Naked
Air: Everybody flies naked and nobody worries.
29 December 2001
Argentina has been suffering from recession and widespread poverty due
to an austerity program imposed by the International Monetary Fund.
Argentines have responded with general strikes,
rioting in many cities, and massive protests on the street. All
this forced
President de la Rua, who authorized these policies, to resign.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
29 December 2001
Bush says we should not worry about the justice of military trials
because "they will be more fair than bin Laden's system." Should that
be the standard American justice--anything better than bin Laden is
good enough?
Winn-Dixie fired an employee for cross-dressing in his private
life.
A
boycott campaign is spreading. [Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
24 December 2001
Growing and testing genetically modified plants raises the
possibility that the modified genes will spread to other wild or
cultivated plant populations. Farmers whose crops unintentionally
carry the gene
face the
threat of being sued for patent infringement. The companies that
do the genetic engineering are not always careful about trying to
prevent this mixing. Friends of the Earth reported recently that
an experimental plant field in Britain was illegally allowed to bloom, and was being visited by bees that were presumably carrying
pollen to other populations.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
23 December 2001
On December 20 in Rome, 100,000 school children protested right-wing
Premier Berlusconi's plans to commercialize the school system.
References (in Italian
only).
Several men described as North African political dissidents have
been
disappeared
in Britain under the new anti-terrorism bill.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
21 December 2001
An article in Technology Review gives a lot of information
about the software used for surveillance, and argues that people
should not expect massive surveillance to be effective for preventing
terrorist attacks, only for investigating them afterward.
[Update on 2017-12-23: The original article is now paywalled so I
have decided not to promote it with a link.
This
article makes the same point.]
Attorney General Ashcroft says that people like me
"aid terrorists" because we "erode our national unity". If
government condemnation of dissenting views offends you, please give
your support to the
ACLU, which
has spoken out against them.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
The UK anti-terrorism law was scaled back to meet the objections of
the House of Lords, and is not as dangerous as it might have been.
But Amnesty International says it still opens the door to human rights
violations.
16 December 2001
The Landless Women of Bangladesh enforce a Bangladeshi
law that gives newly-formed islands to landless people to farm.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
14 December 2001
Tens of thousands of protestors are expected at the European Union
summit in Brussels, Dec 14/15.
Canadians occupied the office of the Justice Minister as a protest
against the proposed "anti-terrorism" laws that would criminalize many
common forms of protest. See their statements about bills
C35 and
C36.
Meanwhile, Canadian author Mike Pearson is
not
being allowed to receive copies of his own book. [References updated on 2017-12-23 because
theoldlinks
were broken.]
11 December 2001
The DEA has decided to "interpret" a 1970 law so that claims that
food containing even a trace of hemp is illegal. Please visit
http://www.SaveHemp.org to tell your
federal representatives that you object to this.
The
Drug Reform Coordination
Network is campaigning to change a provision in the Higher
Education Act that excludes thousands of college students (or would-be
students) from financial aid because of drug use (most often simple
possession of marijuana). Americans are asked to send email and faxes
to their congressional representatives
through a special web site .
You may already know that
Mumia Abu-Jamal was
convicted of murder
in an unfair
trial. Now another man is ready to confess to the murder--and so
far, courts have ruled that the system should not listen. A protest
campaign demands
the reopening of
Mumia's case.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because
theoldlinks
were broken.]
The case of "incitement to riot" against the editors of Brand has been
dismissed. The court ruled that the article was indeed political
satire. The case received wide publicity in Sweden, with many
well-known personalities standing up for Brand and freedom of the press.
6 December 2001
The EU is proposing an "anti-terrorism" measure that would classify
common forms of political protest and dissent as "terrorism". It
calls for keeping international dossiers on suspected protestors.
200 lawyers from all the EU countries have published an appeal warning
of
the
danger to democracy posed by this measure.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
The British government plans to prohibit "incitement of religious
hatred". Many are worried that people will be
prosecuted for
criticizing religion.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
27 November 2001
As a side effect of the "anti-terrorism" bill, the US now plans to
prosecute
people around the world for breaking computer security. The US in
effect threatens to impose its laws on people and activities in other
countries.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
27 November 2001
The UK already has a
Terrorism
Act which has been used to arbitrarily ban political groups.
