The Social Concerns Committee of Lake City (Michigan) United Methodist Church, led by Richard Renner, is spearheading an effort to boycott the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. The Chinese Games are regularly referred to as the "Genocide Games," due to China's record of human rights atrocities at home, and their unyielding support of the brutal regimes in Burma and Sudan.
According to Renner, "We absolutely support our American athletes, and it is highly unlikely that the U.S. will completely boycott the Beijing Olympics. However, we urge our Representatives in Congress to support resolutions condemning China's human rights record. Further, we would like our President, George W. Bush, to reconsider his decision to attend the opening ceremonies. As leader of the free world, it would send a strong message of disapproval to the Chinese Communists if he were to decline their invitation to be an honored guest."
Since 1950, when the army of the People's Republic of China illegally invaded and occupied Tibet, the Chinese authorities have conducted a systematic campaign of genocide upon the Tibetan nation. Reliable estimates claim that as many as 1.2 million innocent Tibetans have been murdered. This crime of genocide has been condemned by the International Commission of Jurists, and is currently being investigated by Spain's High Court.
China is the number one diplomatic, economic and military ally of the brutal regime in Sudan. Armed with Chinese weapons, the Sudanese government has conducted a systematic campaign of genocide in the Darfur region. Since the conflict began in 2003, over 400,000 Darfuri civilians have been murdered, 2.8 million refugees have been driven from their homes, and 90 percent of ethnic Darfuri villages have been destroyed. On the U.N. Security Council, China has repeatedly threatened to use its veto to block resolutions imposing economic and diplomatic sanctions on Sudan.
"It is unfortunate that the Beijing Olympics have become so politicized," said Renner. "However, it is the Chinese government that began the process, by continually using the games as a propaganda tool to promote their political and economic agenda. China wants to be recognized as a global power, perhaps even a superpower, and they are using the Olympics to achieve that recognition."
So far, people of conscience from all across Michigan have joined our campaign to boycott the "Genocide Games." However, we need your help, too. For more information contact Richard Renner at 231/229-2505, or rrenner@core.com.
"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."
- Pastor Martin Niemoller, decorated World War I U-boat Commander. Imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau Death Camps from 1938 to 1945 for his anti-Nazi activities.
** Despite internet penetration in Burma at around 1% of the population, the government felt compelled to shut down the internet to prevent international sympathy for the protesters.
** There was a marked increase in traffic to blogs as the state media blamed unrest on foreigners instead of rising food and fuel shortages.
** The government is now investigating those who used 'freedom software' to spread information during the crackdown.
It's become clear that dissidents are getting better at using the internet to spread information, while governments are getting better at shutting them down. It's not going to be long before human rights organizations begin to understand that global net neutrality and a free internet are a proxy for violations of human rights. Even in poor, repressed, and violent areas, small bits of internet access can have a positive impact on repression. And as we're seeing, even in wealthy relatively open societies, excessively tight ties between media companies, communications networks, and the government are extremely dangerous.
The Burmese uprising is one of a series of internet-fueled democracy movements that is linked to a whole series of progressive NGOs. Software filtering and removing access to communications networks, as the Burmese government has done using American software from a California company called Fortinet, ties directly into net neutrality. Internet freedom really is freedom, and open networks really are the lifeblood of democracy and a check on tyranny. I'll have more on this soon, but the significant element to understand is that the positive feedback loops, of the type Chris Bowers outlined last week, are developing around a progressive vision of foreign policy. The net neutrality/Burma link is just one of them. These are 'fusion' moments, where disparate groups of progressives come together and unite around an underlying ideological core. Coalition politics is typically done with a co-signed letter, a meaningless gesture; fusion politics is about generating a real shared fight. The Burmese-net neutrality fusion possibility is real, if it can be exploited.
Another fusion possibility is what Scott Paul is up to over at the 'radical centrist' Washington Note, pushing what's called the Law of the Sea treaty. Paul was a key architect of the Stop Bolton campaign, which helped create the first Bush era genuine pushback against the whole Jesse Helms-ian nationalistic model of American militarism. The Law of the Sea isn't a particularly sexy treaty. All it does is set traffic rules for international water, securing fishing, navigational, national security, and mining rights. Because it's so pedestrian, it's supported by the White House, oil companies, peace groups, and environmentalists. Only the black helicopter crowd opposes it, which makes it an important fight, as Paul explains.
