WORDS FROM THE WISE TO OPEN THE WORLD SOCIAL State of FORUM week before the World Economic Forum Disunion convened in Davos to discuss how to further SEE YOU IN THE STREETS A the control of transnational capital over the NUMBER OF NEW ORLEANS world, people from every part of the globe gathered FEBRUARY 2007 VOL. 5 NO. 2 in Nairobi under the banner, “Another World Is RESIDENTS PERCENT OF THOSE Possible” and because of this said Desmond Tutu, that have not returned who have not returned “God is smiling.” after Hurricane Katrina: that are African The World Social Forum began with a march 175,000 American: from Kibera (the largest slum in Africa) to Uhuru 80 A MMOMENTOMENT FROMFROM (peace) Park. Simultaneously, the ecumenical AMOUNT THAT platform was holding a service in front of the LOUISIANA NUMBER OF AN UNSEEN REVOLUTION Anglican, Basilica. Dispelling the capitalist myth was told it owed FEMA ADDITIONAL that greed and competition should be the operating for aid after Hurricanes MILITARY POLICE principles of social order, Archbishop Desmond Katrina and Rita: TROOPS Tutu declared, “We are made for interdependence 3,700,000,000 being sent to New and partnership. Each according to their ability, Orleans: each according to their need. We are made for NUMBER OF US 300 sharing.” HELICOPTERS “There can be no human being who exists on that have been shot NUMBER OF US his own…That we are bound to one another is the down in the last three TROOPS fundamental reality of our being….The only way weeks in Iraq: that have been killed we can ever be free is together. The only way we 6 in Iraq: can ever be human is together. The only way we 3121 can ever be safe and secure is together.” NUMBER OF “We will never win a war against terror, PARTICIPANTS NUMBER OF 20 never, as long as there are conditions in the world in this year’s World POOREST that make people desperate. Can you imagine the Social Forum: COUNTRIES billions spent on arms? Just a small fraction of that 60,000 that are in Africa: could ensure that every person has a descent home, 13 clean water, food, and affordable healthcare.” AVERAGE NUMBER Desmond Tutu also had a message about OF BARRELS OF OIL AVERAGE NUMBER Africa, one which was repeated throughout the the US (number 1 OF BARRELS OF OIL forum: “Do not look at us as an object of pity and consumer of oil) uses China (number 2 n January 27th, 2007, there was a massive anti- in October of 1967, which became a pivotal event for the in a day: consumer of oil) uses war march on the Capitol in Washington D.C. that protest movement, as did the protester take over of a statue charity…For when there was plague in the holy O received scant attention from the national media. in Chicago’s Grant Park during the 1968 Democradtic land the people came to Africa. When the holy 20,030,000 in a day: 6,391,000 The massive crowd was described in most reports as National Convention. But back then the media covered family was persecuted they came to Africa. We being in the ‘tens of thousands’ while the organizers, protests. are a rich continent with a proud legacy. We have United for Peace and Justice, estimated the crowd at half- This was just a moment in a unreported and overcome slavery and apartheid. We in Africa CALL TO ACTION a-million. The Red Pill estimates that there were 300-400 unheard revolution building. Nationwide revolutionary, have produced a Mandela…We can teach the world thousand people in attendance. radical, and anarchist organizations are on the rise. about forgiveness and reconciliation.” The Red Pill is looking for volunteers: graphic designers, Under reported was a break away contingent of Collectives, cooperatives, radical bookstores, and “You in Europe and the northern countries writers, poets, cartoonists, artists, and photographers are radical and revolutionary youth that scuffled through the underground or radical newspapers are also growing in try to be a little honest with yourselves. Remember needed. Get your work published now. Help distribute police lines and occupied the steps of the Capitol for about strength and numbers, and not just in your liberal hot spots your history. You produced the Holocaust, fascism, The Red Pill in your community, church, and school: an hour. Organized by anarchists and SDS, Students for like Boulder, but also in towns like Colorado Springs, and and totalitarian communism. Among you is the a Democratic Society, a radical 1960s anti-war student Springfield, MO. This growing movement will become a fi rst nation to use weapons of mass destruction.” contact us at [email protected]. You can also do group reincarnated recently, the anti-authoritarian march force for change in the future. Desmond Tutu concluded his remarks by your part to keep us in print by donating time, paper, took to the streets in an un-permitted march from Dupont • deeming all those who work for peace and justice fi lm, copies, and of course money (it doesn’t print itself). Circle prior to rushing the Capitol. Most of the coverage as angels who are wiping the tears from God’s face. dedicated to