Stuart Jeanne Bramhall's Blog: The Most Revolutionary Act , page 1316
October 23, 2015
Organizing Bangladeshi Sweatshops
Udita (Arise)
Rainbow Collective (2015)
Film Review
Udita is an inspirational film about the unionization of the female garment workers in Bangladeshi sweatshops (see The Ugly Side of the Fashion Industry) over the last five years.
In addition to exposing the deplorable living conditions of these women and their children, the documentary also profiles two disasters that significantly increased union membership: the 2012 fire in the Tazreen factory that killed 57 workers and the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in 2013 that killed 1021 workers.
Udita differs from other sweatshop documentaries in that in focuses minimal attention on the western brands (Walmart, Gap, etc) that reap obscene profits from employing third world women in conditions of virtual slavery. This film is more about the lives of the workers, who are often single mothers abandoned by their husbands.
The film begins by profiling one organizer who first tried to form a union in 2010, when the minimum wage in the garment factories was $22 a month. Deducted from this was the $13 a month a typical garment worker paid to live in a one room shack with shared bathroom facilities.
Overtime was compulsory, with workers only getting only one day off a month. They were also subject to beatings and/or firing if they complained about maltreatment or non-payment of wages (it was common for paymasters to dock their pay for non-existent infringements). One of the early grievances the National Garment Workers’ Federation (NGWF) won was the case of 250 workers who hadn’t been paid for three months.
NGWF members grew significantly following the Tazreen fire. The main reason the fatality rate was so high was because workers were doing compulsory overtime on a big Walmart order and the doors and gates had been locked to keep them from leaving. Following the 2012 fire, NGWF held a number of large protest marches and forced the government to increase the minimum wage to $64 a month.
The documentary also profiles a woman forced to assume custody of her two grandchildren after both daughter and a son-in-law are killed in the Rana Plaza disaster. Because she had no money to pay their school fees, both children were kicked out of school (public schooling is virtually non-existent in Bangladesh).
The film ends with a humongous 2014 protest march, in which the woman and her grandchildren participate. The principal demand is compensation from the factory owner for the 1121 deaths.
October 22, 2015
New PM Tells Obama Canada to Withdraw Fighter Jets From Syria, Iraq
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At last a whiff of rationality.
Originally posted on Finding Truth In an Illusory World:
SOURCE
Mere hours after defeating Stephen Harper, Canadian Prime Minister-designate Justin Trudeau has told US President Obama that he will withdraw Canadian jets from Syria and Iraq.
According to Reuters, the pledge was made as President Obama called to congratulate Trudeau on his election win.
The Liberal leader ran on a promise to withdraw Canada’s CF-18 bombers from the US-led coalition’s military campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State terrorist group. Earlier this year, Canada’s Liberal Party fought against the Conservative government’s proposal to extend combat missions from Iraq into Syria.
Trudeau Wins! Crack-Smoking Ex-Mayor Fails to Save Canada’s Conservatives
On the campaign trail, Trudeau also floated the idea that his administration may consider bolstering local forces in the region, and increasing Canada’s humanitarian aid.
Earlier on Tuesday, the US State Department addressed questions as to whether or not it was concerned that Canada’s new government may not support US foreign policy regarding IS presence in Afghanistan.
“These are all decisions the Canadian people have to make and…
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October 21, 2015
The Ugly Side of the Fashion Industry
The True Cost
By Andrew Morgan (2015)
Film Review
The True Cost is about the immense environmental and human cost of the fashion industry – all for the sake of a few people raking in immense profits.
The modern trend of “fast fashion” is the most destructive. Over the last few decades, the big fashion brands have sought to make clothes so cheap that consumers only wear them a few times before discarding them and buying new ones.
The average American purchases 80 pieces of clothing a year, 400% more than two decades ago. The US disposes of 11 million pounds of textile waste a year, an average of 82 pounds per person.
Reliance on Sweatshops
Lowering the cost of clothes has necessitated moving 97% of clothing manufacture overseas. Bangladesh, where workers (who are 85% women) earn less than $3 a day, is the favorite of most big name brands like the Gap.
