Sommario delle manifestazione nei stati uniti contro la guerra fascista!

As the ground battles against Iraq approach Basra, and the air war intensifies over Baghdad, activists have shut down the financial center in San Francisco with disseminated lockdowns, and protests are flaring across the US against this flagrant disregard for the will of the people. Forget the rigged corporate opinion polls: Saturday's antiwar demonstration brought 45,000 people to the streets, while a "support our troops" demonstration, heavily advertised Venezuela-style in the corporate media, brought out only 300 people.

The corporate media is full of hate and vitriol for Iraqis and any citizen who dares refuses to goosestep as ordered, and has fully misportrayed the events of the last weeks (as one expects for a mouthpiece for the government). The Pentagon is in charge of the news right now: All reporters feeding information to the US from the Persian Gulf are "embedded" in the military, and their reports must first clear military censors, and then be sent to the editorial committee stateside, before they are broadcast, giving the government and docile media ample chances to cancel or distort stories coming from corporate frontline journalists.

Just in (11 am, PST):
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High school students just started Portland's day of action by walking out of Newburg High School, taking to the highway with signs critical of this war reading "United We Stand — On the Rest of the World" with a graphic of a US flag or three riot cops.
Riot police are taking up positions in downtown right now on this sunny Portland day.
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Our demonstration at 5pm today will mark the start of reinvigorated resistance. I anticipate tens of thousands in the streets, involved in direct action teams, communications teams, jail solidarity, a disruptive critical mass bike ride, medical and legal support, indymedia videographers, to day care, etc. There is a call out for all people to skip work, walk out of school, etc.

The Portland Mayor Vera Katz and the City's militaristic, CIA-connected police chief Kroeker have promised the use of extreme violence and aggression by the police to parallel that going on against the people of Iraq right now: pepperspray and rubber bullets are guaranteed to be used.

The County has released hundreds of "real" prisoners early in order to make room for demonstrators at Inverness Jail. The local governments honestly lack the funds to incarcerate or prosecute such cases right now (the state is absolutely bankrupt), but they are nonetheless prioritizing locking up activists who are standing up for the world people's civil and human rights in the face of a truly dangerous rogue state.

The best reports on the internet are of course coming from the indymedia.org network, but iraqjournal.org is also good and being updated by Western activists in Baghdad, such as Kathy Kelley from Voices in the Wilderness (vitw.org), although they appear to be having trouble reaching uplink stations because of the bombing. Anyone who can listen to radio online should tune into Portland's local, grassroots radio station: http://www.kboo.fm/listen.php

Oregon schools stand just before closure because of lack of funds, which amounted to a few million dollars that the state refused to allocate. Compare that to the 120 billion dollars that a _short_ war in Iraq will cost, ignoring the massive costs of Bush's planned occupation that will start when the Iraqi government collapses. This is what propels the autonomously-organized Portland Public Students (high school) to demonstrate against this war as well, joining students from six area universities three hours before the main demonstration today.

As if the USA PATRIOT Acts I & II weren't enough to turn the US into a true police state, similar legislation (Senate Bill 742) is being discussed by the Oregon Senate that would result in mandatory 25 year jail terms to punish anyone blocking commerce (such as in the context of a demonstration), or merely helping others do so. The bill comes to us from a former Portland police officer, who was since elected to the Senate by some provincial district.

And a system of three color coded classifications for people (green, yellow, red) is being debated at the national level, where green is a trustworthy (obedient) citizen, yellow indicates one is involved in protests, etc., and we can only imagine what red means.

The department of "Homeland Security" right now (1215am PST) are indicating that a move to code red "alert" level indicates that anyone on the streets will be considered a terrorist, and that everyone is ordered to stay home or risk arrest. More and more a dictatorship.

My gut feels tense like the morning before Seattle, 1999. But we are not spectators, we must act against fascism regardless, because we're human.

In solidarity with the people of Iraq and the billions worldwide who resist this injustice. No war but class war.

a

Portland, OR, U$A