Im tired of the war drums calling our brothas in reaching to recruit our children…”I do say my child I’m here to stop a beating heart today”
How much longer do we stand for the nonsense and contribute to the master plan to destroy our ancestors in the motherland

Always expecting a parade to corner our streets to show off the bloody hands of what was drawn to pull over once again a bloody sheet

Why shall we praise those who have embraced senseless killings since slave days

How many times are we going to be tricked by the propaganda of those in power warning us to stay within our own borders

Remember and don’t forget that those who we let cross over is now in the race against the witch hunt that our president now embrace

We are always fooled by the message that change will come different agenda but yet the same beat of the drum

When is it likely that we will be victorious in all the rights that were set before us to allow us to govern with our own voices

Or imagine this…taking from the military killas and drug dealas to invest back into the school so that we are certain that mama doesn’t raise a fool

Even a possibility that we can cause the military to give back our unpolluted environment stop the burning of gas from jets and scarring the land in which it treads

That’s it…I cant take it much longer…this is what I will do…

No my children… for you know not what you do…your heart will stay beating today

I will take that damn drum and throw it away

I will protest at every parade to remind everyone of what we are praising on that day

No longer be tricked by propaganda because knowledge is my power

Im stopping the witch hunt there is another underground railroad here at bay

I will use my voice to make sure I practice my rights to be heard in how I should best be governed

I will not contribute to the military killas and drug dealas and invest in my local schools because this mama isnt and raises no fools

Help to save our environment take it back from them because this isnt what democracy looks like….Im ringing the message loud… this isn’t what democracy looks like!
______________________________________________________________________________
Danielle ILene Bennett: I’m a 2011 non-traditional graduate of St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN with a major in Women’s Studies and a double minor in African American Studies and Human Relations. I grew up a military brat in Yorktown, VA and started college later in my early twenties in St. Cloud, MN supporting war. I thought that nothing would ever deter me from the ideologies in which my family instilled within me. I took an intensive Human Relations course that made me think critically about what war really meant. It touched me so deeply that I began to realize it’s many truths about who benefited and who didn’t. I found out that the many who didn’t far exceeded the ones who did. I started utilizing more tools and resources that allowed me to find the truth instead of relying on mainstream media. I began looking more towards alternative news sources that would tell me what I wasn’t being told. I began reflecting on what war meant to me and how it impacted families and this poem is what I came up with.

Steve needs only a few thousands dollars to finish this powerful documentary. Project Censored recommends that you support the finalization of this film with a small/modest donation.

www.indiegogo.com/invisibleyoung (fundraising campaign)

www.invisibleyoung.com (the film’s website)

Invisible Young is a sponsored project of The International Documentary Association, a 501C-3 non-profit organization. All contributions may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Peter Phillips
President: Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored

During post-9/11’s heightened anti-immigration culture, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) makes rampant arrests, detaining and deporting documented AND undocumented immigrants in the hundreds of thousands. Swept up in this deportation chaos are Cambodian refugees immigrants. Cambodians were promised resettlement by the 1975 Congressional Act to provide permanent homes for displaced people from the U.S.-Vietnam War, which affected populations in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. As of 2004, 1,500 Cambodian permanent residents face deportation. In 2009, 212 refugees have been deported. Only a very small handful of grassroots groups, such as the One Love Movement, have taken the initiative to advocate for deportees and their families. This article reviews the history of immigration in the U.S., discusses how ICE makes drastic departures from the rule of law, and provides key facts about U.S. involvement in the Indochina War, which directly contributed to the displacement of Cambodian civilians 30 years ago.

It is worthwhile to begin the discussion about how current U.S. immigration policies are impacting the Cambodian refugee community by broadening the perspective and revisiting pertinent segments of U.S. history. European immigrants who settled in colonial America looked to escape the oppressive religious institutions in Europe and find opportunities for economic security in the new frontier. Early settlers sought to do all of this while keeping their families intact. Colonial Americans were considered by the dominant class in Europe to be political, religious, and economic minorities (some were politically radical). These marginalized communities found a haven in North America and fought for independence to preserve their new, secured lives.

In the late 1800’s, a poem, “The New Colossus,” was stamped on the Statue of Liberty and further shaped the consciousness of citizens and immigrants alike. The poem effectively assigned lady liberty the additional role of greeting new Americans and presented the United States as a home for future immigrants. For the author, Emma Lazarus, the poem conveyed a more specific message—she envisioned America as a refuge for those who were persecuted or forcibly displaced. Understanding this part of history presents a view that is ultimately at odds with the evolution of U.S. immigration legislation, especially today’s blanketed and hostile attitude towards all immigrants. Those who are familiar with U.S. labor history and global migration issues understand that economic and foreign relation concerns largely underpin changes in immigration law. However, what is expressed in immigration restrictions and enforcement policies is a psychological acting out, in the form of discrimination on racial, political and religious grounds. Since the 1700’s, laws restricting immigration are replete with pathologically racist language. Finally, the current U.S. anti-immigration culture is monolithic:
a) Political leaders and mainstream America show an unwillingness to discern between different immigrant groups as well as the specific motivations leading to immigration,
b) Current policies willfully neglect refugee immigrants who were guaranteed, by past legislative acts, resettlement in the United States, and
c) Mainstream America is unaware or unconcerned about how U.S. military and corporate actions deeply impact countries where U.S. immigrants come from as well as their boomerang effects on the U.S. economy.

Today’s policies and dominant language suggest that the gates to the United States are not simply shutting, but we are aggressively ejecting human beings over our gates. Our current federal government, as well as state governments such as Arizona’s, has initiated a dragnet, which violate both domestic and international laws—eroding fundamental protections afforded by constitutional law, procedural law, international treaties regarding refugee protection, and human rights principles. All this is done in service of Americans’ growing economic insecurity, converted into hatred, which target immigrants entering from our southern border. The current immigration enforcement agency (ICE) is an outgrowth of Homeland Security, not Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS). It promises to be tough on “criminal aliens” partly by conjuring American fear of terrorist violence and expands the function of the national biometric database. What Americans don’t know about ICE is that while it imposes cooperation from state law enforcement institutions, it carries out a nation-wide deportation project by treating immigrants (criminal and non-criminal) different from what we would expect from our local criminal justice system. The Leitner Center for International Law and Justice presents cases in which permanent residents can—after serving time for past crimes and deemed eligible to return to their community—be detained, released, and re-arrested for deportation by ICE without fair judicial review of the person’s current conduct. These cases reveal that ICE makes significant breaches in a first world country that reputedly respects the rule of law. ICE deportation makes drastic departures from our system of justice such as removing judicial review, violating the prohibition of double jeopardy and applying deportation policies retroactively. These actions amount to a disturbingly backwards movement in our justice system. It is important to remember that part of the standard for respecting the rule of law insists that laws are applied consistently and justly.