The women work and live in total squalor. In the past few years , 1,000 workers were killed when the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed. Hundreds more have died in a series of fires. The pay is insufficient for the women to provide housing for their children. They remain with relatives in the countryside and see their mothers at most once or twice a year.
Thanks to Global Exchange and the anti-sweatshop campaigns of the 1990s, all the big fashion brands sign voluntary codes of conduct to makes sure their local contractors respect the human rights of their sweatshop workers (which they never enforce). The big brands also systematically obstruct federal legislation that would make such codes compulsory.
The Second Most Polluting Industry in the World
The environment degradation caused by “fast fashion” is equally horrific. The garment industry is the most polluting in the world (second only to oil). The global proliferation of GMO cotton has had devastating health effects in India and the Lubbock Texas area. Until I saw this film, I was unaware that Lubbock is one of the largest cotton producing regions in the world.
In Texas most of the GMO cotton is Roundup Ready, Monsanto’s best selling pesticide. Heavy exposure is responsible for a large cancer cluster among Lubbock area residents.
In India, both Roundup Ready and Bt Cotton are grown. The former is responsible for a significant increase in birth defects, cancer and mental illness. The latter is responsible for a serious reduction in crop yields (the pesticide Bt Cotton produces kills the soil bacteria responsible for soil fertility). The loss of soil fertility has led to farmers losing their land and livelihood, as well as over 200,000 farmer suicides in the last 15 years.
India is also experiencing massive chromium contamination of the Ganges River and surrounding groundwater, from chemicals used in tanning leather for the western fashion industry.
Spin, Propaganda and Lies
The fashion industry pumps out propaganda that sweatshops are good because they create jobs for people who otherwise would have no alternative. This ignores the deleterious effect of “free trade” treaties that have destroyed the rural economies of many third world countries.
The official narrative also belies collusion between the fashion industry and the Vietnamese government, known for brutally beating and killing garment workers during peaceful protests demanding a minimum wage.
The full film was available on YouTube last week but has been taken down. You can rent it from VHX or iTunes for $3.99: Watch now
October 20, 2015
Doctors Confirm First Human Death Officially Caused by GMOs
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Madrid doctors confirm GMO-related death after lethal allergic reaction to tomatoes containing fish genes.
Originally posted on Vortex: Conscious and Courageous:
Doctors Confirm First Human Death Officially Caused by GMOs
January 18th, 2015 | by Barbara Johnson
Madrid| Doctors of the Carlos III hospital confirmed this morning in a press conference, the first case of human death caused by the ingestion of genetically modified food. Juan Pedro Ramos died from anaphylaxis after eating some recently developed tomatoes containing fish genes, which provoked a violent and lethal allergic reaction.
This surprising announcement comes after the autopsy of the 31-year old Spanish man who died at the Madrid hospital in the beginning of January. The young man’s health rapidly deteriorated after he suffered an unexplained allergic reaction, and all the drugs used to refrain the anaphylaxis were entirely inefficient. The team of experts claims to have been able to determine that the genetically modified tomatoes that the victim ingested at lunch were the cause of the allergic reaction that caused his death.
Mr. Ramos was working as a clerk in a Madrid warehouse on January 7, when he started feeling ill…
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FOOD FRAUD: McDonald’s Franchise Owners Confirm, Fast Food Giant “Facing Its Final Days”
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It’s gratifying that western society is finally waking up to the value of consuming real food.
Originally posted on RIELPOLITIK:
Source – www.theantimedia.org
– Embattled fast food giant McDonald’s is making headlines yet again. The company has just launched its much advertised all-day breakfast program, but as that campaign rolls out, franchise owners are voicing their concerns over what may be the company’s dying days.
As we covered at Anti-Media in June, the McDonald’s franchise has been shrinking for the first time in the company’s over 40 year history:
“McDonald’s announced in April that it would be closing 700 ‘underperforming’ locations, but because of the company’s sheer size — it has 14,300 locations in the United States alone — this was not necessarily a reduction in the size of the company, especially because it continues to open locations around the world. It still has more than double the locations of Burger King, its closest competitor.”
