compiled by Sharlynn Cobaugh

Progressive News From Near and Far

OLYMPIANS RESIST IRAQ WAR

On the grounds that the war in Iraq is illegal and immoral, citizens of Olympia are urging their Port Authority to drop its shipping contracts with the US Government for shipments of munitions and supplies to Iraq. The shipping contracts have brought the Port Authorities approximately $630,000 in revenues, but citizens argue that this money is a drop in the bucket compared to the $15 million in tax revenues leaving Olympia to fund the war. A letter-writing campaign aimed at the Port argues that the only way to truly support US troops in Iraq is to create conditions under which they must be withdrawn and brought home.

UN Charter, Article 39 has been cited by the letter-writers, requesting that the US Government fully disclose the contents of all containers, given that the US military uses hazardous materials such as depleted uranium in its munitions. These Olympians hope that by getting the Port to drop the government contract, it will become more difficult for the US government to continue the Iraq Occupation. If the Port of Olympia drops the government shipping contract these shipments will likely be moved to Tacoma or Seattle, where it is hoped that citizen activists there will follow the Olympian activists' example.

In other resistance to the Iraq war, it was reported that the SS Cape Intrepid, a US military supply ship, left the Port of Olympia and abandoned 8 military trucks and 30 shipping containers, after 150 protesters ripped a 9-foot hole in the fence near the ship. Two protestors crossed through this fence onto Port property and were arrested, but the stand-off between protesters and police resulted in no further arrests or violence. At the time of printing, the ship had not come back to pick up the shipment.

(Works in Progress, December 2004)

LAND RETURNED TO WASHINGTON TRIBES

Old Man House State Park has been returned to its original caretakers, the first peoples of the Pacific Northwest. The land is located in an area that once served as the mother village for the Suquamish people. The site of Old Man House was the center of a longhouse community. The largest longhouse was located there, and was the place where the tribes would gather for celebrations. It was also the home of Chief Seattle, and hundreds of other natives.

Chief Seattle signed a treaty in 1855, giving up a quarter million acres of Suquamish territory in exchange for 8,000 acres which included Old Man House State Park. Soon after his death in 1870, the longhouse was burned down by the Indian Agent because he believed that the natives' lifestyle was unchristian. The longhouse was rebuilt, but in 1904 the US military took possession of 70 acres of waterfront including the Old Man House site, in order to build fortifications to protect the Bremerton Navy Shipyards. The fortifications were never built, and in the 1950s the land was sold to a developer. The Washington State Parks and Recreation Department purchased one acre where the longhouse had been to honor the importance of the site.

In August of 2004, it was the Commissioners of the Washington State Parks and Recreation who had the power to return this land to its original owners. They honored the Suquamish's century old request and returned the land to the tribe. The park will be managed by the Suquamish, and will still be open to everyone. (YES!, Winter 2005)

FLAME RETARDANTS GIVE OFF TOXIC DUST

A phase out of one class of flame retardant known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) has been formally recommended by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Three forms of the PBDEs are being targeted: Penta, Octa-BDE and Deca-BDE. All are widely used in consumer products such as furniture, electronics and textiles. Chemically, these compounds are linked to the bioaccumulator PCBs, and have been shown to break down into other bioaccumulative toxins. Recently PDBEs have been found in human tissue and breast milk in the US and overseas (see detailed article in Environment section this issue). Orca whales have also tested positively for PBDEs. Theories of how PDBEs are absorbed by the body are many, some believe that they are found in foods, especially animal fats. They can also be inhaled in household dust, computer monitor dust being a culprit. This discovery is leading several monitor makers to use safer alternatives. Apple, Toshiba, Dell, NEC, and Hewlett Packard are working toward alternatives to using PBDEs.

(Waste Not Fall 2004. For details on breastmilk contamination, see also WA Free Press, Jan 2004, "Toxic Breastmilk", viewable here. )

MANY PROBLEMS WITH US ELECTIONS

A growing body of evidence is being compiled by a handful of activist groups such as Voters Unite! and BlackBoxVoting.org documenting the deterioration of the US voting system. Problems abounded in the 2004 presidential races, in part due to the new privately owned electronic voting systems installed before the 2004 election. But the funny business did not end with the electronic voting. Voters Unite has compiled a list of problems reported by the press. This lengthy list currently totals 334 incidents and takes 12 pages of 11 x 17 paper to print out. (See also two main articles on electoral fraud in this issue of the WA Free Press.)

