text:
The Voice of the Anti-Imperialist Movement from
Under Lock & Key
Graphic design skills? Help us with our new logo! help out
Under Lock & Key is a news service written by and for prisoners with a focus on what is going on behind bars throughout the United States. Under Lock & Key is available to U.S. prisoners for free through MIM(Prisons)'s Free Political Literature to Prisoners Program, by writing:
MIM(Prisons)
San Francisco, CA 94140.
[Theory] [Latin America]
Book Review: José Carlos Mariátegui An Anthology
by cipactli of Brown Berets - Prison Chapter December 2012 permalink
Harry E. Vanden and Mark Becker editors and translators
José Carlos Mariátegui: an Anthology (Monthly Review Press, 2011), 480 pgs, $29.95 paperback
The recent growth spurt among the various [email protected] nations here in the United $tates has begun to turn the spotlight on the various peoples and movements within these nations. Although the [email protected] nation has long resisted Amerikan occupation in various ways, the left wing of white nationalism has, until recently, pretty much neglected any acknowledgement of the [email protected] nation. Recently, with the help of an upsurge in the war on [email protected], with the state of Arizona spearheading this war, some in the Amerikan left circles have begun to rediscover the communist theory and struggles that have been coming out of Latin America for about a hundred years. The new book José Carlos Mariátegui: An Anthology adds to this budding interest in revolutionary [email protected] This book is a compilation of Mariátegui's writings.
José Carlos Mariátegui's Life
Mariátegui was a Peruvian communist who upheld revolutionary nationalism within the context of Marxist theory, but not in a mechanical way. He developed a line based on the material conditions of Peru, and thus Latin America, as most of Latin America was feudal or semi-feudal and developing at roughly the same pace. And like Mao would later come to say, Mariátegui believed Marxist thought should be undogmatic. In fact, Mao was known to have read Mariátegui as well.
In a time when Marxists believed the peasantry to be a potential revolutionary force, before Mao proved this theory to be true, Mariátegui developed a groundbreaking theory of the role of peasants in the revolution.
Mariátegui was born in the small town of Moguera, Peru on 14 July 1894. Born in poverty and crippled as a child, Mariátegui began life in an uphill battle. Like most people in Latin America, school was a luxury Mariátegui could not afford and so he had to work with an elementary school education in order to help contribute financially to his family. At 15 he began work at La Prensa newspaper. He advanced from copy boy to writing and editing. He soon learned to make a living as a journalist while at the same time using this journalistic talent for propaganda work.
Starting as a teenager, Mariátegui began to develop socialist ideas and began writing about student rights and labor struggles. He and a friend even founded two short-lived newspapers as teenagers, one called Nuestra Epoca (Our Epoch) and La Razón (The Fault). Although at this time Mariátegui had not developed the deep Marxist theory he was later known for, it does show his early consciousness and the beginning of his revolutionary thought in his articles. So much so that in his early 20s he was sent in exile to Europe by the Peruvian government and charged by the Peruvian dictator Agusto B. Luguia as an "information agent." This reminded me of how, in the United $tates, once prisoners begin to develop and define their revolutionary thought, they too are placed in "exile" — Security Housing Units.
It was while Mariátegui was in Europe that his study and thought deepened and became socialist. His four years in Italy and France were spent amidst the different communist groups active there at the time. This was where he met many people who helped shape his growth. By the time he returned to Peru in 1923 he had developed his political line significantly.
One of the things that stands out about Mariátegui in reading his anthology is that although he had a formal education only up to 8th grade, he developed into a self-educated intellectual, but an intellectual in sync with the most oppressed, an intellectual for the people in contradiction to the bourgeois intellectuals. I thought this was similar to many prisoners who, like Mariátegui, are often without a "formal" education. I myself have never attended a high school and instead educated myself in prison as an adult, seeing the importance of education, especially in the realm of advancing my nation, as well as the international communist movement more broadly. So I found this small but significant aspect of Mariátegui really inspiring and I think other prisoners will as well.
Mariátegui was confined to a wheelchair most of his adult life due to illness. This "disability" was a hinderance to his goals of making socialist revolution in Peru, but he endured; he overcame this burden and found ways to continue onward. This too relates to the conditions of the prisoner, as many may see being in prison as a hinderance to those seeking to transform their nation, to advancing society. In a way it is, however we must find ways to continue onward despite our challenges.
Back in Peru, Mariátegui launched the theoretical journal Amauta. He then founded the biweekly periodical Labor which sought to politicize the Peruvian working class, but was shut down within a year by the Peruvian government. He also published two books in his life and published numerous articles in many Peruvian periodicals. One book, La Escena Contemporánea (The Contemporary Scene), was a collection of articles he wrote for two Peruvian magazines. These articles dealt with racism, socialism and events in Peru. While in his second book, Siete Ensayos de Interpretación (Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality), he applied a Marxist analysis to the social reality of Peru and thus Latin America.
Mariátegui's theory and quantitative development soon turned to qualitative development and practice and in 1928 he formed the Peruvian Socialist Party (PSP), which was the forerunner of the Peruvian Communist Party (PCP), which led a heroic people's war in the 1980s and 1990s. Mariátegui was the first Secretary General of the PSP, which would form a Marxist trade union and would participate in Communist International-sponsored meetings. But Mariátegui's above ground party building actions were not exclusive to 'legal organizing,' he was also involved in the Peruvian underground movement. Indeed he was a sharp thorn in the side of the Peruvian government, having organized communist cells throughout Peru. The government labeled him "subversive" and threw him in prison many times — often with no charges though each time they eventually released him. He faced political repression most of his political life; surveilled and harassed by the state.
Much of his later organizing was in opposition to the U.$.-owned copper mine at "Cerro de Pasco" where he often agitated strikes around working conditions. Mariátegui died at age thirty six due to poor health.
Mariátegui's Political Line
In Mariátegui's piece "The Land Problem," he gets at something that is essential to any struggle, which is getting to the heart of a struggle, to the kernel of contradiction. He states, in part in reference to the contradictions surrounding Peru's indigenous peoples:
"We are not content with demanding the Indian's right to education, culture, progress, love and heaven. We start by categorically demanding their rights to land."(pg 69)
This demand for land cuts to the heart of a people's right. This is what separates those seeking a "reformist approach" from those seeking a more revolutionary approach. The same lesson can be gleaned by prisoners who, in many parts of the United $tates, come to this crossroad where in any struggle for prisoners' rights those actively pushing the prison movement forward MUST choose between reforms or real revolutionary demands. In Mariátegui's case he chose the more revolutionary approach — the struggle to free the land.
This demand continues in all parts of the world in contradiction to the capitalist practices of private ownership, monopolizing the land and outright stealing of land from oppressed nations. To the people of the world it is being established that Amerika's right to colonize and oppress has expired! The iron hold of capitalist tradition has been broken in the minds of many of the oppressed and time is running out for the imperialists!
In "The Land Problem," Mariátegui describes the error that most people fell into in analyzing Peru in his time. Most mechanically attempted to apply methods used in a capitalist society to Peru's semi-feudal economy. As he describes, Peru during this time was a "gamonalism" society, which was a share cropper society where the indigenous of Peru would work the land of a large land owner in return for a portion of the harvest. But due to the abuse of the colonizers, the Incan peoples saw gamonalism as a punishment, and so methods of building the infrastructure were also seen as forms of gamonalism even though pre-colonial Incans always have collectively worked on building roads or waterways. This was once a duty, simply a part of life, but under the semi-feudal existence these projects were seen by the Incan people as more abuse brought on by gamonalism and this goes to the heart of Mariátegui's line on how Peruvians cannot mechanically apply the Marxist analysis that paved the way in Europe to Peru or Latin America for that matter, as social conditions were much different and so a Marxist analysis had to be created that was specific to Latin America.(pg 115)
Peru experienced the destruction of social forms through the colonization process. But this colonialism fertilized the birth of a nation. The development of the new economic relation breathed new life into the people's resistance. This new development was behind Peru's independence revolution with Spain, it was a natural development that can be seen worldwide. It simply validates the laws of contradiction.
Mariátegui saw the distinct concrete conditions in Latin America but he understood that the peoples victory in Latin America was but a step toward a bigger picture. He wrote:
"In this America of small revolutions, the same word, revolution, frequently lends itself to misunderstanding. We have to reclaim it rigorously and intransigently. We have to restore its strict and exact meaning. The Latin American revolution will be nothing more and nothing less than a stage, a phase of the world revolution. It will simply and clearly be a socialist revolution. Add all the adjectives you want to this word according to a particular case: 'anti-imperialist', 'agrarian', 'national-revolutionary,' socialism supposes, precedes and includes all of them."(pg 128)
And so although Mariátegui fought for and developed a line for his nation he still kept the broader movement for world revolution as his compass. This is very important for those of us of the internal semi-colonies to understand that it is not just ok but necessary for us to struggle for and develop a political line for our distinct conditions living here in the belly of the beast and under the heel of the super-parasite. But at the same time we must keep the bigger picture in mind, the world movement as a compass, and grasp that liberating our nations is only the first stage in what we are ultimately struggling for.
On nationalism Mariátegui writes:
"The nationalism of the European nations ... is reactionary and anti-socialist. But the nationalism of the colonial peoples — yes, economically colonial, although they boast of their political autonomy — has a totally different origin and impulse. In these people, nationalism is revolutionary and therefore ends in socialism."(pg 175)
Mariátegui wrote these words in 1927 so this was even before Mao wrote, "thus in wars of national liberation patriotism is applied internationalism"(1) in 1938. And just like Mao, Mariátegui believed that nationalism from the oppressed nations was revolutionary and true internationalism. But the Amerikan crypto-Trotskyites today disagree with Mao and Mariátegui on this, mainly because agreeing with them on this would undermine the white privilege enjoyed by them and their allies.
Mariátegui was in fact not just aware but correctly analyzed what was taking place around the world during this time, particularly in China. Indeed, he criticized the Chinese Kuomingtang and upheld "Chinese socialism" during this time, which was the budding movement that Mao was involved with. In a polemic on China he wrote:
"And I will be content with advising him that he direct his gaze to China where the nationalist movement of the Kuomingtang gets its most vigorous impulse from Chinese socialism."(pg 175)
It is refreshing to see Mariátegui, from the Third World and under intense state repression, was able to grasp the concrete conditions and political development taking place internationally, especially in China when he had already seen Mao's camp as the correct line even before Mao's line was victorious in liberating China.
Disagreements with Mariátegui
One problem of line is what Mariátegui calls "Inca socialism." In his analysis the ancient Incas lived in what he describes as Inca socialism. There are many things wrong with this. For one, the Incas, like the other pre-Columbian societies of what is referred to as "Latin America," such as the more widely known societies like the Aztecs and Mayans, lived in communal societies. But these societies had many facets of privilege and even caste-like systems with everything from kings, priests, priestesses, laborers and slaves. Indeed, most of these larger societies like the Aztec, Mayan and Inca's operated on tribute systems where essentially the surrounding tribes that were dominated by these larger groups basically payed rent to these groups, they were taxed or they were slaughtered. So this was in no way "socialism." Sprinkled throughout his writings Mariátegui refers to a pre-Columbian "Inca Socialism" and even declares its previous existence in the Peruvian Socialist Party's 9 point programs — which he himself drafted. Point 6 states:
"Socialism finds the same elements of a solution to the land question in the livelihoods of communities, as it does in large agricultural enterprises. In areas where the presence of the yanaconazco(2) sharecropping system or small landholdings require keeping individual management, the solution will be the exploitation of land by small farmers, while at the same time moving toward the collective management of agriculture in areas where this type of exploitation prevails. But this, like the stimulation that freely provides for the resurgence of indigenous peoples, the creative manifestation of its forces and native spirit does not mean at all a romantic and anti-historical trend of reconstructing or resurrecting Inca socialism which corresponded to historical conditions completely by passed, and which remains only as a favorable factor in a perfectly scientific production technique, that is the habits of cooperation and socialism of indigenous peasants. Socialism presupposes the technique, the science, the capitalist stage. It cannot permit any setbacks in the realization of the achievements of modern civilization but on the contrary it must methodically accelerate the incorporation of these achievements into national life."
We must be grounded in materialism and approach reality how it is, not how we wish it to be. To refer to pre-Columbian societies in Latin America as "socialist" is an ultra-left deviation and thus our line becomes contaminated along with our potential for victory. The fact that Mariátegui wrote this in his party's program reveals how much he believed this to be true, and so there was some error in his line.
Furthermore, Mariátegui attempts to weld events in Europe with events in the Americas and says in a university lecture: "A period of revolution in Europe will be a period of revolution in the Americas."(pg 297) Of course world events spark arousal in the international communist movement, but to assume or claim revolution will mirror Europe or anywhere else despite material conditions is to succumb to pragmatism.