However, for the franchisees, the picture looks much worse than simply 700 stores closing…
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October 19, 2015
Donald Trump: Making the World Safe for Golf
Dark Side of the Greens
Directed by Anthony Baxter (BBC 2015)
Film Review
Dark Side of the Greens is about lengthy citizen campaigns in Scotland and Croatia to halt Donald Trump’s efforts to replace pristine ecological heritage sites with golf courses.
The documentary is a sequel to the 2011 film You’ve Been Trumped. It relies heavily on commentary by environmental lawyer Robert F Kennedy Jr, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. He reminds us that governmental protection of the commons dates back to the Magna Carta and can’t be usurped by wealthy elates. According to Kennedy, the commons is the main source of values, virtue and character of a people.
Aberdeen residents were unsuccessful in preventing Trump from destroying one of Europe’s rarest sand dune formations to build his golf course cum gated resort (the subject of You’ve Been Trumped). However a staunch local farmer led a successful multi-year campaign to prevent Trump from building a second golf course.
Local residents also successfully resisted Trump’s efforts to stop an offshore wind farm which presently supplies 40% of Aberdeen’s residential electricity needs.
Over in Dubrovnak, the citizens successfully organized Croatia’s first citizens referendum to prevent Trump from destroying a world heritage site for a golf course, resort and exclusive gated community.
After 85% of the population voted against the project, the mayor (who has since been indicted on corruption charges) ignored the referendum and signed contracts to proceed with the golf courses.
The film is full of classic Trumpisms, such as “What’s great for golf is good for Scotland.”
October 18, 2015
Free Syrian Army ‘sharing experience’ with jihadists
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So-called “moderate” Syrian rebels continue to defect to the jihadists – taking their US-supplied weapons with them. Nice dress, though. Shows a real fashion sense.
Originally posted on OffGuardian:
In the Aleppo region of Syria, “moderate rebels“ were caught by the Syrian army while trying to flee the battlefield disguised as women.
Sputnik International reports:
Thirteen members of the Free Syrian Army have defected to the Islamist group Jabhat al-Nusra in what a FSA commander described as an “experience-sharing act.”
Abu Hashem, the leader of one of the largest factions of the Free Syrian Army, which is viewed in the West as part of the moderate opposition, justified his men’s defection by the need to fight the common enemy – the forces loyal to President Bashar Assad.
“Thirteen members of our brigade have joined the ranks of Jebhat an-Nusra [Jabhat al-Nusra or Nusra Front] to share their combat experience… with their brethren fighting our common enemy – the government forces,” Abu Hashem was quoted as saying by an opposition website.
Abu Hashem’s 500-strong brigade, armed, among other things, with Grad and Katyusha multiple-launch rocket systems and artillery pieces, has been fighting the government forces in the…
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October 17, 2015
Surveillance Canadian Style
Whoa Canada
Directed by Sean Devlin (2015)
Film Review
Whoa Canada is an expose of illegal Canadian intelligence activities presented in the humorous satirical style of the Yes Men documentaries. The films credits list the Yes Men and Michael Achbar (directed The Corporation and Manufacturing Consent) as executive producers.
The film follows the exploits of the founders of the ShitHarperDid.com website as they attempt to investigate the psychic Harper has hired (at taxpayer expense) as his hairstylist and makeup artist.
These adventures are interlaced with escapades in which they crash closed door meetings between Harper and other members of the Conservative government and their corporate clients and benefactors.
The filmmakers also provide brief factual interludes revealing the extent of the Communications Security Establishment’s (CSE) illegal surveillance activities against Harper’s political opponents, their notorious racial profiling, their infiltration (along with the Canadian police) of the Canadian Occupy movement and the country’s barbarous treatment of First Nations Canadians.
I was particularly intrigued to learn that Canadian telecommunications providers voluntarily turned over data on their subscribers to Canadian intelligence after the CSE paid them over $1.6 million for it ((unlike the US where the government compelled telecoms to turn it over).
When CSE security guards deny them access to the multibillion dollar CSE security complex, ShitHarperDid.com activists hire their own psychic to visualize activities taking place inside the building. Her findings are later confirmed by NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden.
