millions of women burned as witches in Europe. The same is true for the billions of passenger peasant pigeons slaughtered to serve this economic system. The millions of prisoners stacked in gulags here in the US and elsewhere would be astounded to discover that they can walk away anytime they want, but they are not in fact held there by force. Do these people believe that women submit to rape just for the homeless, and not because of the use or threat of violence? The reason violence is used so often by those in power is simple: it works. It works dreadfully well."

"There is not a petition campaign to you can construct is going to cause the power and the status quo to dissipate. There is not a legal action that you can take; you can't go into the court of the conqueror and have the conqueror announce the conquest to be illegitimate and to be repealed; you cannot vote in an alternative, you cannot hold a prayer vigil, you cannot burn the right scented candle at the prayer vigil, you cannot have the right folk song, you cannot have the right fashion statement, you cannot adopt a different diet, or build a better bike path. You have to say it squarely: the fact that this power, this force, this entity, this monstrosity called the State maintains itself by physical force, and can be countered only in terms that it itself dictates and therefore understands. That's a deep breath time; that's a real deep breath time.

It will not be a painless process, but, hey, news flash: it's not a process that is painless and now. If you feel a relative absence of pain, that is testimony only to your position of privilege within the Statist structure. Those who are on the receiving end, whether they are in Iraq, Palestine, Haiti, American Indian reserves inside the United States, whether they are in the migrant stream or the inner city, but those who are "other" and of color in particular but poor people more generally, know the difference between the aimlessness of acquiescence on the one hand and the painfulness of maintaining the existing order on the other. Ultimately, there is no alternative that has found itself in reform; there is only an alternative that finds itself – not in that fanciful word of revolution – but in the devolution, that is to say the dismantlement of the Empire from the inside out.”

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A series of articles on the Police State
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?c...&themeId=7

More to come...

[Ed Jewett]

Beware the Torchbearers of Oligarchy -
Over the last 18 months or so most everyone I know in North America has - in some way or another - been impacted by the sudden un/under-employment of a friend, colleague or loved one. Many of those affected had been working in tech-related, specialist or professional fields with abundant credentials under them, only to be laid-off during this period of wanton corporate belt-tightening. This is, of course, a classic process of redistribution and consolidation of wealth. Although it might seem differently, everyone isn't doing badly. The consolidation of banks, for example, is a wonderful thing - if you count yourself among the oligarchs. For them, less workers working more efficiently means a return to profit.

Meanwhile, as the official unemployment numbers edge past records set two generations ago, things look less rosy for the working class.
The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to a 26-year high of 9.7% in August as nonfarm payrolls fell by 216,000, the 20th consecutive monthly decline, the Labor Department estimated Friday.

U.S. payrolls have dropped by 6.9 million to a total of 131.2 million since the recession began in December 2007, the government data showed. Unemployment has increased by 7.4 million during the recession to stand at 14.9 million. - (Market Watch[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Ed/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msoclip1/02/clip_image001.gif[/IMG])

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, payrolls shrank in construction, manufacturing, finance and wholesale trade during August.

Here's some visual context:


http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/5281/12603000.jpg[/FONT]

With 131.2 million Americans semi-employed (officially, at least), that only leaves about 170 million to fuss over, so it shouldn't be much of a shock to hear that 10% of America is on food stamps. Many un/under-employed Americans are biding their time, waiting for a utopian hiring frenzy, but they're unlikely to find relief any time soon because most of the jobs being lost are due to "broken business models" and are probably gone for good. For post-secondary institutions, 2009-10 is shaping up to be the most competitive class intake ever as more people try to shore-up their economic stability with additional credentials. Sadly, unemployment rates for college/university graduates is the highest on record and student loan delinquencies are becoming endemic. Furthermore, frivolous lawsuits aside, a university degree is no ticket to economic stability and for most Americans household debt is a serious burden:


http://i.ixnp.com/images/v6.7/t.gif



“The American consumer is like that bad guy in a zombie movie; shoot him; stab him. He keeps coming forward. But in the case of the consumer, it's more like: depress his wage, make him unemployed, ruin his confidence make no job growth, lower his savings rate -- none of it matters, he or she just keeps on racking up those charges.” - Robert Brusca

Mr. Brusca, a Ph.D. economist, "has been a Division Chief at the NY Fed, a Fed-watcher at a major NY commercial bank and Chief Economist at major international securities firm", but presently he works as "an independent voice on the economy global trends and the political scene." Obviously, as a member of the Oligarch's Fan Club™ he's not very worried about his economic stability in the face of systemic collapse, and he's even got some advice for us commoners: 'Stop bitching!'

Economist Robert Brusca said the [unemployment] trend is favorable, adding that he couldn't understand the pessimism of so many observers. "I feel like a parent locked in a car with a little kid screaming " DADDY! ARE WE THERE YET?" - (Market Watch)


You see, like many other 'Gatekeepers of Sanity', Mr. Brusca contends that the Recovery is here, and unemployment is just a "lagging indicator" of economic health. However, during the lead-up to the federal government's bailout + "stimulus", he seemed less enthusiastic:
I don't think this really changes very much. We're not sure this plan is going to be accepted. If we assume it is accepted, it is some help for the banks but it doesn't help homeowners and it doesn't help consumers and it doesn't change the fact that the unemployment rate is rising and industrial production is falling. So it's nice to patch up the financial intermediaries, but that's not a full solution. - (Channel 2)

[/FONT] Clearly, sometime between then and now Mr. Brusca drank the Kool-Aid of Orthodoxy +3. Paralleling the tendencies of other wannabe plutocrats, he has more self-interest than good will for the 'unwashed public'. Although he publicly champions the working class, he has negligible authentic insight into its motivations and concerns. Many modern authority figures have learned to embody the patriarchal strategies of anti-labour industrialists, and one of the most insidious is the projection of a commonality of experience. This was on full-display when the illustrious Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, suggested that middle class American households earn around $350,000 per year, but it's also operating in the background in lots of other places, too. Politicians, patriarchs, industrialists and entrepreneurs are upheld by idols in the media culture who relentlessly bludgeon the public with subversive propaganda intended to leave You feeling powerless to effect meaningful change.

So, what are you going to do about it?

http://ankh-f-n-khonsu.livejournal.com/288861.html

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FM 3-19.15
CIVIL DISTURBANCE OPERATIONS
http://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm3-19-15.pdf

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“… the U.S. military doctrine, preparations and training for suppressing civil disturbance, military rule, martial law, domestic urban warfare and "homeland defense."