Anyone interested in the birth of Marxism in Latin America will find this book fulfilling. It takes you from Peru's indigenous anti-colonial uprisings to an analysis of indigenous peoples in Peru, to early proletarian organizing, the Peruvian pre-party, propaganda work, the creation of the first socialist party, and the creation of workers federations. It gives a complete picture of the ideas of Mariátegui, who declared himself a Marxist-Leninist, and had he lived to see the advances of Maoism would no doubt have raised its banner in Peru as well.
1. "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War." (October 1938), Selected Works, Vol II, p.196.
2. Peruvian sharecroppers
[Organizing] [Security] [ULK Issue 29]
Making Prisons Safer with Revolutionary Education
by cipactli of Brown Berets - Prison Chapter November 2012 permalink
Let's face it, most people coming to prison don't arrive with people's safety at the top of their priority list. Most come to prison with their homies' or comrades' safety in mind, but that is about it. Most come from an existence where, if you are not sharp-witted, treacherous or a cold hustler, you don't eat or you don't survive.
Being raised in this mind frame is not easily forgotten, so the economic hurdle is key in a prisoner's mindset. Many grew up in an environment where other nationalities are frowned upon or there are open hostilities between different nations. Then there are the mentally ill prisoners who may kick off some shit over nonsense and others follow suit. There are so many factors that make prisons unsafe that one can write a book on them rather easily. Each factor has many ways in which to approach it and combat it as well. But at the end of the day safe prisons anywhere in Amerika will only come from the hands of prisoners ourselves.
In a capitalist society prisons are not created to rehabilitate prisoners or teach us, they are designed to warehouse and neutralize us. So the first step in attempting to create safer prisons is understanding this. There is one key that unlocks the door to getting safer prisons and that key is education! I am not talking about Amerikan education, I am talking about revolutionary education. Rev Ed transforms people and betters people in all areas, including interacting with one's fellow prisoners. Take away Rev Ed and one is left with backwards thinking, reactionary behavior, abuse, set tripping, predatory behavior, religious nonsense, drug and alcohol addiction — all the tore up tradition that has self-destructed entire generations.
Ignorance of who you are will always bring out the worst in you. Knowing where one comes from, the deep tradition of resistance and legacy of struggle will always propel one in a positive path, a peaceful path, because when we learn who the real oppressor is we no longer look at another prisoner as the bad guy. Rev Ed teaches us that prisoners in general are an oppressed class and when we really grasp this there's no way can we walk around trying to pick fights with our fellow prisoners. Even the thought of this becomes absurd. Instead we are walking around trying to share revolutionary ideas and exchange revolutionary literature in our quest to revolutionize these hell holes. This must be our focus if we want to have the greatest impact that we can to make prisons safer.
I won't sugar coat it: this is hard work. When I read about shit popping off in what amounts to lumpen-on-lumpen crime I feel your pain because I been there and I still experience bullshit that clings to many of those who continue to hold on to nonsense or reactionary views. So I know how it is when violence ensues around you, especially if you have been working to educate people for a period of time.
These challenges don't change the fact that if you want a safe environment in prison you need to educate your fellow prisoners. The best way to do this is to start with yourself and your cellmate if you have one. I have always had long exchanges of ideas with a cellie. Whatever revolutionary publication I had I would read it, or my cellie would, and we would discuss what we agreed with or disagreed with. Once me and my cellmate were on the same page we would begin to educate our neighbors on either side regardless of who it was, passing publications and eventually books, and eventually involving the whole tier or pod. Many times this process would begin by just passing a publication to someone or telling one persyn to read it and pass it down the line. After a while the questions will begin. This is one way I have experienced creating more educated prisoners and thus safer conditions.
I have also found prisoners who could not read or write, and the state usually does not have material or classes for these people, so I would tell these prisoners I'll spend the time and effort to teach them to read on the condition that they must in turn teach someone else once they are able. One time I taught a prisoner to read out on the mainline and when I saw he had not found someone to tutor I went around and found someone for him. I would go to the law library when I was on the mainline and see someone trying to maneuver in the law and I'd reach out to help this persyn. These people were all different nationalities but in order to create "peaceful prisons" I have learned that you can't limit yourself to your own nation; someone has to build that bridge of relations. If I get to a yard where there is no bridge, I will fill the vacuum because someone has to.
What I have experienced in doing time (and I have spent more time of my life incarcerated than out in society) is that the majority of violence that occurs is over a business deal gone bad, either drugs or gambling debts. So if we have enough discipline to cut this out of the picture would reduce a lot of the violence. The next issue is predatory behavior which is just one persyn or group oppressing or attempting to oppress another, either because of ones nationality or what geographic location one grew up in. If you refrain from this behavior safer prisons become even more of a reality.
In California, prisoners in Pelican Bay recently issued a statement to end hostilities between all nationalities in California prisons, county jails and streets. This is unprecedented in California where lumpen-on-lumpen crime has gone on with deadly consequences for many years. This is only a step, but it is a necessary step in building any type of serious change or any transformation in each nation. The days when the state would pit prisoners on prisoners in California and use us as gladiators for their amusement are over. Prisoners have finally identified the real problem we face, i.e. the real oppressor. And if California can do this and if those in Pelican Bay SHU, who the state claims control all California "gangs," can do this then there is no reason why every prison in Amerika can't do the same and call for an end to all hostilities in all prisons, jails and streets! This is a necessary step if prisoners ever hope to create real safe zones in prisons.
We are seeing history play out in California where our future is in our own hands. If we want to have prisons where we can really rehabilitate ourselves then we must make it happen and the only way for this to happen is if we do so collectively and by ending the hostilities between all nationalities. This knocks down barricades that would otherwise slow down this process. This is not saying we don't have differences, there are many differences, but once you identify your oppressor you realize that lumpen-on-lumpen crime is not helping to reduce our oppression. It's very simple and all groups of all nationalities here in Pelican Bay SHU have agreed to this agreement. If we can do it so can you!
The real safe prisons will come when prisoners can exercise forms of people's power in these concentration camps. People's power exists when contradictions are resolved without having to rely on the state. Like the example I gave of helping my fellow prisoners to read and write or do legal work. Most prisons do not have programs for this, so rather than sit around and complain about it I started my own program on the mainline.
People's power can also be solving problems and preventing violence through mediation which does not involve the state. In Pelican Bay SHU there is the "Short Corridor Collective" which is a representative from each group Chicano, Black, white and sub groups, which seeks peaceful mutual resolutions to problems affecting prisoners. They even have come out with certain demands to the state. If Pelican Bay SHU can do it why can't other prisons across the United $tates form collectives that seek peaceful resolutions to issues affecting prisoners? The answer is they can, and they must, if real peace and progress are to be achieved within prisons.
Political education is the key. Once someone learns real history and understands the class contradictions in the United $tates, and how our oppression can actually be traced directly to capitalism, there is no way they will want to waste time on nonsense. Instead of sitting around gossiping about other poor people who are locked up and plotting on how to hurt other poor people, these educated people will instead study, educate others, form study groups, share progressive literature and books, and create independent institutions behind prison walls in order to advance the prison movement as well as the movement, for humyn rights more broadly.
The only thing I see in the way of us not having safer prisons is us not making these prisons safer!
People's power siempre!
Campaign info:
Build a United Front for Peace in Prisons
California Hunger Strike Representatives Promote Peace Agreement
[Aztlan/Chicano] [Theory]
Brown Berets - Prison Chapter 10 Point Program
For the past few decades California has been increasingly using control units in the form of security housing units (SHUs) as a method of control. These deprivation chambers are a major part of the state's war on the Chicano nation. Where prisons are used to enforce a slow genocide on La Raza, to disrupt the family unit and implement an internment camp by "legal" means, within prisons also lies the SHU which is equivalent to the chopping block where rebellious slaves who resisted or escaped would get limbs amputated as 1) punishment for resisting the oppressor nation, 2) preventing the slave from making future attempts, and 3) to inflict a psychological blow terrorizing the larger population to what will happen to them should they choose the same path of resistance. So too are the SHUs used in this manner on revolutionary or rebellious prisoner who resist the state, for this opposition to the state we are met with SHU which restricts our ability to resist and punishes us for our refusal to obey our oppressor thus instilling a grave warning to the prison masses of what will happen to them should they take the path of resistance. This oppression has gone on for decades and has grown to horrific proportions in recent years. Here in Pelican Bay SHU over a thousand are tortured with solitary confinement alone. The living conditions here have gone past punishment to the most vile cruelty depriving us of the most basic human rights, it is a place where sunlight is denied and health care is often used to extort incriminating information from those being tortured in this house of horrors. It is a place where prisoners have faced the most horrendous abuses like being boiled in tubs of scalding water to being stripped down in underwear and locked in an iron cage outside in the freezing raining winter morning. These stories would be unbelievable had they not been documented in court transcripts for all to see.
Chicanos are overwhelmingly the majority of those sent to SHU, it is the identification of this war on Aztlán, this silent offensive that you won't read about in the bourgeois press or see on the corporate news outlets but which we see, live and have analyzed for all to understand.
These developments led to the formation of the Chicano Prisoners Revolutionary Committee (CPRC) in late 2011 here in Pelican Bay SHU. The CPRC was created initially for the efforts taking place surrounding the hunger strikes that swept U.$. prisons in 2011. It was within this effort to analyze and lend a revolutionary perspective to the developments surrounding human rights in prisons that CPRC gave birth to the Brown Berets - prison chapter (BB-PC) on June 1, 2012.
The BB-PC was inspired by the original Brown Berets that arose in the 1960s and led the Chicano movement in harnessing the people in the barrios with their many independent institutions from free health clinics, child care, free food programs, schools, newspapers etc. We draw from this legacy of serving the people and dig deeper in the theoretical realm.
We do not answer to any other chapter nor does any other existing chapter answer to us, we are an autonomous chapter which due to the extreme repression in Amerikkka's history operates underground within U.$. prisons. Currently we are the first and only prison chapter in Amerika but we expect many more chapters to develop in many other prisons and states as [email protected] develop politically. We do not publish the names of the BB-PC cadre; our chapter resides in Pelican Bay State Prison.
The BB-PC is the Chicano cadre in U.$. prisons that works to transform these pintas and our nation from our vantage point. We are taking the concepts of community organizing and applying them to the pinta, thus these concrete conditions we experience are very different than they are for a chapter out in society and although our efforts are mostly prison based and revolve around contradictions prisoners face on a daily basis our main thrust of course lies in the Aztlán liberation movement. Our ten point program guides us in that direction and allows us to remain in active service of Chicano independence.
We welcome all imprisoned Latinos to partake in the Chicano struggle as a liberated Aztlán will be a place where all Latinos are welcome to be free from oppression.
The following is the BB-PC Ten Point Program:
We are Maoists
We believe as Mao taught that class struggle continues even under socialism, as a new bourgeoisie develops as happened in the USSR after the death of Stalin in 1953 and after Mao's death in 1976. Mao advanced communism the furthest thus far in world history and it will be through a Maoist program that we liberate Aztlán.
We are an autonomous chapter
We are a self governing chapter that practices democratic centralism. We understand that because of state repression we are more efficient as an autonomous chapter and that as new chapters arise in other prisons across Amerika that they too will be autonomous in each individual prison.
We want to build public opinion in prisons
At this stage the only struggle in Amerika is in the realm of ideas, we seek to politicize the imprisoned Chicano nation through educating our gente on all aspects of la lucha.
We want Raza unity
As the largest Raza population in Amerikan prisons the Chicano nation understands its responsibility to maintain Pan-Latino unity and to educate all Raza on the current repression we face. In the prisons within Aztlán, Raza endure institutional oppression where Raza are overwhelmingly held in SHUs and control units far more than any other of the oppressed. This offensive is meant to neutralize us physically but particularly mentally. We will stand with imprisoned Latinos and resist the oppressor nation as we have done for 500 years and support the Boricua in their march toward independence free from neocolonialism.
We stand in solidarity with all oppressed and Third World prisoners.
Today's prisons are meant to dehumanize the people and break our will to resist. The internal semi-colonies that are captured and held in these concentration camps face much of the same repression from the state, we understand that to better our living conditions as prisoners it will depend on a united front of oppressed prisoners for legal battles and other effort to obtain human rights in prisons and we will cultivate this collaboration.
We are revolutionary nationalists