A more worrisome issue relates to the fact that the deportation project is sweeping up the once displaced and still vulnerable Cambodian refugee immigrants. Cambodian immigrants were promised refuge by 1975 and 1980 Congressional Acts to permanently resettle Southeast Asians in aftermath of the Second Indochina War. Furthermore, what mainstream media does not adequately discuss is U.S. involvement in destabilizing countries, such as Cambodia, neighboring Vietnam. Taylor Owen and Ben Kiernan produced a report, which states that U.S. military dropped six million tons of bombs in Indochina (Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam) in a period of nine years. Former President Clinton’s order, nearly three decades later, to declassify all U.S. Air Force data with regards the 1964-1975 period in Southeast Asia reveals that aerial “bombardment started three-and-a-half years earlier…under the Johnson administration” and carried on during Nixon’s presidency. From drowning Cambodia in bombs to aiding the overthrow of former Prime Minister, Norodom Sihanouk, the United States played a crucial role in forcing Cambodians to abandon their neutral position in the U.S.-Vietnam War, and the United States helped to usher the victory of the genocidal Khmer Rouge Regime. With this information, it is clear that the 1975 and 1980 legislative actions were not simply generous humanitarian gestures—they were attempts to ameliorate the devastating outcomes of U.S.-power plays in regional politics of Southeast Asia.

A combination of abundant scholarship, few popular media, and an untold number of personal stories can shed light on the Cambodian refugee resettlement experience. All too soon after the 1975 legislation, due to the rising economic concerns during the 1980s recession, U.S. government revised resettlement policies, spreading the hundreds of thousands of Cambodian immigrants over smaller and more remote U.S. cities. Federal funding also dropped significantly, which is necessary to assist a group of people who suffer poor comprehensive health from surviving years of wars, genocide, and displacement, and lack adequate education as violent conflicts in Cambodia disrupted and destroyed basic institutions for educational and social welfare. The practice of “scattering” refugee immigrants continues today with other refugee communities such as the Burmese. The result is that vulnerable refugee groups are isolated and forced to relocate, often moving three or more times within the first years in the United States. Without an effective social network, refugee immigrants are faced with a variety of challenges in accessing institutional support.

Unfortunately, Cambodian families were resettled in under-resourced communities, “riddled with crime and poverty.” Only recently, in the fall of 2011, Khmer Girls in Action, a grassroots non-profit in Long Beach, California released an in-depth case report by compiling statistical information from the U.S. Census Bureau and other census analyses, collecting original survey data, and bridging the disparities in information about the progress of Cambodian resettlement process. It can be concluded from the insights in this well-researched publication that decades after the United States government contributed to destabilizing the Cambodian government and displacing Cambodians, it has ultimately failed to provide adequate care for survivors of regional wars and genocide as well as their children. As of 2004, 1,500 Cambodian refugees (mostly in their late 20s, 30s, and early 40s) await deportation decisions from ICE. Most are permanent residents, not undocumented immigrants. Most have little or no memories of Cambodia as their early childhood was spent in transition out of conflict or waiting and desperately hoping to leave the dehumanizing conditions in Thai refugee camps. Many will find life difficult in Cambodia, as they are not sufficiently literate in Khmer, the Cambodian language. All are victims to the quiet campaign to break up refugee families in the United States.

Angel Ryono is a graduate of Saybrook University. Her M.A. research
focused on local and grassroots capacities for reconciliation and
peacebuilding in Cambodia. She has co-authored two chapters in Peace
Movements Worldwide (ABC-CLIO, 2011) and authored a chapter in
Peacebuilding and Subjectivities of Peace: History, Memory, and
Politics (Routledge, forthcoming in 2012). She served as the
development manager forth Virtual Tribunal Project for the Khmer Rouge
Tribunal. She is currently researching identity issues and challenges
to community development with regards to Diaspora Cambodians.

Notes and Relevant Websites

Foreign relation concerns impacting immigration law

http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?id=585

An MIT Study: “Understanding Anti-immigrant Sentiment”

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/anti-immigrant-sentiment-0219.html

Former Governor of Michigan’s testimony about corporations effects on
America’s local economies

http://current.com/groups/current-video/93583144_what-granholm-learned-as-governor-of-michigan.htm

Leitner Center for International Law and Justice – Comprehensive
report on the deportation of refugee immigrants in the U.S.

http://www.deporteddiaspora.org/3LINKS.html

Khmer Girls in Action Case Report on the Progress of Cambodian
Resettlement in Long Beach

http://www.kgalb.org/images/misc/PAR%20Survey.Report/KGA_Full%20Report.pdf

Numbers of Cambodian Refugees facing deportation

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002038140_cambodia17m.html

Citizen Orange

http://www.citizenorange.com/orange/

One Love Movement

http://onelovemovement.com/who_we_are/our_policy_issues

Lost in Detention (PBS Frontline Documentary and Expose)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/race-multicultural/lost-in-detention/report-deportation-efforts-still-

broad-uneven/

Washington Post – Setting the Quota to increase deportations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032604891.html

A few days before I left for India, American journalist, David Barsamian, was deported from New Delhi for his coverage of Kashmir. Barsamian reports for AlterNet one of the few national free speech radio outlets in the US. News reports quoted officials saying that his deportation resulted from his reporting on Kashmir during his 2009-10 trip to India, while on a tourist visa. If reporting the truth in Kashmir can get you deported, I was in danger.

On my first day in Srinagar, the local head of surveillance let me know he was fully aware of my arrival. It was a discreet enough interaction, but served its purpose: I was being watched. My threat? A pen and paper to record the stories of Kashmiris.

The silence of India’s occupation of Kashmir blankets the valley, like the morning smog obscures the Himalayan Mountains. There is a new face to the hundred-year-old struggle for Kashmiri sovereignty and independence. Sahil, age 12, lit up when I asked what his hope for Kashmir is. “I have a hope that there is a freedom in Kashmir.” Sahil’s father was disappeared in 2002. For nine years he and his mother have searched for his father, only his absence is present. Every day after school Sahil comes home to help his mother work—embroidering cloth to earn a few rupees.
The strong current of popular, nonviolent uprising for freedom continues to grow in Kashmir. It distinguishes itself from the armed rebellion of the early 90s, yet the demand is the same: liberation from occupation—the independence of Kashmir. Despite the Indian government’s own estimate of only 500-700 armed militants in the area, Kashmir remains the most densely militarized land on earth. There are approximately 700,000 Indian military and paramilitary in Kashmir, policing a population of 12.5 million.

