Date: Sun, 12 May 1996
Sender: "R. Goforth" <•••@••.•••>
Subject: Social Justice E-Zine #19
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The terms of political discourse typically have two meanings. One
is the dictionary meaning, and the other is a meaning that is
useful for serving power...the doctrinal meaning. Take the term
special interest. The well-oiled Republican PR systems of the
1980's regularly accused the Democrats of being the party of the
special interests: women, labor, the elderly, the young,
farmers...in short, the general population. There was only one
sector of the population never listed as a special interest:
corporations and business generally. ---Noam Chomsky
SOCIAL JUSTICE #19
May 13, 1996
Kim Goforth
Ray Goforth
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IN THIS ISSUE:
1) OPENING NOTES ON THE ZINE
2) FEAR AND PRIVILEGE IN SOUTH AFRICA
3) INDONESIA: OPPOSITION POLITICIAN LATEST VICTIM OF REPRESSIVE
LAWS
4) THE HIGHER LAW (CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AT SCHOOL OF AMERICAS)
5) NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN PROTESTS SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT
A MITSUBISHI PLANT IN ILLINOIS, USA.
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Welcome to the latest issue of SOCIAL JUSTICE E-ZINE. The
name Social Justice encompasses the struggles of people
everywhere who work for gender equality, democratic government,
economic opportunity, intellectual freedom, environmental
protection, and human rights.
Social Justice is an electronic magazine (e-zine) designed for
free distribution through the internet. Feel free to make copies
and share with friends (or enemies). Think of this as a regular
magazine without the recycling. If there's nothing you want to
read in this issue, just hit delete.
Those wishing to be added to the subscription list (or
conversely, those who want off the list) should write to us at:
•••@••.•••
Some of our other projects:
Social Justice: http://www.tripod.com/~goforth/socialjustice.html
Progressive Web Site: http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/2915
Feminist Web Site: http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/2995
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The Boston Globe
THE HIGHER LAW (Civil Disobedience at School of the Americas)
By Globe Staff, May 3, 1996
In a US district court in Georgia earlier this week, Judge Robert
Elliot sentenced two women and eleven men to jail for trespassing
on the grounds of the US Army's School of the Americas.
The trespassers had been protesting against a US Army training
program that has produced military dictators, death squad
leaders, torturers and uniformed drug traffickers throughout
Latin America. Among its graduates are Panama's Manuel Noriega,
convicted in the United States for drug trafficking, El
Salvador's death squad leader Roberto d'Aubuisson and Bolivia's
Gen. Hugo Banzer. Banzer, who was recently inducted into the
School of Americas' hall of fame, took power in a military putsch
and used his power to shelter Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie.
One of the trespassers, Sister Clair O'Mara, an Ursuline nun for
51 years, explained her motivation succinctly. "There is a
higher law," she said before her sentencing. "It is the law of
conscience, and I feel obliged to follow it." Compressed in
Sister O'Mara's simple statement was a sense of obligation to the
men and women who suffered at the hands of torturers trained at
Fort Benning.
Sister O'Mara, three priests and nine laymen were convicted for
commemorating the November 16, 1989, murders of six priests,
their cook and her daughter in El Salvador. Of the 31 officers
cited by a Salvadoran Truth Commission for complicity in the
killings or an ensuing coverup, 22 were graduates of the School
of the Americas.
Judge Elliott showed no interest in the moral compulsion that
haunts Sister O'Mara and her fellow protesters. "The fact that a
person has a lofty motive doesn't excuse the criminal activity,"
said the judge. The defendants got two to six months.
Rep. Joe Kennedy of Brighton, Massachusetts, who attended the
sentence of the protesters, has sponsored a bill to cut off
funding for the training program and has written a letter to
President Clinton urging him to eliminate funding for next year.
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Posted by Richard K. Moore - •••@••.••• - Wexford, Ireland
Cyberlib: www | ftp --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore/cyberlib
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