We understand that true internationalism is only possible when each nation is fully liberated. We identify oppression in Amerika revolving around nation, class and gender which enables imperialism to uphold power and we combat these forms of oppression in our long march to national liberation.
Close the control units
The SHUs and similar models are designed to unleash population regroupment on the imprisoned Chicano nation. It is well known that the most revolutionary elements of the Chicano prison population are plucked from general population prisons and sent to the SHU or other control units in an effort to isolate the revolutionary vanguard from the prison masses, this isolation is then used to torture Chicanos en masse through solitary confinement and other psychological methods for years and decades.
We understand that this is done primarily to prevent the captive Chicano revolutionaries from mobilizing our mass prison base. We see the control units in Amerika as modern day concentration camps as we are sent to those camps not for physical acts but for thought crimes, beliefs or supposed beliefs that oppose the state. We work to overturn the use of control units in every prison in Amerika.
Stop prisoner abuse.
We are against oppression in all it's forms within prisons. This includes prisoners preying on prisoners, abuse from the hands of guards, patriarchy or any abuse physically or psychologically. In Amerika prisons are tools of imperialism used to inflict terror on the internal semi-colonies out in society and stifle any resistance to their war on poor people, having experienced and identified the full onslaught of this offensive we take it head on to combat all forms of abuse from the state or otherwise and this includes combatting the state propaganda and tactics of pitting prisoner against prisoner by political education so that prisoners understand who the oppressor is.
Free all political prisoners.
We not only see political prisoners as those who were politically conscious out in society and came to prison for acts of the movement, we go past that in our analysis and also see SHU prisoners as overwhelmingly political prisoners who are systematically tortured for their ideas or alleged thoughts. We also see most prisoners in U.$. prisons as political prisoners because living in imperialist amerika many of the "Crimes" and criminal injustice system that we face is nothing more than national oppression that is exercised in order to uphold the capitalist relations of production and we work toward freeing the people.
We want a liberated socialist Aztlán.
Our aim is communism but we understand it will take many years for this to become reality. At this stage we are working for Aztlán independence which will only occur after the defeat of imperialism. We work toward a socialist Aztlán where the peoples' needs are met; things like land, bread, education, health care and many more needs will be met and peoples' power will be exercised in order to transform not just society but prisons as well, to a more vibrant and just environment where all will have an opportunity to grasp revolution and promote production. We will transform these prisons ideologically in order to prepare the ground for these developments as we serve the people.
[Theory] [National Oppression] [Aztlan/Chicano]
Book Review: Occupied America
by cipactli of Brown Berets - Prison Chapter October 2012 permalink
Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
by Rodolfo F Acuña
A well read book in its 7th edition, "Occupied America" is a history book for the [email protected] nation. This book has been a leading text for [email protected] studies for decades. It is an in depth analysis of [email protected] history. It is also important to note that Occupied America was one of the books banned in 2012 in Arizona and has since been a hot item for the libro trafficantes (book traffickers) who have been defying Arizona and smuggling this book back into Arizona and into the hands of [email protected] youth.
It's clear uncut content about Amerika's treatment of [email protected] along with accurate history of [email protected] rising up in resistance has Amerika scrambling to censor this work.
Occupied America was first published in 1972, emerging from a peak in national liberation struggles in the United $tates. In 1981 the second edition was released and Acuña wrote in the preface:
The first edition of Occupied America followed the current of the times, adopting the internal colonial model that was popular during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The works of Frantz Fanon greatly influenced the tone and direction of the book. Since then, just like the Chicano movement itself, I have undergone dramatic changes. I have reevaluated the internal colonial model and set it aside as a useful paradigm relevant to the nineteenth century but not to the twentieth. ...I decided to return to the basics and collect historical data.
This quote would lead us to believe that we would have more unity with the political line put forth in the first edition. Though more recent editions will have more updated information, and would likely be more valuable references for that reason. It seems that the changes between editions 2 through 7 are mostly in factual content, with an attempt to avoid polemics.
So what gets the white supremacists so disturbed about Occupied America? I chose to find out and decided to read it again.
Acuña starts the 7th edition of his book in the pre-Columbian times when civilization first started on this continent going back 50,000 years. One learns of the Aztecs, Olmecs, Zapotecs, Mayans, Incas and other natives. This naturally leads to the European invaders and the beginnings of the forging of the Mexican and then the [email protected] nation.
With the Spanish occupation and genocide that soon followed their arrival in North America, Acuña takes you through the social relations of the natives at the hands of the church.
The quest for more gold and silver and thus the mines soon led to a decimation of the native population and with this process came the resistance. But there was development as well in the economic arena. In the states that comprised "northern New Spain" at the time, like California, the Spaniards had Mestizos and natives working and so these oppressed peoples were, as Acuña explains on pg 33, the "vaqueros, soap makers, tanners, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, bakers, cooks, servants, pages, fishermen, farmers as well as a host of other occupations."
And so on the one hand the people were worked sometimes to death but on the other hand they developed economically across the region, which is a precursor to nationhood.
Acuña takes us into the Mexican revolution of 1810 when Mexico won its independence from Spain which was a great event but didn't bring socialism to [email protected] and so the exploitation would soon return. Acuña explains the theft of Texas which was spearheaded by the white supremacist Stephen Austin starting in the 1820s. This is where the 2nd edition of the book opens up, leaving out the history above.
The myth of the Alamo is cleared up by Acuña on pg 41 where he states: "Probably the most widely circulated story was that of the last stand of the aging Davy Crocket, who fell 'fighting like a tiger' killing Mexicans with his bare hands. The truth: seven of the defenders surrendered, and Crockett was among them. The Mexican force executed them, and, one man, Louis Rose, escaped."
This book explains the myth of the oppressor nation propaganda that consumes the "history books" we read in public schools.
The U.$. war on Mexico of 1848 is explained very well and one sees the birth of the [email protected] nation in these pages. Along with this birth the layers of state propaganda are peeled back and Acuña highlights the resistance in the [email protected] nation, people like Juan "Cheno" Cantina, Francisco "Chico" Barela and Gregorio Cortez are discussed and one sees how they rose up in militias as revolutionary groups to fight yankee imperialism.
Groups like Las Gorras Blancas (the white caps) came together to defend the people with arms from white supremacy and oppression. In Occupied America we read of the early [email protected] proletariat and the militant [email protected]@ labor struggles. The 'Plan of San Diego' is discussed which was the basis of a revolutionary group that fought the U.$. government in Texas around 1915 with the goal of establishing an independent [email protected] nation, Black nation and First Nations upon victory.
We also learn of how the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo was signed and Amerika stole what is now called the "Southwest." We learn that "the depression" for Amerika was normal program for [email protected]@s. Our conditions did not change and when the "New Deal" came post-depression and Amerikans were put to work on public work projects, because [email protected]@s were not allowed to participate in the "New Deal." At the time of the New Deal, the Communist International was criticizing social democracy in Europe as social fascism for appealing to the labor aristocracy interests in line with the rising fascist powers. In North America the fascist forces were not well developed, but social democracy still served to benefit the labor aristocracy to the exclusion of the oppressed nations.
The book explains the 1960s and the eruption of a new generation of [email protected] that brought the [email protected] movement on the scene. All the [email protected] groups are discussed: Masa, Mecha, Brown Berets, Black Berets, Mayo, Umas, Alianza, Crusade for Justice and many more. These fiery groups along with the many [email protected] publications that are mentioned show the times of this period and the heightened political consciousness in Aztlan.
The "teatro campesino," plays and improvised theater by and for farmworkers out in the fields, showed that [email protected]@s taking on agribusiness added to the times and [email protected] culture.
Although he provides tons of data and information on the entire history of [email protected], the colonization process, the early development of [email protected] as a nation, and [email protected] resistance, where Acuña falls short is in this book is in failing to point out a correct path forward on how [email protected] should liberate ourselves. Oddly he only provides a short paragraph on communism and only to discuss how the state blamed communists for [email protected] activism. And so Acuña leads [email protected] to the edge of the cliff but does not tell the people how to proceed and what will liberate us.
Aztlan will only be liberated in a socialist society, when socialist revolution arrives we will finally taste freedoms. Any struggles short of this will only lead to a bourgeois revolution and a continuation of oppression, only under a new management, as happened to Mexico after the Mexican revolution.
Learning one's history is a necessary step towards liberation but once we are conscious we must then grasp how to move forward and Occupied America leaves this most important element out of the book.
Occupied America has been required reading in Chicano studies college courses in many schools across the United $tates for many decades and will continue in most schools for some time, it has a wealth of information that will continue to awaken and educate [email protected] youth and as a [email protected] historian Acuña has helped the nation in learning our history. Anyone else who wants to learn about the development of [email protected] will also enjoy this book. It is clear why the oppressor nation is so scared of this book - because it's truth!
[Aztlan/Chicano] [Elections]
Democratic Presidential Convention Highlights Chicano Assimilationist
by cipactli of Brown Berets - Prison Chapter September 2012 permalink
San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro promotes
Chicano assimilation into Amerikkka
On September 4, 2012 the Democratic convention was held, almost every TV channel was broadcasting this. Like the Republican convention, the Democrats had speakers come out to make a short speech on why you should vote for their candidate. These conventions are a classic 'good cop, bad cop' game meant to hoodwink the oppressed.
This year's democratic keynote speaker at the convention was Julian Castro the mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Castro is running for congress and is seen as an up and coming Democrat. Although he merely adds to the rest of the numerous defenders of imperialism, what is different and thus dangerous about someone like Castro is that he is a Chicano bourgeois politician who is now being propped up to fool the Brown masses, just as Obama was used against the Black masses.
Castro's background is similar to many Chicanos today. His grandmother migrated to the United $tates in the first wave of migration after the Mexican Revolution in 1920. His mother was born in Texas and was actively a part of the Chicano movement of the 60s and 70s. As a first generation college student she joined the Raza Unida Party (RUP) and became one of its leaders.
La Raza Unida Party came about from the leadership of Crusade for Justice another Chicano organization of that time. It was in 1970 that Corky Gonzalez announced the formation of RUP. The Crusade for Justice was actively leading many Chicano struggles of this time period. At one point as Acuña described, "The Crusade for Justice leadership also wanted to form the 'Congress de Aztlan', which would build a Chicano nation."(1) The RUP meant to uplift the Raza's consciousness, take community control of social services in the Barrios, taking control of schools and development (building homes, parks, etc.) which all seems cool and "progressive." But without completely breaking with the oppressors politics these efforts were simply spinning wheels, like trying to ride a bike with no chain; you can turn the pedals all you want but the bike stays in the same spot.
The RUP had a left wing and a right wing, like all phenomenon there were internal contradictions that pulled this group in different directions, and without a clear path for liberation RUP was doomed from the beginning. The biggest error in RUP's program was in attempting to work within the framework of Amerikan bourgeois politics. RUP naively thought Amerika would stand by and allow a historically oppressed people, an internal semi-colony, to build a political party in the barrios, even though it attempted to do so within Amerika's political system. The state would not allow this, as organizing the oppressed for any progressive political activity poses a real potential threat. Once organized and educated this force can easily make a leap from working within the current system to working against the system. This is why people like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were assassinated even though they were not calling for socialism and pretty much worked within the confines of the Amerikan laws. They still had influence and the potential was too much, the threat assessment told the state what must be done.
RUP was heavily surveilled by the CIA (1) and so all the Cointelpro tactics were used to destroy this party. And ultimately RUP suffered from believing Chicanos could be liberated via Amerika's bourgeois politics or through reforms. The fault also lies in those more revolutionary elements within RUP for not steering RUP on a more revolutionary approach that sought the liberation of the Chicano nation by building for a socialist revolution on these shores.
So this is where Julian Castro comes from and thus this bourgeois nationalism is what shaped his ideas and lead him down the road to Brown capitalism or outright defender of imperialism. His assimilationist stance shined forth in his speech with statements like "[we need to] do our part as one community, as one United States of Amerika." This is typical language of a comprador who's job is to bring the other oppressed into the fold of the oppressor. His/her job is always to quell or smother the burning embers of resistance in a people and keep things as they are. The slave of old who lived in the massa's house would go out to the slave shacks and talk about how good the massa is, how good the slaves got it, maybe even given them a piece of bacon or the good meat with a promise for more so long as they hang on and be content or say some prayers. This is the approach Castro took in his speech, his focus - like the rest of the Democrats was on the "middle class," and at one point his petit bourgeois colors intensified as he yelled: "The middle class the engine of our economic growth!" The Brown bourgeoisie must have soiled themselves with excitement at hearing this parasite babble on.
