2001 Political Notes - Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman's personal political notes from 2001

These are my personal opinions and do not speak for the GNU Project, the FSF, or anyone else.

31 December 2001: Microsoft has been trying to buy acquiescence in its monopolistic policies, with donations to presidential candidates (mainly Bush) and funding supposed "grass-roots" support.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
29 December 2001: 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 old links 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?
26 December 2001: If the US appears to be "united behind Bush", that is because dissenting journalists, teachers, students, even museum staff are being intimidated and fired.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
26 December 2001: 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 old links 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).
22 December 2001: The CPSR warns of the danger and unreliability of national ID cards as a scheme for preventing terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
22 December 2001: 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.]
20 December 2001: A federal judge has ordered a new sentencing hearing for Mumia Abu-Jamal, but not a new trial.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
18 December 2001: 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 old links were broken.]
17 December 2001: MIT's Public Thesis Defense to be "Augmented" by Secret Tribunals.
16 December 2001: The Marijuana Policy Project is suing the Federal Government to permit a referendum in Washington DC on legalizing medical marijuana. The MPP is asking for donations to help pay for the lawsuit.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
16 December 2001: North Wales Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom calls for legalization of drugs in the UK, saying that the war on drugs has been lost. A study shows that young marijuana users in the UK are often involved in violence as a result of their involvement in the illegal drug market -- a consequence of prohibition.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
16 December 2001: 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.
13 December 2001: The British House of Lords has rejected the proposed "anti-terrorism" law, demanding many changes to uphold traditional British liberties.
12 December 2001: 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 the old links 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.
11 December 2001: On December 7, Philadelphia police attacked a peaceful protest rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal,
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
10 December 2001: 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 .
10 December 2001: UN Human Rights chief Mary Robinson has criticized the Bush Administration, saying its present and proposed treatment of "terrorist" suspects circumvented the system of checks and balances of a democratic society.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
9 December 2001: 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 the old links were broken.]
8 December 2001: The war on terror is continuing an assault on freedom that was begun in the war on drugs.
8 December 2001: Singapore's government wasn't satisfied to convict a prominent journalist for criticizing the government on the Internet--they committed him to a mental hospital.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
6 December 2001: 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.]
5 December 2001: Link to a story about verified civilian casualties that the US persistently denies.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
4 December 2001: There is a panel discussion in San Francisco on December 11, "Chasing Windmills Of PEACE: is this war necessary? are there alternatives?"
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
3 December 2001: In Bolivia, both the president of Bolivia and the US ambassador are calling protestors "terrorists". Meanwhile, the Canadian government is pushing a pair of "anti-terrorism" bills which, taken together, declare typical anti-globalization protest tactics to be "terrorism".
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
30 November 2001: Evidence is being presented to a court in Belgium that Israeli forces participated directly in the 1982 slaughter of unarmed Palestinian prisoners in refugee camps near Beirut.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
29 November 2001: A 1987 speech by Supreme Court Justice Brennan warns Americans to beware of America's tendency to harm itself in time of perceived danger by abolishing civil liberties, and later discover that the self-inflicted harm was an unnecessary response to a shadow of a threat.
29 November 2001: A journalist reports on how Canadian police menaced her to prevent her from covering the G-20 meeting in Ottawa. On the street, police attacked another journalist who was covering the protest.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
29 November 2001: Katie Sierra, the high school student who was censored for criticizing the war in Afghanistan, has left school because she was repeatedly attacked and threatened there. People are requested to write in support.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
29 November 2001: Egyptian police have arrested a man for publishing a supposedly obscene poem on the Internet outside Egypt.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
28 November 2001: 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 old links 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.]
26 November 2001: Jared Israel probes the question of why no fighters were sent to intercept the hijacked airliners on September 11.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
25 November 2001: A New Zealand journalist -- whom we reported arrested and beaten in July -- has written an account of his Genoa experience.
