PHOTOGRAPHS
Saturday, 1 October 2011
On-U Sound Records and Rough Trade East presents...27.10.2011
On-U Sound and Rough Trade East are excited to present a very exclusive London in-store special event.
A night not to be missed, Thursday October 27th 2011, will begin with a rare in-person Q&A between Adrian Sherwood and Steve Barker of the highly respected BBC radio show, On The Wire
This will be followed by a mind-bending DJ ‘head-to-head’ between Adrian Sherwood and reggae maestro musician/producer, Dennis Bovell.
On-U Sound and Rough Trade will also collaborate to release an exclusive and limited New Age Steppers 7” vinyl collectors’ item.
Featuring the track Fade Away, the A-Side of the first ever single to be released by On–U Sound in 1981, the single will be backed by a sneak preview track from the brand new forthcoming New Age Steppers album to be released in 2012.
The single will only be available to fans upon entry to the in-store event on the night.
Pre-ordering the single via the Rough Trade website events page on www.roughtrade.com, will guarantee entry to event (one per person) and must be collected on the night.
Otherwise entry is on a first-come, first-served basis.
Via
Five Things That #OccupyWallStreet Has Done Right
#OccupyWallStreet protests are now well into their second week, and they are increasingly capturing the public spotlight. This is because, whatever limitations their occupation has, the protesters have done many things right.
I will admit that I was skeptical about the #OccupyWallStreet effort when it was getting started. My main concerns were the limited number of participants and the lack of coalition building. One of the things that was most exciting about the protests in Madison—and the global justice protests of old such as Seattle and A16—was that they brought together a wide range of constituencies, suggesting what a broad, inclusive progressive movement might look like. You had student activists and unaffiliated anarchists, sure; but you also had major institutional constituencies including the labor movement, environmentalists, faith-based organizations, and community groups. The solidarity was powerful. And, in the context of a broader coalition, the militancy, creativity, and artistic contributions of the autonomist factions made up for their lack of an organized membership base.
With #OccupyWallStreet the protest did not draw in any of the major institutional players on the left. Participants have come independently—mostly from anarchist and student activist circles—and turnout has been limited. Some of the higher estimates for the first day’s gathering suggest that a thousand people might have been there, and only a few hundred have been camping out.
That said, this relatively small group has been holding strong. As their message has gained traction—first in the alternative media, and then in mainstream news sources—they have drawn wider interest. On Tuesday night, Cornel West visited the occupied Zuccotti Park and spoke to an audience estimated at 2000. Rallies planned for later in the week will likely attract larger crowds. People will come because the occupation is now a hot story.
#OccupyWallStreet has accomplished a great deal in the past week and a half, with virtually no resources. The following are some of the things the participants have done that allowed what might have been a negligible and insignificant protest to achieve a remarkable level of success...
I will admit that I was skeptical about the #OccupyWallStreet effort when it was getting started. My main concerns were the limited number of participants and the lack of coalition building. One of the things that was most exciting about the protests in Madison—and the global justice protests of old such as Seattle and A16—was that they brought together a wide range of constituencies, suggesting what a broad, inclusive progressive movement might look like. You had student activists and unaffiliated anarchists, sure; but you also had major institutional constituencies including the labor movement, environmentalists, faith-based organizations, and community groups. The solidarity was powerful. And, in the context of a broader coalition, the militancy, creativity, and artistic contributions of the autonomist factions made up for their lack of an organized membership base.
With #OccupyWallStreet the protest did not draw in any of the major institutional players on the left. Participants have come independently—mostly from anarchist and student activist circles—and turnout has been limited. Some of the higher estimates for the first day’s gathering suggest that a thousand people might have been there, and only a few hundred have been camping out.
That said, this relatively small group has been holding strong. As their message has gained traction—first in the alternative media, and then in mainstream news sources—they have drawn wider interest. On Tuesday night, Cornel West visited the occupied Zuccotti Park and spoke to an audience estimated at 2000. Rallies planned for later in the week will likely attract larger crowds. People will come because the occupation is now a hot story.
#OccupyWallStreet has accomplished a great deal in the past week and a half, with virtually no resources. The following are some of the things the participants have done that allowed what might have been a negligible and insignificant protest to achieve a remarkable level of success...
Continue reading
Mark Engler @'Dissent'
ACLU Statement on Killing of Anwar Al-Aulaqi
WASHINGTON - September 30 - U.S. airstrikes in Yemen today killed Anwar Al-Aulaqi, an American citizen who has never been charged with any crime.
ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said, "The targeted killing program violates both U.S. and international law. As we've seen today, this is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process, and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public but from the courts. The government's authority to use lethal force against its own citizens should be limited to circumstances in which the threat to life is concrete, specific and imminent. It is a mistake to invest the President – any President – with the unreviewable power to kill any American whom he deems to present a threat to the country."