U.S. MILITARY CIVIL DISTURBANCE PLANNING: THE WAR AT HOME

By Frank Morales

“Back in 1959, Samuel P. Huntington, cited above in Dunlap, Summers and Ricks, authored “The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of Civil-Military Relations” (Cambridge University Press). By 1975, Huntington was putting his talents to good use by authoring the final report of David Rockefellers' Trilateral Commission. Titled, “The Crisis of Democracy” (New York University Press, 1975), the report is a blue-print for counter-revolution. It supplies the ultimate logic for the existence of Garden Plot. It explains a military and police in training to pre-empt democracy and defend the rule of the rich.”

* Pay special attention to the asterisk at the very bottom of the document and then go check the recent news.

http://www.911truth.org/osamas/morales.html

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Sidebar:
What the fires don't get, the bankers will.

Banks are actually tearing down brand new houses in California because they can't sell them at any price and they can't afford to pay the taxes and expenses to maintain them.

Here's what it looks like on the ground:

http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/702.html

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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Capitalizing Security: "Non-Lethal" Weapons and the Market

When the U.S. military planned to deploy Raytheon's Active Denial System (ADS) in Iraq, it set off a political firestorm. How couldn't it?

Known for its "goodbye effect," the so-called "pain ray" is a "non-lethal" directed energy weapon that repels "rioters" and other disreputable citizens by heating the outer surface of the skin to 130 degrees F. in short, directed bursts. With a range of some 550 yards, the microwave beam can penetrate clothing and its effects have been described by test subjects as nothing less than "excruciating."

The prospect that American "liberators" would soon be zapping "unruly mobs," that is, Iraqi citizens objecting to the destruction of their country and the looting of their resource-rich nation by Western (corporate) invaders proved to be a public relations nightmare for the Pentagon.

The Defense Science Board concluded that an ADS deployment was "not politically tenable," because of a "possible association with torture" if the system were used at detention centers to ensure "compliance" from recalcitrant prisoners.

Last year I reported (see: '"Non-Lethal' Weapons: Where Science and Technology Service Repression," July 8, 2008), that the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate (JNLWD) claimed that ADS "is helping to fill the gap between the 'shout' and 'shoot' alternatives faced by our troops." But standing up ADS in the Iraqi "theatre" was not to be.

However, as readers of Antifascist Calling are well-aware, being an imperialist empire means never to have to say you're sorry. Time for Plan B!

[/FONT] Coming Soon to the Heimat

According to a blurb on Raytheon's web site, the commercial version of ADS known as Silent Guardian "is a revolutionary less-than-lethal directed energy application that employs millimeter wave technology to repel individuals or crowds without causing injury."

Touted as providing a "zone of protection that saves lives, protects assets and minimizes collateral damage" the system is marketed as the ideal tool to "establish intent and de-escalate aggression." Commercial and military application envisaged for the system "include law enforcement, checkpoint security, facility protection, force protection and peacekeeping missions." Some "peace," eh?!

Capitalizing on the profit-rich "homeland security" market, Wired reported that Raytheon has announced an "impending direct commercial sale" of a miniature version of ADS to law enforcement agencies.
This is Active Denial in a box, a 10,000-pound containerized system that can be mounted on a ship, a truck, or a fixed installation. It's got an effective range of about 250 meters. The beam has a power of around 30 kilowatts. (David Hambling, "'Pain Ray' First Commercial Sale Looms," Wired, August 5, 2009)

While Hambling may believe it "paradoxical" that "the controversial 'pain beam' may be more acceptable in the civilian market than in the military," I'd beg to differ.

[/FONT] Given the empire's utter contempt for its citizens (witness the despicable "debate" by various grifting congressional factions over what is ludicrously described as health care "reform"--a cynical display of bellying up to the corporatist bar if ever there were one!), why would any sane person not believe that heimat securocrats wouldn't zap union malcontents during a strike, environmental activists protesting outside a polluting company's headquarters or an unruly crowd of pensioners demanding their looted savings back from any number of dodgy banks grown fat on TARP funds?

"Tough luck, suckers! Have a 'taste' of Silent Guardian!"

No. 5 on Washington Technology's 2009 "Top 100 List," of Prime Federal Contractors, Raytheon carries a lot of clout with Congress and the Pentagon. With some $5,942,575,316 in revenue from its defense portfolio, the Waltham, Mass. firm's major customers include the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.

Not that being a behemoth isn't without its pitfalls. According to the Project on Government Oversight's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, Raytheon clocks in at No. 5 as a company with a history of "misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations."

[/FONT] With some some 17 instances of what POGO characterizes as serious breeches ranging from overcharges, contractor kickbacks, False Claims Act Violations, to violations of SEC Rules, groundwater contamination and racial discrimination, Raytheon has been tagged for some $475.8 million in what the government watchdog group calls it's "total misconduct dollar amount."

Not that any of this matters in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politic's OpenSecrets.org database, Raytheon's Political Action Committee bestowed some $2.4 million in campaign contributions on the best politicians money can buy, with some 55% of the total going to grifting Democrats. A perusal of the recipients of Raytheon largess during the last election cycle provides insight into how the well-greased wheels really spin.

"Liberal" or "conservative," "dove" or "hawk" it doesn't matter, just keep those contracts flowing! And when it comes to "homeland security" no expense will be spared!

According to Wired, while the firm believes that Silent Guardian "might have all sorts of applications in law enforcement, prisons and protecting installations," the firm told the publication that although the system "has attracted widespread interest ... it would be premature for us to discuss any sales until contracts are signed."

Although Raytheon isn't saying what the price tag for Silent Guardian will cost cash-strapped municipalities staggering under the hammer blows of the current capitalist economic meltdown, most analysts believe the system will cost several million dollars to purchase and maintain.

[/FONT] Not everyone is thrilled however, by the prospect of local SWAT teams zapping citizens with a microwave weapon. Neil Davison, a researcher at the University of Bradford's Non-Lethal Weapons Research Project in the UK, told Wired "as the costs and size drop, expect police forces to become more and more interested. This is where function creep will become a problem. With current controversies over the misuse of the Taser, the spread of new military weapons technologies to the civilian realm does not seem like a very sensible way to go."

