Boston: Corporation which Exploited Syria & Iraq Opposed by Black Bus Drivers' Union "Dump Veolia" campaign. Workers also helped "Free Aafia" Movement. Islam forbids Private Ownership of Natural Resources.
Islam often presents itself as the Middle Path between the two extremes of Capitalism and Communism. Islamic Law would eliminate the need for class struggle by creating a society where property owners are held accountable. Yet, no Islamic society exists in this century. What is important to understand however is that Islam considers environmental and mineral resources to belong to Allah. That means nobody can own them. An Islamic movement has to protect and utilize natural resources for the public benefit. Leftist speech refers to "The People" while Islamic speech invokes "Allah" - but essentially they are both saying the same thing: that water and other resources belong to the government and cannot be privatized.
We have been hearing the word "privatization" a lot as local governments for example Flint, Michigan take the water and sewage infrastructure out of public control and give it to a private company that then contaminates the water and destroys the pipes. The Flint move was touted as part of "austerity measures," even though the privatization actually cost the city much more. It was really about corporations lining their pockets with public money. When a government hires a "private" company to run basic civilian infrastructure, we are not talking about a small private company with scientific expertise to solve environmental or organizational problems. These "private" companies are actually huge international corporations, which are steadily consolidating their power to create what increasingly appears to be a global takeover of control that is able to overrule local governments and impose its will on the people via distribution or non-distribution of water, food, and resources. Islamic hadith prophesied the coming of such a global rule - Dajjal - that represents an evil force of oppression, which rules by controlling access to food, water, and other resources.
The poorest of the poor, from India to South America suffer from lack of access to clean water while their freedom of movement is often brutally hindered. These conditions do not arise because of the backwardness of the people but are due to deliberate maneuvers by the political elite. The poor are further degraded by unsafe working conditions and inadequate compensation from corporate bosses that prevent workers from organizing to demand improvements. The ongoing current struggle against multinational corporations is being spearheaded by labor unions and social justice groups in a wide variety of locations. Because of increasing global communication, activists involved in protests and strikes all over the world are not only able to offer solidarity but compare notes on the common global enemy and strategies for defeating it. An increasingly organized, informed and supported labor movement can only be a good thing.
The business connections between those building the wall between the US and Mexico and those building walls surrounding Palestinian areas are unsurprising, but not everyone is aware of the vast extent of the massive web of international corporate control of water, sewage, and transportation systems around the globe. A particularly evil French corporation named Veolia, which dates back to the time of Napoleon, made huge profits from French colonization of the West Indies and Algeria by building railways and water treatment plants. In 2013 the UN hired Veolia to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. Veolia thus profited off the Syrian civil war, while engaging in a political charade, as the UN continued to allow Assad to destroy infrastructure and mass murder political opponents using non-chemical weapons. Veolia is also profiting off the US occupation of Iraq, as the Iraqi Ministry has employed Veolia to build a water treatment plant.
This same company, Veolia, is currently engaged in privatizing the water and transportation systems in many cities around the US, committing fraud and embezzlement, contaminating water, reducing services to poor areas while increasing fees, and breaking union contracts.
In 2013, Veolia also took over the management of Boston Public School Bus transportation, sparking an ongoing struggle by the school bus drivers union USW Local 8751 against Veolia's unfair labor practices including payroll shortages, impossible demands on bus drivers, overcrowding of buses, failure to provide agreed upon benefits, and bad faith negotiations resulting in the attempted prosecution and termination of union organizers. Veolia's efforts to crush Boston's only black and immigrant-majority union failed due to hundreds of protesting bus drivers and incredible support from solidarity activists. This union's struggle is important on many levels because not only are they resisting a corporation that has already destroyed many other cities' water supply and workers' rights on several continents, but Boston bus drivers themselves have a decades-long history of supporting people's justice issues. They played a huge role on the front lines of desegregation, escorting black children to school through angry racist white mobs. Not only has the bus drivers' union stood against Israeli Apartheid but they did much of the organizing and provided the sound system for Boston's recent rally to support Dr. Aafia Siddique on March 8, 2016.
