Get your Tunisia solidarity Tshirt

Philosophy Football have produced this excellent T shirt in support of the Tunisian revolution. You can get yours here.

" If, one day, a people desires to live, then fate will answer their call." Abul-Qasim Al-Shabi
Tunisia 2011, the people with popular protest and civil disobedience have overthrown a ruthless despot. Chanting in the streets the words of the great Tunisian poet of the early twentieth century, Abul Qasim Al-Shabi. Philosophy Football have produced this T-shirt to help promote solidarity, featuring the poetry in the original Arabic. With a shattered Tunisian flag, representing the structures of totalitarianism which divided their country for generations that the the politics of partnership Tunisians are themselves are now constructing to dismantle.  At a special low campaign price of just £16.99

Join me at the TUC International Women's Day celebrations

Monday 8 March is International Women's Day, it was one hundred years ago in 1910 that the idea was first suggested by German socialist Clara Zetkin. This year TUC are putting on a huge celebration, organised by the pioneers of mixing up ideas and entertainment, ' Philosophy Football'.

Featuring comedy from Josie Long described by The Guardian as ' a figurehead for a new way of doing things in alternative comedy' . The night will open with the soulful vocals o Zena Edwards plus the hip-hop and spoken word duo Poetic Pilgrimage. Introduced by TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady with author Bonnie Greer, the show is compered by the brilliantly funny Lorraine Bowen. A visual display of international women's day will be provided by photographer Jess Hurd.

The show begins at 7pm, the venue is Congress Centre, 23-28 Great Russell Street, London WC1 . Tickets can be booked either as tables of ten - SAVE MONEY BY BOOKING A TABLE -, with or without buffet supper, or in smaller groups and singly. The ticket includes a free wine reception at the start plus coffee and cakes at the end and is also a £5 discount on the Philosophy Football Women Dissenters range of T-shirts which will be launched on the night.. The event is generously supported by Thompsons Solicitios.

Don't delay, Book early - the night is expected to sell out in advance. From http://www.philosophyfootball.com/view_item.php?pid=573 or call 020 8802 3499

"Republicans screw the Arabs. Democrats screw the Arabs, but with a smile," Cairo under siege

EXCLUSIVE from comrade Hossam: Cairo Under Siege Ahead Of Obama's Speech

Right before he took off from DC, on what the media has been depicting as some "odyssey," to address the Muslim World from Cairo, President Obama had described the 81-year-old Egyptian President Mubarak as a "force for stability." This week Cairo and its twin city Giza have been a showcase of what this "stability" cost.

The capital is under occupation. Security troops are deployed in the main public squares and metro stations. Citizens were detained en masse and shops were told to close down in Bein el-Sarayat area, neighboring Cairo University, where Obama will be speaking. In Al-Azhar University, the co-host of the "historical speech," State Security police raided and detained at least 200 foreign students, held them without charges in unknown locations. Exams were postponed in the major universities fearing demonstrations, and students were told to stay at home. And in several areas in Cairo and Giza, there will be in effect a curfew, where shops won't be allowed to open, citizens instructed not to open their windows. Almost everyone I know will be staying home tomorrow watching Obama's speech, not necessarily because they are keen on knowing what the freshly-elected US leader has to say to the Muslim world, but because they know it will be virtually impossible to move anywhere in the city on Thursday thanks to Obama's force-for-stability host.

Read more HERE

Troops out NOW. Song to Stop the War

Press release: Students in Solidarity with Gaza

Contact: Kat Sullivan

Mobile Cairo: 019.264.1283

On Monday May 25th, a group of students from Cairo attempted to enter the Gaza border to deliver aid. Thus far, all efforts to enter have been stopped by Egyptian authorities.

The student delegation from Cairo is planning to meet with numerous other delegations from around the globe. Each group has medical aid and supplies, sports equipment for children and monetary donations. The Egyptian authorities have been completely aware of everyone attending and everything that we are carrying. All members attending were told that they were given full clearance to enter Gaza. However, now at the border, they suddenly refuse. We are being either blocked from entering or even turned back at checkpoints before the border

itself.

Knowing that our efforts are supported worldwide, we are compelled to reach out to all media outlets within and without Cairo, Egypt.

For more information

twitter.com/studentsforgaza

Croatian occupation-Money for Education not for the army

Cross posted from infinite thØught blog. Thanks for the great report.

Invited to give a paper at the occupied Philosophy faculty, we arrived on day 31 of the protest. The first striking thing about the occupation, to protest against the introduction of tuition fees, is its sheer size. Unlike Philosophy departments in the UK, often small addenda to larger Humanities or Social Science schools, here Philosophy is truly the Queen of the Sciences. As such, Philosophy at Zagreb includes all humanities and most social science subjects, and the faculty is made up of somewhere between 6000-7000 students. The occupation is not only huge in terms of the size of the buildings, but also in terms of the number of students still there, even after a month. The protests started after the government proposal was discussed and an occupation was proposed by a Capital reading group (although there is some dispute as to whether this is where the original idea came from - no matter, it happened). The occupation has received widespread media coverage.

