March 2008 Archives

It's very difficult to get information about the real story in Basra right now. Things there are ugly and I can only hope it calms down soon. All I can say is the story I'm hearing on main stream media is vastly watered down at best. They're missing the motives behind the movements. Here are some sites with information that give a clearer picture of what kind of strategy is unfolding there now:
http://www.basraoilunion.org
http://www.eeegr.com/events/info.php?refnum=562&startnum=A0 http://www.kpmg.com/Press/KPMGLeaderappointed.htm http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/24/iraq.oil http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7294144.stm
New York Times  http://www.allbusiness.com/transportation/marine-transportation-ferries/5665051-1.html http://www.publici.net/wow/bio.aspx?act=pro&ddlC=56 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13196 http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12490 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120593326652748375.html
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080317082409.1u8it4sf&show_article=1
Thank you to Ewa Jasiewicz for compiling this list of references.

Here are Iraqi soldiers who are said to, within days probably, "wrest control of Umm Qasr and other parts of Basra's port from local militias," according to the NY Times. As I see it, among the "local militias" standing between the oil-greedy establishment and the ports and oil fields of Basra, are workers trying to unionize and establish oil and shipping profit for the benefit of Iraq and its people. A lot of these folks just don't want to get robbed. Will they die for that?


Photo: Joao Silva

From the Center for the Study of Political Graphics


LA vs WAR schedule:
Thursday, April 10, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Friday, April 11, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Saturday, April 12, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Sunday, April 13, 2008: 12:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.

YO presents 4 days of Art and Activism Against the War.

LA vs WAR highlights the travesty of a senseless war now going into its 6th year, giving LA artists a platform to exercise their freedom of speech. Hundreds of artists representing our diverse communities unite in delivering a universal message of peace and understanding, and offering resistance and opposition to the US government's war policies.

LA vs WAR highlights:

- Yo! What Happened to Peace?: posters on display from the international touring peace poster exhibition; live anti-war poster screen-printing demos

- Hit+Run: live t-shirt printing featuring custom artwork from the Hit+Run artist network

- Mark of the Beast: display of corporate-jammed logo spoofs - Crewest Graffiti & Stencil Art Garden: graffiti artist network doing live graffiti and stencil painting

- Center for the Study of Political Graphics: anti-war themed display from America's premier political poster archives

- Artwork Exhibition: handmade creations by independent local artists

- Universal Peace Altar: a memorial to lives lost in the war created by Ofelia Esparza and Shrine

- Peace in Iraq Photo Project by Azul 213: audience participation photo project to promote peace

- Dublab.com: music selections created by DJs from the web radio collective

- Lost Film Fest hosted by VJ Scott Beibin: film and video celebration of culture jamming and illegal art

- Light installations and projections: interactive entertainment provided by Todd Lazer

AND MORE...

All ages are welcome and admission is free.

See also myspace.com/lavswar

For volunteer or sponsorship inquiries, please contact LAvsWAR@gmail.com

March 21, 2008 has some significance in our time. Hundreds of organizations and thousands  of individuals will protest in very decentralized ways. Some are honking and/or texting for impeachment; others are preparing to vigil to mark the 4,000th official US casualty, which will likely happen within days or possibly hours of this writing; others are participating in the 7th Iraq Moratorium by taking self-directed action for peace; some will contact Congressional Representatives urging them to join Schakowski and Sanchez in supporting the right for union organizing in Iraq by overturning Saddam's law kept on the books by the US occupation; more might do something online--creating a web, protest traffic jam--like taking the Voters Pledge for Peace or watching David Swanson in a Stop Wars t-shirt explain how our representatives could flip off the war switch, or hearing testimony from last weekends IVAW Winter Soldier Hearings, or they might visit a site like this. I know I haven't even scratched the surface of what people are doing right now to express their discontent.

This site is dedicated to emerging gestures that embody our time and relay its flawed flavor. Erickson's Munchian Screaming Hawkeye BJ reflects current existential angst simmering at the collision point between our affinity for a mythology about how '60's revolutionary tactics appeared to usher in peace and equality in the wake of a turbulent decade smashing into a future that appears crumbling beneath us. This, broadsided by the power-elite's unquenchable thirst to exploit, creates a spectacular moment of disquiet, malaise and frustration seen in much art today.

Yet, this is just another day. People continue to get active and learn to make resistance part of a daily diet. Despite attempts to muffle voices of decent under the boisterous yelping of a media-military-government-complex, we will be heard by those who listen for us. We are Hortons and we are whos--to borrow a re-emergent theme spawned during the 1954 Army-McCarthy Hearings--we need to listen to one another and take actions to protect each other.

Karl Erickson is an artist whose interests include psychedelia, language, transcendental experiences, and counter-cultures throughout the ages. His primary media are video, posters, collage and latch-hook rugs and pillows.

http://www.artists-at-war.com/projects/AAW_003/AAW_003_01.html