The Dump Veolia campaign is growing in many countries around the world from Chile to India, resulting in a surge of political and social networking. "Veolia is just one window to understand the need for joint struggle, how corporatization entangles us with past histories of oppression and present global resistances," writes Maia Brown for Stop Veolia Seattle. "When we understand the historical continuities, exemplified by Veolia, between early structures of Western Imperialism and industrialization and today's globalization and neoliberalism, we strengthen our ability to form new solidarities and communities of struggle."
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iraq. Show all posts
Sunday, September 4, 2016
Sunday, March 13, 2016
Dr. Dhafir Helped Iraqi Orphans. He got 22 years for "unauthorized" Charity.
I was very honored to have met with Dr. Rafil Dhafir on Saturday August 15, 2015 at the Federal Medical Center prison in Devens, Massachusetts. Dr. Dhafir is the founder of the former Islamic charity, Help the Needy, which supported orphans in Iraq during the brutal post-Gulf War time when Iraqis were literally starving to death. Even though Christian organizations were also accused of breaking the sanctions on Iraq, Dr. Dhafir, now 67, was criminally charged for running an unauthorized charity and sentenced to 22 years in prison, 13 of which he has already served. His current release date is April 26, 2022. He has been at Federal Medical Center at Devens, MA for the past four years, I just learned. I decided to pop by for a visit.
For those wanting some background information on the charity doctor's case, I recommend: http://www.dhafirtrial.net/about-the-case/dhafir-sentencing-tatement/ where he proclaimed:
"The day will come when people will realize what we did in managing HTN. They will realize that this is the way a relief NGO should be run, selflessly, by dedicated people who will not milk it, work tirelessly and frugally, literally saving every cent that they receive and spend it only for its intended use and on top of that give their own money to facilitate its functions...
"After learning that the government had illegally spied on our most intimate lives, I told my wife that I feel like a naked man walking along Main Street. She in return told me that she feels like she was in a fish bowl. I will never forget that day when she was, in this court, describing how she was attacked by over 80 agents with guns to her head threatening and terrorizing her, some heartless people from the government were laughing and giggling in the back of this court. My Quran tells me about these people "Those who were wicked used to laugh at those who were righteous. And whenever they passed by them, used to wink at each other in mockery. And when they returned to their people, they would return jesting. And whenever they saw them, they would say, "Behold! These are the people truly astray!" But they have not been sent as keepers over them. But on this Day the righteous will laugh at the wicked. On throne of dignity they will command. Will not the wicked have been paid back for what they did?"
In a Dec. 18, 2006 letter to author Katherine Hughes, Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir wrote about his previous incarceration in CMU Terre Haute:
"No one seems to know about this top-secret operation until now. It is still not fully understood.The order came from the Attorney General himself. The staff here is struggling to make sense of the whole situation. There are 16 of us, all Muslims but two, with one non-Arab Muslim. We are housed in what we are told was the holding area for those on death row!!!!! We are told this is an experiment, so the whole concept is evolving on a daily basis." http://www.wrmea.org/2007-may-june/dr.-rafil-a.-dhafir-at-tere-haute-prisons-new-communications-management-unit.html
My visit with Dr. Dhafir was brief, under one hour, but great. He looks waaaaay better than I imagined he would look after so much time. In fact he looks better than most of the other inmates half his age. Whatever his health problems are, he comes across as a strong person, and with sound and sharp mind.
I was not able to press for a lot of details and he seemed like he didn't want to be a complainer, so he only briefly explained that he had been sent to SHU for no reason, in the past, and that he had filed complaints. And now the prison is claiming that they have no paperwork or documents about his complaint that he submitted. He is determined to keep complaining. I am not clear on the details of who he is going to complain to about his original complaint being "lost." It sounded like he had legal representation handling that. I did not ask, and he did not offer any information as to whether he had fears for his physical safety or if his main fear was being sent again to SHU.