Under the British partitioning of India in 1947, Kashmir joined India as a quasi-independent region. For a short time, Kashmiris enjoyed much self-rule, self-determination and indigenous leadership. Kashmir led the world in revolutionary land reform, implementing a broad redistribution of resources that created a population relatively equal in wealth. Was it that the Indian ruling elite feared that Kashmir would serve as a model for India? Could there have been a broad redistribution of resources in the subcontinent?

There are many interpretations of how the trust and relationship between Delhi and Srinagar eroded. The result was a deliberate stripping of Kashmiri independence, which on paper was protected under article 370 of the India constitution. While most of these rights have diminished, land protection in the valley is still observed and only Kashmiris can own land in the region. It is this provision that has prevented a complete repopulation of the area.

With the erosion of Kashmir’s autonomy, came the military repression and arguably an attempted genocide. From 1989 to 2011 there have been 8,000 documented disappearances and 70,000 deaths of Kashmiris resulting from the Indian occupation. Torture is rampant. Khurram Parvaiz, Liaison of the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-Administered Kashmir (IPTK), works documenting the cases of torture. “The most underreported phenomenon in Jammu and Kashmir is torture. If you go to any village hundreds of people in every village have been tortured, not just men, but women, children and old people as well.” Parvaiz was involved in documenting the torture of over 1,500 people who became impotent because their genitals were electrocuted. He goes on to explain that there have been hundreds of boys who were raped by soldiers. In one case the abuse by the army was caught on video, still there were no convictions. Parvaiz continued to describe another case of torture, “I have documented very horrible cases, but this is the most horrible.” The army kept a 60-year-old man in solitary confinement for one month. During that time, he wasn’t given anything to eat, but his own flesh. They cut the flesh from his body and served it to him. This was all he was given to eat for a month. Recounting the torture Parvaiz said, “This was something that shook me. We have hundreds of Guantanamo Bays here. Why is nobody talking about it?”

The torture and death can be buried no longer. In July 2011, the State Human Rights Commission of Jammu and Kashmir (SHRC) released a report documenting 2,156 unidentified bodies in 38 graveyards. The state report verified the findings of Buried Evidence, released in 2009 by Parvaiz’s group. Parvaiz explained how the findings were initially swept under the rug, “The government said that these unmarked graves are all of foreign militants and people need not worry about it.” There have been limited DNA tests on the remains. Parvaiz cited that DNA tests of 53 bodies identified that 49 were Kashmiri civilians, one was a Kashmiri combatant and three were unidentified.
Parvaiz said, “It is the right of the family to have the body. The government does not want to give these bodies to the families because there is something to hide. They are hiding the marks of torture.”

Kashmiri children grow up watching graveyards populate their villages. As people are buried, the community holds their story, the memory. Oral history is their biggest weapon against India’s brutal occupation. Even under occupation, the stories of the dead cannot be silenced.

The families of the disappeared continue to fight for the truth. Bilkeez Manzoor became a member of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons after her father disappeared in 2002. The army took him from their house in the middle of the night. They have not seen him since. Manzoor continues to fight for justice for her father and brought the case all the way to India’s supreme court. Manzoor recounted that she received threatening calls telling her not to continue with her case, “But I am not afraid. I thought I am strong; I should file this. I have never stopped.”
Manzoor explained her hopes for Kashmir. “I want independence. The armed forces, they destroy everyone’s lives through torture, through fake murders like disappearances. It is very horrible for us. When we have independence we’ll be free of this. With the independence of Kashmir, maybe the women will feel free.”

While the people of Kashmir resist occupation and struggle for freedom every day, their struggle is largely ignored by the international community. Khurram Parviz asked, “Why is the international community silent? The war which has been declared on the people of Jammu and Kashmir by the Indian state has been violent, has been brutal has matched all records of brutality around the world. What we have suffered in the last 20 years is no less than a war crime, yet there is silence by the international community.”

Looking at the high alpine lakes and valley surrounded by mountains, one cannot help, but think of Switzerland. With a population of 7.6 million people, Switzerland’s population is nearly half the size of Kashmir’s. Despite its small size, Switzerland spends about 1% of their GDP on military. If Switzerland can be independent, why not Kashmir?

Could the future independence of Kashmir be a headwaters in creating a new type of democracy? Perhaps if the nonviolent, popular movement of Kashmir is allowed self-determination a new brand of democracy will be born: a democracy that is not founded on control through military domination—one that does not wave the flag of democracy to cover up genocide.
_____________________________________________________________________
In October 2011 Tara Dorabji visited the most densely militarized land on earth—Kashmir. On Monday, December 26 Kashmir: the Untold Story of Indian Occupation aired on KPFA radio (www.kpfa.org or 94.1). You can find the
show’s archive at: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/date/2011/12/26.

“The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure is occupation.”

- GB Shaw

Scenario #1: Let’s say you’re a handy man/woman/person and you get hired for a job. I’m guessing you’d bring your full toolbox to the worksite. After all, you can never be sure what’ll pop up and what tools you might need. In other words, if you have a job to do, it would be self-defeating to decide beforehand that certain tools are off limits, no matter what. Keep all your tools at your disposal—even if some remain permanently untouched—just in case.

Scenario #2: Let’s say you find yourself in a fight with a dangerous opponent. Would you rather have a hand grenade or a knife? Before you jump at the chance to blow someone to smithereens, contemplate the possibility that this fight could be happening in an elevator or on a crowded dance floor. Again, the situation dictates the tactics so it pays to be prepared and open-minded.

“Don’t be obsessed with tactics but with purpose. Tactics have a half life.”

- Noam Chomsky

Scenario #3: Let’s say you’re watching High Noon.

For me, the most powerful moment in the film is when Amy, the converted Quaker wife (played by Grace Kelly) of Marshal Kane (Gary Cooper) shoots and kills a man to save her husband’s life.

Earlier in the film, Amy declares: “My father and my brother were killed by guns. They were on the right side but that didn’t help them any when the shooting started. My brother was nineteen. I watched him die. That’s when I became a Quaker. I don’t care who’s right or who’s wrong. There’s got to be some better way for people to live.”

However, Amy not only ends up shooting a man, she also aggressively fights off the main villain, which allows Marshal Kane to finish him off. If Amy had decided beforehand that under no circumstances would she resort to violence—even in self-defense—both she and her husband would have certainly been killed.

Before you run and tell Gandhi on me, please note that I’m not advocating violence. Then again, I’m not advocating non-violence. The only thing I’m advocating in this article is that members of the 99% maintain a big picture purpose, holistic solidarity, and a commitment to a wide range of sustained actions.

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.”

- Thoreau

At your local Occupation, you’ll find strange bedfellows indeed. Some are vegan but most are not. You’ll meet those passionately committed to non-violence and others just as fervent about militant direct action.

