Foxwoods Conn. 9000 Year Old Village

Taken fron the Sun Journal

"What looks like a simple, small black stain on a sandy hill at the Mashantucket Pequot reservation has changed the way archaeologists in this region look for dig sites. Archaeologists are excavating dozens of pit houses -- structures built into a hill and supported by timbers -- on a hill next to the Great Cedar parking garage behind Foxwoods Resort Casino. The find wouldn't be all that unique, except these houses were built about 8,000 years before researchers thought people settled into semi-permanent structures.

"Usually we see (native people) as wandering around the landscape (9,000 years ago)," said Kevin McBride, director of research at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. "You don't check hillsides, because who's going to live on a hillside? This is probably the most important site in East North America."

Just this week, the state released information it uncovered more than 8,100 Indian artifacts at a dig on the former Norwich Hospital property in Preston. A $1.6 billion movie studio and theme park is proposed for the site. McBride explained American Indians 9,000 years ago didn't have agriculture, and the running theory was they were nomadic hunters. Evidence at Mashantucket suggests these people used the Great Cedar Swamp's ecosystem to gather roots and tubers as their primary nutrition and lived in the pit houses for months on end.

"We though they were staying in one place for a few days or a week and moving on," McBride said.

Archaeologists didn't have many sites that dated back to 9,000 years ago and thought that meant there were few people living here at the time. Now, they are re-thinking that and looking at other sites to determine who lived here, what they ate and how they lived.

"It was assumed everyone was hunting whitetail deer and turkeys," said Dan Forrest, senior archaeologist at the Public Archaeology Survey Team, which is working at Mashantucket.

Forrest said there is evidence the people who lived in the pit houses didn't live there all year, because they left several tools behind in places they could be found when the people returned. He said the challenge his team is facing now is determining where they went, how long they stayed here and what they did when they went away.

"When they move off this site, it suggests they're doing something different altogether, like fishing," Forrest said.

Forrest said he is looking for links between people from Mashantucket and settlements found in the north, such as Maine. He said making that link could show the Northeast was a more populated and interconnected region than first thought.

"It always looked like New England was not such a great place to live," Forrest said. "Instead of seeing the Northeast as marginal, we're seeing more of a central core here."

http://www.sunjournal.com/news/ne/20060910014.php

Quebec Solidaire – The future of social democracy?

Most social democrats these days – well, unless you are Hugo Chavez, are little more than the smiley face of corporate capitalism. Yes, it is good the NDP is against the Gringo's wars, and I will never forget that, but what about some policies that will really help people, rather than nibbling round the edges of the system? But there is one party that does deliver, and that is Quebec Solidaire.

Don't believe me? Look at my summation of a portion of their new 25 point program:

* Support for the social economy, based in part on trade union investment funds, government institutions to buy their products and services.

* Lengthen vacations to 5 weeks and begin debate on shortening the work week.

* Change the sales tax in the direction of a tax on “bads” rather than goods, i.e. tax the ecologically destructive. Less tax on necessities, higher tax on luxuries.

* Nationalize windmill power generation, to be run democratically by the regions and FN peoples. Quebec Hydro to prioritize the needs of ordinary Quebecois.

* Public forests to be run by local non-profit societies. To be managed in an environmental manner and to allow for the maximization of value added production.

* Water to become a permanent “public good”.

* Moratorium on GM food. Support for farmers to change to organic methods.

* A law forbidding the use of abusive law suits by corporations and governments against the public.

* Abolish all anti-trade union laws, encourage unionization of women.

* To support community organizations, to recognize their importance and respect their autonomy.

* The right of self-determination of Aboriginal peoples with the resources to allow them to re-gain their autonomy.

* The election of a constituent assembly which will engage the population in a democratic process of consultation for both the political future of Quebec and the nature of its political institutions. The goal a Quebec Constitution.

*The adoption of certain proportional ballot measures plus guarantee of gender parity and a great involvement of minorities in the political process.

Note that all of these points, either directly or indirectly, are measures that empower the ordinary person.