Castro's interests are stripped of the more progressive aspects of 1970s political line of his mother, Rosie Castro, which he branded as outdated in an interview on Pacifica Radio. As misguided as the RUP may have been in their approach, they never spoke of leaving Raza behind, nor were they reduced to telling Raza to 'Pull themselves up by the bootstraps.' Rather they sought to include even the poorest Raza living in shacks and fought to better their conditions while Julian Castro has aligned with imperialism as he stated: "we know in our free market economy some people will prosper more than others." The idea that in a society there will be the haves and the have nots is not something we can accept. But Castro sends the message to the ruling class that he is okay with this and thus is not intending to threaten or challenge this status quo. This buys his seat in the imperialist shuttle of Amerikan politics.
The use of Julian Castro is just the latest attempt to get Chicanos and other Raza to become part of Amerika. But many Raza still remember the oppression we have faced, it is still too much for many to side with the enemy. According to the 2010 U.S. Census about 2.3 million businesses are owned by Latinos. Yet when it comes to voting in bourgeois elections only 60 percent of adult Latino citizens vote compared to 70 percent of Black adults who vote and 74 percent of whites who vote. At the same time approximately 500,000 Latino youth will turn 18 every year for the next 20 years. So I believe Julian Castro is the tip of the iceberg where Amerika will begin courting Latinos much more than they ever have in history, and not just any Latinos but preferably those with family history of activism as Julian Castro and his mother in an attempt to paint these parasites as "legitimate" in the eyes of the Chicano nation. But these Brown faces in high places will never be legitimate so long as they support the super parasites. Those who we see as legitimate are those working to liberate our nation, those working to neutralize the super parasite.
We see Amerika's open repression reaching fascist proportions in Aztlán, especially in prisons and on the "border." Most recently we saw along the Texas/Mexico "border" the U.$. instillation of a "mini navy" (4) where speed boats with high powered weapons are guarding the Rio Bravo and have recently baptized these new boats in Mexicano blood when they shot and killed a Mexican citizen on the Mexican side who was barbecuing in a picnic area with his family right on the river. Footage on the Amerikan corporate media this week shows families and children as the border patrol speeds off while cries erupt in this park. This open war on Raza comes without a peep from bourgeois politicians like Julian Castro, who, rather than condemn this repression in his speech, instead declares "Amerika will prevail" in his speech to massa.
We must also learn from the lessons of the past. We are not free to create our own political parties that struggle for our nations, look at what happened to the RUP and Panthers and others. In Amerika although parties of the internal semi-colonies are not publicly banned, they are certainly banned behind closed doors in Langly, in Washington DC, and their other hideaways. We know this is true when we learn about Cointelpro and other operations to infiltrate and disrupt peoples parties or groups. And so we refuse to be fed snake oil from the imperialists or their allies and hasten the day when Aztlán and the other internal semi-colonies can be liberated from attacks by Amerika!
1. Rodolfo F. Acuña, "Occupied America: A history of Chicanos," 6th ed, p.275.
2. Ibid, p.276
3. Center for Responsive Politics 2012.
4. 6-25-12, CBS nightly news.
5. 7-16-12, NPR, "Democracy Now."
[Organizing] [Brown Berets - Prison Chapter] [ULK Issue 28]
Prisoner Uprisings Foretell Growing Movement
by cipactli of Brown Berets - Prison Chapter June 2012 permalink
Recently, prisoners have begun to rediscover their voice and power power in some of the most vile dungeons in Amerika. On May 22, 2012, the latest development has come from Red Onion State Prion in Virginia where prisoners rose up and defied the oppressor. This refusal to be passive in the face of brutality seems to occur more and more often these days. Red Onion shares the same oppression as Pelican Bay SHU prisoners and others across Amerika who face many of the same forms of abuse, cruelty and neglect.
There are over 90 thousand people in Amerika being held in solitary or segregation of some sort. Most of these 90 thousand are Latino or Black, making this mass imprisonment also a manifestation of national oppression.(1) But national oppression is also tied to the economic relations as today's developments with the world economies and social unrest point to the exhaustion of capitalism. This exhaustion coupled with the changing demographic where more than half of all babies born in the U.$. are non-white(2) is unleashing a mass imprisonment of Latinos and New Afrikans in unprecedented numbers. These are basically internment camps for the internal semi-colonies.
This rise in oppression is not simply in imprisonment; there has also been an economic offensive to go with it. Indeed, states comprising Aztlán and New Afrika have seen a more than 20% rise in poverty between 2007 and 2010.(3) We should see that it's not simply a case of a couple crooked cops, or some faulty prison administrators that cause us to be held in miserable conditions. It is much bigger and much deeper than that. What we experience is a long legacy of oppression unleashed on the people since the first settler stepped foot on this continent. This legacy can now be traced up to the highest levels of the ruling class, and sometimes reveals itself. But for the most part, the oppression we face is drenched in secrecy and washed in legalese to the point that laymen cannot grasp it even when experiencing it directly.
At the same time many prisoners are beginning to break through the shell of settler propaganda to see our oppression for what it is. We can see that when corporate media says prisoners are "gang members" they are simply attempting to cover up our brutal treatment. When it reports on a "riot" it is really an uprising. But prisoners, whether in California, Virginia or even the secret prisons, are all being oppressed with the same intent by the state: to break our resistance! This was revealed most recently on a news program where a self-described CIA operative Jorge Rodriguez described torturing suspected-Al Qaeda prisoners. It was in this interview where he described psychological torture inflicted to "instill a sense of hopelessness."(4)
Such was the intent of the solitary confinement: leaving prisoners naked, physical abuse, and the use of what he called "dietary manipulation," which is starving a prisoner with skimpy trays or rotten uncooked food — sound familiar? This was all done intentionally to instill this sense of hopelessness in order to force the prisoner to cooperate with the state. These methods are not materialized spontaneously but are designed from years of study in military and intelligence schools for psy-warfare. What we are experiencing in Amerika's superman prisons is a long legacy that is drenched in blood. Yet we are not victims, but survivors of capitalism. Our survival baffles the oppressor who cannot grasp that the people don't need profit to propel us, to motivate us on our path to freedom. Our drive is mysterious to the oppressor whose only action is brought on by profit.
Prisons will continue to have uprisings as more and more are now conscious and aware that things don't have to be the way they are, and torture does not have to be tolerated. Marx summed it up when he said "mankind always sets itself only such tasks as it can solve; since, looking at the matter more closely it will always be found that the task itself only arises when the material conditions for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation. At the same time the productive forces developing in the womb of bourgeois society create the material conditions for the solution of that antagonism."(5) What this is basically saying is once the productive forces develop to a point, they will naturally enter the next stage in social evolution. I think prisoners are at the stage in social evolution across Amerika and this is reflected in the uprisings we are seeing develop as never before.
The folks in Red Onion are a link in a long chain that reaches from concentration camp to concentration camp and the Brown Berets - Prison Chapter stands in solidarity with them in our common march towards human rights!
1. http://www.abolishcontrolunits.org/research
2. NPR, Latino USA, 7-13-2012
3. Stateline/Pew Center 2012.
4. CBS, 60 minutes. "Hard measures" 4-29-2012
5. Preface to "The Critique of Political Economy" by Karl Marx. pg 329.
This article referenced in:
ULK 28: Editor's Note on Security and Correct Leadership
[Aztlan/Chicano] [National Oppression]
Burning Chicano Books
by cipactli of Brown Berets - Prison Chapter March 2012 permalink
The recent assault raining down on Brown people in the state of Arizona smacks of the rise of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany when Hitler's Brown shirts began burning books that may have contradicted fascist ideology. This was not a phenomenon exclusive to Germany, rather the occupier always attacks an oppressed nation's culture, history and language in order to sap a people's ability to struggle.
What better way to prevent a people from wanting to struggle than to take away their history of struggle and oppression and brainwash them with the oppressor's views and version of history. An act that was outright "land theft" quickly becomes "an honest purchase" or "genocidal acts" become an almost spiritual or supernatural concept called "manifest destiny." In this way ideas are shaped and a people are pacified.
The state of Arizona has dismantled Chicano studies which was obtained in the first place by courageous struggle. Most remember the 1990s when UCLA finally obtained their Chicano studies courses via a hunger strike in 1993. Many schools had to protest and struggle to be able to learn about our history. For too long we have been told a version of history from the oppressor nation's view, twisting real history in an attempt to brainwash our youth. This is a serious attack on the Chicano nation and this comes at a time when an increase in repression is unleashed on migrants by ICE and other government agencies. This is no coincidence when it is viewed with the criminalization of Raza and the southwest states' use of control units to capture Chicanos at a higher rate than any other nationality. Even those "law abiding" youth who are doing nothing wrong but attending Amerikan schools thinking that if they commit no crime and get an "education" they will have a good life are facing attacks from the imperialists — preying on the most vulnerable — our youth!
The banning of books was thought to have been a thing of the past, a fascist way of controlling a people's thoughts and yet we are experiencing it in 2012. The book Occupied America: A history of Chicanos by Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuna was recently one of the books banned in Arizona. This book along with others was boxed up in classrooms in front of Chicano students, as if their history is bad, as if Chicanos are bad, a forbidden people. It has been reported that when this occurred some Chicano youth were crying in class not understanding or comprehending the vile white supremacist monster they are up against living as an internal semi-colony in the United $tates.
Occupied America is a book that has been required reading in Chicano studies courses all over the United $tates for decades! It is a book of the history of the Chicanos and uncovers U.$. imperialism's treatment and oppression of our nation. It does not promote violence or speak of revenge or retribution, this book merely tells the story of imperialism's activity on this continent over the centuries. But as the Chicano scholar Dr. Carlos Muñoz recently put it in regards to the banning of these books and studies "They are afraid of the truth. You know, the truth hurts." I think that's a real simple way to put it the truth does hurt these parasites, their vileness hurts to know or to be reminded of how they treated human beings.
This recent attack is going to backfire on the oppressor nation. Due to this and all the other attacks on the Chicano nation it is going to spark an arousal in Aztlan, a second wind in the Chicano movement is going to kick in where the youth who have since the 60s begun to get lax and not appreciate the sacrifices that went into allowing us to gain things like Chicano studies, all this taking things for granted is now coming to an end and Raza are awakening and our youth are once more being politicized and our barrios are once more being revolutionized. Chicano revolutionaries are organizing and developing new ideology, even prisons are seeing [email protected] becoming conscious and revolutionary and we will use the experience of the Chicano movement of decades past to make a leap in our struggles and push our nation farther than previous efforts. More youth are wanting answers of why they are suffering state oppression and jumping into the mix, many want to know why Occupied America is banned and going out and purchasing the book to see what all the fuss is about if they have not already read it, I myself am going to order it to share with others and all Raza should do the same and purchase this book to learn why the state is targeting this book and to support our Chicano historians who stand in the line of fire by imperialism and its apparatus. Purchase it before it is banned even for purchase!
When we see these developments occur to our gente we should understand that the 2010 U.$. census shows the dramatic growth in the Raza population, when all other folks are decreasing in population Raza are increasing. Raza will soon be the majority and I have written about this before, this "majority" in population that we will be in the future is not being taken lightly by the state, they have think tanks who sit around thinking of ways to stifle and assimilate Raza and how to break the Chicano nation's back via our youth. We must see the seriousness in the banning of Chicano books, this is a low intensity war on the Chicano nation, they are using deportations, prisons, three strikes laws and now schools to force their program onto our nation and so we need to educate Raza in the barrios and the pintas before it is too late.
When the Spaniards came to the valley of Mexico they burned the Mexica's books (codices) and destroyed their written history or most of it along with other traces of their legacy and filled the void with what they wanted future generations to know and when we read what they have written we do not read of genocide and rape because they conveniently left that out. All oppressors have used this tactic of re-writing history. Do not stand by and allow Chicano book burning to occur in 2012. Let us make our voice heard in Arizona and support Raza in that repressive atmosphere who are up against the same world oppressor we are! This madness in Arizona will not be solved by changing Arizona because it is U.$. imperialism which unleashes these fascist laws on our nation so it is with imperialism where the problem lies and so long as imperialism exists book banning will exist, today it is the Chicano nation being attacked via its history books and tomorrow the Black nation's history books will be banned in schools and then others as well so let us stand in solidarity against this coming fascist storm and prepare the people wherever you may be!
Go to Page [1] [2] [3] 4