This law has been condemned by Amnesty International and
by the
UN Commission on Human Rights.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
27 November 2001
An Oklahoma forensic analyst with a habit of lying about the
evidence has been fired for a
series of unjust convictions and sentences, but the state Attorney
General is blocking DNA tests that might exonerate others.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
Greg Palast reports that when trying to investigate terrorist
connections of other members of the wealthy bin Laden family,
the
FBI was blocked by orders from above.
A list of quotations from the mainstream media response that shows
the dreadful chorus of
lust to punish someone, no matter who.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
17 November 2001
www.wartimeliberty.com
provides information on "anti-terrorist" threats to civil liberties.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
www.polyamour.net promotes
non-possessiveness in love relationships, and the freedom to go beyond
the narrow range of relationships sanctioned by convention.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
11 November 2001
On Oct 25 the DEA raided the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center.
The Marijuana Policy Project asks Americans to
send letters to their elected representatives to support a bill that would put an end to DEA
interference with medical marijuana.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
Jared Israel writes that the US government has
protected
Osama bin Laden and his associates on numerous occasions as
recently as last August.
9 November 2001
There will be a protest at the Massachusetts State House near
Boston Common, on 12:30pm on Wednesday November 14, to call on the
legislators to obey the Clean Elections Law, which voters approved
several years ago but which the legislators are now refusing to fund.
A student in West Virginia was prohibited from forming an
anarchist club, and
even from wearing anti-war t-shirts, on the grounds that
expressing these ideas "disrupts the educational process".
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
The FBI has detained over 1000 people as "terrorist suspects" and
refuses to say who or why.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
4 November 2001
The
Sep 30 issue of Crypto-Gram explains why many of the new and
proposed security measures against terrorism are as ineffective as
they are intrusive.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
31 October 2001
The National Writers Union has voted to
support a boycott of Pacifica Radio stations because of their firing and harassment
of popular journalists.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
The dangerous "anti-terrorism" bill has been enacted into law; it
omits the most horrible proposal, life imprisonment without trial for
non-citizens, but even without that it is a
great
blow to freedom.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
The FCC decided on September 13 to review the regulation that
prohibits anyone from owning both a TV station and a newspaper in the
same area. This is likely to let TV chains snap up newspapers,
further narrowing the information most Americans get about the world.
Please
register
your opposition to this change.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
29 October 2001
Noam Chomsky's
The New War
Against Terror poses the question: what should be done to reduce
terrorism generally in the world today?
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
28 October 2001
Framed and unjustly imprisoned British political activist
Mark Barnsley writes
about the extortionist
"company
stores" in the privatized prisons in the UK.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Thursday, October 18
to consider the first appellate court nominee of the Bush
Administration with a clear anti-choice record. Ask your Senators to
oppose
the nomination and
to request a second hearing.
The FBI is openly admitting that it wants to find a way to
use torture to get information from terrorist suspects.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
United Airlines kicked a man off two flights, then banned him
from ever flying on their planes again, because he was
reading
a novel they considered suspicious. You can write to United
Airlines at
jim.goodwin@ual.com. You can
also post your message on
www.untied.com
so that the public
can see it.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
The Canadian government has
very close ties with the pharmaceutical industry, and repays their
lobbying efforts with monopolies that hurt the public in Canada and
abroad.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
13 October 2001
Naomi Klein wrote an interesting article on how the establishment is
trying to use the September 11 attacks to demonize and attack the
anti-globalization movement:
Protesting in
the Post-WTC Age.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
12 October 2001
As governor of Texas, George W Bush signed a law making the use of
false ID by minors to obtain alcohol a jailing offense. In May 2001
his own daughters were arrested for just this crime. Not only were
they let off without going to jail (unlike the many teenagers arrested
during George W's governorship), but the bar, and the bar manager who
had caught them and called the police were menaced by Bush supporters.
11 October 2001
Who watches the watchmen? Whenever
police ask to be allowed to bypass search warrants, we must be on
guard.
11 October 2001
The
ACLU warns Americans about the
Senate's "Uniting and Strengthening America (USA) Act", an
anti-terrorism bill that
attacks basic
freedoms.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
The
Sexual Freedom Coalition
campaigns to bring UK laws into line with the rest of Europe, ending
censorship and many other forms of government-imposed sexual
repression and prudery.
