Tensions rise in US spring of resistance

TENSION is already rising in the USA ahead of massive protests planned against the the NATO and G8 Summits  from May 15 to 22.

With dissent on the rise, authorities fear a significant outburst of anger against the neoliberal showcase events.

They have moved the G8 meeting from Chicago to Camp David in Maryland and have been cranking up the machineries of repression.

Occupy protests, no matter how peaceful, are now being routinely attacked by  police, including the Occupy Wall Street anniversary demo in New York.

Said a statement on the OWS site on March 18: "Yesterday, on the 6-month anniversary of the original Occupation of Wall Street, #OWS went back to our origins.

"After a weekend of marches on Wall Street complete with spring training exercises, a St. Patrick´s Day march, street theater, floating tents, and dancing in the intersections, Liberty Square was re-occupied by thousands of Occupy supporters.

"Unfortunately, bringing back memories of November 15th, NYPD violently evicted us from our home once again while Occupiers were hugging old friends and celebrating the coming of spring in the park.

"According to the New York Times, 'scores' were arrested, and more injured, during the attack. Police used city buses to corral mass-arrested protesters. Media were not allowed to cover the events.

"After clearing the Square, NYPD placed barricades around the area - an act specifically barred by previous legal action. At least one person was taken to the hospital on a stretcher. We have also heard reports of seizures and broken bones.

"On Livestream, peaceful protesters are seen being tackled, punched, stomped, choked, hit with batons, and thrown against cars for no reason other than sitting down to peacefully protest inequality in a public park."

Despite the plutofascist clamp-down, OWS declares: "We will not let police repression stop us!"

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Afghans protest against NATO attack

 

THOUSANDS of Afghans have taken to the streets in the eastern province of Ghazni to show their anger over a US-led night time raid that killed two civilians in the area, Press TV reports.

The protesters staged a rally on Wednesday and strongly condemned the civilian casualties sustained during the deadly NATO airstrike. They also chanted anti-US slogans.

Meanwhile, the Kabul-Kandahar Highway was blocked for hours by protesting local residents.

President Hamid Karzai said on December 24 that Afghanistan will not sign a strategic partnership deal with the United States until NATO night raids and house searches stop.

Karzai said that “arbitrary operations and house searches by NATO have become a serious problem between Afghanistan and NATO forces and that this has been one of the main obstacles on signing the strategic partnership deal with the United States.”

The loss of civilian lives at the hand of foreign forces has dramatically increased anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan.

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Afghan insurgents strike at 'doomed' occupation

A WAVE of successful attacks by insurgents has hit the 'doomed' US-led occupation of Afghanistan.

Reports The Associated Press: "Twelve foreign soldiers, including seven Americans, were killed in separate attacks on the deadliest day of the year for Western forces in Afghanistan. A U.S. civilian contractor who trains Afghan police also died in a brazen suicide assault.

"The bloodshed Monday comes as insurgents step up bombings and other attacks ahead of a major NATO operation in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar that Washington hopes will turn the tide of the nearly nine-year war.

"Half the NATO deaths — five Americans — occurred in a single blast in eastern Afghanistan, U.S. spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks said without giving further details. It was a grim reminder the insurgents can strike throughout the country — not simply in the south, which has become the main focus of the U.S. campaign.

"Two other U.S. troops were killed in separate attacks in the south — one in a bombing and the other by small arms fire.

"NATO said three other service members were killed in attacks in the east and south but gave no further details. The French government announced one of the victims was a sergeant in the French Foreign Legion killed by a rocket in Kapisa province northeast of Kabul. Three other Legionnaires were wounded.

"Also Monday, two Australian soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device in southern Afghanistan's Uruzgan province, Acting Defense Force Chief Lt. Gen. David Hurley told reporters Tuesday."

Meanwhile, the US-led occupation also seems to be unravelling from the inside.

Reports The Guardian website: "Two of the most internationally respected members of Hamid Karzai's government resigned today over security breaches at last week's "peace jirga" that allowed the gathering of 1,600 national leaders to come under Taliban rocket attack.