the young radicals was about the Capitol And he sounded a unifying call. “We must all say being tagged with anti-war and anarchist slogans. Good to our government offi cials, ‘we will not tolerate for them. corruption. You are leaders for the sake of man. Local DC activists told me that this was the first You are there to serve. We will support you when time that protesters had been able to push their way to the you work for the benefi t of the people, and we will The Red Pill is collectively produced by Grand Junction Capital since 1972. oppose you with every fi ber of our being when you About 700 hundred people occupied the steps of oppress.” • Alternative Media, with the aim of publishing stories and the capital., many had grown weary of ‘peaceful protests’ ideas that the mainstream media won’t cover. It is distributed and preferred direct action and civil disobedience as a free, collects no advertising, and is completely staffed by means of protest against this illegal war in the Middle volunteers. All materials are copyleft, no rights are reserved. East. be the media! The symbolic nature of occupying the Capitol PHOTOCOPY AND DISTRIBUTE AT WILL! was reminiscent of the Yippies protest at the pentagon,

[email protected] [email protected] THE WAR ON PUBLIC HOUSING OF MISSED OPPORTUNITIES AND REGRET...A IN NEW ORLEANS PERSONAL ACCOUNT decision to destroy the St. Bernard Project and replace it t was really a night like most other “No!” Jack emphatically replied to my with “mixed income” housing continue. winter evenings in the Grand Valley; illusions of a looting heaven. It turned out that Even in the simplest of economic terms, American I cold and insignificant. I was riding he was frightened of the ever-illusive specter tax payers should be outraged at the misappropriation of along with my friend Jack down Elm Avenue. of “getting caught.” I tried to convince him funds that was intended to rebuild New Orleans, 100 As we crossed 28 Road I noticed that some that he didn’t even have to enter the store if million dollars from a Community Development Block mysterious “something” seemed wrong, but I he didn’t want to, I was more than willing Grant and 34 million in the Katrina Go-Zone tax credits couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. to have all the fun, I just needed a get-away have been handed over to developers. Who are using the We continued to drive along in driver. “No!” Jack once again tried to burst funds to destroy communities and then sell to private uncomfortable silence, knowing that my little bubble of brewing excitement. I then owners at a substantial profit. According to outside firms something...something just wasn’t right. tried to convince him that he had only to drop (and a leaked HUD document), the St. Bernard housing When we turned south on 28 3/4 Road, I me off and I’d find my own way home... It was complex could be repaired for 41 million dollars, but to noticed that I couldn’t see the traffic lights all to no avail. Jack couldn’t be convinced. destroy it and rebuild a smaller amount of mixed income on North Avenue or the glowing eyesore We had this wonderful opportunity units would cost 197 million in tax payer’s funds. On of Sam Walton’s legacy. It hit me like the staring us in the faces, right into our cold St. Bernard Projects top of that, according to John Fernandez, a professor of proverbial ton of bricks; we were in the midst winter chilled noses. With every second that architecture from MIT, concluded after an inspection of a blackout, a huge one at that. passed I knew the possibility of the power that, “no structural or nonstructural damage was found At once all of the possibilities flooded being restored at any moment, and thwarting ne of the battles being fought in New Orleans that could reasonably warrant any cost-effective building into my mind. With Wal-Mart dead ahead my plans, was growing larger. centers solely around the right of return and the demolition…Therefore, the general conclusions are, without any power, therefore no electronic We continued our drive, albeit detoured, O future of public housing. In my time in New Orleans demolition of any of the buildings of these four projects is security the potential was limitless. The with me eschewing the vast potential of my I marched with several hundred people and rallied in not supported by the evidence of the survey, replacement employees and pseudo-security would be way idea, and expressing my disappointment at front of Mayor Nagin’s home. The clap of hands and the of these buildings with contemporary construction would too busy consoling panicking consumers to the missed opportunity. shouts of, “the people united will never be defeated!,” yield buildings of lower quality and shorter lifetime pay attention to little old me... It was almost Later, after my persistent questioning, I was a deafening war cry which nearly drowned out the duration…” too good to be true... learned that Jack was not but a victim of his sound of developers, HUD (Department of Housing The housing projects should be