I've mentioned this before, but I'm continually astonished by the incredible women I've met thanks to Poplin. In fact, I'm hosting a private client event soon to get them all together because let's face it: amazing women simply must be connected to one another. For those of you who are part of the larger Poplin community via social media and the blog, thank YOU. It's important to me that you also have access to some of these women who inspire me to dive into new things everyday. This is why I'm sharing a guest post from international best selling author (and Poplin client) Julie Pierce. Julie is intuitive, direct, creative and savvy. In short, she's all the things. Please enjoy and let me know what you think about hearing from clients.
How you dress impacts how you feel about yourself, which permeates how you show up and how you are perceived. This is also true for how you feel about love. So if you've been hiding from love for a while, but catch yourself dreaming about or wishing you could have more love in your life, I've got something for you.
And now, I am creating a new body of work -- Love Is -- for women looking to redefine themselves on their own terms, attract the love of their dreams, while unapologetically claiming and expressing the power and strength of their feminine energy.
Whether I am working with women struggling with infertility, people wanting to improve their health, or people who are targeting generalized life improvement goals, my work is infused with lessons of self-love and faith.
How do you remember your first brush with Love outside of your family? It seems a little strange the way I remember my first kiss and all. I can still see Billy P. and the paper heart he gave me that I glued onto a wooden box. I still have that box.
My life wasn't always easy, moving around, starting over, meeting new people, never really having any roots, but the one thing that seemed to happen everywhere I went was Love.
Every place I went, I had a clear sense of my feminine energy, a knowing that I was capable of owning my body and self. I knew that I could be a Love magnet.
No matter what country I lived in, even when I wasn't looking for it, there was Love being offered to me.
I know how connecting to your body and mind can bring the Love of your dreams to you!
Can you imagine being approached by a potential Love partner with respect and genuine interest in who you are.
That Love finds you utterly irresistible.
I'm super excited to share this with women who are feeling love bereft -- simple and amazing ways to attract this kind of Love into her life!
I'm so excited to tell you I opened Attract the Love of Your Dreams.
If you are ready to explore igniting Love in your life, send me a Facebook message at https://m.me/jules.pierce.
This program is new, so it's not perfect, but it is ready to create Love like no other.
If you KNOW this is you, message me today to get started.
I've mentioned it to a few of my friends who mentioned it to a few of their friends, and the program is filling up fast. I also mentioned it to Mellicia, and she was pretty excited about this. (Did you know that she used to work at a dating service?!) Anyway, she thought that a number of her clients and readers would find this useful. Hence, the guest post.
As I write this, I have 1 spots available for an August start, so if you feel any pull toward this offer, please reach out. The price will go up once August is full.
Summer of love -- sign me up!
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Without Compromising Your Style.