"The resignation of Hanif Atmar, the British university educated interior minister, and spy chief Amrullah Saleh will be regarded as a huge setback for foreign-backed efforts to improve security and to reform the corrupt, barely literate and largely untrained police force.

"A western security expert who has worked closely with both men said the double resignation was a 'disaster' and ensured that the international mission in Afghanistan 'was now doomed further'.

"He said: 'These are two of the most important people in the security sector who were finally getting a better reputation for their organs and clearing up corruption within them. If they are replaced by corrupt cronies then we might as well all pack up and go home now'."

Indeed.

NATO forces rocked by scandal

SCANDALS relating to the war in Afghanistan are rocking key NATO countries.

The current situation, with morale spiralling down to disastrous levels, was usefully summarised by the Canadian blog RedBedHead on November 27.

It wrote: "Canada's role in facilitating the torture of suspects - many of them likely innocent - has become a central public issue here. In Britain the revelation that MI6 supported torture against British citizens in Pakistan has become a major issue. And, now in Germany, where anti-war sentiment is very high, the prosecution of the war is causing deep political damage.

"Today the Labour Minister, formerly Defense Minister, Franz Josef Jung was forced to sign his own walking papers after it was revealed by the tabloid Bild that he knew about the killing of numerous civilians resulting from a Kunduz airstrike in September.

"The German army called in NATO fighters to bomb two fuel tankers that had been seized by the Taliban, even though there were numerous civilians taking advantage of the free fuel being provided to them.

"Jung had originally stated that he didn't know there were civilians killed but it has since been discovered that he was told on the day that the bombing took place and that he received a top secret video showing that the carnage included children.

"The German military's chief of staff in Afghanistan has also been a casualty of this cover-up, resigning earlier this week.

"Germany, which has 4,250 troops in Afghanistan has faced significant opposition at home to the deployment. This will, hopefully, further weaken the hand of the government to keep its troops there.

"All of these scandals are simply proof that the occupation of Afghanistan is a criminal operation that involves dehumanizing the locals to the point that bombing civilians, including children, is seen as nothing more than potential bad press that needs to be covered up. Same for torture, as we're seeing so vividly here in Canada. It's time to stop the killing by bringing the troops home."

Greeks battle riot police in capital protest

IT'S started already - major clashes between Greek rebels and the state have taken place in Athens during an annual march to honor the 1973 anti-junta student revolt.

Said a report on the libcom website filed on Tuesday night, November 17: "The 36th anniversary of the Polytechnic Uprising against the colonels' junta has been marked by long and sustained battles with the police during which hundreds of people have been detained. At the time of writing all central Athens is off bounds.

"At the time of writing all central Athens is off-bounds and cordoned off by thousands of police forces as battles between protesters and police are developing after the end of the 36th anniversary march for the Polytechnic 1973 uprising and massacre.

"It was perhaps the most massive protest march commemorating the Polytechnic Uprising in the last 25 years. And despite guarantees from the government the presence of the police in the city of Athens was massive and provocative to the extend that the official organising bodies of the march refused to start their long way via the Parliament to the American Embassy (believed to be behind the 7 year fascist junta) if riot police forces did not withdraw.

"After 16:00 policemen arrested a young man claimed to be in possession of a molotov cocktail, while during the hours preceding the march a dozen of protesters en route to the Polytechneio were detained for carrying gas masks. Police blockades have sealed off large areas of the Athens centre and are all day conducting mass stop and search operations even in the remotest northern and western suburbs of the city."

Reported the Iranian TV station Press TV: "Students and adolescents were among the tens of thousands marching across the Greek capital, criticizing capitalism and NATO and calling for the legalization of undocumented migrants.

"Uniformed soldiers and sailors from the Greek military trade union marched behind a banner which read: “No soldiers beyond our borders. Dissolve NATO.”

"The protestors also called for the withdrawal of all US troops from Greece and the dismissal of certain police personnel, calling them traitors, murderers, and torturers."