October 16, 2015
Creeping Disaster: Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Flowing to US North Coast
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A good reminder not to eat fish or seafood from the Pacific Ocean.
Originally posted on Tales from the Conspiratum:
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts renamed this post “Japan Is Getting Even For Hiroshima and Nagasaki”.Could this be true? Could Japan be so callous?
Source: Creeping Disaster: Fukushima’s Radioactive Water Flowing to US North Coast
Oct 15, 2015
Although the US Environmental Protection Agency stopped its emergency radiation monitoring of Fukushima’s radioactive contamination in May 2011, it does not mean that the problem has ceased to exist, US environmental expert John LaForge notes, warning that radioactive cesium is likely to keep arriving at the North American coast.
Citing the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials, John LaForge, a co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, calls attention to the fact that just between August 2013 and May 2014 “at least” two trillion Becquerels of radioactivity entered the Pacific Ocean — and “this 9-month period isn’t even the half of it,” the expert stressed.
“The fact that Fukushima has contaminated the entirety of the…
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October 15, 2015
Inside the Brutal Reality of Saudi Arabia
Inside the Dark Kingdom: Butchery, Slavery and History of Revolt
Abby Martin (2015)
Film Review
Inside the Dark Kingdom is a documentary celebrating the irony of Saudi Arabia’s selection to head the UN Panel of Human Rights. The blatant hypocrisy of the (successful) US campaign for this tyrannical kingdom to champion global human rights is obvious from the simple statement of facts. As is the duplicity of trying to depose the so-called “bloody dictator” of Syria while openly supporting the Saudi reign of terror.
The film investigates Saudi Arabia’s brutal and arbitrary criminal justice system, their brutal oppression of women, their virtual enslavement of migrant workers, their recent invasion of Yemen, their role in 9-11 and their reliance on US military assistance to suppress human rights organizing.
Saudi trials take place in secret, often without legal representation for the accused. Saudi subjects can be beheaded, stoned or crucified for crimes such as adultery, blasphemy, homosexuality and drug use and imprisoned and lashed for human rights advocacy or being victimized by sexual assault (typically rape victims receive more lashes than the men who rape them). Forty-five percent of Saudi executions are for non-violent drug crimes.
Saudi Uprisings
You rarely hear about Saudi Arabia’s long history of popular uprisings (and their brutal suppression) in the corporate media. The US first began collaborating with the Saudi royal family to suppress human rights in 1953, when Aramco (Arabian Oil Company workers) went on strike demanding a union. The US responded by establishing the US Training Mission in Saudi Arabia, which assisted the Saudi government in torturing and assassinating union leaders.
Saudi Arabia had their first failed revolution in 1962, when a Shia-led uprising demanded that oil profits be used to address poverty rather than to increase the wealth of American oil companies and the Saudi royal family.
Inspired by the 1979 revolution in Iran, rebels in the eastern Shia region of Saudi people launched massive street protests. These were crushed when the government tortured and assassinated key leaders and destroyed (via bombing) of dissident civilian enclaves.
The Saudi Arab Spring
Following the Arab Spring rebellions that blossomed in Tunisia and Egypt in 2011, there were Arab Spring rebellions in three major Saudi cities. The royal family responded by declaring martial law and banning any mainstream or social media favorable to the Arab Spring or unfavorable to the royal family. After arresting, torturing and/or assassinating of key organizers (and their families), the government immediately quadrupled their arms imports from the US.
The primary purpose of all this military hardware is to suppress dissent, not only in Saudi Arabia, but in Bahrain (the Saudi Army invaded Bahrain to suppress their Arab Spring uprising) and Yemen. Since April, 150,000 Saudi troops have invaded Yemen and killed 4,000 Yemenis – more than half of them civilians.
The 1945 Oil Protection Agreement
Martin also traces the history of the unique US-Saudi relationship, which started in 1945 with the signing of an official Oil Protection Agreement and the installation of a US naval base.
Dating back to 1988 the last four US presidents have had close business and personal relationships with the Saudi royal family. At present the Saudi princes are major donors to the Clinton Foundation.
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