Every Occupation contains anarchists, socialists, communists, etc. but perhaps the largest contingent is made up of folks who have never contemplated such a label and for now, seek reforms in the current capitalist system (again: for now).

Under an umbrella as big as the 99% concept, all these groups intertwine and peacefully co-exist where you’d least expect it. This is why OWS continues to grow and why it needs all of us to bring our voices and our open minds into the mix.

It needs all of us “striking at the root.”

Single-issue activism, litmus tests, and in-fighting are three regrettable yet durable Leftist ingredients. They have paved the path of failure time and time again. Unless we de-occupy our personal list of movement prerequisites, OWS will be doomed to the same fate.

Considering the state of global affairs, if OWS is doomed, so are we.

Caveat: For the zillionth time, the above sentiment is not meant to suggest that anyone be silenced or march in lockstep. Rather, as I witness many lefties disparage OWS for not embracing their pet issue with sufficient fervor, I feel the perpetual need to urge us all to perform a daily ego-check and focus on the tasks at hand.

“Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.”

- Bruce Lee

Successful activism is never either/or. When allies bicker over tactics, you can be certain vanity is ruling the day. Whether you want to sign petitions or engage underground direct action, go right ahead—but please understand that diversity of tactics advances the cause.

Please also understand that deriding others for not adhering to your finely tuned sense of purity (violent, non-violent, or whatever) is more about your sense of self than about creating the changes we all seek.

I’ve used this example before, but it bears repeating: There was a time when human slavery was believed too deeply entrenched in American culture to ever be abolished. But the movement to end this “peculiar institution” was made up of individuals willing to recognize that some things in life are bigger than any of us.

Whether they literally risked their lives by rescuing slaves and running the Underground Railroad or played a role by sewing clothes or blankets for escaped slaves or lending financial support or handing out pamphlets or even writing books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the effort needed every single one of these brave humans doing their part—small or large—in solidarity.

“Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right.”

- Ani DiFranco

#OccupyYerToolboxes…but let each occupant decide which implement best suits her or his style. Remember, there are more than enough tools and more than enough work to go around. So please, stop worrying about what everyone else is or isn’t doing.

Just get busy and stay busy. There’s a long—and exhilarating—road ahead.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#De-OccupyEither/Or. #OccupySolidarity. #OccupyProcessOverPurity.

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“The amount of poverty and suffering required for the emergence of a Rockefeller, and the amount of depravity that the accumulation of a fortune of such magnitude entails, are left out of the picture, and it is not always possible to make the people in general see this.”

- Che Guevara

Shortly after my recent article about the frightening state of the world’s children was posted, I received a request to narrow my focus to the good ol’ USA. In other words: why should all of us be occupying for America’s kids, too?

Wow…where do I begin?

Hmmm…I could start at birth and talk about the prevalence of toxins in breast milk or the dangerous vaccinations and pharmaceuticals imposed upon almost every child or the endless assault of pesticides, GMOs, additives, and other chemicals that have become part and parcel of the American way of life.

Perhaps I could shine a light on the car culture and point out how, for example, the leading cause of death for children aged 5 to 14 in New York City is pedestrian automobile accidents.

Each of those concepts (and many others) could—and just may—end up as a separate article. However, considering what passes for discourse these days, I think another approach is essential here.

Republicans grumble about welfare queens and Democrats somberly discuss “shared sacrifices” and, of course, there’s the callous Libertarian fantasy of an even playing field. So, I’ll eschew the poetics and stick—as much as possible—to the cold hard facts as we go directly to the heart of the American Dream façade.

This one goes out to all the willfully deluded and overly entitled souls who smugly maintain that low-income Americans are too lazy, stupid, or dishonest to earn enough money to pay their ever-mounting bills.

To follow is but a small taste of the insidious and escalating poverty here in the land of opportunity. (FYI: Primary source for ensuing statistics)

Define “Poverty”

As it stands, the federal poverty level is absurdly and maliciously low: $22,050 a year for a family of four. Thus, the following numbers are inherently skewed as research has shown that such a family would need twice as much money simply to cover basic expenses.

So, when I tell you that 21% of all US children—15 million in all—live in families with incomes “below the federal poverty level,” a more useful and compassionate estimate would be 42% or 30 million.

With that crucial caveat in mind, here are some of the many reasons why we must #Occupy4USChildren:

• Children make up 26% of the US population, but are 39% of the people who live in poverty (the poverty rate is higher for children than any other age group)
• Every day, 2,660 children are born into poverty
• Children and families are the fastest growing group among the homeless, making up 40% of the homeless population
• One in 50 US children currently homeless

Poverty and Geography

• Mississippi and the District of Columbia have the highest rates of child poverty, both over 25%
• Fifteen other states (Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia) have child poverty rates above 20%
• The South is the region with the highest rate of child poverty: 42% of Southern children live in low-income families

A quick side trip to my hometown of New York City, where I turn to Doug Henwood, who recently offered these sobering realities:

• The richest 10% of New Yorkers have 58% of total income
• The richest 5% have 49%
• The proverbial 1% has 34%
• The city’s median income is $28,213
• The average income of the top 1% is $2,247,515
• The income of the top 10% of New Yorkers is 582 times that of the poorest 10% (in Brazil, that ratio is 35 times)

By more general locale:

• 47% of kids in rural areas have low-income families
• Urban areas: 40%
• Suburbs: 30%

By race/ethnicity:

• The overall US poverty rate for white children is 11%
• Asian children: 13%
• Hispanic children: 31%
• Native American children 31%
• Black children: 34%

Poverty and Health

According a recent Columbia University study, poverty, defined as living below 200% of the United Stated Federal Poverty Level (FPL), was determined to take away 8.2 years of health, meaning poor people have 8.2 fewer years in which they are healthy than someone above 200% of the FPL.

In addition, children who struggle with hunger are:

• Sick more often, recover more slowly, and are more likely to be hospitalized
• More likely to experience headaches, stomachaches, colds, ear infections, and fatigue
• More susceptible to obesity and its harmful health consequences as children and as adults
• Predisposed children to emotional and behavioral difficulties, academic problems, and tend to be more aggressive and anxious

In 2006, researchers found: “Children in low-income families start off with higher levels of antisocial behavior than children from more advantaged households. And if the home remains poor as the children grow up, antisocial behavior becomes much worse over time compared to children living in households that are never poor or later move out of poverty.”

Disabilities—whether directly linked to poverty or not—leave American children vulnerable to a lifetime of financial difficulties. According to the US Census Bureau (2006), “Persons with a disability are likely to have limited opportunities to earn income and often have increased medical expenses. Disabilities among children and adults may affect the socioeconomic standing of entire families. It is estimated that over 40 million people in America have some level of disability, and many of these individuals live in poverty.”