reopened to the With visions of ipods, digital cameras, own “morality” (ironically imposed by our and Development), HANO (Housing Authority of New people that lived within them before Katrina struck, and other gadgets that I could pawn or own decadent society in which corporations Orleans) and the mayor counting money behind a closed period. St. Bernard and the other complexes were the otherwise sell dancing in my head, I excitedly are king) and what he considered to be boardroom door, but not quite. centers of people’s lives and now greed and governmental told Jack of my glorious aspirations of inherently “wrong.” In this my great, grand, The carpet baggers and the local and federal incompetence are taking that vital piece of life away. Two playing a capitalistic version of Robin Hood and glorious idea also fell victim to that government have conspired to destroy a total of 4,534 activists were arrested on January 31st and that sacrifice in the darkness. Stealing from the rich (a misplaced sense of “right and wrong”... public housing apartments in four separate housing is double what the government has contributed to New faceless and oft-times immoral corporation) Am I angry at Jack? No. Do I pity him? developments (They plan to demolish 1,546 apartments Orleans. This war and forced diaspora on the citizens of and giving to the poor (myself and my fellow A little. Next time I’ll just jump out of the in BW Cooper, 1,400 in St. Bernard, 723 in C.J. Pete, New Orleans must be stopped. To bulldoze those projects, wage slave friends). moving car...Damn it... • and 865 in Lafitte). Most of these homes were not even the government is essentially forcing a total of 49,000 damaged by the storm, but after residents returned from people onto the streets, and as Congresswoman Maxine their Katrina evacuation sites, they found all of their Waters intelligently pointed out, “there is affordable worldly possessions gone and their homes surrounded by housing around the world, but why none here?” • fences and razor wire. Considering that New Orleans is in a deep housing crisis with rents rising from 50 to 300 To learn more about the plight of New Orleans and percent, these actions can’t be considered anything, but the struggle that continues still, please check out the an act of war on the lower income African American following web addresses: community of New Orleans. http://www.democracynow.org/article. On MLK day, several hundred activists and pl?sid=07/01/31/1543227, www.survivorsvillage.com, residents tore down the fence, cleaned up their homes and www.justiceforneworleans.org occupied a part of the St. Bernard housing project in the hopes of saving the community that had given life and support to them. With the federal government seeking an injunction against the protesting residents and suing their lawyers for slander, in direct violation of free speech rights, the travesty of greed over justice continues. On January 31, 2007, several of the people that I marched with that day were arrested in a SWAT-led raid for simply returning to their homes. How can that be considered breaking the law? They arose in such solidarity and strength that most Americans should be proud of such an action. Instead those Americans who claim to be patriots sit at home and let HANO and HUD’s Afforadable housing activist take to the streets

Every Saturday • Noon Every Monday • 5PM RED PILL LOCATIONS A Voice of Reason holds a lunch hour peace vigil to end Grand Junction’s peace group, A Voice of Reason You can pick up your copy of The Red Pill at the following locations: Planet 9, Heart of the Dragon, Third World the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. meets to discuss and act on issues surrounding Imports, Spekulationz, Planet Earth, The Needle Cottage, Kleen Sting, Colorado Java, Himalayan Feeling, Contemporary At the intersection of 12th and North. the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Glass Works, Change Skateboards, Coffee Muggers, Triple Play Records. Call 245-3720 for more info and meeting place Download the Red Pill at: http://colorado.indymedia.org. Become our friend on myspace.com @ http://www.myspace.com/gjam_theredpill FORGIVE THE THIRD WORLD DEBT NO OIL FOR BLOOD

lavery, Colonialism, Cold interest of poor nations. And thus profit War Politics, Apartheid… from debt is secured by multinational S Neoliberalism is but the latest corporations and the cycle of dependency phase in the unbroken chain of is maintained. exploitation of Africa. The media There is much discourse on portrays it as a poor continent, but if illegitimate/odious debts, the prime this were the case there would be no example being those acquired by dictators. cause for “the scramble for Africa.” The emphasis here is that the creditors Among the lesser mentioned resources have to be responsible in their lending being plundered by transnational practices. There are countless cases capitalists are copper, cobalt, uranium, where money was given to oppressive and platinum. But Africa also serves regimes. The I.M.F. lent