The opposition to the Bolton nomination... was a battle well chosen. It was very important on its merits: it successfully weakened and then partially removed an extremely negative element from the administration. But just as important was its execution. Thanks to some smart group decisions on strategy and message, the Bolton campaign is making current battles against pugnacious nationalism more winnable than before.
The effort to ratify the Law of the Sea convention is a campaign that matters for similar reasons. Yes, the Law of the Sea is compelling on its face. The armed forces rightly wants its navigational and overflight rights protected. Environmentalists rightly want the U.S. to join and add to global ocean stewardship efforts. And U.S. companies should have a chance to compete with foreign firms for offshore resources. For some background info on the convention, click here.
All of these are good reasons for the U.S. to accede to the Law of the Sea, but none of them alone or even in combination would necessarily make it important for the progressive agenda.
So why is the Law of the Sea significant? Simple: our absence from the Law of the Sea is the outer wall of Fortress America. Winning the ratification battle would seriously de-fang the same pugnacious nationalists who are on the opposite side of almost every important foreign policy issue facing the U.S.
The opposition to the Law of the Sea is based entirely on a visceral hatred for multilateral cooperation. Its champions detest all forms of international organization and believe the purpose of international law is to constrain U.S. behavior. They believe the U.S. should rely on the threat of force to advance its goals and should not be constrained by any rules, even if they rules that tilt the playing field in our favor.
Without being able to pass the very basic Law of the Sea treaty, there is no way we will ever get a treaty through on global warming, create the space to internationalize the Iraq mess, or work with allies abroad in any coherent manner. Fortunately, this is extremely winnable. All it will take is some floor time from Reid, and we'll win, embarrass, and marginalize the hyper-nationalists. If that happens, we'll set the stage for the kind of global governance models we'll need to actually deal with global warming, nuclear terrorism, international telecom and energy policy, and/or pandemic flu. Moreover, the military and corporate elites will begin to realize that they can and should do business with progressives, and that cutting out the lunatic fringe of the right makes sense for their strategic purposes.
Today is International Blogger Day For Burma, organized by a worldwide coalition of bloggers, there is more information here.
This past Monday, I launched the Burma NewsLadder and I greatly appreciate everyone who has visited, signed up and posted links on the site. However, of all the links posted, some hopeful, many tragic, here's the one that absolutely chaps my ass.
Chevron, an American company, owns the pipeline that was built by slave labor that provides the Burmese junta with their cash.
The situation in Burma is tragic and the result of decades of horrific military rule that has reduced one of the most beautiful places on earth to a tragic ruin where monks in robes flee from soldiers with Chinese-made automatic weapons.
One of the tragedies of the situation is despite the efforts of groups who have been trying to expose the situation on the ground in Burma. Groups like WITNESS and US Campaign For Burma have been fighting against the apathy that is our current corporate media culture.
In news not well covered by lefty political blogs or cable news, students, activists and monks in Burma have been actively challenging their dictatorial military junta for control of their country. They (as well as foreign journalists) are being killed for the trouble.
Maybe I'm getting soft, but the notion that people halfway around the world are braving lifetime prison terms and possibly death for daring to peacefully protest against a brutally despotic government speaks to me. The notion that folks in Burma are trying everything -- email, cellphone, e-pigeon -- to evade the regime's attempts to close the country down to outside observation makes me want to pay attention.
There's a lot going on in the world, but this story seems by far the most compelling and possibly important I've seen in months. Until the junta cut the main undersea internet connection, most of the information coming out about the protests was being produced by citizen -bloggers:
Dodging a deadly military crackdown that has killed at least nine protesters, Burmese bloggers are on the front lines, providing news and photos of death and insurrection.
Their Internet blogs, written in Burmese and grammatically flawed English, are posted mostly by residents of Rangoon, the commercial port also known as Yangon, where Buddhist monks, pro-democracy activists and residents have been defying security forces for more than a week.
The bloggers rely on word-of-mouth, cell phones, online chat groups, instant messaging, and firsthand accounts of protesters facing barricaded streets, tear gas and gunfire from Burmese security forces.
This angle alone seems to merit attention. Here's what people faced with true oppression do. For anyone wishing to learn more or to donate, check freeburma.org for resources.
STATE BLOGS
The Burmese uprising is one of a series of internet-fueled democracy movements that is linked to a whole series of progressive NGOs. Software filtering and