But "go" it must and most assuredly will.

As I reported in June (see: "Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's a Raytheon Spy Blimp!"), the spread of military technology into the homeland security market isn't limited to non-lethal weapons.

The deployment of Raytheon's Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment spy blimp known as RAID, is kitted-out with "electro-optic infrared, radar, flash and acoustic detectors."

Perfect for spying on antiwar demonstrators from a safe perch in the clouds, the firm's use of blimps "carrying high-tech sensors to detect threats" will "enable appropriate countermeasures" from law enforcement, according to a company press release. Some 300 RAID airships have already been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

More "Venom" from Our Capitalist Masters[/FONT]

Should Raytheon's "pain beam" not do the trick, Combined Systems Inc. (CSI), a subsidiary of The Carlyle Group, may have just the right product for enterprising homeland security bureaucrats and their corporate partners.

The firm, acquired by Carlyle in 2005, is described in a blurb on Carlyle's web site as a manufacturer of "branded less-lethal munitions, anti-riot products and other related products that serve the military and law enforcement markets in the United States and abroad."

Wired reported in late August that "the Marine Corps has issued an urgent request for a powerful non-lethal weapon that can fire volleys of 40mm grenades. And in parallel, the service is launching a push for a more futuristic version of the same weapon."

One might also add, such a monstrous "non-lethal" system will inevitably have homeland security applications after a bit of tweaking is done to create a scaleable version useful to those who "protect and serve."

Dubbed the Venom Non-Lethal Tube Munition System (NL/TMS) by CSI, according to the firm Venom "is a modular launching system accepting three cassettes, each loaded with ten cartridges (V-30) or the scaled-down, lightweight and portable version accepting one cassette (V-10). Both versions can be integrated into a variety of fire control systems. Each cartridge is assigned an IP address allowing individual cartridge or desired sequence firing from a fire control panel, communicating via cable or wireless device."

[/FONT] Unsurprisingly, an assigned IP address can mean only one thing: that Venom is RFID-chipped for inventory control and, as part of the "internet of things" described by researchers Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre in their essential book Spychips every commodity--from breakfast cereal to weapons--have their own web page. Convenient, isn't it! According to Wired,

Venom is essentially a modern version of the old multi-barreled cannon used to fight off boarders in naval actions, but in non-lethal form. It's designed for firing at crowds, and many of the munition options contain sub-projectiles to enhance the "shotgun" effect. These include a load of 24 .60 cal hard rubber stingballs, 160 smaller stingballs, foam batons, and "multi flash bang" projectiles. Venom can also fire CS gas projectiles, but these are strictly off-limits for military operations (unless you happen to work for Blackwater). It can also be used for smoke and marker rounds. (David Hambling, "Marines Seek Crowd-Blasting 'Venom' Launcher," Wired, August 24, 2009)

Which just goes to show as I've pointed out many times, "what happens in Vegas" certainly doesn't stay there! This bitter truth is all the more compelling when you consider the tens of billions of dollars at stake as the military market literally bleeds over into the homeland security bazaar; a marketing guru's wet dream that possesses unlimited horizons.

But let's understand one inescapable fact about life in the United States, a veritable open air asylum fronting as a democratic republic: we're so much disposable chaff to be tossed aside by our masters, marginalized when the need arises or violently repressed when all other means have failed.


http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/...ethal.html

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The way to make money
is to buy
when blood is running in the streets.

John D. Rockefeller

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This American system of ours,
call it Americanism, call it capitalism,
call it what you like,
gives each and every one of us
a great opportunity
if we only seize it with both hands
and make the most of it.

Al Capone

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"The real menace of our republic is this invisible government which, like a giant octopus, sprawls its slimy length over city, state and nation. Like the octopus of real life, it operates under cover of a self created screen....At the head of this octopus are the Rockefeller Standard interests and a small group of powerful banking houses generally referred to as international bankers.

The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes. They practically control both political parties."


New York City Mayor John F. Hylan, 1922


more to come ...

[Ed Jewett]

Read about “Masacre del Cacique” or Massacre of the Bossman
at http://www.caterwaulquarterly.com/node/85


“On September 11, 2008, at least eleven people – nine of them rural farmers, two partisans of the provincial elite – were killed in this northern corner of Bolivia. In the early morning hours, two caravans of peasant workers, including women, children, and men, converged on the town of Filadelfia. Their objective was to hold a meeting—an ampliado—bringing together union members from throughout the province. Intent on preventing the gathering, local authorities sent road crews to trench the highway and crowds of armed men to face them down. By high noon, at a little crossroads town called Porvenir, or Future, the confrontation descended into chaotic shooting.”


“In crude struggles for power—from the state, the opposition, and the movements in between—truth and moral clarity are almost always elusive. Even so, Bolivia beckons us to envision the crafting of a more humane social order and at least offer a nod of respect to a people in struggle. From the Bolivian farmers and their tactics of revelation, we might even take a lesson for change in our own media-numbed political arenas. Yet this is not a call for revolutionary sacrifice or the obliteration of imagined enemies. The farmer in the picture did not go out that day to die or kill, but to live as part of a wider nation. As one leader said in angry voice, speaking through tears, “we are going to tell their truth, but we are not going to tell it with arms, with beatings.” Another bandaged survivor added, “We are still on our feet, because we are carrying out the total transformation of our country.”


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Garden Plot and Cable Slicer

“Bringing the War Home”
by Ron Ridenhour with Arthur Lubow
From New Times, 28 November 1975, Vol.5, No.11, pp. 18, 20-24.

The Pentagon is training police and guardsmen to help the army crush any revolt in the streets of America. It's part of a detailed secret plan that could end up crushing our liberties.

Some excerpts:
“The Cable Splicer III conference met just three weeks after National Guard troops shot and killed students at Kent State and Jackson State. A year later, other law enforcement officials staged mass sweeping arrests at the Mayday demonstrations in Washington, arrests that have recently been declared illegal.”

“… local policemen prepared their own special intelligence summaries featuring the "best described dissident activity" for their community, targeting either racial, student or labor unrest.”