10 October 2001
Binding arbitration clauses, which are now often imposed by businesses
on the public, increasingly
deprive Americans of their legal rights.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
8 October 2001
Montreal police plan to press charges against a squatter whom they
injured while
forcibly evicting him from a long-abandoned city building.
8 October 2001
The Republicans are making a renewed campaign to give Bush
"fast track"
authority for new trade treaties such as the FTAA. Please call your
congressional representatives ASAP to oppose this.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
6 October 2001
If US seek allies that share deeper values and not just a
momentary common advantage, we should support the
Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan, who document the Taliban's cruel treatment of women
and work
to educate and help Afghan women both within Afghanistan and in
the refugee camps in Pakistan.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
6 October 2001
Prostitutes in the Netherlands, where their trade is now legal, are
planning to
form a union.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
6 October 2001
Richard Dawkins explains how the irrationality of religion is a
crucial ingredient terrorism, in
Religion's Misguided Missiles.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
The annual conference of the Computer Professionals for Social
Responsibility on Oct 19-21 is about
Nurturing the
Cyber-commons .
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
2 October 2001
The UK government plans to institute
unlimited detention without trial of asylum seekers on mere
suspicion of involvement with terrorism. They could also be deported
without a hearing.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
A journalist who covered the US-sponsored guerrilla war in
Afghanistan in the 80s warns that America's announced war on terrorism
suffers from confusion and worse,
in its aims, and its methods .
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
Afghani-American writer warns that
foolishly designed military measures could hurt the Taliban's
victims while helping the Taliban recruit support.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
There will be a
protest
Sep 22 in Washington DC, to free Dr. Younus Shaikh and hundreds of
others convicted in Pakistan of blasphemy. You can also sign an
on-line
petition.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
Bush wants to appoint a "drug czar" who is as fanatical as a real
czar. You can
send
an email or fax to your senators asking them to vote against the
nomination of Walters.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, is running an
essay contest in praise of copyrights and patents. In response,
another group called WIPOUT has launched a
counter-contest. They are
asking people to respond to the same question, "What does intellectual
property mean to you in your daily life?" But they are looking for
responses that present the harm done by copyrights, patents, etc.
They aim to highlight the side of the issue that WIPO ignores. Please
keep in mind, after you read their site, that
"intellectual
property" is a propaganda term.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
The ex-chief of the Genoa police admits that
600 neo-Nazis infiltrated the Genoa protests, with the aim of
committing acts of violence that would discredit the protestors.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
A
clear explanation of the methods corporations use to manage news
reporting and thus public opinion about major issues.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
The founder of the first rationalist organization in Pakistan has
been
sentenced
to death for "blasphemy".
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
Please take ten minutes to write to your government saying that
the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas
treaty should not require laws like the DMCA.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
18 August 2001
The members of the theater troupe "no borders"
have been released from prison in Italy, with charges dropped,
but they have been prohibited (with no grounds) from entering
Italy.
17 August 2001
If you want to help research stories for this site, please email
at rms at gnu dot org.
17 August 2001
Large protests in support of Dmitry Sklyarov are being organized
for August 30 in
San
Francisco and
elsewhere.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
A report on
the
effects of NAFTA
shows that citizens of the US and Mexico have generally lost out
as a result of the treaty, although business has benefited from it.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
5 August 2001
Public Citizen, reports on the ways various
industries that paid money to the Bush campaign have been rewarded
with changes in "inconvenient" Federal regulations that would protect
public health or the environment from the actions of these companies.
WBAI has
cancelled
the
Earthwatch
program, and
fired its
host, award-winning journalist Robert Knight.
Protest
rallies are going on. Meanwhile, some of the WBAI staff are
wearing masks while on the premises, in protest against
videocameras that the management has installed to snoop on them
while at work.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because
theoldlinks were
broken.]
2 August 2001
On Aug 2, the Hawaii Board of Education voted on a proposal to
require teaching of creationism in biology classes. I
sent them a message about the proposal.