25 November 2001: The South Korean government plans to fingerprint every citizen, as a surveillance measure.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
24 November 2001: Senior police officers in the UK have supported a relaxation of laws for the use of the drug ecstasy.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
18 November 2001: 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.
18 November 2001: Jared Israel has compared the various US government and press statements about why no fighters were sent to intercept the plane that attacked the Pentagon, and finds suspicious discrepancies and signs of a campaign to mislead the public.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
17 November 2001: 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.]
17 November 2001: Israeli police continue to use torture, defying the Israeli Supreme Court, which ordered them to stop.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
17 November 2001: The UK government asks for the power to detain asylum-seekers for 6 months without trial.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
14 November 2001: Another place to send your opinion on Katie Sierra: the Charleston Gazette, gazette@wvgazette.com.
12 November 2001: 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.]
11 November 2001: The East Timor Action Network ask Americans to write to Congress to call for the establishment of a tribunal to try the perpetrators of the atrocities there.
11 November 2001: A century-old Anarchist magazine in Sweden, Brand, is being prosecuted over a parody article.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
11 November 2001: 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.
8 November 2001: The Center for Democracy and Technology analyzes the anti-terrorism bill and warns of further legislative threats to civil liberties in the US.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
8 November 2001: Government agents banned Green Party leader Nancy Oden from flying because of the party's opposition to the war in Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
8 November 2001: Amended the story about the West Virginia High School student prohibited from wearing anti-war t-shirts, to tell how you can support her.
8 November 2001: New picture of rms wearing his "power tie".
6 November 2001: Canada is planning a dangerous anti-terrorism bill.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
6 November 2001: 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.]
4 November 2001: A CIA agent met with Osama bin Laden last July in Dubai.
4 November 2001: Jared Israel interviews the Red Cross about the bombed warehouse of aid supplies in Kabul.
4 November 2001: 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 harrassment of popular journalists.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
31 October 2001: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports that since Sep 11 there has been a rash of censorship of opinions about the terrorist attacks and how to respond to them.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
30 October 2001: The dangerous "antiterrorism" 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.]
30 October 2001: Police State Minus One Day And Counting: Congress has abolished due process of the law.
30 October 2001: 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 old links were broken.]
28 October 2001: The UK plans to stop arrests for possession of marijuana and allow doctors to prescribe it.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
28 October 2001: 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.
28 October 2001: I recommend Farce or Figleaf: The Promise of Leisure in the Computer Age by R. Dennis Hayes.
25 October 2001: 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.]
24 October 2001: While the US forces attack the Taliban, we must not overlook evidence that the US aided the Taliban in taking over Afghanistan.
24 October 2001: In the 1960s, the FBI disrupted and crushed US political opposition groups. Such practices continued past 1990. Now they may use "anti-terrorist" powers for similar purposes.
24 October 2001: An interesting article: The Same New World: Antiauthoritarian Politics after September 11.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
20 October 2001: 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 old links were broken.]
19 October 2001: A Times of India article alleges that a Pakistani general directly supported the September 11 hijackers.
17 October 2001: Afghan refugees report witnessing heavy civilian casualties from US bombing.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
17 October 2001: 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.]
10 October 2001: US and UK politicians trying to profit from terrorism: The EFF warns that the FTAA may be used to impose laws like the DMCA on all the countries of the Western Hemisphere. And in the UK, a government official proposed, just hours after the September 11 attacks, to look for unpopular actions to announce while the public and the news media were distracted by terrorism.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
10 October 2001: 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.]
4 October 2001: The West should look carefully at the murderous, cruel Northern Alliance of Afghanistan before using them as allies against the Taliban, says Robert Fisk in the Independent.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
4 October 2001: The annual conference of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility on Oct 19-21 is about Nurturing the Cybercommons .
[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.]
1 October 2001: Francisco Gil-White makes a case for determined police activity and a Marshall plan rather than war in Afghanistan.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
29 September 2001: The Canadians who are threatened with imprisonment for eating their ballots are now planning to eat their subpoenas.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
26 September 2001: 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.]
25 September 2001: As part of preparations for a possible war, the Department of Defense has stopped discharging homosexuals from the armed forces.
25 September 2001: Britain plans to institute compulsory national identity cards, a major attack on civil liberties there.
24 September 2001: Since the terrorist attacks, religious rhetoric that excludes Atheists has increased, leaving many Atheists feeling unwelcome as Americans.