Welfare Queens: Real and Imagined

I could go on with the stats but let’s instead stop for some perspective: Billions of dollars are spent to bail out the rich while 54% of our tax dollars funds a global reign of terror known as the US military. But thanks to corporate propaganda, we’re programmed to ignore the vast and corrupt enterprise of corporate welfare and to falsely believe that the poor in America are lazy leeches, coddled by an enabling nanny state.

Contrary to such despite dishonest media imagery, 55% of children living in poor or low-income families have a parent who works full time, year around.

“What’s so hard is that a lot of families are working so hard,” Dr. Megan Sandel, associate professor of pediatrics and public health at Boston Medical Center’s Grow Clinic told ABC News. “They are working jobs. They are earning money and their dollars just don’t go far enough.”

Two of the big reasons why the number of US children living in poverty has jumped by nearly 20% since 2000: higher unemployment and foreclosures. Studies show that nearly 5.5 million children live in families that have lost homes to foreclosures and 8 million children live in families where at least one parent has lost a job.

Those children who manage to either survive or avoid such an oppressive economic plight are then left to navigate a fraudulent system in which it is increasingly difficult to earn a living wage and/or afford health insurance.

Schooling is no longer a guaranteed path towards even relative financial security. In addition, the total student debt now exceeds the total consumer debt and will pass $1 trillion in 2012.

Such a bleak scenario can only leave us wondering what’s left for the vast majority of humans who make up the future of this country. Perhaps such a musing helps to explain why so many young people volunteer to wage illegal and immoral wars and why

7,225,800 American adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009.

#Occupy4USChildren

“Do not waste your time on social questions. What is the matter with the poor is poverty; what is the matter with the rich is uselessness.”

- George Bernard Shaw

Let’s revisit a few details: Despite unfair and impractical US federal government standards for what qualifies as poverty, the numbers still remain staggering. Poverty has increased by 20% since 2000 and currently, 2,660 American children are born into poverty every single day.

Meanwhile, with help from a relentless corporate media, the general population is conditioned to remain oblivious to massive government subsidies for the 1% while demonizing the poor and scoffing at the activists struggling for justice.

So, as with my previous article, I must ask: Where do you stand on all this? Do you block it out or does it keep you up at night?

Do you want to live in a country where 1 out of 50 children are homeless while 1% of humanity accumulates vast material wealth?

If not, why aren’t you fighting back? If you can’t find a reason to fight for yourself, then just do it for all the children in every country. It’s now or never…

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#DeOccupyCorporatePropaganda. #OccupyClassWar. #Occupy4USChildren.

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

“When you own a big chunk of the bloody Third World, the babies just come with the scenery.”

- Pretenders, “Middle of the Road”

On November 24, 2011, while many of the more privileged humans on Planet Earth marked Thanksgiving—with or without a dead turkey, with or without awareness of the near-extermination of the indigenous population—a US-taxpayer subsidized air strike in southern Afghanistan killed seven civilians. Six of them were children.

The Afghani kids who’ve so far avoided death-by-drone are hardly better off. A decade after the illegal and immoral US-led invasion, Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world—257 deaths per 1,000 live births—while 70% of the population lacks access to clean water.

Meanwhile, in Pakistan, it’s been found that one in seven US drone strikes result in a child fatality.

And we have the balls to wonder: Why do they hate us?

Madeleine Albright sez: “The United States is good. We try to do our best everywhere.”

Ward Churchill sez: “Stop killing our kids, if you want your own to be safe.”

What’s that? You’re not killing anybody’s kids? Au contraire, mon ami…

With 54% of US tax dollars going to the military, the vast majority of Americans have contributed to enough murders to make Kissinger blush.

Exhibit A: The US-enforced sanctions imposed on Iraq from August 1990 and to November 2003—sanctions that were responsible at one point for the deaths of 300 Iraqi children a day.

Did the 1% (of either party) flinch at such carnage?

On the May 12, 1996 edition of 60 Minutes, then US Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright had the following exchange with Leslie Stahl:

Stahl: “We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that’s more children than died in Hiroshima. And—and you know, is the price worth it?”

Albright: “I think this is a very hard choice but the price—we think the price is worth it.”

Shortly afterwards, noted liberal savoir Bill Clinton named Albright as his Secretary of State. In the world of the 1%, killing brown children by the hundreds of thousands, it seems, is a real boost for the resume.

Howard Zinn sez: “I wonder how the foreign policies of the United States would look if we wiped out the national boundaries of the world, at least in our minds, and thought of all children everywhere as our own.”

It’s not just foreign policy, Howie.

Whether the figurehead calls himself Republican or Democrat, US hegemony and corporate imperialism has helped cultivate and sustain a global culture that produces hunger-related numbers like this:

• Under-nutrition contributes to five million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries.
• One out of four children—roughly 146 million—in developing countries is underweight
• More than 70% of the world’s underweight children (aged five or less) live in just 10 countries, with more than 50% located in South Asia alone
• 10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60% of the deaths

Overall, somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000 children under the age of five die each day from preventable causes.

Neil Young sez: “There’s one more kid that will never go to school, never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.”

So, where do you stand on all this? Do you block it out or does it keep you up at night? Do you want to live in a society where children are made to suffer and die so that 1% of humanity can accumulate vast material wealth? If not, why aren’t you fighting back?

You may think the Occupy protesters are unwashed or lazy but they’re fighting for those kids.

You may think this is not your fight or believe you don’t have the time or energy to get involved. You may have even convinced yourself that time is not running out.

You just might expect an elected official to do the fighting for you.

Well, the latest liberal savoir, Barack Obama, made his position quite clear on the day he was sworn into office: “We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense.”

Mic Check…

We must make our position equally as clear. We must also refuse to apologize for the changes we seek, for the justice we demand, for the children we wish to save.

We must never apologize for our way of life…nor can we ever again waver in its defense. It’s now or never…

Arundhati Roy sez: “Once you see it, you can’t un-see it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you’re accountable.”

Please open our eyes and see and if you can’t find a reason to fight for yourself, then just do it for the children.

We are the 99%. Expect us. Join us…

#OccupyParticipation. #OccupyEndurance. #Occupy4Children.

Mickey Z. is the author of 11 books, most recently the novel Darker Shade of Green. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on an obscure website called Facebook.

By Peter Phillips and Craig Cekala 

For the second year (2010) in a row, more US soldiers killed themselves (468) than died in combat, reports Cord Jefferson January 27, 2011 on www.good.ir. Excluding accidents and illness, 462 soldiers died in combat, while 468 committed suicide. Veterans  who, after serving, suffer Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are also at high risk. The study showed that 47 percent of veterans with PTSD had thoughts of suicide before they found help. The internal anguish a soldier experiences after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan can be far more severe than that experienced during live external combat.