four billion as a market for finished products from dollars to Zaire under Mbutu, even as the global North as well as technical there was evidence of what he was doing services such as cell phones, with there. On December 5th, 1980, the IMF monopolistic rates ten times those in the disbursed $22 million to the government North. Meanwhile African nations are of Jean Claude Duvalier; a few days later paying more in debt service than they $20 million dollars were withdrawn from are for healthcare and education. the same account. Four million went to t is said that Iraq sits on a lake of oil, but place the risk and reward of development in private There were numerous sessions at the the VSN, a paramilitary organization above that is a lake of blood” (Iraqi human hands. In Iraq there is no risk. The potential profi ts World Social Forum in Nairobi dealing responsible for at least 30,000 Haitian I rights activist). Although it wasn’t the central over the period of such contracts, however, numbers with corporate globalization in Africa deaths. The rest went to Duvalier’s focus of the World Social Forum, in Kenya, the 74 to 194 billion dollars (www.crudedesigns.org). and calling for unconditional debt personal bank accounts. Should Haiti discussions of the War in Iraq were powerful and The contracts would range from 15 to 40 years, and cancellation. Following is a synopsis of be required to use its scarce resources to productive. Various issues were addressed: the once in place are extremely diffi cult to renegotiate. A bill those dialogues. pay the interest on such debt? rise of Islamic fundamentalism in response to the will be submitted to the Iraqi parliament soon (within The debts were partially acquired The World Bank has in fact, since Bush administration’s fundamentalist doctrine and the next month). Nine corporations were consulted in its for “development” purposes. The 1996, been operating a debt forgiveness policies, the larger U.S. agenda in the Middle East, formulation. If/when the parliament ratifi es it, its specifi c African Development Bank along with program, but is clearly a process of using the implications of the new Democrat led Congress, content will be made public, at which time international the World Bank have had an agenda of leverage to mold national economies to of which it was said, “We can’t count on them to lead protests and direct actions against companies such big infrastructure, which have served conform to the global corporate agenda. but if we push hard enough they will follow,” and the as Aamaco, Chevron, B.P. and Shell are called for various interests, the least of which The highly indebted poor countries many and profound human costs of this war. to show solidarity with the Iraqi people to maintain are Africans themselves (www.bicusa. (HIPIC) initiative requires countries to There is a law in the works which would control over their oil reserves (www.basraoilunion.org). org). Electricity generating dams are a undergo radical economic restructuring. give oil contracts to multinationals, under the The imperialist mission in Iraq is not yet common example of this. The biggest This entails deregulations which give name production oil sharing agreements (P.S.A.s). complete. They still have not got what they protest in these cases regards the more and more autonomy to corporations The language and terms are tricky, giving the came for. Four years ago when we attempted displacement of local peoples (www. operating locally, and less power to the appearance of state ownership. They are the to prevent this war, the cry was “No Blood for irn.org). The benefits of such projects public for holding them accountable; closest thing to privatization that the corporations Oil.” Now at this pivotal moment let us with even are also difficult to distribute, and liberalization, which means eliminating can get. P.S.A.s are normally instituted in places greater strength call out “No Oil for Blood!” sometimes entirely misplaced. The barriers to trade and thus forcing local where oil deposits are uncertain. They serve to • power plant in Mozambique serves the farmers and businesses to compete with wealthier South Africa who then sells global manufacturers; and privatization— electricity back to Mozambique at a turning over public enterprises to much higher price. Must be an issue of multinational corporations, and the loss competitive advantage. of state revenue that entails. OHIO CONVICTIONS FIND Free market meets corrupted For all of these reasons and many ‘RIGGED’ ‘04 ELECTION planning when it comes to foreign more there has been and is still a lending. The development banks advise strong social movement that calls for n January 24, 2007, Jacqueline Maiden, by law, was not done throughout the entire state. these large infrastructure projects, UNCONDITIONAL debt forgiveness. elections coordinator, and Kathleen Dreamer, Poll workers chose sample precincts for recounts. O ballot manager, of Cuyahoga County were All other ballots were machine counted, making the which often become contracted to