23 September 2001: The Freedom Forum warns of the threat to civil liberties posed by misguided responses to terrorism.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
20 September 2001: 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.]
20 September 2001: Added a file of sayings I've uttered or written.
19 September 2001: 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 old links were broken.]
18 September 2001: Thousands dead; millions deprived of civil liberties? Tell elected (and unelected) officials that you don't want your civil liberties to become the terrorists' next victim.
17 September 2001: What Became of Tolerance in Islam?
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
12 September 2001: A Burmese Arts and Literature Symposium was held in Brookline, Massachusetts, because such a gathering cannot be held in Burma under military rule. One of the guests was Tin Maung Than, who published an independent magazine in Burma but had to flee the country. [Update on 2017-12-23: Long article for more information.] See the Free Burma Coalition.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
12 September 2001: Naomi Klein, author of No Logo, writes about how the police violence in Genoa could affect the future of politics--in Italy, and throughout the West.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
10 September 2001: 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.]
10 September 2001: Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Tahmineh Milani has been charged in Iran with the crime of "insulting the values of the Islamic revolution."
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
9 September 2001: 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.]
9 September 2001: Several Canadians, members of the Edible Ballot Society, are facing five years in prison for eating their own election ballots, which they did as a protest against the sad state of democracy in Canada.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
8 September 2001: The Privacy Foundation has reported on how monster.com collects and uses personal data from job-seekers. If you are thinking of using the site, read this report first.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
4 September 2001: 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.]
4 September 2001: The US Department of Justice has been attacking and threatening journalists.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
2 September 2001: 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.]
27 August 2001: Younus Shaikh faces the death penalty in Pakistan--for blasphemy. You can help Younus Shaikh avoid execution by writing a letter to the government of Pakistan.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
26 August 2001: Greece has levied criminal charges against Italian police for attacking a group of Greeks on their way to Genoa to participate in the protests.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
23 August 2001: 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.]
23 August 2001: The Independent warns against the danger of using a "small group of troublemakers within larger, law-abiding movements" as an excuse to restrict the civil liberties of protestors.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
21 August 2001: 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 old links were broken.]
17 August 2001: Germany seeks to censor US web sites through lawsuits. It will be easier for them to do this if the proposed Hague Treaty is adopted.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
17 August 2001: An Italian woman who protested the G8 summit in Genoa was later found strangled in Padua.
11 August 2001: Norman Blair has updated his statement concerning the events in Genoa.
11 August 2001: British protestors arrested in Genoa have set up a fund to help cover the expenses imposed by their arrests.
10 August 2001: Statement of Joe Moffat about being arrested, beaten, and denied rights by Italian police.
8 August 2001: Older notes on Genoa moved to Genoa archive.
8 August 2001: A report shows that in most of the world globalization provides no general prosperity, and not even much growth.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
8 August 2001: The Republican War on Prosperity.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
7 August 2001: China has increased censorship on access to the Internet.
7 August 2001: The imprisoned actors from the No Border Tour have written a letter from jail.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
7 August 2001: The Hawaii BOE voted against requiring the teaching of creationism in Hawaiian schools.
7 August 2001: The Moonies are preparing to feed at the public trough through Bush's plan to supply federal funds to "faith-based" (i.e. religious) activities.
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
5 August 2001: Cops abuse database to harass and intimidate.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
5 August 2001: 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.
5 August 2001: The British government is preparing a curfew law to "protect" teenagers by locking them up.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
5 August 2001: Archive of older political notes established.
4 August 2001: More information about the Britons who were kidnaped by Italian police in Genoa: they have participated in nonviolent disarmament protests at Faslane nuclear base in the UK. One of them announced on July 22 that his son was detained by police with machine guns as a suspected "terrorist". (His son is not even involved in the protests.)
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
4 August 2001: 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 the old links 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.
31 July 2001: Statement of Jonathan Blair, attacked by police while sleeping in the Diaz School in Genoa.
31 July 2001: 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.]
31 July 2001: Starhawk's report on the implications of the Italian police's tactics.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
31 July 2001: 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.
29 July 2001: The UK government is now reconsidering the laws for use of marijuana.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
29 July 2001: 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.
26 July 2001: A New Zealand journalist was arrested and beaten in the raid on the Diaz school in Genoa
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
26 July 2001: This sequence of pictures [PDF] suggests that murdered protestor Carlo Giuliani was not attacking anyone when he was shot by police in "self-defense".