“It is known that during this period [of war games] the U.S Army is called in to bail out the National Guard. At their disposal, according to the game plan, there are heavy artillery, armor, chemical and psychological warfare teams and tactical air support. "Complete coverage day and night" is offered by observation helicopters coordinated with ground patrols. To impress the populace, armored vehicles and "saturation of areas with police and military patrols" are two recommended tactics, Cable Splicer players are instructed to "evacuate civilians to preclude their interference with operation and/or to insure their safety." They are also coached in techniques of emergency relief supply, temporary shelters "for civilians whose homes have been destroyed," collection of privately owned weapons and other techniques useful for the rule of war-torn provinces.”

“…the After Action reports for both Cable Splicer II and the later Cable Splicer III call for the creation of another school, offering a "long range training program" to provide "exchange of law enforcement officers and military officers" with the goal of establishing "a nucleus of officers (both law enforcement and military) at every level of government who were conversant with the doctrine, tactics, of each other." Their prayer was answered by the creation in May 1971 of the California Specialized Training Institute*.

The Civil Emergency Management Course Manual at the San Luis Obispo school is a virtual handbook for the counterrevolution. Examining the motives behind "revolutionary activity," the manual author finds the causes legitimate, the frustration often well-justified, the "revolutionaries" basically sincere. That is exactly why the threat is so dangerous. The manual and the course describe how that threat should be met. The methods? Press manipulation, computerized radical spotting, logistical support from other agencies, martial rule.”

“In the office of the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, chaired by Senator John Tunney since Ervin's retirement last year, chief counsel Doug Lee devotes over four hours to the three big loose-leaf binders. First he chuckles occasionally, and then his chuckles turn to giggles of amazement. "Incredible," he mutters again and again. "Unbelievable." Giggle. "These guys are crazy!" Giggle. "We're the enemy! This is civil war they're talking about here. Half the country has been designated as the enemy." And in another Senate office, Britt Snider, who worked for Ervin on Military Intelligence and is now with Senator Frank Church's Select Committee on Intelligence, thumbs through the papers and observes, "If there ever was a model for a takeover, this is it."

It is hardly remarkable that government officials developed methods of dealing with the disorders that rocked the nation for almost a decade. What is shocking is the secrecy of the program, the deliberate and continuing cover-up, the disregard of the careful restraints on the military that are fundamental to democratic society, and the rabidly reactionary quality of the organization's leader. "We are in a revolution," California Chief Deputy Attorney General Charles O'Brien told his Cable Splicer III audience in May 1970. "Here in this room today," chipped in prosecutor Buck Compton, "we have at least a nucleus of people who should be able to, in some measure, contribute to the counter-revolution." In his opening address, Glenn C. Ames, Commanding General of the California National Guard, told the throng, "The avowed mission of these anarchists and revolutionaries is to bring America to its knees, to destroy our present system of government, to defeat 'the establishment' at every turn, and to replace this with absolutely nothing but irresponsibility, a drug culture, and permissiveness." The "one thing" everyone in the room had in common, declared John A. McAllister of the L.A. police, to the crowd of military officers, policemen, civilian officials and business executives, "is that we recognize that the nation is involved in a revolution."

“At the Cable Splicer III After Action Conference, held in California in May 1970, Los Angeles Police Department Captain Don Miller observed that militant groups are easy to identify since they "are normally organized according to political beliefs and/or ethnic backgrounds." Generalizations are accurate, noted Lynn "Buck" Compton, the Los Angeles prosecutor of Sirhan Sirhan, because there's "really very little difference between the Sirhans, the [Jerry] Rubins, the [Bobby] Seales, the [Abbie] Hoffmans, and the people of that stripe in that all resort to physical violence to achieve political goals." In a "revolutionary criminology" lecture listing activities that "require police action," Los Angeles Police Department Inspector John A. McAllister mentioned "loud, boisterous or obscene" behavior on beaches, "love-in type gatherings in parks where in large numbers they freak out," disruptions of "legitimate activities by gangs of noisy and sometimes violent dissidents," peace marches, rock festivals (where "violence is commonplace and sex is unrestrained") and "campus disruptions -- which in fact are nothing more than mini-revolutions."
“Deputy Attorney General Buck Compton [LA] declares that "free speech, civil rights, rights to assembly" have all become "cliches." "Dissidents and revolutionaries," he points out, "go beyond ... honest dissent, honest and proper use of the right of free speech."

“In communities across the country, a new generation of enforcers waits for the revolution that they have been taught to recognize and trained to crush.”


http://www.namebase.org/ppost14.html


The fellow who wrote the article above [“Bringing the War Home”] is notable for his role in exposing the My Lai massacre.
[/FONT]

The director of the California Specialized Training Institute was “General” Lou Giuffrida who went on to become Reagan’s FEMA director and who was notable for having said “Legitimate violence is integral to our form of government, for it is from this source that we can continue to purge our weaknesses."

At the Army War College in 1970, Guiffrida had written a proposal that advocated the roundup and transfer to relocation camps of at least 21 million "American Negroes" in the event of a national uprising.

Giuffrida and North worked to refine and implement Operation GARDEN PLOT, a plan to suspend the Constitution in the event of a national crisis, such as widespread internal opposition to a U.S. military invasion abroad. GARDEN PLOT was actually implemented during LA's Rodney King Riots in the form of street curfews as well as in recent anti-globalization protests. In 1983, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, FEMA's General Frank S. Salcedo recommended expanding FEMA's power even further. As he saw it at least 100,000 U.S. citizens, from survivalists to tax protesters, were serious threats to civil security. Salcedo saw FEMA's new frontier as the protection of industrial and government leaders from assassination, and the protection of civil and military installations from sabotage or attack. [See http://www.progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308 “The FBI Deputizes Businesses”, by Matthew Rothschild.] Notable for stations such as this one, Salcedo warned against dissident groups gaining access to U.S. opinion or a global audience in times of crisis.

And, for further information about the connection of the CIA’s Phoenix Program and Homeland Security, see http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine0824.html .

To learn more about Operation Phoenix and its connection to private military contractors under contract to the Federal government today, read “We Need a Special Prosecutor for Blackwater and Other CIA "Contractors" By Jeremy Scahill [August 31, 2009].


U.S. Cities Increasing Use of Armed Mercenaries
to Replace Police
By Jeremy Scahill, Rebel Reports. Posted April 24, 2009.