ACLU National Security Project Litigation Director Ben Wizner said, "Outside the theater of war, the use of lethal force is lawful only as a last resort to counter an imminent threat of deadly attack. Based on the administration's public statements, the program that the President has authorized is far more sweeping. If the Constitution means anything, it surely means that the President does not have unreviewable authority to summarily execute any American whom he concludes is an enemy of the state."
More information on the government's targeted killing policy is available at:
www.aclu.org/targetedkillings
Via
ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer said, "The targeted killing program violates both U.S. and international law. As we've seen today, this is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process, and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public but from the courts. The government's authority to use lethal force against its own citizens should be limited to circumstances in which the threat to life is concrete, specific and imminent. It is a mistake to invest the President – any President – with the unreviewable power to kill any American whom he deems to present a threat to the country."
ACLU National Security Project Litigation Director Ben Wizner said, "Outside the theater of war, the use of lethal force is lawful only as a last resort to counter an imminent threat of deadly attack. Based on the administration's public statements, the program that the President has authorized is far more sweeping. If the Constitution means anything, it surely means that the President does not have unreviewable authority to summarily execute any American whom he concludes is an enemy of the state."
More information on the government's targeted killing policy is available at:
www.aclu.org/targetedkillings
Via
After Anwar Al-Awlaki Hit, U.S. Full Of New Praise For Yemen's Embattled Government
"This success is a tribute to our intelligence community and to the efforts of Yemen and its security forces who have worked closely with the United States over the course of several years," President Obama said in remarks about the assassination of the terrorist leader. "[Awlaki] has met his demise because the government and the people of Yemen have joined the international community in a common effort against al-Qaida."
Similar remarks flowed freely all day.
"It's a good day," a defense official said in a statement, "for American counterterrorism efforts--and for counterterrorism cooperation with the government of Yemen. For some time, the Yemenis have played a key role in the hunt for Awlaki."
Another government official, speaking to the Los Angeles Times, added, “It was good to see the Yemen government actually allow us to go in. Allowing us to go on the property and get fingerprint analysis was a nice gesture of cooperation by the Yemeni government.”
It was a jarring break from the language coming from the State Department in recent weeks, as the death count from protests against the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh spiked.
"The United States extends our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives during recent protests in Sana’a," State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said on September 20, amid signs that government forces had launched a wholesale attack on the opposition movement.
"We have long condemned the use of violence during this period of upheaval and reject any actions that undermine productive efforts underway to achieve a peaceful political resolution to the current crisis in Yemen," Nuland's statement continued. "The United States continues to support the Yemeni people’s aspirations for a peaceful and orderly transition that is responsive to their aspirations for peace, reconciliation, prosperity, and security."
The situation in Yemen poses a major challenge for American policymakers, who find themselves torn between supporting the democratic aspirations of the Yemeni people, while also hoping to preserve what they view, in Saleh, as an essential military partner in the war on terror.
As recently as 2010, for instance, the Pentagon doubled its military aid to Yemen to $150 million per year, primarily for counterterrorism operations.
But in recent months, after an Arab Spring-inspired protest movement took hold in Sanaa, Yemen's capital, those American-funded and trained troops found themselves turned against their own people.
In a further twist, Saleh had only just returned to Yemen a few days before the Awlaki strike after spending much of the summer in Saudi Arabia, recovering from wounds he suffered during an anti-government attack on his compound.
According to a count by The New York Times, 40 people were killed in attacks by government forces against the opposition movement the day after Saleh came home, amid an ongoing spike in violence.
Less than a week later, American forces finally tracked down al-Awlaki, a wanted figure who had been at large in the country for several years.
"In my mind it is no coincidence this happened after his return," Christopher Boucek, an expert on Yemen with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told CNN Friday, arguing that paving the way to the strike may have been part of an attempt by Saleh to reinforce his indispensability in the war on terror.
Steven Heydemann, a senior vice president at the U.S. Institutes of Peace, agreed.
"Saleh is trying to use his support for counterterrorism to buy himself U.S. and perhaps Saudi good will, hoping to capitalize on this in his efforts to delay a transition, perhaps indefinitely," Heydemann told HuffPost. "But I don't think it will work. The U.S. knows that Saleh's future remains highly uncertain, and that it will need the support of any successor regime to sustain counterterror operations."
But, Heydemann argued, American policy on regime change would remain the same.
"The U.S. is not going to pretend that with this drone strike Saleh can rewind the tape to pre-uprising days," he said. "Won't happen, no matter what kind of praise it might direct his way in the short term."
In a briefing for reporters Friday, Nuland reiterated that the American view is that "it’s time for President Saleh to transfer power," but then offered a narrow delineation between Saleh and the "government of Yemen."
"We fight al-Qaida with the Yemeni government, with security forces," she said. " We expect that cooperation will continue in strong shape, but it is time for President Saleh to turn over the reins of power and allow a democratic transition."
Joshua Hersh @'HuffPo'
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