Pedophilia And Power

In speaking of coercive power, I refer to the ability to force others, with actual or threatened violence, to do your bidding. Excepted are those instances where we use force to prevent an accident or crime – such as restraining a child from running across a busy street, or using a gun to stop a rapist. By coercive power I mean that which is used to dominate and control others for the purposes of exploitation, to impose some ideology or religion, or simply for its own sake.

People who indulge in coercive power, by the very exercise of that power, are treating other people as objects, as things to be manipulated. Other people's essential humanity is disregarded. With coercive power the world is split into two groups, a small minority that rules, and sees itself as superior, and a vast majority that is ruled and is seen by the rulers as inferior. In this manner the stripping away of the majority's human essence is rationalized and an authoritarian hierarchy created. The majority is less human, and thereby the minority can commit atrocities with impunity. Hence, the minority can exterminate entire populations such as Aboriginal peoples, enslave millions of Africans, shove children into factories where they die at an early age, or ship out millions of men to be slaughtered while protecting the rulers stolen empire.

Such manipulativeness and lack of empathy are essential aspects of the sociopathic personality. Now, I am not claiming that all ruling minorities are sociopaths, but in the exercise of their coercive power over others, they are forced to act as though they were. Callousness and arrogance are the natural products of power over others.

The authoritarian hierarchy is not limited to the rulers and the ruled, but is replicated within the elite as well. Not only are the members of the elite alienated from the mass, but they are alienated from each other. A hierarchy of age and gender exists and this is maintained and reproduced by coercion. Elite children often suffer from neglect and other forms of abuse. (1)

We can see how the situation has been set up for pedophilia. Other people are objects to be used, and it really doesn't matter what is done to them, since they aren't really human anyway. The neglect experienced by the elite during childhood only exacerbates this callousness. And as we know the abused in turn often become the abusers.

The person who knew the most about the psychopathology of ruling elites was Sade. He revealed that the powerful derive a distinct pleasure in tormenting the powerless. Sade also claimed that in the same way an addict built up a tolerance for opium, so too the powerful built up a tolerance toward the crimes they committed. In his novels, such as Justine or Juliette, a bishop or banker might start out seducing young women, then tiring of that, proceed to rape, then on to torture and murder. The greatest pleasure of all for the dissolute elite was the rape and/or murder of children!

Thus, the Washington DC pedophile ring, the large numbers of right-wing child molesters, and the cover up of pedophilia among the BC elites comes as little surprise to me. Indeed, given the nature of coercive power, what else could you expect?

But such crimes are not limited to the elite. In an authoritarian society abusive child rearing practices become the norm no matter the class or ethnic group. Working class children grow up to become abusers as well, and some of this abuse will take the form of pedophilia.

Society as a whole is structured along authoritarian lines with a minority in control and a majority that is controlled, whether this is a workplace, a public school, a jail, or borstal or Indian residential school. “Power tends to corrupt, absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.” Hence, where the power of the authorities is absolute as in a jail, borstal or residential school, a Sadean aspect tends to take over. Where a mix of religious fanaticism, racism and government sponsored genocidal policies are at work as well, as with the Indian residential schools, one should not be surprised that the result was a veritable orgy of child rape, torture and murder. For further information:

Indian Residential Schools Pedophilia and Genocide

www.hiddenfromhistory.org

BC Elite Pedo Ring Cover Up

http://www.bcrevolution.ca/rcmp_covering_up_child_abuse.htm http://nelsonpc.com/bb/messages/8793.html http://www.harbour.sfu.ca/freda/articles/crime1.htm#_Toc467988254

http://www.freewebs.com/partyocitizens/jackcramstory.htm

http://british-columbia.ca.human-rights.org/Tale2lawyers.html

Pedo Rings in Borstals and Orphanages

http://members.shaw.ca/pdg/karl_toft.html
http://www.recipeland.com/facts/Roman_Catholic_sex_abuse_cases 

Republican Party Pedophiles

http://www.angelashelton.com/weblog/2006/09/26/our-elected-officials/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5OJPeHCmhA

Washington DC Elite Pedo Ring

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n2-DgwOLBE&NR

http://www.apfn.net/Messageboard/03-30-05/discussion.cgi.85.html

http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2006/10/23128_comment.php

1. Throughout the 19^th and much of the 20ieth Centuries, abuse and bullying were the normal and accepted means of raising and educating children in the Anglosphere and Germany, most particularly among the middle and upper classes.