[Reference updated to a different article on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
26 July 2001: 49 of the world's poorest nations are meeting to block further trade liberalization.
26 July 2001: 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.]
26 July 2001: Aileen O'Carroll has written an analysis of television coverage of Genoa.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
24 July 2001: Long Beach CA police deported a peaceful protestor who has lived in the US since the age of 3 months after accusing him of fabricated crimes.
22 July 2001: Italian police raided the a web radio journalist organization, www.radiogap.net, destroying the computers and stealing the data. They did this without a warrant, pretending to be searching for weapons.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
21 July 2001: 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 old links 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.]
20 July 2001: Read about the secret plans of the world's most dangerous rogue state.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
19 July 2001: While traveling from South Africa to Sweden in June, I became a victim of the War on Drugs.
19 July 2001: 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.]
18 July 2001: For independent non-corporate news, see http://www.indymedia.org/.
18 July 2001: 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.]
16 July 2001: The Supreme Court of Canada recently blocked the extradition of suspects to the US because the prosecutor in the US had threatened them with homosexual rape.
[References updated on 2017-12-23 because the old links were broken.]
16 July 2001: Many union leaders have been arrested recently in South Korea.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
15 July 2001: 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.]
9 July 2001: Korean censorbots found one of my political notes p / o / r / n / o / g / r / a / p / h / i / c
8 July 2001: The European Parliament passed a resolution opposing widespread or general surveillance of the public's electronic communication.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
5 July 2001: Nike is now marketing sneakers by mocking the activists who criticize their horrible treatment of the workers who make the sneakers.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
2 July 2001: 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.]
28 June 2001: Leading Egyptian feminist Nawal Saadawi may be forced by the Egyptian government to divorce her husband as punishment for allegedly criticizing Islam.
28 June 2001: Austrian activist sentenced for slander after being threatened by a cop.
28 June 2001: Senate passes resolution against teaching evolution.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
28 June 2001: Police provocateurs attack demonstrators during protest in Barcelona.
28 June 2001: Swedish police attack protestors, then arrest some and hold them incommunicado.
28 June 2001: The Gap is faking anarchism to promote their sweatshop clothes, trivializing the movement against free trade and selling jeans at the same time.
28 June 2001: Democratic politicians are making scapegoats of people who protest their policies.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
26 June 2001: Waste workers in Brighton beat a French multinational that had imposed an unreasonable workload.
26 June 2001: During the Quebec protests, a policeman shot a peaceful protestor at a range of 20 feet, and maimed him for life.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
26 June 2001: 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.]
26 June 2001: Science must " push copyright aside."
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
26 June 2001: Nonviolent protestors of the EU summit in Gothenburg were besieged and attacked by police.
25 June 2001: The Korean government is using the excuse of "protecting minors" to impose filtering on the Internet.
26 May 2001: Amy Kalinowski's letter.
26 May 2001: IMF Four Steps to Damnation
26 May 2001: John Gatto's criticism of the school system in the US.
26 May 2001: Donate to help Quebec protesters.
24 May 2001: 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.]
23 May 2001: Amnesty International has taken up the cause of the Quebec protestors attacked by police. See the announcement.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
23 May 2001: Two new song parodies: Boot It and The Sandwich
19 May 2001: 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.]
8 May 2001: The FBI raided the Independent Media Center in Seattle, with a court order prohibiting them from informing the public about the raid.
8 May 2001: 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.]
18 April 2001: The antidemocratic suppression of public protest is now a standard part of the effort to impose these antidemocratic treaties.
9 April 2001: Quebec prosecutors accuse the provincial government of using them for political interference with legitimate protests.
30 March 2001: Quebec City Keeping Us Out Before We Get There, by Naomi Klein (author of No Logo).
23 February 2001: 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".
15 February 2001: Turning public libraries into retail pay-per-view.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
10 February 2001: We now have some "answers" from Dr Laura.
24 January 2001: The DEA really is planning to ban all hemp products.
[Reference updated on 2017-12-23 because the old link was broken.]
6 January 2001: Illegalities and fraud were committed at all levels in the theft of the Florida election.
1 January 2001: 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.)

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