More than 2 million troops have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Those who do return often suffer from physical, psychological, and cognitive trauma.  More than 40 per 100,000 men from the ages of 20 to 24 take their lives each year. Some deaths, which are not part of these statistics, are due to driving while under the influence of alcohol consumed due to depression. In 2008, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were 75 percent more likely to die in a car accident and 148 percent more likely to die in a motorcycle accident. By making the calculations of 40 per 100,000 per year the numbers of veteran suicides reaches into the tens of thousands nationwide since the beginning of the 9/11 wars.

In 2009, there were 381 military personnel suicides , a number that also exceeded the number of combat deaths. While the military has acknowledged an increase in suicides for some years, the corporate media tends to downplay the seriousness of these deaths by pointing to improvements and blaming the victims themselves. USA Today reporter Gregg Zoroya writes on 7/20/10, (1) “After nine years of war, the Army attracts recruits ready for combat but inclined toward risky personal behavior. It’s a volatile mix that led to more deaths from suicide, drug overdoses and drinking and driving than from warfare, an Army review concludes.”

“The Marine Corps reported a decline in suicides from 52 in 2009 to 37 confirmed or suspected cases in 2010. Among active-duty Army soldiers, there were 156 potential suicides in 2010, down slightly from 162 in 2009,” writes Zoroya in an earlier article January 20, 2011.

Chris Hedges quotes former mortuary unit marine Jess Goddell, “War is disgusting and horrific,” she said. “It never leaves the people who were involved in it. The damage is far greater than the lists of casualties or cost in dollars. It permeates lifestyles. It infects cultures and people and worldviews. The war is never over for us. The fighting stops. The troops get called back. But the war goes on for those damaged by war.”

Goodell goes on to describe how the Marines exploit young people, “Every single Marine I know goes to Iraq to help,” she said. “While I was there that is what I thought. That is why I volunteered. I thought I was going to help the Iraqis. I know better now. We did the dirty work. We were used by the government. The military knows that young, single men are dangerous. We breed it in Marines. We push the testosterone. We don’t want them to be educated….We cannot question anyone. We do what we are told.”

Absent from corporate media coverage of suicide rates among the troops, is a comprehensive analysis of the nature of the war and occupations itself. Corporate media acknowledges that “The Army and the Marine Corps, which have borne the heaviest burden in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been hit the hardest, reporting a record number of suicides in 2008. This year (2009), the toll is on pace to climb even higher. When combined, the figures paint a stark portrait of loss. More than 2,100 members of the armed forces have taken their own lives since 2001, nearly triple the number of troops who have died in Afghanistan and almost half of all U.S. fatalities in Iraq.”(2)

Post-Tramatic Stress Disorder is also widely covered in the corporate media with the focus on the soldiers themselves and not the US government’s position  in these wars and occupations.  Corporate media’s framing of impacts on solders never questions the US policy of maintaining a military empire of occupations and wars worldwide.

Instead a bipartisan group of senators is asking President Barack Obama to change the current “insensitive” policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who commit suicide. A letter signed by 11 senators — 10 Democrats and one Republican — and sent May 25 urged the president to “take immediate steps to reverse the long-standing policy of withholding presidential letters of condolence” to families of troops who killed themselves. (3)

As the Occupy Movement emerges across the US and around the world, a prime example of greed and exploitation is occurring with very little coverage in the global corporate media. Members of the global top one percent are killing striking workers and using raw military power to protect their billions of dollors of annual profits. And the highest levels of US Government encourage and protect the exploiters.

Freeport McMoRan (FCX) is the world’s largest extractor of copper and gold and controls huge deposits in Papua, Indonesia. The Gasberg Mine in Papua employs some 8,000 workers at wages of $1.50 to $3.00 an hour. The workers have been on stike since September of 2011 for an increase in wages. In an attempt to block busloads of replacement workers, several strikers have been killed and several wounded by security forces financed by Freeport. Freeport has offered a 22% increase in wages, but strikers say that is not enough and are demanding an increase to the international standard of $17 – $43 an hour. The dispute over pay has also drawn in local tribesmen, with their own grievances over land rights and pollution, armed with spears and arrows to join Freeport workers blocking the mine’s supply roads for food and fuel this week.
The Jakarta Globe reported October 28, 2011, that Indonesian security forces in West Papua, notably the police, continue to receive extensive direct payments of cash from Freeport McMoRan. National Police chief Timur Pradopo admitted on October 28 that officers had received close to $10 million annually from Freeport. Prominent Indonesian NGO Imparsial puts the annual figure at $14 million. Pradopa described the millions of dollars in additional payments made to the police by Freeport as “lunch money” (Jakarta Globe, 2011). The payments recall even larger payments made by Freeport to Indonesian military forces over the years which, once revealed, prompted a US Security and Exchange Commission investigation of Freeport and questions as to Freeport’s liability under the US law (the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act). Since 1991 Freeport has paid nearly $13 billion to the Indonesian government at a 1.5% royalty rate and remains one of Indonesia’s largest sources of income.
Reuters reported on October 25, “Miners have been striking at Grasberg, the world’s second-biggest copper mine, since mid-September, disrupting output and stopping shipments. Violence has escalated in recent weeks with sabotage to pipelines and deadly attacks on employees. Angry workers and people from seven local tribes are blocking the main road near an airport in Timika that links Freeport’s port to the Grasberg mine, and refused to shift after police gave them a deadline to move. “People fought back. The police gave several warning shots but they have left now,” said a striking worker, adding that there were no casualties reported. “The tribes have conducted war ceremonies. They are ready to die for this” (Reuters Africa, 2011).
Amnesty International has documented numerous cases where Indonesian police have used unnecessary force against the strikers and their supporters. It is stated in a recent report by West Papua Media that, “Indonesian security forces attacked a mass gathering in the Papua capital, Jayapura, and striking workers at the Freeport mine in the southern highlands. At least five people were killed and many more injured in the assaults, which show a renewed pattern of overt violence against peaceful dissent. A brutal and unjustified October 19 attack on thousands of Papuans exercising their rights to assembly and freedom of speech resulted in the death of at least three Papuan civilians, the beating of many, detention of hundreds and arrest of six, reportedly on treason charges. The Obama administration has largely ignored the egregious violation of human rights, instead advancing US-Indonesian military ties. US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who arrived in Indonesia in the immediate wake of the Jayapura attack, avoided criticism of the assault and reaffirmed US support for Indonesia’s territorial integrity” (West Papua Media, 2011). Panetta also reportedly commended Indonesia’s handling of a weeks-long
Freeport strike.
“The global dimension of the issues raised by the Freeport confrontation [is] highlighted by the fact that workers at the company’s Sociedad Minera Cerro Verde copper mine in Peru have been on strike since September 29. They are demanding pay rises of 11 percent, while the company has offered just 3 percent” (WSWS, 2011).
On November 7 The Jakarta Globe reported that, “Striking workers employed by Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold’s subsidiary in Papua have dropped their minimum wage increase demands from $7.50 to $4.00 an hour, the All Indonesian Workers Union said. Virgo Solos, an official from the union, known as the SPSI, told the Globe that they considered the demands, up from the current minimum wage of $1.50 an hour, to be “the best solution for all.” Virgo said Freeport management was currently offering $3.00 an hour (Jakarta Globe, 2011). Freeport-McMoRan’s Grasberg mine, according to WSWS.org, is the “. . . world’s largest and most profitable gold and copper mine. Buoyed by soaring commodity prices, the company’s first half-year profit jumped to almost $3 billion, nearly double the figure for the first six months of 2010” (WSWS, 2011).
US President Obama is planning an Indonesia visit in mid-November to strengthen relations with Jakarta as part of Washington’s escalating effort to combat Chinese influence in the Asia-Pacific region (WSWS, 2011).
Freeport operates in North and South America, Indosesia and Africa. In 2010, the company sold 3.9 billion pounds of copper, 1.9 million ounces of gold and 67 million pounds of molybdenum. Freeport McMoran has a over all revenue of $18.9 billion in 2010 and a net income of $4.2 billion. The Chairman of the Board is James R. Moffett owns over 4 million shares with a share value close to $42.00. Moffetts annual compensation from FCX was $30.57 million in 2010 according to the FCX annual meeting report in June of 2011. Richard C. Adkerson is President of the board of FCX and owns over 5.3 million shares. His total compensation in 2010 was also $30.57 million.