There is need for a legitimate foreign companies. Foreign companies international space where these odious convicted of a felony count of negligent misconduct results useless. also provide the required inputs which debts can be contested and cancelled. and one misdemeanor count of failing to perform Of these ‘random’ samples, several are purchased in foreign currency. The In the meantime there are numerous their duties as elections employees. The 2004 was, predominantly black precincts showed a 30% turnout, need to obtain foreign currency with campaigns and efforts to that end. To according to county prosecutors, “rigged.” where overall turnouts were 60%. One showed a 7% which to repay those loans encourages learn more and get involved look for Suspicious vote counts and irregularities turnout. export industries, usually of raw Jubilee, 50 Years is Enough, AFSC Life triggered a recount in Cuyahoga County, where Dreamer and Maiden will be sentenced in goods or products whose labor-value is Over Debt, African Network on Debt and Democrats usually take the majority. February. Now we need to ask ourselves: Should obscured/reduced by the global market. Development. Under directions of Secretary of State, Kenneth these prosecutions reach higher in the ranks of Such export orientation is rarely in the • Blackwell (R), Ohio State co-chair for the Bush- elections offi cials? Will the 2008 election be rigged as Cheney campaign, random sampling, a requirement well? •

CALL TO ACTION Quote of the Day Saturday, February 17th• 12PM-1PM February 23-25th Do you have a political event, meeting, movie, or “There are known knowns; there are things we A Voice of Reason will be holding a peace vigil on the 9/11 Accountablity: Strategies & Solutions Conference protest planned? We will get the word out FREE. know we know. We also know there are known corner of 12th and North with thousandss of others Speakers, Workshops, panel disscussions, Documentries E-mail us your events at least three weeks prior, at unknowns; that is to say we know there are around the country to say no more money for war. about 9/11 truth. [email protected] some things we do not know. But there are also Corner of 12th and North Ave Chandler, Arizona unknown unknowns -- the ones we don’t know we www.9/11accountability.org don’t know.” ~~ Donald Rumsfeld RACE AND REBUILDING: NEW ORLEANS 16 MONTHS LATER

wet with their gratitude and loss. It was hard having country go home at night, turn on the television and them thanking me profusely for being a fellow pretend that everything is fi ne with the world. If we human that actually cared, when all I could give was allow a corporate and governmental sin to continue the labor of my two hands. in the rebuilding of New Orleans, then how many Gutting houses is a strange form of destruction, more wrongs will we allow to be carried out in the it’s like the forest fi re that clears out the old dead world with our silence and complacency. Why are growth to make room for a new rebirth. In New we willing to place hundreds of thousands of young Orleans though a true reemergence of culture and people in harms way in the Middle East? When it community is threatened by the bland homgenization would be better to put their hands and hearts on of corporate America. In the ninth, if people don’t making levees, rebuilding lives, not war. clean out their homes by a certain date, the city will • come in and forcibly take their home and land from them. Private contractors charge up to 5,000 dollars To learn more about the plight of New Orleans check for this service, but when one has lost everything and out these sites on the web: their own family is scattered across the U.S., how http://communitygumbo.blogspot.com could one possibly afford to come back and rebuild www.justiceforneworleans.com after only seventeen months? They can’t, so the www.commongroundrelief.org. bulldozers come in and the neighborhood that they raised their children in becomes a CEO’s wetdream. It’s not just a class war in New Orleans, but a race war as well. The city council has been shut out of the rebuilding process. In their place, mayor appointed councils and outside experts, mostly ith a load of personal stress on my mind, I hit to help bring back the children and families that once wealthy white conservatives, have set into motion a the road wanting to put miles of pavement laughed, lived and loved within their walls of brick machine that will grind a black democratic city into W between myself and it. I traveled from the a vacation ground and second home site for the elites and plaster(This is only in the upper ninth, in the West Coast to the Great Lakes, in some places I lower ninth concrete stoops and steps are scattered of the country. The congressman from the 4th district gained new laugh lines and others I left blood on the like gravestones, the homes they served so well are of Massachusetts, Barney Frank has labeled this, “a concrete. At the end of my yellow lined road I ended now gone washed away, never to return). As in a policy of