Here are some examples: In Indianapolis, up to 3,376 residents were mistakenly pulled from voter registration lists, as they were thought to be deceased. Colorado also turned thousands of eligible voters away after incorrectly interpreting the state's voting laws. Many voter precincts in Ohio had a severe shortage of voting machines. Due to the shortages, voters who had the time waited in line for 5 hours, while others simply left. One Mississippi precinct, predominately inhabited by black voters had voting machines segregated by Democrat/Republican, and there were more machines for the Republicans.

(The Idaho Observer, November 15, 2004)

WOMEN IN IRAQ FACE MANY THREATS

A little known piece of the Iraqi puzzle is that Iraqi women are in serious danger of losing rights they have enjoyed throughout their lives and being marginalized in their new democracy by secular extremists. An Iraqi woman in her 50s n 60s would have been born in a country that held the most advanced family civil code of any Arab nation. Under Hussein, her rights were actually expanded to include sex discrimination, free higher education and maternity leave. These rights deteriorated as the United States instigated the Iran/Iraq war, and further deteriorated during the first Gulf War and the next ten years of economic sanctions. During this period women became jobless, lost their ability to choose their partner in marriage as well as their ability to travel freely.

Their present predicament is extremely severe. Women in Iraq are facing a threefold danger from US troops and prisons, Islamic fundamentalists and international sex traffickers. Photos of women brutalized in Abu Ghraib briefly appeared on the internet and then disappeared, but this sort of barbarism is widely known in the Middle East and is being reported on by International Operation Watch, the Iraqi Union of Detainees and Prisoners, OWFI, the British Guardian, and the French Agence France Press. Many of these victims have been rounded up and used as hostages to force male relatives to surrender, and have ended up brutalized and raped by Iraqi and US jailers. Women are disappearing off the streets in Iraq, never to be seen again. Many who are rediscovered by their families after being violated by their kidnappers are later murdered by their family members to protect the family honor.

Amazingly, amidst this hostile environment, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) is bravely standing out and standing up for individual and collective women's' and human rights in Iraq. It is openly feminist, runs two women's shelters, publishes a newspaper called Equality both in English and Arabic, has organized numerous demonstrations and has worked with the Union of Unemployed Workers to demand housing for displaced workers and safe streets. Many of their leaders have received death threats, but they continue on none the less. OWFI is calling for international support, hoping that now the elections are over the US anti-war movement will spark to life to help defend the Iraqi people from its government. (Freedom Socialist, December 2004-January 2005)

ACTION DEMANDED ON SUDAN

Representatives Charles Rangel (D-NY) and former Representative Walter Fauntroy were arrested last year outside the Sudanese embassy for acts of civil disobedience. They seek to raise awareness of the ongoing unrest in Sudan. The US House and Senate unanimously passed a resolution which labeled the conflict a genocide. Conflict in the Darfur region has resulted in 30,000 deaths, 56,000 homes have been destroyed and 2 million people have been displaced. Fauntroy says that the conflict is a resource war. "The predominantly black areas of Sudan contain reserves of oil and water. Chevron is reportedly developing the Sudanese oil fields." Fauntroy adds that hostilities are an effort to "complete the disenfranchise of the black Sudanese." (YES! Fall 2004)

COCA-COLA THREATENS WATER SUPPLIES

The bottled water industry is booming. In 30 years, the volume of bottled water purchased and sold has increased by over 7,000 percent. Coca-Cola dominates the global soft drink market with 300 brands, and saw its water business boom 68% in 2002. Dasani, Dannon and Evian are all distributed by Coca-Cola. In the last issue of the Washington Free Press, readers were asked to think about the hidden impacts of the unregulated bottled water industry such as increased packaging and shipping, and often times contaminated water, even less pure than regular tap water.

Activists protesting Coca-Cola in Portland November 18 had even more information to add to this topic. They are part of an international movement organized by Corporate Accountability International, and they are trying to bring awareness to the impacts Coca-Cola bottling plants are having in India. At least 5 Indian communities near Coca-Cola plants are suffering severe water shortages and widespread health problems due to the company's massive siphoning of groundwater. The water drawn by one plant in Gandhere is enough to serve 75,000 villagers daily. In Plachimada, India, hundreds of wells have gone dry and community members are now traveling large distances to meet their water needs. As clean water becomes scarce, water riots and water-related murders are becoming daily occurrences in India. (Portland Alliance, December 2004)