Read more HERE

Facebook and Twitter blocked in Iran over Hossein Derakshan's case

Some of you have tried recently to open some pages of our campaign site for the release of Hossein Derakhshan http://www.freetheblogfather.com

The company wich hosts our sites has reported last tuesday that the server where our site where located has been hacked and shut down and the place where the pages of our site where recorded has been also errased during this major attempt.

We are trying to recover situation. 

This morning some facebook users in Iran reported also that they are no longer able to access this site. You'll find this CNN report even tough we need more information on this. 

- http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/05/23/iran.elections.facebook/index.

Twitterers in Tehran reported early Saturday that Facebook wasn’t the only social network banned. Twitter was apparently down as well, though it has since returned.

Hossein Derakhshan is still detained in an unknown place in Iran, without a due process and the charges against him are not clear. 

More than ever, he needs our support. 

80% of Egyptians don't like Palestinians apparently

...according to our waiter at the Windsor Hotel. 

'they come here and take all our money and land' he said...sound familiar?

Of course this is not true...as i've just been reminded by Egyptian comrades that Egypt has the biggest pro-Palestinian demos that happen in the Arab World. Sorry ya camaradeen Masreyeen.

Just managed to quickly catch a photo of this SAVE GAZA road sign miles from nowhere

I will post more from Egypt soon.x

Check out Egpytian socialists blog

http://www.e-socialists.net/

Assed Baig is with Aid workers who are to go on hunger strike at Rafah-Gaza border

18/05/2009

British, Belgian and Greek doctors, nurses and aid workers will go on hunger strike tomorrow over the Egyptian Authorities’ refusal to allow entry into Gaza.

After constant attempts aid workers, doctors and nurses, have been refused entry in to the Gaza strip by the Egyptian authorities. Some doctors have been waiting for forty days. Out of utter desperation and witnessing the treatment of Palestinians by the Egyptian authorities, aid workers and activists have been left with no choice except to go into hunger strike and stay at the Rafah crossing until they are allowed through into Gaza.

Although the Egyptian authorities had said the border was open for two days the fact is that non-Palestinians were not allowed to enter, even though some were Palestinian but held different nationalities.

Contact Dr Omar Mangoush
Tel: 0020193764783

Assed Baig
0020178126819

Photos from Cairo

On steps, originally uploaded by solomonsmfield.

See more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/solomonsmfield/

Reports soon...

Hossein Derakhshan and Virtual Iran-Free the Blogfather

My friend Hossein who was at SOAS with me has been imprisoned in Iran for now 163 days. He was arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel. Please help spread the news annd help get him released.

** Hossein Derakhshan has been nominated by Index On Censorship for "the Economist New Media Award 2009" for it's contribution to the Iranian blogosphere. May this nomination help to more to raise voices on his behalf.

- http://awards.indexoncensorship.org/

1. Please Sign the petition, available in 4 languages, asking for his immediate release. (FYI-GB is Royaume Uni in French. It took me ages to work it out!)

2. For bloggers and journalist. Please help spread the word.

3. If you have personal story to tell about Hossein Derakhshan, or if you want to contribute by writing something that we will post on freetheblogfather' site.
--------------------------------------
The Iranian blogging phenomenon was triggered after the contribution of Hossein Derakhshan on how-to to write blogs in Farsi and one of the most recurrent themes analysed by academics interested in Iran's youth culture.

Hossein Derakhshan now imprisoned since last November 2008 contributed in establishing bridges of communication between a country with a limited public sphere like Iran and the rest of the world. The phenomenon he contributed to represents the need for alternative platforms of expression and is a vehicle for social development and assertion of Iranian Identity both within and outside the boundaries of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, the usage of new media technology sets Iran the challenge of global free-flow of information.Hossein’s arrest is the prove of the danger that new media set to the I.R.I. This leads one to question: is Iran ready to use those media to develop its own “Neither East nor West” particular political, social and economical non-western-like model in setting the country back into the race of worlds most influential country? Or is it going to use them to increase its isolation from the international panorama by threatening the safety of Iranian online journalists and bloggers hence contributing to it’s own demonization?

Hossein Derakhshan is an Iranian-Canadian blogger and journalist and a fellow student at SOAS, University of London, who spent the last eight years between Canada and the U.K before his return to Tehran in the past month of October 2008. Hossein, aka Hoder, is hailed as the "blogfather" of Iranian Blogging because in 2001 he published guidelines of how to blog in Farsi on the site blogger.com. contributing to the boom in blogging that has led to Iran being today amongst the ten biggest blogging nations of the world according to Technorati statistics on the State of the Blogosphere.

According to Derakhshan (Khosravi 2008:157), the popularity of blogs among young people in Iran symbolises the great changes that Iranian society has undergone during the past two decades. The Iranian blogosphere is a reflection of the increasing tolerance in Iran’s society, he says. (1) His blog Editor:Myself or Rooznegar blog by Sina Motallebi his fellow blogger and journalist, were held by the Online Journalism Review as powerful tools for free-speech that linked Iran with the West.