Canada
has expanded medical marijuana use, allowing people with certain medical conditions to
grow marijuana or designate someone else to grow it for them.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
25 members of a theatre caravan were
arrested in
Italy while crossing the border to Frankfurt. They were beaten at
the police station, held and questioned for 4 days without being
charged with a crime.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
29 July 2001
The POSCO workers' web site, which was prohibited in South Korea
as a copyright violation, has been recognized as a form of free
speech, not prohibited by copyright. But the workers' original
grievances about
unfair treatment
by POSCO have not been redressed.
The Italian daily
la
Repubblica interviewed a police officer who was involved in the
beatings at the Diaz school and elsewhere in Genoa.
In
English and
in Italian.
As their police guard killed and maimed protestors, the
G8
summit offered lip service instead of significant help for the
global problems that the protestors demanded attention for.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
News from Genoa: 2 protestors killed, woman photographer attacked
by 7 policemen, three Britons held incommunicado for 8 hours without
being arrested or charged with a crime.
21 July 2001
The EFF has temporarily
withdrawn from the protests against the arrest of
Russian programmer Dmitri Sklyarov, since Adobe's management has bowed
to pressure by agreeing to meet with the EFF, but anti-DMCA protests are
still
scheduled in many cities.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the
oldlinks
were broken.]
21 July 2001
Bush wants to eliminate contraceptive coverage in the health insurance
for federal employees. You
can help
influence
the outcome.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
Speakers corner, a
century-old tradition of freedom of speech in London, is now
threatened as a consequence of privatization of the parks.
19 July 2001
To hinder protests against the G8 summit in Genoa, Italian police
have been raiding activists' homes and offices all over Italy. See
www.indymedia.org to follow.
19 July 2001
A
Russian encryption expert has been arrested on a visit to the US for
writing a program that converts encrypted e-books into PDF format.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
The
Marijuana Policy Project
reports that Nevada has enacted a law removing criminal penalties for
possession of marijuana.
18 July 2001
Rationalist
International reports that Taslima Nasreen has been convicted in
absentia by a court in Bangladesh on charges of blasphemy, for
"hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims".
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
An Ohio man has been sentenced to
10
years in prison for writing--and not publishing--a fictional story about
kidnapping and torturing children. No actual children were harmed (or
involved) in the writing of the story.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
9 July 2001
FBI director Louis Freeh says
dancing
is terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
Some rental cars are now equipped with a system that
tracks
where you go, all the time.
29 June 2001
The US has abandoned the attempt to stop Brazil from
manufacturing
AIDS medication at low cost.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
The American Commission on Civil Rights
found
widespread disenfranchisement of poor and minority voters across
Florida, without which the Supreme Court would not have had the chance
to select a president.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
26 June 2001
Princeton scientists have
gone
to court asking for a ruling that the DMCA does not prohibit them
from publishing their research.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
Jaggi Singh has been released on $3,000 in bail, but is prohibited
from leading or organizing any demonstrations. Singh promises to
appeal that condition to the Supreme Court of Canada.
24 May 2001
The shrub is already making
big payoffs
to his campaign contributors--at the expense of public safety and
the national interest.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
In many states,
a company owns part of the law, and you have to pay it to find out
what is legal.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
13 May 2001
The
Sunshine Project
tracks developments in biological warfare--including present US involvement
in the same.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
A new US patent, awarded to Monsanto on 16 January 2001, has
blind-sided biotech scientists and threatens to knee-cap public sector
research because it gives Monsanto exclusive monopoly rights on a
crucial method of identifying modified plant cells in the laboratory.
You can read more about the issue at this page on rafi.org. [Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old
link was broken.]
20 April 2001
The USGS fired scientist Ian Thomas in March 2001 for
posting a map on the Internet,
showing where
in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve the caribou give birth.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the
old link was broken.]
Nike allows you to personalize your shoes with a
message. Jonah H. Peretti tried to add the word
"sweatshop" to his shoes, but Nike said it was
"inappropriate slang".
The
ACLU is defending the
people who publish programs you can use to find out which sites
CyberPatrol really blocks access to. (The developers won't tell you
which.)
Return to
Richard Stallman's home page.
Please send comments on these web pages to
rms@gnu.org.
Copyright (C) 2001 Richard Stallman
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.