Breitsamer honey was represented at the Street Life festival in Munich under the slogan "Don't let the buzzing fall silent". A varied program – honey tastings, a wheel of fortune with great prizes, children's gardening initiative and a lot more- helped call attention to the raffle wir-tun-was-für-Bienen. More information under www.wir-tun-was-fuer-bienen.de.
The Street Life Festival is the biggest street party in Munich – 1.5 km on Ludwig and Leopold Street. The environmental protection organisation Green City e.V. organises the festival twice a year since 2000. The diverse informative and entertaining programs in different subject areas attract around 600.000 visitors.


text:
Anti-War ANZAC Day
By Alice Barricadas
It is probably a good thing that the hundreds of old men, who used to line the pub walls on ANZAC day as an act of both remembrance and to forget, are mostly dead. Many of them like Alec Campbell, the last ANZAC still alive in 2002, were incredibly uncomfortable being lauded by toffy conservatives looking for votes. Whatever Australian-ness was during his time, and it was many awful things, flag-waving haughtiness was not one of them.
Campbell was the secretary of the Tasmanian branch of the Australian Workers Union. In his latter life, he knew all too well what Howard was trying to do by encouraging a rabid nationalism, using the ANZAC story to promote a right-wing agenda.
Speak to somebody over 35, and they will fill you in on how the expensive fanfare now put on by the government every ANZAC day, is only a relatively recent phenomenon. The coming ANZAC centenary celebrations starting in 2014, will cost something in the order of ninety million dollars, complete with USSR-style military re-enactments.
Back when the ANZACs were still alive, a commemoration for the dead turned into a celebration of nationalism and war, always ran the risk that an old "digger" or two might speak up about the hypocrisy of it all. Of course governments have always used war-stories to further their conservative agenda, but it is telling that the operatic explosion of ANZAC day did not take off until most of the actual participants were long gone.
As we get further from the past, the better it can function as a mythology written by governments, with nobody left to contradict them. As Orwell said, who controls the present controls the past. I'm sure that in fifty years, we'll be hearing about how the whole nation was united in support for our diggers in Vietnam.
No story better encapsulates the blatant lie of nationalist unity promoted during the annual ANZAC day celebration, than the story of Simpson and his Donkey. Kilpatrick (Simpson) was a revolutionary and anti-militarist, who only signed up to the army in order to get a free ride back to England. Hence using his middle name Simpson. He intended for 'Simpson' to disappear when the ship got to England where they were headed for further training. He got a nasty shock when they were diverted to Gallipoli, where he refused to do the dangerous job of being a stretcher-bearer… hence the donkey.
The vast expense of historical cover-up and myth-making, is in order to encourage more young people to sign up to die, just as they did 100 years ago. While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have little in common militarily with WWI, there is this striking similarity: these wars have absolutely nothing to do with protecting our freedoms or making the world a better place. They have everything to do with the geopolitical significance of the countries that we have invaded. And, just like Gallipoli, which was promised to the Russian Tsar by the British should the Australian and New Zealand invasion have been successful, Australia holds Uruzgan Province in Afghanistan for the benefits of a foreign power (foreign to us, and Afghanis), the United States.
The sad thing about ANZAC day is how the state uses the legitimate emotions of people who have been through the traumatic experience of war, to create a celebration designed solely to win recruits for the next useless war. I have an uncle who was drafted for the Vietnam War. He is quite progressive, in his way, and has said as much that the Vietnam War was an imperialistic crusade Australia should never have been a part of. But he still participates in ANZAC day, as a way to commemorate his dead friends. People like this shrug off the politicians, while those who point out the futility of war before, during and after the useless conflicts are fought, such as the draft resisters, are barred from any participation. An anti-Vietnam activist giving a talk about the immorality of the war and why they resisted it, would be cast as "too political", while an army officer invading schools to tell children what an honourable thing it is to join the army, is said to be neutral.
As the ANZAC centenary approaches it may be pertinent for us to turn our minds to creating an alternative to ANZAC day, some kind of Anti-War ANZAC Day. It has been tried before, but perhaps we should try harder. An attempt to do this should actively seek out and include anti-war activists from past conflicts, as well as people who have been to war and know how shit it is first hand. It should be an event that achieves in reality what ANZAC day pretends to do, by providing a truthful account of war, remembering the dead, the immorality of war, as well as the futility. In other words remembrance and reflection without promoting the next war. Anti-militarism makes up a large part of the history of anarchist struggle, especially during WWI when the broad anarchist tradition was one of the few socialist variants to remain committed to its internationalism. It is also a good way for us to reach out to a wider audience. I think there are plenty of people out there who are tired of seeing their grandparents' memory being used as an expensive recruitment strategy for the armed forces. While seeking to broadly appeal, we should insist that the organisation of such an event remain fiercely independent of both the state and capitalist interests, whose only interest is to promote war.
Mutiny #64
Apr 18, '12 11:54 PM
Mutiny #64 has hit the streets and internet and is available for download.
Nicola Roxon on anarchists
Last night on Q&A, Nicola Roxon (current Federal Attorney General) made this bizarre comment, in the context of government spooks intimidating questioning anti-coal protestors.
NICOLA ROXON:
"…Peaceful protest is one thing. Sometimes peaceful protests can break the law. But there is also a lot of industrial sabotage which gets to a point where it is the commission of quite a serious crime. So there might be people who were involved in that. I would expect that the contact, if there was any of that behaviour, would be police, both State and Federal, rather than ASIO. Unfortunately we see a growing number of [links] across some groups who are anarchists, others who meld into some religion sometimes and intent with committing a terrorist offence that might link in with other protest groups. You do see a bit of merging. There are a lot of people involved individually and intend to cause no harm and would have no reason to fear that ASIO was in any way monitoring what they were doing."
Free Pussy Riot Rally in Melbourne, Friday April 20
Pussy Riot grrls in Moscow are in trouble and they need our halp.
On Friday April 20 supporters will be rallying at State Parliament in Melbourne from 4pm.
Bring balaclavas, music, food, fun and fabulousness. Crafty speakers and funky toons guaranteed.
WTF? HACSU, HSU, EBAs, and the poor health of unions in Australia
Below is a contribution from a health worker addressing negotiations between the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) (a Victorian branch of the Health Services Union (HSU)) and the Baillieu state government regarding a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) for workers in the public health sector.
As noted previously, the HSU, its current and former leadership, is today in the news for all the wrong reasons. Otherwise, note that in February in Greece, Kilkis General Hospital was occupied by workers. On February 26, the Hospital's General Assembly issued a statement which read in part:
This occupation is not only about us, the physicians and the workers at the Kilkis Hospital. Neither is it only about the Greek National Health System, which is collapsing, indeed. We are in this fight because what is in real danger now is the human rights and our lives. And this threat is not against just a nation, or against a few countries, or a few social groups, but against the low and middle classes in Europe, America, Asia, Africa, in the whole world. Today's Greece, is tomorrow's picture of Portugal, Spain, Italy and the rest of the countries worldwide.
WTF – What The Fuck?
My workplace is awash with radical fervour right now.
Actually, no it isn't.
Apparently, I'm The Hard-Hitting Union Guy at my workplace. If true, this is an indictment on the state of collective action at the clinic where I work, as I mostly post faxes the union sends and forward their emails to a mostly disinterested staff.
Mostly.
For the last seven months, the Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) has been negotiating on behalf of its members with the Baillieu government for a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), arguing for more than the offered 2.5% pay "rise" (which is really a pay cut given that the current rate of inflation is 3.6%) and better working conditions for nurses and allied health workers across the entire mental health sector. (As opposed to management claims for conditions such as split shifts and worker redeployment to other locations without notice.) HACSU tells its members that they've been "fighting" for them and have covered the legal aspects of the industrial action with Fair Work Australia. In my view, this union-run EBA campaign exemplifies the key failings of Australian unionism. In the following article I articulate some of the reasons why I think this, and argue for the need to facilitate actual workers' control of our workplaces.
The ANF and
In March this year, the Australian Nurses Federation (ANF) concluded six or so months of negotiations. It obtained the same employment conditions that HACSU is still bargaining for. A decisive factor in obtaining this outcome was nurses taking "unprotected" industrial action. These actions supplemented the failing, formal negotiations conducted by the ANF with the government.
Now, if you believe what HACSU state secretary Lloyd Williams had to say about the matter, HACSU was working rigorously alongside ANF throughout this period. This display of solidarity has not, however, been reciprocated now that the ANF has concluded negotiations for its membership, many of whom are employed in the mental health sector. In other words, the ANF finished negotiations without ensuring its entire membership was included in the agreed settlement. Indeed, allied health workers (such as Occupational Therapists and Social Workers) had no idea about what ANF's success meant for them. This may seem like a strange statement — why would nurses' bargaining relate to allied health? — but the perception among workers in the sector has rightly been that 'we're all in this together' and precisely because we service the same or similar cohort: the acutely unwell.
I don't know for sure, but I presume that the ANF was negotiating in regard to awards that do not cover mental health (for nurses). I do know that many nurses in my workplace felt stiffed when it was brought to their attention that the ANF's so-called "victory" constituted no such thing for them. It's certainly hard to see how concern for all nurses affected by Baillieu's unreasonable proposed conditions is being practiced here, and the ANF does not appear to support HACSU's EBA campaign in any meaningful way at present, despite it mirroring their own. This further demonstrates a lack of solidarity for allied health mental health workers who, again, service the same cohort but in a different manner and not necessarily in the same locus (ie. community clinics and "Thomas Embling", the prison/hospital/psych ward).
HACSU and HSU – East
To further complicate matters in the sector, confusion reigned last year when HSU–East actually settled negotiations with the Baillieu government, most notably accepting the proposed 2.5% pay rise over the next four years, reportedly for fear that continuing to argue for a greater — and entirely reasonable — pay increase could somehow lead to further loss of pay. This has greatly hampered mental health nurses' and allied (mental) health workers' access to reasonable pay increases and work conditions, as the Victorian Hospitals Industrial Association (VHIA) opportunistically took this poorly-represented union's settlement and ran with it all the way to Fair Work Australia (FWA) (which arbitrates industrial negotiations such as the present EBA one). Consequently, HACSU and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) repudiated HSU's involvement in EBA negotiations specifically, and their capacity to represent allied health workers in mental health in Victoria more broadly. Thus, many workers who had been keeping HSU staff in good coin for no good reason were stiffed. In fact, all of us workers were stiffed by their actions because it's made it that much more difficult for our representatives in HACSU to argue our case: I had confused staff asking me what this all meant, both when HSU settled for a terrible EBA but also when the ACTU barred them from the bargaining table. Fortunately, HACSU has been successful in repealing HSU's settlement through FWA. Now, as if all this wasn't bad enough, the HSU has been suspended from the ACTU due to alleged misappropriation of members' funds and other corrupt practices.
What I conclude from all this is that, whatever their historic role, unions in general have become yet another bureaucratic layer between workers' efforts to attain greater control over their workplaces and the state. Unions attempt to justify lining their coffers with workers' money to suit their own cushy ends by complying with increasingly mediated and bureaucratic means of negotiating with employers. FWA arbitration, for example, requires unions to apply for "protected" industrial action, rather than workers directly fighting for better conditions. It's hard to see how such complicated arrangements are in the interests of workers, who are understandably confused by all of these machinations and who meekly vote "yes" to whatever resolutions they're spoon-fed at union rallies.This is not how I define industrial democracy.
Where it's at
HACSU is now repeating the process undertaken by the ANF in an effort to force through the conditions they'd like to see in the EBA: namely, by conducting work stoppages. However, HACSU doesn't want workers to "disadvantage" patients and so the stoppages will be two hours long and will roll out variously at different mental health wards and clinics around Victoria. This seems backward to my mind. In reality, it's the state that's responsible for adversely affecting patients by a) woefully under-resourcing the mental health sector and b) attempting to stiff workers out of reasonable pay increases and working conditions. Taking such a softly, softly approach and suggesting to workers that we don't want to inconvenience or place the health and welfare of our clients at riskinduces workers to accept the blame for an unacceptable state of affairs in the mental health sector. Regardless, on the 18th of April, St Vincent's Mental Health wards and clinics will stop work at 9am and again at 3:30pm for two hour periods. Workers will don their orange campaign t-shirts and walk out on the job to rally out the front of the acute inpatient service at 64 Nicholson St, Fitzroy: it would be nice to see some black-and-red in amongst the crowd. The slogan for the HACSU EBA 2011 (sic) campaign is, "WTF – Where's The Funding?".
WTF, indeed.
Source: Slackbastard.
Republished by permission and request!
Sydney anarchists drop a banner in Redfern, disrupt Police Expo
Apr 6, '12 3:30 PM
On April 1, some Sydney anarchists disrupted a police PR exercise with a timely reminder of the death of TJ Hickey and the over-policing (which is to say, policing) of Redfern's aboriginal residents.
From their communique on Indymedia:
As soon as we arrived, we began handing out hundreds of anti-police fliers to passers-by, in which we outlined the repressive role these pigs have played over the past 150 years (and the previous 70 through earlier manifestations) as the armed defenders of early colonial and now corporate elites.
We also raided numerous police stalls and took all their propaganda, from police recruitment pamphlets (some directly targeting Kooris), to "Cops are Tops" stickers, to police fridge magnets and temporary tattoos, even puzzles for children featuring 'Constable Charlie' the penguin. The strangest of all was a leaflet for contest to "WIN A DAY WITH THE NSW POLICE FORCE", a 'prize' that many would prefer to avoid.
Source: Disaccords