In a transcript of Third Quarter statement for Freeport, Kathleen Quirk, CFO, Executive VP, (annual compensation $8.6 million) reported,

“During the third quarter of 2011, our production and sales of copper and gold were adversely affected by labor disruptions at PT Freeport Indonesia. The estimated impact on our third quarter 2011 production, including the 8-day strike in July 2011, and the ongoing strike that commenced on September 15 totaled approximately 70 million pounds of copper and 100,000 ounces of gold in the third quarter. Without these impacts, our third quarter 2011 sales from Grasberg would have exceeded our forecasted production and sales because of access to higher grade ore previously scheduled to be mined in future periods. We’ve also developed revised operating plans to produce and ship concentrates at modified levels with a reduced workforce and we sold concentrate from inventory during the third quarter, which partly mitigated the lower production levels” (Seeking Alpha, 2011).

Transcript of Third Quarter statement by Freeport President Richard Adkerson showed,

“As Kathleen said, both the work stoppage in early July and then the ongoing strike that started in mid-September reduced our third quarter copper production by 70 million pounds from what it otherwise would’ve been, and 100,000 ounces. So that is an adverse impact to us. It results in lower taxes and royalties to the government of Indonesia then there otherwise would’ve been because of that. And of course the workers who are on strike are not being paid. So all of us, all the stakeholders have a strong incentive to try to resolve this strike and we’re committed to trying to do that on a fair basis. But we did revise our operating plans. We — our management team on the ground at PT-FI, our Indonesian national staff people and contractors and some of the workers that are [indiscernible] on the union allowed us to operate on a reduced basis. Our mill has operated in recent days at 75% to 80% of capacity. We’re operating in the mine at a roughly 2/3 of our normal rates. Our underground operations have ramped up, and we’ve been able to ship concentrate inventory with some disruptions. …Our hope is, and what we’re certainly working towards, is to get this strike resolved on a mutually satisfactory basis with all parties, so that we can go back to totally normal operations. …In Indonesia, we have worked in good faith to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with the union. The strike really is — doesn’t have basis under Indonesian law. We’re working cooperatively with the government, which has designated our operations in Papua as a vital national object. So the government recognizes the importance of our operations to the community, to Papua, to the government itself. Our pay packages have been and continue to be at the top of workers for workers in Indonesia. We are offering a substantial increase to pay as we talk about the new 2-year contract. We see our offer as being fair and generous. We have worked in a government-designated process of having discussions, including participating with the union in a mediation process. …The government of Indonesia came up with conclusions and we accepted those conclusions. The union did not” (Seeking Alpha, 2011).
Freeport is connected to some of the most elite transnational capitalists in the world. 7.8% of Freeport’s stock is held by BlackRock, Inc., a major investment management firm based in New York. BlackRock’s assets under management total US $3.66 trillion across equity, fixed income, cash management, alternative investment, real estate and advisory strategies. BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK) independent directors include: Abdlatif Y. Al-Hamad, Director General/Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, James E. Rohr, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.. Sir Deryck Maughan Partner and Head of Financial Institutions Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, John Varley
Former Chief Executive, Barclays PLC, David H. Komansky, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., John Varley, Former Chief Executive, Barclays PLC, Thomas H. O’Brien, Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Freeport strikers have begun to win the support of the Occupy Movement. Occupy Phoenix activists marched to Freeport headquarters on October 31 in support of the strikes in Indonesia.
According to Marianne Kearney writing for The Age.com in 2006, “Freeport mine is polluting West Papua’s rivers and estuaries and a world heritage-protected national park, according to the company’s own environmental assessments and Indonesian Government standards.” Documents leaked to an environment group show that the world’s largest gold and copper mine has dumped a billion tons of mine waste, known as tailings, into surrounding rivers, polluting forests and river systems with heavy metals such as copper and arsenic, and endangering species such as the flying fox.
The environmental risk assessments were leaked to Indonesian environment group Wahli. “Freeport has known that their operation is endangering the environment but they don’t do anything,” Wahli spokesman Torry Kuswardono said.The environmental assessments show that the company’s tailings are polluting the world-heritage Lorentz National Park, which stretches from glacier-capped mountains to a tropical marine environment (The Age, 2006).
Multiple issues with international implications are demonstrated by the Freepost strike in Indonesia. The wealth inequality between the stock holders of Freeport and the wage workers in their mines is a example of how the top one percent of corporate capitalists of the world hold and control vast private resources to the detrement of working people everywhere. The Freeport case is also an demonstration of how holders of private capital bribe and manipulate access to minerial resources that were provided by nature that in reality belong to all living beings (Fair Share of the Common Heritage), yet are used to further concentrate wealth among the few creating massive environmental damage in the process. Freeport’s political clout—reaching all the way into the Whitehouse and the highest levels of power in Indonesia—uses the police power of the state to force workers into compliance. The one percent transnational corporate class utilizes the power of the military around the globe to protect their interests in the growth and free flow of capital to the detriment of a vast majority of the rest of us symbolized by the Occupied Movement’s mantra 99%.
Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and President of Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored.