See also The Secret History of Hurricane Katrina By James Ridgeway (28 Aug 2009)
The Blackwater operators described their mission in New Orleans as "securing neighborhoods," as if they were talking about Sadr City. When National Guard troops descended on the city, the Army Times described their role as fighting "the insurgency in the city." Brigadier Gen. Gary Jones, who commanded the Louisiana National Guard's Joint Task Force, told the paper, "This place is going to look like Little Somalia. We're going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city under control." ...And while the government couldn't seem to keep people from dying on rooftops or abandoned highways, it wasted no time building a temporary jail in New Orleans.

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2...ne-katrina

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To learn more about private military contractors in general,
see this “data dump”:
http://www.deeppoliticsforum.com/forums/...php?t=2065

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Download PDF documents:
USArmyCivilDisturbPlanGardenPlot_1991.pdf
ArmyCivilDisturbPlanGardenPlot_1978.pdf
USAF-ROP355-10_GardenPlot_1968.pdf
DA-CivilDisturbPlanGardenPlot_1968.pdf

“Operation Garden Plot is a general U.S. Army and National Guard plan to respond to major domestic civil disturbances within the United States. The plan was developed in response to the civil disorders of the 1960s and is now under the control of the U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM). It provides Federal military and law enforcement assistance to local governments during times of major civil disturbances,” according to a Wikipedia write-up.

Operation Garden Plot is a subprogram of Rex 84 Program, short for Readiness Exercise 1984, the military’s plan to impose martial law and intern dissidents and others in an undisclosed number of concentration camps. The existence of Rex 84 was first revealed during the Iran-Contra Hearings in 1987 and reported by the Miami Herald on July 5, 1987.

Frank Morales comments on Operation Garden Plot:

Ominously, many assume that the training of military and police forces to suppress “outlawed” behavior of citizens, along with the creation of extensive and sophisticated “emergency” social response networks set to spring into action in the event of “civil unrest”, is prudent and acceptable in a democracy. And yet, does not this assumption beg the question as to what civil unrest is? One could argue for example, that civil disturbance is nothing less than democracy in action, a message to the powers-that-be that the people want change. In this instance “disturbing behavior” may actually be the exercising of ones’ right to resist oppression. Unfortunately, the American corporate/military directorship, which has the power to enforce its’ definition of “disorder”, sees democracy as a threat and permanent counter-revolution as a “national security” requirement. The elite military/corporate sponsors of Garden Plot have their reasons for civil disturbance contingency planning. Lets’ call it the paranoia of the thief. Their rationale is simple: self-preservation.


Says Kurt Nimmo:

“Morales wrote the above prior to September 11, 2001, before “everything changed.” Since 9/11, the government has enacted a number of draconian laws to complement Operation Garden Plot, most notably the Patriot Act, the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, and the Military Commissions Act. On May 9, 2007, George W. Bush signed PDD 51 into law. The directive allows the president to declare a national emergency and take total control over the government and the country, bypassing all other levels of government at the state, federal, local, territorial and tribal levels, and thus assume total and unprecedented dictatorial power.”

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“Administration Seeks to Keep Terror Watch-List Data Secret --

As of last Sept., the list included 1.1 million names and aliases corresponding to 400,000 individuals.

06 Sep 2009

The Obama administration wants to maintain the secrecy of terrorist watch-list information it routinely shares with federal, state and local agencies. Intelligence officials in the administration are pressing for legislation that would exempt "terrorist identity information" from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Such information -- which includes names, aliases, fingerprints and other biometric identifiers -- is widely shared with law enforcement agencies and intelligence "fusion centers," which combine state and federal counterterrorism resources. A consolidated government watch list was created in 2004 and is housed at the Terrorist Screening Center.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...02240.html

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“President Bush warned the nation [in October 2005] that outbreaks of Bird Flu may require massive quarantines enforced by the US Military. He said that the military would be better able "to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the flu", although he failed to explain why that task couldn't be carried out by the National Guard. Bush's comments echoed the same themes we've heard repeatedly since Hurricane Katrina, that the president needs the power to deploy troops within the country at his own discretion and without any legal restrictions. It is a conspicuous attempt to militarize the country and declare martial law, although the media has scrupulously avoided the obvious conclusions…. The power to deploy troops within the nation is the power to use the military against American citizens. It transforms the "people's army" into a direct threat to the democracy it is supposed to serve.

This is the essential vision of the globalists who currently control all the levers of state-power in Washington.”

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info...e10543.htm

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“From Blackjacks to Briefcases: A History of Commercialized Strikebreaking and Unionbusting in the United States”

http://www.amazon.com/Blackjacks-Briefca...0821414666

Online here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=s4m963N...q=&f=false
[URL="http://books.google.com/books?id=s4m963NRvPgC&dq=From+Blackjacks+to+Briefcases&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=iT8tV6PVQk&sig=6IvlbvpYtTM5AruP_EzS3WUNWaI&hl=en&ei=ogmoSuvvKtLqlAfd_o2RBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2#v=onepage&q=&f=false"]
[/URL]
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“From the last third of the nineteenth century until the present there has been a persistent resistance to collective bargaining in the workplace by management. In From Blackjacks to Briefcases, Robert Michael Smith shows how some managers relied on "anti-union entrepreneurs" (p. xvi), as well as varying degrees of support from local, state, and federal authorities, to control the workplace. Utilizing an extensive array of federal and state government reports as well as the pertinent secondary literature Smith nicely chronicles the long history of commercial strikebreaking in the United States.

It became clear during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 that local authorities could not control strikers. Employers promoted the development of National Guard units and armories and turned to private police forces like the Pinkerton National Detective Agency for help. The rapidly changing industrial milieu led to labor unrest. The introduction of armed guard mercenaries into strike situations led to extensive industrial violence. Often, the mercenaries were confronted with widespread community resistance such as occurred during the Southwestern Ohio Hocking Valley coal strike of 1884, the McCormick Harvester Company strike of 1885, and the Homestead Strike of 1892. Whenever outsiders were brought in to protect property rights and management, prerogatives, the violence escalated.

Eventually under political pressure politicians began to denounce "Pinkertonism." By 1899 twenty-six states prohibited the "importation of armed med from neighboring territories" (p. 20). Still, the reliance on armed guard agencies persisted in the coalfields of West Virginia and Colorado. The violence escalated as the Baldwin-Felts Company introduced machine guns and armored vehicles into the anti-union struggle. It was not until 1935 that West Virginia outlawed the practice of deputizing private guards.”