ethnic cleansing by inaction.” President up in the aged, original city of outlaws and vice- nuclear blast the only things that seemed to live were Bush is even attempting to impose his cronies upon -New Orleans. A city of rich history and beautiful cockroaches, rats and crack heads scurrying through the city and completely close the voters and residents music, a city of extreme joy and excruciating pain the shadows, doing things that are only within their out of the rebuilding process of their home. and rage. For fi ve weeks I lived in a Catholic middle nature to do. The only action that the Bush regime has school that had been converted into a hurricane relief Those nighttime creatures were far more taken in the poor neighborhoods of New Orleans is volunteer housing center and I don’t think I will ever understandable than the true carrion fl ying over to impose a military presence upon the people. So be the same. As they say, “New Orleans will either the ninth waiting for it to die. Politicians, real estate the government can rebuild the French Quarter and change you, kill you or leave you broke and with the developers and corporate America have put a Uptown in a matter of months, but the only aid the worst hangover of your life.” Thank the heavens that strangle hold on the lower income African American working class recieved came in the form of Hummers only the fi rst and last applied to myself. communties of New Orleans. Public housing is up and soldiers with M-16s. It didn’t seem like a part of New Orleans is literally at the forefront of class for auction, people who left their homes as part of America to me, it seemed like a foreign country that warfare in this country. You can’t hide it like they do the evacuation returned to fi nd fences and razor the Neo-Cons had conquered and now occupied. So in the suburbs with single families living in homes wire surrounding the complex’s that they once lived the rich get richer and the poor are either shipped out that the bank owns, slaves of the corporate model within. In some neighborhoods the city is forcing of state, imprisoned, or completely disempowered looking only to the weekends for relief from their people to sell their homes and land in order to create and shut out of the Democratic process. With 60% shallow pre-programmed drudgery. In the ninth “green spaces,” but how can of the voters and 80% of the African American ward of New Orleans, traditionally one of the poorest it be a park when the money going to purchase or community living as refugees how can the American neighborhoods in the country, 90% percent of the push people off of their land comes from the private public close its eyes to the devastation that is still in people owned their homes outright. No loan offi cers, sector? New Orleans and only being exasperated by the mortgages and very little corporate sprawl, almost For most of my time in New Orleans I gutted money hungry and greedy. every business that existed there had been small and houses that had been ravaged by the break in the After fi ve weeks of a rollercoaster of family owned. The ninth was a true community, not levees. Homes fi lled with clothes, books, photo experiences and emotions, highs and lows, love and one designed on Wall Street with cute names like albums and everything else that makes a home warm loss, I hit the road out of town. I may have left New Burbling Brook or Sunset Ranch. and comfortable. Black mold and six inches of toxic Orleans, but its story and example will be on my Now the ninth is a post apacolyptic land, mud had replaced the residents and I struggled day mind for a lifetime. It’s amazing how people from walking through the foggy nights, the only light in and day out, stripping the house’s of everything, Noam Chomsky to a ninth ward homeless resident coming from scattered street lights, that looked like but the two by fours, roof and fl oors. Taking breaks named Batman could see the faults and cracks weak fi refl ies in the distance, empty broken windows to hold alternative versions of my mother and father, within our system and society at large. It’s even more and sagging roofs stare at you almost imploring you people who held onto me and cried until my shirt was amazing though that the majority of people in this

March 2-4th • All Day Saturday, March 17th • All Day Saturday, March 24 • 10AM-6PM Sunday, March 25th • 12PM-3PM 6th annual Local to Global, El pueblo Unido in global On the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq ANSWER Denver ZineFest and Small Press Conference. Zine and A Voice of Reason will be commemorating the 4th solidarity. Teash-in at Arizona State University. Coalition and Troops Out Now Coalition will be leading small press expo, demo’s, and conference. anniversery of the invasion of Iraq with a peace Tempe Arizona. a march on the Pentagon. For more info go to: rally and march with numerous speakers, music, and www.localtoglobal.org Washington DC www.denverzinefest.com entertainment. www.troopsoutnow.orgoopsoutnow.org Lincoln Park on 12th St. Grand Junction