Read the middle section HERE

Let us hope that Hossein Derakhshan's passionate quest for a progressive and tolerant Iran does not fade with his arrest and – for now – uncertain future.

If you want to contribute to the Request of the immediate release of Hossein Derakhshan visit the website freetheblogfather.com and sign the petition.

By Maria Rijo Lopes da Cunha.

Egyptian circus clowns on strike!!

From arabawy

Talk of a strike wave: Egypt’s state-run National Circus clowns, performers and workers stage sit-in against privatization, demanding medical insurance, allowances and bonuses…

Now there's a story to brighten your day. I bet the bosses aren't laughing (all the way to the bank) now.

Protest the Thai way: that's the way to do it

Thai protesters force the government to declare a National holiday along with closing down the ASEAN summit.

Watch the video HERE

Not bad AlJazeera coverage including protestors overturning Police truck  HERE

We could learn a lesson or two from our Thai comrades.

Shministim Letter 2009/10 - Jews and Arabs Refuse to Be Enemies

Started in 1970 in objection to Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the Shministim movement has grown to over 3,000 students who object to being conscrited into the IDF. Many of these conscientious objectors have been imprisoned and many more face further prosecution.

See the Wikipedia entry HERE

I am trying to find a blog on which we can register our support and solidarity. In the meantime you can comment on this blog which was set up to support our brave comrades.

HERE is another link with lots of information and ways to send your messages of condemneation (to the authorities) and support to those resisting and to those who have faced legal battles.

בני/בנות נוער,
אם גם אתם מבינים שהכיבוש והמצור על עזה לא מוסריים,אם גם אתן לא מוכנות לקחת חלק במדיניות הדיכוי וההרג, אם גם אתם חושבים לא להתגייס, אם גם אתן רוצות להשמיע את קולכן ולפעול נגד הכיבוש ובעד שלום- הצטרפו למכתב
השמיניסטים 2009-2010!

אנחנו, תלמידים ותלמידות י"ב ומתנדבים/ות בשנות שירות שאמורים להתגייס בשנה הבאה ושוקלים לסרב, לצאת על מצפון, או לצאת מהצבא בכל דרך אחרת, רוצים לשבת ולדבר עם כמה שיותר אנשים באותו מצב ולהחליט יחד איך אנחנו יכולים להשפיע

Dear teenagers,

If you, too, understand that the occupation and siege of Gaza are immoral, if you, too, are unwilling to take part in the policy of oppression and killing, if you, too, consider not being drafted into the army, if you, too, want to sound your voice and to act against occupation and for peace - join the Shministim Letter, 2009-2010.

We, high school seniors and "national service year" volunteers (due to enlist next year) and consider refusing the draft, being recognized as conscientious objectors, or not to be enlisted in any other way, would like to meet and talk with as many people as possible who are in the same situation as us and to decide together how can we make a difference.

ايها الشباب :

إذا كنتم أيضا ، تفهمون أن الاحتلال والحصار المفروض على غزة غير أخلاقي ، وإذا كنتم أيضا لا ترغبون في المشاركة في سياسة القمع والقتل ، وإذا كنتم أيضا تفكرون بعدم الانضمام إلى الجيش ، وتريدون ان تسمعوا صوتكم ,وتنضموا للعمل ضد الاحتلال ومن أجل السلام -انضموا لرسالة الShministim 2009-2010.

نحن طلاب وطالبات في المدارس الثانوية ، و المتطوعين في سنوات الخدمة " , ومن المفروض ان نتجند في السنه القادمه , نفكر برفض التجند , ضميريا, أو الاستعانة بأي طريقة أخرى . نود أن نلتقي ونتحدث مع أكبر عدد ممكن ممكن من الناس الذين هم في نفس الوضع ، وأن نقرر معا كيف يمكننا أن نحدث تغييرا.

Contact Details

Email:

In an Occupying Society - Militarism - בחברה כובשת -...

New student occupation over Gaza

http://www.newcastleoccupation.blogspot.com/

Their demands: For Newcastle University to issue a statement that condemns Israel’s recent action in Gaza that has led to the deaths of over 1400 Palestinian people. We urge the Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University to take measures to provide academic aid and financial support to The Islamic University of Gaza and develop a scholarship programme for Palestinian students who have had their right to an education taken away because of the conflict. We also call for Newcastle University to disinvest from the arms trade completely. In addition to this we demand that the university lifts its ban on flyering and raising awareness of political causes on campus. Our final demand is that the university should co-ordinate a fund and awareness raising campaign on behalf of medical aid for Palestinians.

Well done and solidarity from SOAS

Egypt announced expected Israeli F16. Check out this report from Gaza

Good luck Stewart and Patrick-hope you are ok.

Solidarity from SOAS

Can someone translate from Hebrew to English?

Video blog by our friends on The Road to Gaza

good luck guys and keep up the good work

http://www.theroadtogaza.org/

Follow them on Twitter HERE