Citadel & Sidewalk

Assembled by Mike Soron for personal research & communal use

Filed under: politics

Berkeley City Council to vote on Bradley Manning resolution

BERKELEY, California, 11 February 2011 — On Tuesday, February 15th, the Berkeley City Council will vote on a resolution to call “for the immediate end to the cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of PFC Bradley Manning during his military confinement.” If passed, copies of the resolution will be sent to the Marine brig commander at Quantico, Virginia, where Bradley Manning is being held in maximum security solitary confinement, to the Quantico Base Commander, to Secretary of the Army John McHugh, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and President Barack Obama...

The resolution was written by Berkeley Peace and Justice Commissioner Bob Meola and passed by the Berkeley Peace and Justice Commission on January 10th. In December, the Berkeley City Council tabled a resolution that called for freeing Manning and proclaiming him to be a hero if he did what he is accused of doing — releasing the “Collateral Murder” video and other documents to WikiLeaks. That resolution is still on the table.

Commissioner Meola said: “This is another opportunity for Berkeley to set an example by doing the right thing — standing up for the rights of Bradley Manning to be treated in a just and humane way... For now, Berkeley needs to voice its outrage at the mistreatment Bradley Manning continues to suffer. Berkeley can be a guide for other cities to follow with similar resolutions to end the un-American treatment of this soldier by the U.S. government.”

via bradleymanning.org

Unrest in Italian cities as right-wing government secures Confidence Vote

The Guardian reports on the political crisis in Italy, which led to widespread urban unrest. Italians made homeless by 2009's L'Aquila earthquake joined students and others to protest following a Confidence Vote for the Berlusconi government.

The survival of [Berlusconi's] rightwing government was greeted by widespread disturbances in Rome where hooded and helmeted protesters set up flaming barricades, attacked police with sticks and bars, smashed the windows of shops and banks, and set alight cars, police vans and local authority vehicles. Police responded with baton charges, teargas and, in some cases reported by witnesses, indiscriminate beatings. []

Opponents of the government, including trade unionists and revolutionary socialists carrying red flags, were joined by students demonstrating against a recently approved university reform bill and people left homeless by the L'Aquila earthquake last year. The marchers filled the broad, long avenue that runs from the Colosseum through Rome's ancient forums. []

In the broad Piazza del Popolo, the scene of some of the most violent clashes, two thick pillars of smoke rose from the remains of a barricade and mingled with teargas fired to disperse the protesters. Student demonstrations were also held in several other cities, including Milan where they briefly occupied the stock exchange.

Report documents coordinated Canadian efforts to disrupt climate & clean energy policy in US, EU

Access to Information requests by the Climate Action Network have revealed that elements within the governments of Canada and Alberta attempted to undermined clean energy and climate policy in California, the United States and Europe. 

Much of the information compiles existing public statements, speeches and policies by federal and provincial politicians and civil servants in a way that identifies a pattern of deliberate and coordinated disruption of climate and energy policy agendas in friendly, foreign jurisdictions. 

A press release from the Climate Action Network says the attempts are coordinated through an "Oil Sands Advocacy Strategy" led by the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

“We have proof that the Harper government is aggressively intervening in Europe and the United States to kill clean energy policies in the name of promoting the tar sands,” says Graham Saul of Climate Action Network Canada. “Canada is not just exporting dirty oil anymore - we're also exporting dirty policies.”

The report documents extensive evidence of federal and Alberta government lobbying efforts against clean energy policies proposed in three jurisdictions: California, the United States and Europe. Documents obtained through Access to Information also point to a broad-based and secretive “Oil Sands Advocacy Strategy” led by the Department of Foreign Affairs. 

The press release also notes that Greenpeace has set up a tip line for federal civil servants -- essentially, a  "Climate Crime Stoppers" line. Keith Stewart of Greenpeace Canada says it has been set up for "federal civil servants who are frustrated with the oil industry calling the shots on Canada's energy and climate policy and want to help us separate oil and state.”

The line is being advertised in the national political elite newspaper The Hill Times and will be promoted throughout 2011. 

The release continues: 

“A friendly neighbor does not secretly try to undermine your clean energy jobs and efforts to fight climate change,” says Susan Casey-Lefkowitz of the Washington D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council. “The greed for tar sands oil is not only harming the Boreal forest - it is harming the North American clean energy future.”

“We are calling on the governments of Canada and Alberta to stop all efforts to kill clean energy and climate policy in other countries,” says Steven Guilbeault of Équiterre. “This is an outrage, it is a reckless approach to energy policy that needs to be brought to an end.

The full report, in PDF, is available here.

(h/t via joelaf, citing CBC)
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