If you didn’t get the point, [/FONT]
go back up and re-read the section on
[/FONT]private military contractors.[/FONT]

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Charleston, SC dockworkers 1999


“As many as 600 riot-equipped police in armored vehicles, on horseback, in helicopters and patrol boats launched a military-style assault on the picketlines.”

“… a protest in which 660 riot police arrayed against fifty dockworkers, a group that grew to 150 before the night was over. Four black and one white longshoreman—subsequently known as the Charleston 5—were held for twenty months under house arrest on trumped-up felony charges of inciting a riot.”

“…a newly energized international worker movement highlights the resounding importance of the international labor movement that is not only still vital, but still capable of stopping global commerce on a dime.”

“On the Global Waterfront: The Fight to Free the Charleston 5”
http://ontheglobalwaterfront.org/

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History of anti-capitalism protests

How the worldwide anti-globalisation demonstrations grew from a disparate series of small single-interest groups

guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 30 April 2003

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/apr...seandodson
[URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/apr/30/mayday.seandodson"]
[/URL] >>>>><<<<<[/FONT]

[/FONT] From Wikipedia
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_...ted_States ] :

Don’t skip the part on spies, missionaries and saboteurs….

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Brute force attacks against unions

Unions such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) were devastated by the Palmer Raids, carried out as part of the First Red Scare. The Everett Massacre (also known as Bloody Sunday) was an armed confrontation between local authorities and Industrial Workers of the World members which took place in Everett, Washington on Sunday, November 5, 1916. Later, communist-led unions were isolated or destroyed, and their activists purged with the assistance of other union organizations, during the Second Red Scare.
[edit] Union busting with military force

For approximately 150 years, union organizing efforts and strikes have been periodically opposed by police, security forces, national guard units, special police forces such as the Coal and Iron Police, and/or use of the United States Army. Significant incidents have included the Haymarket Riot and the Ludlow massacre. The Homestead struggle of 1892, the Pullman walkout of 1894, and the Colorado Labor Wars of 1903 are examples of unions destroyed or significantly damaged by the deployment of military force. In all three examples, a strike became the triggering event.

• Pinkertons and militia at Homestead, 1892 - One of the first union busting agencies was the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which came to public attention as the result of a shooting war between strikers and three hundred Pinkerton agents during the Homestead Strike of 1892. When the Pinkerton agents were withdrawn, militia forces were deployed. The decisive defeat of a powerful strike resulted in the destruction of the local union.
  

• Federal troops crush the American Railway Union, 1894 - During the Pullman Strike, the American Railway Union (ARU) committed one of the first great acts of union solidarity by calling out its members according to the principle of industrial unionism. The action was very successful until twenty thousand federal troops were called out to crush the strike, and the national ARU was destroyed.
  

• National Guard in the Colorado Labor Wars, 1903 - The Colorado National Guard, an employers' organization called the Citizens' Alliance, and the Mine Owners' Association teamed together to eject the Western Federation of Miners from mining camps throughout Colorado during the Colorado Labor Wars.
  

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NORM STAMPER: Well, clearly, the Battle in Seattle is my legacy. One week out of my thirty-four years defines me as a cop and as a police chief. And I can bemoan the unfairness of that, but it is true for many people; that’s the only way they know me. And I made major mistakes leading up to that week and during that week, and all I can say is that I’m awfully sorry I didn’t do certain things and that I did do other things. Most of that is contained in my book, and I’m grateful for your mention of that book. There is a chapter entitled “Snookered in Seattle.”

Having said that, what was accomplished during that week was to put globalization and anti-globalization into our vocabulary and to put the whole issue on the map. I really strongly believe that the experience during that week framed a whole lot of issues that people didn’t think about at all prior to that time. And I think, as you’ve described it, we’re now reaping what we have sown in the form of unbridled globalization and unfettered free trade. And I think it’s time for all of us in this country, as we attempt to pull ourselves out of this global economic meltdown, to really take a look at what issues of social and economic justice mean within the context of globalization.”

Full interview here: http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2009/3/30
Monday, March 30, 2009

http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2009/4/1/...sons_for_london
April 01, 2009 - “Seattle’s Lessons for London"

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"We are on the verge of a global transformation. All we need is the right major crisis..." -- David Rockefeller

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[/FONT]“What Obama and the bankers and the generals, and the IMF and the CIA and CNN fear is ordinary people coming together and acting together.
[/FONT]
It is a fear as old as democracy: a fear that suddenly people convert their anger to action and are guided by the truth.”[/FONT]

-- John Pilger, “Power, Illusion and America’s Last Taboo”

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The phrase “the freakazoids that protest at the g7 and g20” is largely reminiscent of the use of the phrase “hyphenated Americans”.

"These freakazoids are professional protesters/anarchists/ and are a danger to America….” [2009]

End
[/FONT]

[Ed Jewett]

"Surely by now there can be few here who still believe the purpose of government is to protect us from the destructive activities of corporations. At last most of us must understand that the opposite is true: that the primary purpose of government is to protect those who run the economy from the outrage of injured citizens."

-- Derrick Jensen

[Ed Jewett]

Recent efforts to reach out to others to flesh out this thread have brought suggestions that the following ought to be added to this compendium:
#1) the attack on the Branch Davidian religious cult in Waco, Texas (as this is hugely controversial and well-documented, I won’t go in to further detail here and now);
#2) there was a notation about the use of Federal air power in the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain; noted above in Wikipedia, it deserves a tidbit of repletion and expansion:
“A recent publication by Robert Shogan, The Battle of Blair Mountain, deserves our attention. As Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers of America, says of it: “Now, the real story of America's largest labor uprising—and the largest armed insurrection on U.S. soil since the Civil War—comes alive.” But few know this story: arguably, every worker should.
In 1921, some 10,000 West Virginia coal workers, outraged over years of brutality and lawless exploitation, picked up their rifles and marched against their tormentors, the powerful mine owners who ruled their corrupt state. For ten days the miners fought a pitched battle against an opposing legion of deputies, state police, and makeshift militia.

Only the declaration of martial law and the intervention of a federal expeditionary force, spearheaded by a bomber squadron commanded by General Billy Mitchell, ended this undeclared civil war and forced the miners to throw down their arms.”
http://www.glendale.edu/chaparral/apr05/blair.htm

“… Blair Mountain was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Monday, March 30, 2009. Nearly 20 years went into the effort to gain recognition for this site's incredible national significance as part of America's labor history. With support from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, PAWV teamed up with the Sierra Club to push the nomination forward through the many challenges brought on by the coal companies.”