Kimberly Soeiro is an undergraduate Sociology major and Research Associate at Sonoma State University. She has been working in multiple library settings since 2008. Her concentration continues to be research and information.

For a 2005 NY Times Article on Freeport’s Military Bribes and Environmental damage see: Below a Mountain of Waste, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/27/international/asia/27gold.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=0ee1bc8941899f9f&ex=1138078800

In the last 35 years, the so-called mainstream media have been co-opted into a propaganda machine for the transnational corporate power structure, which serves a US/NATO Military Industrial Media Empire instead of We the People.

Project Censored resists the goals of global empire at the expense of human rights, we resist top down managed news in favor of a truly free press, and we resist censorship in all its guises.

Media Democracy in Action is our belief and we will firmly continue to build media from the bottom up by supporting independent news sources and validating content with our expanding number of affiliate colleges and universities worldwide.  Functioning democracies are the result of an informed and participatory public and we need an informed electorate now more than ever to protect our civil liberties, our economy, and our Constitution.

Please Support this effort by making an Anniversary Gift to Project Censored.  Gifts of $35 or more will be shown our gratitude with a copy of Censored 2012 upon release in September, with an introduction by former director Dr. Peter Phillips, and signed to you personally by current Project Censored director Mickey Huff.

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Preview of Censored 2012 (Available NOW)

For Censored 2012, we continue to divide our annual publication into three sections as we broaden, grow, and diversify efforts to illuminate examples of censorship in the corporate mainstream US press.  Further, we continue to promote ways to improve our systems of reporting and communicating to the public at large about the most crucial issues we face as a society.

The first section of this year’s book, on the News that Didn’t Make the News and Why, houses the traditional top censored news stories from the past year, which are now analyzed in what we call Censored News Clusters.  Within these Clusters, Project Censored’s team of media experts and their student interns analyze and connect the dots between stories based on similar themes or topics rather than simply list the top stories as ranked in importance by Project Censored judges.  For the first time, we focus on the connections between censored stories as the structure of this chapter, flushing out why some topics are prone to such underreporting, and what we might do about this problem, rather than simply list and summarize top censored stories.

In the second chapter, Censored Déjà vu, we check for any new or increased coverage of previously underreported top stories.  Most receive little if any coverage in the corporate mainstream press, but if they do, we monitor and remark upon it here, ever in hopes that the corporate media may be improved, but not waiting for such to take place as we advocate for the coming media revolution.

In chapter three, Adam Bessie joins the Project Censored director, Abby Martin of Media Roots and student interns to analyze the ubiquity of Junk Food News and the growing problem of News Abuse, including framing and propaganda in US media.  This year we include a case study in how pubic workers (teachers especially) have been negatively portrayed in the corporate press as a major example of News Abuse.

Chapter four, with San Francisco State University professor of Holistic Studies Kenn Burrows, brings out the best in underreported news as we look at the positive, the signs of health and community building as published in the independent press, which the corporate media tend to deride, downplay, or outright ignore.  The problems we face do not merely include the sordid things that are going on around us that the corporate media do not report, they also include the many positive things that are going on often right in front of us that the corporate media do not recognize, hence contributing to a sense of disconnection among many in society.

Chapter five brings back our media activism showcase which includes examples of media democracy in action, highlighting what other activists, scholars, and organizations are doing to achieve the media revolution, supporting the First Amendment, in maintenance of self governance and democracy.  This year we welcome the Park Center for Independent Media, PR Watch, Media Alliance, Media Roots, Courage to Resist and more.

Section two focuses on what we call the Truth Emergency. This Truth Emergency we face is a result of the lack of factual reporting by the so-called mainstream media over the past decade.  Americans are subjected to mass amounts of propaganda, from misinformation to disinformation, on a daily basis about some of the most significant issues of the day.  Whether this involves the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East, the health care debate, election fraud or economic collapse, most Americans are unaware of all the facts of how we got where we now are as a society.  It is the duty of the constitutionally protected free press to report factually to the public on these matters.  However, as our work shows dating back to 1976, that is not happening.  One way of combating this Truth Emergency is by understanding the nature of propaganda.  This year, our Truth Emergency section is a primer on Propaganda Studies, which includes a brief history, theory, application, and case studies all presented to enhance media literacy among the general public.  We are pleased to bring some of the best and brightest in the field to offer insight on this ever-important area of study.  Randal Marlin gives a brief history of propaganda; Jacob Van Vleet looks at one of the key theorists of propaganda, Jacques Ellul.  Robert Abele offer a philosophical and structural analysis of propaganda for readers while Elliot D. Cohen and Anthony DiMaggio look at specific areas, like the importance of Net Neutrality and astroturf activism in the so-called Tea Party, where understanding communication politics and media literacy really matter if a society is to be truly democratically functional, able to operate outside the propaganda matrix of the corporate media and establishment public relations machine.

The final section of the book is Project Censored International, which is a collection of various studies and media commentary that not only look at problems of global media censorship, but also examine how these important issues are handled, or ignored here in the US corporate press.  This section brings us a diverse group of scholars and activists, including Cynthia Boaz, Ann Garrison, Jon Elmer with Nora Barrows-Friedman, Robin Andersen, Margaret Flowers, and Ina May Gaskin.  The significant issues in this section include the Fair Sharing of the Common Heritage, introduced by Mary Lia, on moving toward an embrace of the human commons; understanding non-violence and how media depict such movements for peace and social justice; and the deconstruction of various myths– from the incredibly biased reporting on Africa to distorted views of recent disaster coverage, plus the ongoing skewed coverage concerning Israel/Palestine. This section continues on issues of health with an analysis of the top down denial of mass public support for single payer healthcare, and we round out Censored 2012 by looking at how corporate media distort life itself, from birth, by examining how corporate media have either ignored or demonized the efficacy of natural childbirth and midwifery in the US, despite that the facts surrounding homebirth culture clearly refute the mainstream coverage.

All in all, this is a work in progress and it involves hundreds of dedicated scholars, and students at over two dozen college and universities all over the world.  These are people from all walks of life across the globe who have at least one thing in common:  the belief in democracy and the role a free press plays in creation, protection, and maintenance of it.  Thanks to all who made this work possible, to all the tireless and selfless contributors, to all the readers and supporters of a free and vibrant people’s press, one that is always and only uncensored.

Your support is greatly appreciated:

Media Freedom Foundation/Project Censored Board of Directors

Mickey Huff, Peter Phillips, Elaine Wellin, Mary Lia, Carl Jensen, Cynthia Boaz,

Bill Simon, Derrick West, Dave Mathison, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Andy Roth, Miguel Molina, Dennis Bernstein, Kenn Burrows, and Noel Byrne

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Order an autographed copy of Censored 2012, available now for $35 in honor of Project Censored 35th anniversary