Venezuela’s Experiment in Popular Power

This is a description of the Communal Councils which are being formed throughout Venezuela. It seems to me to be an important development in decentralized direct democracy and something anarchists should be involved in. In my own city there are Neighborhood Associations and in a more militant situation these associations could be the nuclei of such councils. Needless to say, I am a member of my Neighborhood Association.

Could you describe how the Communal Councils work?

There are now 16,000 CCs, established in six months [since the start of the program this year]. It is a very serious initiative, in my opinion... Another very important thing is that the CC has the opportunity to elect a new leadership … The leadership must be elected by a general assembly where anyone can be proposed. The spokespeople are not the assembly — they are not the organisation. The assembly must ratify the proposals — whether from a committee for housing, or a committee for health. If someone who becomes the spokesperson does not have the confidence of the assembly, the CC will not work.

It is a democratic way to renovate the leadership, and permits the assembly to choose a new leadership. I think the law respects this will of the assembly. I was part of the group that oversaw the formation of the CCs. In the law it is very clear: Where is the power? The power is not with the spokespeople — it is with the general assembly. Why are they called “voceros”? Because they are the voice of the community. If they lose the position of spokesperson, they stop having any power …

I think this is an experimental way of organising popular power. But, for me, it is the future direction we should be taking. This is the basic idea: not from above.

It also depends on the type of problem. There are problems that require the involvement of various CCs, because they are problems of the whole barrio — for example, the water pipes that pass through the whole barrio. This must be resolved at the level of the Barrio Council. The stairs, the lighting, the rubbish — you can resolve these within the CC. These CCs are the base — very democratic; a scheme for participation …

They are looking for ways to prioritise the things the community can resolve: but not to create a kind of “begging” neighbourhood that sees a problem, and just calls on the state to resolve it …

This is how solidarity begins, because you start to see that your problem is wider than your small reality, and you must help others. Thus, the Communal Councils are more of a school for political formation. I think popular power, when it is really democratic, is the best school, because it produces this process.

By Marta Harnecker: …http://www.greenleft.org.au/2006/693/35989

FREE THE SAGODA ELEVEN!

(Ripped from Molly's Blog)
On February 11th, 2006 eleven young people from various areas in the Philippines set out for a hiking trip to a well known camping spot in the mountains of northern Luzon, the main island of the Philippines. The young people, ranging in age from 15 to 24, knew each other from involvement in libertarian groups such as Food Not Bombs and Earth First. In other words they were all idealistic young adults with no knowledge of or affinity for "armed struggle" and a certain antipathy to communist sects.

The truck they had hitched a ride with was intercepted by the police. The eleven were assaulted and imprisoned. Hours after their arrest a member of the local paramilitary organization of the Philippine government arrived and "identified" them as members of a guerilla force that had attacked a military outpost on Feb. 10th. The detainees pointed out during their questioning that the group had been in many different locations on that date and only came together on the 11th for their nature trip.

The guerilla group that they were supposedly part of, the New People's Army, is a Maoist terrorist group active in the Philippines. From the Molly point of view two things have to be said. While not being a fan of Maoists I must say that any Maoist group that recruits young "punks" (as the arrested describe themselves) for military attacks is particularily stupid. The converse is that any person with libertarian sympathies who would do Maoist dirty work would also have to be particularily stupid. Given two almost unbelieveable levels of stupidity the truth is likely to be as the detainees say- they are totally innocent and the victim of a mercenary who denounces people for money.

