Today in Labor History—June 8

June 8, 1852 –The first documented labor strike in San Francisco occurred when Chinese laborers demanded a raise while working on the Parrott granite building. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 8, 1904 – A battle between the Colorado Militia and striking mine workers at Dunnville ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. (See Colorado Labor Wars, Today in Labor History—June 7) 79 of the strikers were deported to Kansas thanks to Rockefeller, who effectively owned the state government and militia. (From the Daily Bleed)

USS Liberty

June 8, 1967 – Israeli aircraft and boats attacked the USS Liberty during Israel's "Six Day War." The unprovoked assault killed 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 170. The U.S. government “investigated” the attack and issued a whitewashed report calling it an unfortunate mistake. However, witnesses and critics dispute this claim, calling it a deliberate attack by Israel to silence U.S. criticism of Israel’s war tactics. According to George Ball, undersecretary of state at the time, the attack set the stage for future Israeli policy by sending the message to Israel's leaders “that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything." (From the Daily Bleed, Democracy Now and Wikipedia)

Today in Labor History—June 6

A Rake's Progress, by William Hogarth, depicting a man's downfall to debtor's prison

June 6, 1778 – Debtors prisons were abolished in the U.S., though debtors continued to flourish and creditors came up with numerous other ways to punish them. (From the Daily Bleed)

U.S. Amphibious transport landing on Omaha Beach

 June 6, 1944 - British, U.S. and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, for the suicidal assault known as D-Day. Over 150,000 men and 5,000 ships took part in the operation, with an estimated 10,000 allied troops dying. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 6, 1961 – A Military junta took over in South Korea. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1978 – Proposition 13 passed in California, allowing commercial property owners to maintain phenomenally low property tax rates and bleed the state of revenues for education and public services. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1982 – Israel invaded Lebanon, remaining until June 6, 1985. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1982 – An antinuclear rally at the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, California, drew 85,000 people who heard Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Wonder and Tom Petty. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1988 – 2 million people participated in a 3-day General Strike in South Africa. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1989 – Citizens voted to shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear plant in Sacramento, California. There had been a near melt-down in 1985 that had been covered-up until after the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 2000 – Brazilian Rancher Jeronimo Alves Amorim was sentenced to 19 years for ordering the murder of union leader Expedito Ribeiro de Souza. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—June 8

June 8, 1852 –The first documented labor strike in San Francisco occurred when Chinese laborers demanded a raise while working on the Parrott granite building. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 8, 1904 – A battle between the Colorado Militia and striking mine workers at Dunnville ended with six union members dead and 15 taken prisoner. (See Colorado Labor Wars, Today in Labor History—June 7) 79 of the strikers were deported to Kansas thanks to Rockefeller, who effectively owned the state government and militia. (From the Daily Bleed)

USS Liberty

June 8, 1967 – Israeli aircraft and boats attacked the USS Liberty during Israel's "Six Day War." The unprovoked assault killed 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 170. The U.S. government “investigated” the attack and issued a whitewashed report calling it an unfortunate mistake. However, witnesses and critics dispute this claim, calling it a deliberate attack by Israel to silence U.S. criticism of Israel’s war tactics. According to George Ball, undersecretary of state at the time, the attack set the stage for future Israeli policy by sending the message to Israel's leaders “that nothing they might do would offend the Americans to the point of reprisal. If America’s leaders did not have the courage to punish Israel for the blatant murder of American citizens, it seemed clear that their American friends would let them get away with almost anything." (From the Daily Bleed, Democracy Now and Wikipedia)

Today in Labor History—June 6

A Rake's Progress, by William Hogarth, depicting a man's downfall to debtor's prison

June 6, 1778 – Debtors prisons were abolished in the U.S., though debtors continued to flourish and creditors came up with numerous other ways to punish them. (From the Daily Bleed)

U.S. Amphibious transport landing on Omaha Beach

 June 6, 1944 - British, U.S. and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, for the suicidal assault known as D-Day. Over 150,000 men and 5,000 ships took part in the operation, with an estimated 10,000 allied troops dying. (From Workday Minnesota)

June 6, 1961 – A Military junta took over in South Korea. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1978 – Proposition 13 passed in California, allowing commercial property owners to maintain phenomenally low property tax rates and bleed the state of revenues for education and public services. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1982 – Israel invaded Lebanon, remaining until June 6, 1985. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1982 – An antinuclear rally at the Rose Bowl, in Pasadena, California, drew 85,000 people who heard Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Wonder and Tom Petty. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1988 – 2 million people participated in a 3-day General Strike in South Africa. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 1989 – Citizens voted to shut down the Rancho Seco nuclear plant in Sacramento, California. There had been a near melt-down in 1985 that had been covered-up until after the Chernobyl disaster. (From the Daily Bleed)

June 6, 2000 – Brazilian Rancher Jeronimo Alves Amorim was sentenced to 19 years for ordering the murder of union leader Expedito Ribeiro de Souza. (From the Daily Bleed)

Obama More Zionist Than Most Israelis

Mahmoud Abbas presented his case to the UN today for full recognition of Palestine, while the Obama administration and the Israeli government threatened to fight it to the end. While Obama has repeatedly said that he supports statehood for Palestine, once it became clear that the Palestinian Authority would go to the UN, he made an about turn, probably to prove to his Republican opponents that he was more pro-Israel than anyone else.

