FEELING LIKE
A PIECE OF MEAT?

In the last several months, the US government--in the name of avenging the WTC attacks--has killed thousands of Afghan civilians, triggered a huge refugee crisis, and installed a notoriously brutal regime in Kabul. The conditions under which US capital and geopolitical interests may be served in Afghanistan are created, naturally, at the expense of mass numbers of people. Likewise, the patriotic unity expected of us here following 9/11 has served to conceal and give license to intensified attacks on the lives of working-class and poor people in the US. Patriotism means working people identifying with rich peoples' interests. Within days of 9/11, the government handed a $15 billion bail-out to the airline companies, while the 300,000 laid-off airline and travel industry workers got nothing. In the past year more than 1.5 million people in the US have lost their jobs--with many more to come. Meanwhile, we're sinking deeper and deeper into debt: the average household's debt load has increased to $8,100 from $3,000 in 1990. The recession is hitting a lot of us hard, and the only real holdover from the boom economy is excruciating rents. How many of us are one pay check away from the street? Enron, higher health care premiums and millions with no coverage at all, worthless stock options, mass lay-offs, more work for less pay; we're getting screwed! People in Argentina, Nigeria and elsewhere are fighting back against these kinds of attacks. So can we.

CLASS WAR IS REAL !

CONTACT US: noclass2002@hotmail.com 

mindfully.org note: 
The graphic and text above was copied from a flier we found in Berkeley, CA. It is an extremely intense point of view that all of us should seriously contemplate.  It is the stark reality of life for the greater proportion of people around the world. To ignore the billions of people who are hungry and jobless, and continue to demand what are perceived as our God-given rights—SUVs, toxic food, and useless plastics objects—is an increasingly dangerous path to take. Our pleasures are created at the expense of their freedom, environment, society, and health. 

"This warning was recently joined by more than 60 Nobel laureates, who in December co-signed a statement that begins: 'The most profound danger to world peace in the coming years will stem from the legitimate demands of the world's dispossessed. Of these poor and disenfranchised, the majority live a marginal existence in equatorial climates. Global warming, not of their making but originating with the wealthy few, will affect their fragile ecologies the most.'"
          From "Trust us, we know what we're doing." Michael Graf & Matthew Orr / SF Chronicle 7feb02

In order to understand what's wrong with the world today, each one of us needs only to look in the mirror. At the same time keep the vision of those billions of starving, jobless, and homeless people clearly in your mind. Globalization, led by the corporate elites of the US, is taking a heavy toll on those people and their environment. The ramification of this unrelenting pressure is being witnessed everywhere. 9/11 brought the action to our doorsteps. Somehow, about 75% of the citizens of the US have missed the reality of its causes. Our cities can no longer be free if we continue to abuse our power. It must be used for peaceful and loving actions that will unite the world instead of tearing it apart. In order for anyone to be free, all must be free.

"The two greatest obstacles to democracy in the United States are, 
first, the widespread delusion among the poor that we have a democracy, and 
second, the chronic terror among the rich, lest we get it."
          Edward Dowling, Editor and Priest, Chicago Daily News, 28jul41