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) is a transnational organisation among the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora which aims to establish Tamil Eelam, a secular and democratic socialist state which many Tamils aimed to create in the North-East of Sri Lanka.

The TGTE has been called a "ploy to perpetuate terrorism" by the Government of Sri Lanka, which itself is under international pressure for war crime probes. For its part, the TGTE has maintained that it is a democratic organization, and intends to use soft power and not military power to its end. The exact words found in TGTE constitution are: "Whereas the TGTE has guided us towards a democratic system of government, in order to establish an independent state of Tamil Eelam based on the principles of peace, non-violence, tolerance, pluralism, transparency and accountability".

Formed following the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War, the TGTE is based internationally, including in the United states of America, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Germany, Italy, France and Switzerland. Its Prime Minister is Visvanathan Rudrakumaran, the former international legal advisor to the LTTE. Global elections were amongst Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora communities in May 2010 to elect members to the first Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Eelam, the first step towards the formation of the PTGTE.

Background

Policies adopted by the majority Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka following independence from Britain in 1948 resulted in the growth of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism, along with an appeal for Tamil autonomy. Political parties were formed to petition for these goals, with Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), the main political party representing the Tamils, calling for "an independent sovereign, secular, socialist State of Tamil Eelam" based on the Vaddukoddai Resolution in its 1977 election manifesto. This was endorsed the Tamil people who voted overwhelmingly for the TULF. However, the failure of the Tamil political parties to achieve autonomy resulted in some Tamils forming militant groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). By 1983, full scale civil war had broken out between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government. Over the next three decades the Sri Lankan civil war became increasingly violent. The civil war came to an end in 18 May 2009 when the Sri Lankan military defeated the LTTE.