#3) While the incident at Jackson State was obliquely mentioned in connection with Kent State, it deserves extended examination and mention:

“At Jackson State College in Jackson, MS, there was the added issue of historical racial intimidation and harassment by white motorists traveling Lynch Street, a major thoroughfare that divided the campus and linked West Jackson to downtown. On May 14-15, 1970, Jackson State students were protesting these issues as well as the May 4, 1970 tragedy at Kent State University in Ohio.

The riot began around 9:30 p.m., May 14, when rumors were spread that Fayette, MS Mayor Charles Evers (brother of slain Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers) and his wife had been shot and killed. Upon hearing this rumor, a small group of students rioted. That night, several white motorists had called the Jackson Police Department to complain that a group of Blacks threw rocks at them as they passed along the stretch of Lynch Street that bisected the campus. The rioting students set several fires and overturned a dump truck that had been left on campus overnight.

Jackson firefighters dispatched to the blaze met a hostile crowd that harangued them as they worked to contain the fire. Fearing for their safety, the firemen requested police backup. The police blocked off the campus. National Guardsmen, still on alert from rioting the previous night, mounted Armored Personnel Carriers, The guardsmen had been issued weapons, but no ammunition. Seventy-five city policemen and Mississippi State Police officers, all armed, responded to the call. Their combined armaments staved off the crowd long enough for the firemen to extinguish the blaze and leave.

After the firemen left, the police and state troopers marched toward a campus women's residence, weapons at the ready. At this point, the crowd numbered 75 to 100 people. Several students allegedly shouted "obscene catcalls" while others chanted and tossed bricks at the officers, who had closed to within 100 feet of the group. The officers deployed into a line facing the students. Accounts disagree as to what happened next. Some students said the police advanced in a line, warned them, and then opened fire. Others said the police abruptly opened fire on the crowd and the dormitory. Other witnesses reported that the students were under the control of a campus security officer when the police opened fire.

Police claimed they spotted a powder flare and opened fire in self-defense on the dormitory only. The students scattered, some running for the trees in front of the library, but most scrambling for the Alexander Hall west end door. There were screaming and cries of terror and pain mingled with the noise of sustained gunfire as the students struggled to get through glass double doors. A few students were trampled. Others, struck by buckshot pellets or bullets, fell only to be dragged inside or left moaning in the grass.

When the order to ceasefire was given, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior pre-law major and father of an 18 month-old son, lay dead. Across the street, behind the line of police and highway patrolmen, James Earl Green, 17, was sprawled dead. Green, a senior at Jim Hill High School in Jackson, was walking home from work at a local grocery store when he stopped to watch the action. Twelve other Jackson State students were struck by gunfire. The five-story dormitory was riddled by gunfire. FBI investigators estimated that more than 460 rounds struck the building, shattering every window facing the street on each floor. Investigators counted at least 160 bullet holes in the outer walls of the stairwell alone bullet holes that can still be seen today.

The injured students, many of whom lay bleeding on the ground outside the dormitory, were transported to University Hospital within 20 minutes of the shooting. But the ambulances were not called until after the officers picked up their shell casings, a U. S. Senate probe conducted by Senators Walter Mondale and Birch Bayh later revealed. The police and state troopers left the campus shortly after the shooting and were replaced by National Guardsmen. After the incident, Jackson authorities denied that city police took part.”

Reference:
The biographical dictionary of Black Americans
by Rachel Krantz and Elizabeth A.Ryan
Copyright 1992, Facts on File, New York, NY
ISBN 0-8160-2324-7

See also:

http://www.may41970.com/Jackson%20State/...y_1970.htm

and

http://www2.kenyon.edu/Khistory/60s/webpage.htm

#4) the Move bombing in Philadelphia in May 1985

“The police tried to remove two wood-and-steel rooftop structures, called bunkers by the police, by dropping a four-pound bomb made of C-4 plastic explosive and Tovex, a dynamite substitute, onto the roof.[7] The resulting explosion caused the house to catch fire, igniting a massive blaze which eventually consumed almost an entire city block.[8] Eleven people, including John Africa, five other adults and five children, died in the resulting fire.[9] Ramona Africa and one child, Birdie Africa, were the only survivors.

Mayor Wilson Goode soon appointed an investigative commission, the PSIC or MOVE commission, which issued its report on March 6, 1986. The report denounced the actions of the city government, stating that "Dropping a bomb on an occupied row house was unconscionable."[10]
[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE#cite_note-titlePhiladelphia_Special_Investigation_.28MOVE.29_Commission_Manuscript_Collection-9"]
[/URL] In a 1996 civil suit in U.S. federal court, a jury ordered the City of Philadelphia and two former city officials to pay $1.5 million to a survivor and relatives of two people killed in the incident. The jury found that the city used excessive force and violated the members' constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure.[9]”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOVE [WikiPedia entries are used herein as very generalized starting points for inquiry, not the (or even a ) defintive source for research];

#5) the Arizona copper mine strike in 1983, the subject of this book "Copper Crucible" http://www.powells.com/biblio/65-9780801485541-1;

“The subsequent negotiations with the unions failed to lead to an agreement, and on midnight of July 30 a strike began, including workers from Morenci, Ajo, Clifton, and Douglas, Arizona. Thousands of miners walked out and a picket line was formed at the Morenci Mine. The next day, Phelps Dodge increased security personnel in and around the mine. Within days miners were subject to unlawful arrests, firings, evictions, and undercover surveillance by the Arizona Criminal Intelligence Systems Agency[3] * [http://www.tucsonweekly.com/tw/06-29-95/curr4.htm ].

At the beginning of August, Phelps Dodge announced that they would be hiring permanent replacement workers for the Morenci Mine. The company took out large employment ads for new workers in the Tucson and Phoenix newspapers. Meanwhile, the local government passed injunctions limiting both picketing and demonstrations at the mine.

On Monday, August 8, approximately 1,000 strikers and their supporters gathered at the gate to the mine in response. Phelps Dodge stopped production and, later that day, Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt flew in to meet with the company. Phelps Dodge agreed to a 10-day moratorium on hiring replacement workers, and it was decided that a federal mediator would be called in for negotiations.