The detainees were subjected to a number of tortures(I'll spare you the details) and forced to signb false confessions. Their whereabouts only became public because one of the prisoners managed to escape for a short period of time, and he alerted others to what had happened.

Many people across the world have rallied to the defence of these young people, especially on last Nov 17th and 20th when actions were hels in numerous countries. The prisoners are, at the latest report, being held in the Benguet Provincial Jail. The detainees would appreciate items such as "punk rock memorabilia" and funds for their legal defense. To find out how to send such items and funds contact Solidarity South Pacific at solidaritysp@lycos.com . Bear in mind that these are political prisoners who may have materials sent to them used against them in their trials. Molly would suggest that you behave like she does in her beliefs that the only way to anarchism is gradual and in her granite hard anti-communism. This is evidence for their defense.
To keep up to date on this case watch the Manila Autonomous Media site at http://a-manila.org .

Thanks to Molly”s Blog for this info. http://mollymew.blogspot.com/

Hemp For Victory Video

Hemp for Victory is a black-and-white film produced
in 1942 by the USDA outlining a plan to distribute
400,000 lbs. of cannabis seeds to American farmers
with the goal of producing 350,000 acres of cannabis
by 1943 -- all for the war effort.
http://www.thelastoutpost.com/site/1256/default.aspx 

Green Party, Left or Right?

Much time has been spent in the past year or so debating the nature of the Green Party and whether it is “right-wing” or has “moved right” or not. (1) The Green Party of the 1980's was definitely on the left, being composed of ex-NDP people, anarchists and semi-anarchist environmentalists. The GP branch in my town is still like that. While some of the talk about the GP going right may well be motivated by NDP fears of losing votes, I think there is something to the criticism.

The leadership has attempted to sell the party to “small c conservatives” and distance itself from the left. Its economic policies, while not exactly right-wing by todays standards (more centrist, in fact) certainly aren't radical by any means. These policies are green-sounding enough to maintain the party's base, yet not too meaty to scare away conservatives. (But I will be the first to admit, that if the GP's policies were put into practice it would be a big step forward.)

The GP developed a radical critique of the way the environment was being treated. It also moved way to the left of the NDP on political policy, positing a grass-roots, decentralized vision in opposition to the present elective dictatorship that leaves the people voiceless outside of the quadrennial farce. I note that this radical vision does not get the promotion it used to, and seems to be reduced to plumping for a proportional ballot, a progressive demand, for sure, but a long way from direct democracy.

One thing the GP did not develop fully in its early days was a radical economic policy. But this was also the case for the rest of the left at the time, so the GP should not be singled out for blame. Into this vacuum has moved somewhat conservative elements mixing neoliberalism with Green communitarianism. The problem with the economic vision of the mainstream left in the '80s and '90's was being trapped into a false dichotomy, government ownership/control vs. “private” ownership. Since statism was no longer popular for obvious reasons, most mainstream leftists abandoned nationalization, and having nothing to replace it, adopted a modified and supposedly humanized version of neoliberalism.

The mainstream left (and the leadership of the GP) did not realize a third alternative to statism or corporate capitalism existed. This was cooperative socialism, a form of economy that empowers the people and the community rather than the state or corporations. Cooperative socialism emphasizes worker self-management, seeks to replace capitalism with worker or stakeholder cooperatives. It seeks to replace state services with client-run mutual aid societies. This is the new socialism that you see forming in Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina and with the Zapatistas of Chiapas

I would like to see the Green Party move back to being a party of the left. One way they could do so would be to adopt this new cooperative socialism as economic policy and let the NDP be the smiley face of neoliberalism.

1. For the latest critique of the GP see

http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/12/elizabeth-may-catholic-grrl.html

Successful Student Revolt in Serbia

Following on the footsteps of Quebec, France, Greece and Chile, Serbian students have risen up and beaten back government attempts to impose authoritarian neo-liberal policies on them. We are seeing the development of an international student movement rivaling anything that happened in the 1960's. “The revolt was spearheaded by the radical left, which is an alliance of socialists and anarchists.” For more information see,

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=10290