After the end of the war the UN urged the Sri Lankan government to address "the legitimate concerns and aspirations of the Tamil people". This was echoed by the EU, United States, India and other countries. In March 2010 the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the successor to the TULF, dropped its demands for an independent Tamil Eelam but continues to demand greater autonomy through federalism.

TGTE
After the end of the civil war the concept of a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam was proposed as a non-violent political mechanism to fulfil the aspirations of many Tamils living abroad and in Sri Lanka. Initially it was Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who had become leader of the Tamil Tigers after Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed by the Sri Lankan Army, who proposed that a government in exile be established.

Advisory Committee
In June 2009 an Advisory Committee on the Formation of a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam was established "to explore the modalities for the establishment of a Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam, and to recommend the objectives that should be achieved by such a Transnational Government".

The advisory committee consisted of many experts from different countries.
Muthucumaraswamy Sornarajah,  Ph.D./LL.D. (University of London, UK)
Francis Boyle, Ph.D./J.D. (Harvard University, USA), Professor of International Law, USA
Prof.Ramasamy Palanisamy, (Malaysia)
Prof. A.J.C Chandrakanthan, (Canada)
Nadarajah Sriskandarajah, Ph.D. (University of Sydney, Australia), Professor of Environmental Communication, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
Murugar Gunasingham, Ph.D.
Dr.Sivanendran Seevanayagam (AUS)
A.L. Vasanthakumar Ph.D. (UK)
Karen Parker, Ph.D. Humanitarian Lawyer (USA)
Nagalingam Jeyalingam, M.D. (USA)
Selva Sivarajah
Paul Williams
Peter Schalk, Ph.D. Lund University (Religion) / University Gothenburg (Indology), Professor of History of Religion, Uppsala University, Sweden

The advisory committee published its final report in March 2010.

Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Eelam

One of the main recommendations of the advisory committee was that a Transnational Constituent Assembly of Tamil Eelam be formed consisting of 135 members. Of these, 115 would be elected and the remaining 20 shall consist of delegates selected by the elected assembly to represent regions where elections aren't feasible.

The distribution of the 115 elected representatives is: Australia 10; Benelux 3; Canada 25; Denmark 3; Finland 1; France 10; Germany 10; Ireland 1; Italy 3; New Zealand 2; Norway 3; South Africa 3; Sweden 1; Switzerland 10; UK 20; and USA 10.

The distribution of the 20 appointed delegates is: Caribbean & South America 1; India 5; Malaysia 3; Mauritius 1; Middle East 2; Oceania 1; Rest of Africa 1; Rest of Asia 1; Rest of Europe 1; Singapore 2; and South Africa 2.

Working groups were established in countries with significant diaspora communities to organise elections. Elections were held in May 2010 and the following were elected:
 Australia - Janani Balachandran; Dominic Savio Santhiapillai; Eliyathamby Selvanathan; Thuraisingam Shanmugananthakumar;Kanagenthiram Manickavasagar and Apiramy Visuvanathan.
 Canada - Joe Antony; Pon Balarajan; M. K. Eelaventhan; Sivasothy Jeyamathy; Nagendra Katpana; Suren Mahendran; Mokanasingham Markandu; Bhuvan-Endra Nadarajah; Niruthan Nagalingam; Maharajah Nanthakumar; Tharani Prapaharan; Muthukumarasamy Ratna; Sam Sangarasivam; Iyampillai Shanmuganathan; Ram Sivalingam; Luxan Sivapragasapillai; Sothinathan Sumughan; Kanthiah Theiventhiran; Waran Vaithilingam.
 Denmark -
 France - Subashini Kuruparanathan; Balachandran Nagalingam; Sasikumar Saravanamuththu; and Krishanth Tharmendran.
 Germany - Rajaratnam Jeyachandran; Nadarajah Rajendrâ; Anather Poopathy Balavadivetkaren.
 New Zealand - K. S. Naguleswaran and Theva Rajan.
 Norway -
 Switzerland - Thayananth Alvaipillai; Baskaralingam Mahalingam; Suginthan Murugiah; Suganya Puthirasigamani; Mahenthirampillai Sellathurai; Jeyam Selvarajah; Rajinithevi Sinnathamby; Balan Sivapatham; Srisajeetha Sivarajah; and Suntharalingam Virakathi.
 United Kingdom - Arththy Arumugam;Shanmuganathan Kaviraj; Nicholas Manoranjan; Deluxon Morris; Balambihai Murugadas; Janarthanan Pulenthiran;Manivannan Pathmanabhan; Nimalan Seevaratnam; Sokalingam Yogalingam and Selvarajah Sellathurai.
 United States of America - Alex Doss; Gerard Francis; Jeyaprakash Jeyalingam; Prabharan Ponnuthurai; Visvanathan Rudrakumaran; Siva Sangary; Ranjan Selva; Shan Sundaram; Suba Suntharalingam; and Thave Thavendrarajah.

The inaugural assembly met between 17 May 2010 and 19 May 2010 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, USA.

References

External links
 Committee for the Formation of a Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
 The politics of transnational Tamil Eelam Government
 Younger Generation establish the 'TGTE-Democrats' (in Tamil)

Exile organizations
Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora
Organisations designated as terrorist by Sri Lanka

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


You can send your order back to us within 30 days after receiving it. No matter the reason. Begin the return process by filling in the form, as explained below.
What if something is wrong with my vaporizer after these 30 days?
Check the terms of the manufacturer's warranty outlined on the vaporizer's product page. If the problem with your vaporizer falls within the warranty's terms and conditions, you can proceed with the steps outlined hereunder.
6. Don't forget to confirm your request.
4. Don't forget to confirm your request.
* Choose Exchange if you want to receive a different product and Replace if a product you want to keep is broken and you would like to receive a new one.
If everything went well you should find a confirmation email including your personal claim number in your inbox.
After we receive your return application, our in-house experts will look into your request. They will decide whether your problem can be fixed from a distance, for example by sharing some tips and tricks on how to use the device or they will decide to send you a completely new product. If our experts feel the need to examine the product before deciding whether to repair or replace your order, you will be sent a post label with instructions on how to send your device back free of charge.
In which conditions should you return the device?
Simply send us the product in question. A broken vaporizer, for example, does not have to be accompanied by the accessories you have received with it.
We've received the product, now what?
Our experts will confirm the arrival and investigate the problem.
If we can repair it, we will. We will fix and test the product and send it back to you.
If we can't repair it, we will send you an identical new product.
You will be contacted by our lovely customer support team to let you know whether we have replaced or repaired a product.
You can log into your VapoShop account to see the status of your return. Is something still unclear? Please do not reply to the confirmation mail but contact us via this contact form and don't forget to mention your personal claim number.


Oh, hallelujah Wednesday was the first day of spring! Has anyone else been itching for it as much as I have?! This winter has been BRUTAL, and we spent quite a bit of it sick. Sure, we snuck in a quick trip to the Florida Keys and I may have hit up Cabos for a few quick days (courtesy of a work trip) but honestly those trips just didn't seem to make the winter any more bearable.
Spring gets me excited to start planning for spring events. Bright colors. Not worrying about coat checks. Rain plans. Ya know, all the good stuff. Last spring was tough when it came to rain, but I'm convinced 2019 is going to be different!
Pro tip: when planning an event, be sure your rain plan (Plan B) is just as lovely as your fair-weather plan. That way if you have to go with Plan B, you are completely fine with your decision! Also, doing all of the good juju rain things isn't a bad idea. One personal favorite is burying the bourbon. Simply dig a hole at your ceremony site and bury a full bottle of bourbon upside down. After the ceremony, dig up the bourbon and share it with your guests!


text:
MSNBC's Miller: People Need to 'Take to the Streets' Over Sessions Firing, Appointing Whitaker
Pam Key
Wednesday on MSNBC's "Deadline," former Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said people should "take to the streets" over President Donald Trump removing Attorney General Jeff Sessions and appointing Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general.
Miller said, "The timing of this is so suspect because we're so close to the end of the Mueller investigation. Whitaker coming in right now might be at the critical time to stop the key steps that need to happen, indictments or referral to Congress from taking place. I really do think this is a national emergency. I don't think you can overstate the gravity of the situation. And it's incumbent upon everyone in public life to respond to this like it's an emergency."
He continued, "This isn't like all of Trump's other attempts to interfere with the investigation. He's reached over and found the one person among dozens of political appointees at the Justice Department who has a preordained hostility, publicly stated hostility to the investigation. I think for people in Congress, they need to step up and object to this. I think for the broad public, this is the time to maybe take to the streets and say this is not what you expect out of the government. I have a message for people at the Justice Department. There are a number of senior political appointees at the Justice Department. Republican appointees who believe in the rule of law and believe in this investigation, believe in what Bob Mueller and Rosenstein have done. The country needs to hear from them in the next few days. This is a crisis moment. They need to step forward and make their voices heard, in mass resignations if necessary, to say they just will not stand for this abuse of the Justice Department's independence."
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
ClipsPoliticsMatthew MillerMatthew WhitakerRod Rosenstein


One of our latest additions here at Heatherton is our exhilarating dog agility course; the perfect dog-friendly attraction in Pembrokeshire!
Now, not only are you welcome to bring your dog for a day out at Heatherton on a lead, but they have their very own activity to keep them entertained!
Our dog agility course is made up of 10 obstacles which will test the skill and patience of both you and your dog, including a tunnel, bridge, zigzags and hurdles.