Now I’m no supporter of a two state solution. Hell, I am not even a supporter of states. But the possibility of a viable Palestinian state that is able to provide food, healthcare, housing, and jobs to its own people and that is not completely dependent on donations from Europe and the U.S., as is currently the case, is highly unlikely with Israel controlling its borders and its access to fresh water. It is also highly unlikely that Israel would consent to the 1967 borders, which essentially leaves a lot of desert and very little fertile land. And even if Israel did agree to the 1967 borders, there is a large and growing Palestinian population living within Israel proper, a population that will eventually be larger than the Jewish population at current birth rates.

Nevertheless, 70% of Jewish Israelis  and well over 80% of Palestinians support a two state solution, while President Obama has taken the ultra-Zionist stance and done everything possible to block it from even being presented to the UN (see Democracy Now, 9/24/11)

Students Face Up To 2 Years For Heckling

The Irvine 11 trial began this week in Southern California (for background, see here, here and here). The Irvine 11, Muslim students from the University of California Irvine and Riverside, face up to two years in prison (according to the Electronic Intifada), for heckling the ambassador from Israel, Michael Oren, when he spoke at UC Irvine last year. Interestingly, both the prosecution and defense are arguing free speech.

The prosecution is arguing that the protestors prevented Oren from exercising his free speech rights, while the defense is arguing that they the defendants were exercising their free speech rights by heckling him. The prosecution says that there were clearly articulated rules for debate delineated before Oren’s speech and that the protestors violated these rules, according to the Daily Pilot. However, heckling, by definition, knows no rules, yet it is still a time-honored and judicially defensible form of free-speech. Furthermore, the defendants, all of whom are Muslim, seemed to be singled out because of their faith, rather than their actions, considering that Israeli and Jewish protestors on campus who had engaged in similar tactics were never charged or prosecuted.

Aside from the fact that it is a horrendous waste of resources to prosecute these students at all simply for heckling someone, let alone threaten them with two years in prison for it, it is highly unlikely they can receive a fair trial in conservative Orange County. Out of a pool of 400 potential jurors, several expressed outright hostility toward Muslims and Arabs. Furthermore, the overwhelming consensus in this country, perpetuated by politicians and the media, is that Israel is completely justified in doing whatever it sees fit to “protect” itself from “terrorism” by Palestinians, despite the fact that the blockade of Gaza is illegal under international law, and the Israeli siege of Gaza resulted in the slaughter of 1,400 Palestinians, most of whom were innocent children, women and men.

Greeks to Kill on Behalf of Israel?

Greece has been blocking a flotilla of boats from leaving its port to deliver aid to Gaza, which has been strangled by an Israeli blockade. The Greek government is citing security concerns, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, in light of the deadly Israeli assault on a similar flotilla last year. However, the Greek government also warned that lives could be lost if the mission goes forward, implying that the Greeks themselves might kill activists before the Israelis ever get the chance, drawing into question the claim that they are merely trying to saving lives and bolstering the claim that they are merely serving as Israeli mercenaries in their war against the Palestinians.

Yesterday, the Tahrir was boarded by armed Greek soldiers and commandeered back to port against the will of its crew, the Guardian reported. Smaller activist crews in canoes and kayaks tried to block the Greek coastguard, but failed to impede the faster coastguard boat. Such confrontations could easily provoke violence by the Greek authorities, who are perhaps trying to distract the Greek public from the severe austerity measures they have imposed on them on behalf of international capital.

One ship remains poised to succeed in leaving Greek waters, a Dutch-Italian vessel commanded by  Stefano Chiarini and docked at Corfu, whose provincial official Spiros Spirou supports the flotilla’s cause. Spirou said he would make no attempt to stop the boat from leaving harbor, the Guardian reported.

Meanwhile, Hilary Clinton has given the green light for Israel to attack the flotilla with military force, threatening the lives of American citizens, including author Alice Walker, as well as hundreds of international activists. According to IndyMedia.org, Clinton said, “. . . we think that it’s not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke actions by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves.”

Aside from the fact that the U.S. secretary of state is telling a foreign government it has the right to kill U.S. citizens, her statement is inaccurate. No countries recognize Gaza as a part or sovereign Israel. Either the region is independent, as Israel would like to have the world believe, or it is still illegally occupied by Israel. In either case, waters of the coast of Gaza are not legitimately Israeli and, therefore, Israel would be illegally entering Gazan waters to attack the flotilla. It should also be pointed out that last year when Israel attacked another Gaza flotilla, it did so in international waters (see Electronic Intifada), as the boats sailed away from Israel, refuting the idea that Israel is defending its own territory.

The U.S. state department is also declaring that any attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza would be aiding the terrorist organization Hamas, which currently dominates the political landscape there. Thus, unarmed activists delivering humanitarian aid to a people under siege, with the highest unemployment rate in the world, living in prison-like conditions, are now justifiably murdered as terrorist sympathizers. Under this logic, the mass imprisonment of communist sympathizers under McCarthy would seem restrained.

Small Victory for Irvine 11

The Irvine 11 won a small victory this week when an Orange County Superior Court judge ordered the district attorney's office to remove its main investigator and three top deputies from the case. The dismissal of the prosecutors came in response to the D.A.'s unauthorized use of privileged documents to build a case against the UC Irvine and UC Riverside students who are charged with conspiracy to disrupt a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

The lead investigator, Paul Kelly had inappropriately obtained 20,000 pages of privileged communications between the students and their defense attorney, Reem Salahi, the Los Angeles Times reported today. The documents were being used to bring new charges against one of the students. Now the Orange County district attorney must prove that none its evidence was obtained through privileged information, Wilson ruled.

(For more on the Irvine 11 case, please see here and here).