On the morning of August 19, military vehicles, tanks, helicopters, 426 state troopers and 325 National Guard members arrived in Clifton and Morenci as part of "Operation Copper Nugget" to break the strike. Strikers at the gate were unable to prevent the replacement workers from entering the mine. Eight days later, 10 strikers were arrested in Ajo and charged with rioting. From this point on, the strike lost much of its momentum.

… The Arizona Copper Mine Strike would later become a symbol of defeat for American unions. The Economics of Labor Markets and The Transformation of American Industrial Relations singled out the Arizona strike as the start of overt company strikebreaking in the 1980s. Journalists referred to the miners' strike as a precedent for subsequent labor failures.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Cop...ke_of_1983

* “Recently uncovered documents and interviews reveal that during the copper strike:
• Undercover agents with the Arizona State Criminal Intelligence Systems Agency (ACISA) infiltrated every union in the Clifton-Morenci mining district early in the strike, bugging nearly one out of every two meetings and monitoring the rest with informers. "We were using about five (informants) at any given moment and as many as eight or nine others moved on and off assignments," said ACISA's former supervising undercover agent.
• A sophisticated supercomputer in Tucson enabled ACISA to compile intelligence files on hundreds of union members and supporters.
• ACISA, in tandem with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, set up an elaborate sting operation to entrap alleged arms dealers during the strike. But the Department of Public Safety botched the operation by critically wounding one of the suspects in an accidental shooting. Meanwhile Phelps Dodge was smuggling arms into the copper mine with impunity.
• ACISA shared some intelligence reports directly with the plant manager and security officers at Phelps Dodge.”

#6) Watts (August 1965):
“On Friday night, a battalion of the 160th Infantry and the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron of the 18th Armored Cavalry were sent into the riot area (about 2,000 men). Two days later, the remainder of the 40th Armored Division was sent into the riot zone. A day after that, units from northern California arrived (a total of around 15,000 troops). These National Guardsmen put a cordon around a vast region of South Central Los Angeles, and for all intents and purposes the rioting was over by Sunday. Due to the seriousness of the riots, martial law had been declared. The initial commander of National Guard troops was Colonel Bud Taylor, then a motorcycle patrolman with the Los Angeles Police Department, who in effect became superior to Chief of Police Parker. National Guard units from Northern California were also called in, including Major General Clarence H. Pease, former commanding general of the National Guard's 49th Infantry Division.”

#7) “ The Los Angeles Riots of 1992, also known as the 1992 Los Angeles Civil Unrest[1][2][3], were sparked on April 29, 1992 when a jury acquitted four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused in the videotaped beating of African-American motorist Rodney King following a high-speed pursuit. … The riots, beginning in the evening after the verdicts, peaked in intensity over the next two days, but ultimately continued for several days. A curfew and deployment of the National Guard began to control the situation; eventually U.S. Army soldiers and United States Marines were ordered to the city to quell disorder as well.”

“On May 2nd, 5,000 LAPD, 1,000 Sheriff's Deputies, 950 County Marshals and 2,300 Highway Patrol cops, accompanied by 9,975 National Guard troops, 3,500 Army troops and Marines with armoured vehicles and 1,000 Federal Marshals, FBI agents and Border Patrol SWAT teams moved in to restore order and guard the shopping malls.”


See also

The Flawed Emergency Response to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots
November 30, 2004

SEMP Biot #142 at: http://www.semp.us/biots/biot_142.html and

SEMP Biot #143 at: http://www.semp.us/biots/biot_143.html focused on the beginning and middle components of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

SEMP Biot #144 is focused on the end component (riot dispersal processes), originally a John F. Kennedy School of Government case.
http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_rea...BiotID=144
[URL="http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=144"]
[/URL]
As Mike Davis points out ['In L.A., Burning All Illusions', The Nation, 1 June 1992 ], most reporters, 'merely lip-synched suburban clichés as they tramped through the ruins of lives they had no desire to understand. A violent kaleidoscope of bewildering complexity was flattened into a single, categorical scenario: legitimate black anger over the King decision hijacked by hard-core street criminals and it transformed into a maddened assault on their own community.'

“The rebellion was against the constant racism on the streets and about the systematic oppression of the inner cities; it was against the everyday reality of racist American capitalism…. And [represented ] “the refusal of representation.”

"In June 1988 the police easily won Police Commission approval for the
issuing of flesh-ripping hollow-point ammunition: precisely the same
'dum-dum' bullets banned in warfare by the Geneva Conventions."
Mike Davis (1990) City of Quartz , p. 290


#8) 1967 Detroit Riots: “The National Guard and the Army were sent into the Black community. A friend of mine who lived there at the time described how the national guard arrived in tanks that went down narrow streets, flattening any cars in the way. He said that he witnessed a sniper shoot at the tanks and they turned the tank guns towards the top of that building and blew it to smithereens. This kind of thing would never make it to the 5:00 news.”

Sunday, July 23, 1967. The precipitating event was a police raid of a blind pig on the corner of 12th Street and Clairmount on the city's near westside. Police confrontations with patrons and observers on the street evolved into one of the deadliest and most destructive riots in U.S. history, lasting five days and surpassing the violence and property destruction of Detroit's 1943 race riot. To help end the disturbance, the Michigan National Guard was ordered into Detroit by Governor George Romney and President Lyndon B. Johnson sent in United States Army troops. The result was forty-three dead, 467 injured, over 7,200 arrests and more than 2,000 buildings burned down. The scale of the riot was eclipsed only by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. … there were many instances of police using unlawful physical force on civilians, police brutality included psychological harm to African-American's sense of security and safety. … Starting at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 25, some 8,000 National Guardsmen were deployed to quell the disorder. Later their number would be augmented with 4,700 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne, and 360 Michigan State Police…. Tanks[51] and machine guns[52] were used in the effort to keep the peace.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot
[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_Detroit_riot"]
[/URL] See also http://www.67riots.rutgers.edu/d_index.htm
and this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2_VX2nymRs

What all this may be about, in the end, is the dividing line between what is “in the commons”, of the people, and what is “owned” by those who wish to exploit it and others.



One of the topical areas not yet fully explored is the forthcoming battleground for public lands “which are increasingly co-opted by privatization by corporations who are steadily charging more and more for the Public to enjoy Public lands.”
Water, ground, the resources within them, the right to use them to serve common need …