There was some general discussion of the thin line between killing people and medical neglect. He said the prison doctor was coming to work drunk and nobody was reporting him. The place is run by incompetents. There is one prisoner there who is 100 years old. People in wheelchairs. As a doctor he feels very frustrated about how much better this medical institution should be run and organized.
Dhafir last got a visit two weeks ago. He is allowed 8 visits per month. Visits are not timed. So whether you arrive in the morning and stay all day or you stay for one hour, it's counted as one visit. The visit took place in a noisy and crowded room full of other prisoners visiting their loved ones, and some snack machines.
He comes across as very sincere and polite as well as religiously observant. A mutual friend who spent time with him at CMU recommended to me to seek him out for spiritual knowledge. I will definitely keep that in mind for future conversation topics. I told him everyone who knows him is very fond of him.
http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1616.htm
2015-08-23
For those wanting some background information on the charity doctor's case, I recommend: http://www.dhafirtrial.net/about-the-case/dhafir-sentencing-tatement/ where he proclaimed:
"The day will come when people will realize what we did in managing HTN. They will realize that this is the way a relief NGO should be run, selflessly, by dedicated people who will not milk it, work tirelessly and frugally, literally saving every cent that they receive and spend it only for its intended use and on top of that give their own money to facilitate its functions...
"After learning that the government had illegally spied on our most intimate lives, I told my wife that I feel like a naked man walking along Main Street. She in return told me that she feels like she was in a fish bowl. I will never forget that day when she was, in this court, describing how she was attacked by over 80 agents with guns to her head threatening and terrorizing her, some heartless people from the government were laughing and giggling in the back of this court. My Quran tells me about these people "Those who were wicked used to laugh at those who were righteous. And whenever they passed by them, used to wink at each other in mockery. And when they returned to their people, they would return jesting. And whenever they saw them, they would say, "Behold! These are the people truly astray!" But they have not been sent as keepers over them. But on this Day the righteous will laugh at the wicked. On throne of dignity they will command. Will not the wicked have been paid back for what they did?"
In a Dec. 18, 2006 letter to author Katherine Hughes, Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir wrote about his previous incarceration in CMU Terre Haute:
"No one seems to know about this top-secret operation until now. It is still not fully understood.The order came from the Attorney General himself. The staff here is struggling to make sense of the whole situation. There are 16 of us, all Muslims but two, with one non-Arab Muslim. We are housed in what we are told was the holding area for those on death row!!!!! We are told this is an experiment, so the whole concept is evolving on a daily basis." http://www.wrmea.org/2007-may-june/dr.-rafil-a.-dhafir-at-tere-haute-prisons-new-communications-management-unit.html
My visit with Dr. Dhafir was brief, under one hour, but great. He looks waaaaay better than I imagined he would look after so much time. In fact he looks better than most of the other inmates half his age. Whatever his health problems are, he comes across as a strong person, and with sound and sharp mind.
I was not able to press for a lot of details and he seemed like he didn't want to be a complainer, so he only briefly explained that he had been sent to SHU for no reason, in the past, and that he had filed complaints. And now the prison is claiming that they have no paperwork or documents about his complaint that he submitted. He is determined to keep complaining. I am not clear on the details of who he is going to complain to about his original complaint being "lost." It sounded like he had legal representation handling that. I did not ask, and he did not offer any information as to whether he had fears for his physical safety or if his main fear was being sent again to SHU.
There was some general discussion of the thin line between killing people and medical neglect. He said the prison doctor was coming to work drunk and nobody was reporting him. The place is run by incompetents. There is one prisoner there who is 100 years old. People in wheelchairs. As a doctor he feels very frustrated about how much better this medical institution should be run and organized.
Dhafir last got a visit two weeks ago. He is allowed 8 visits per month. Visits are not timed. So whether you arrive in the morning and stay all day or you stay for one hour, it's counted as one visit. The visit took place in a noisy and crowded room full of other prisoners visiting their loved ones, and some snack machines.
He comes across as very sincere and polite as well as religiously observant. A mutual friend who spent time with him at CMU recommended to me to seek him out for spiritual knowledge. I will definitely keep that in mind for future conversation topics. I told him everyone who knows him is very fond of him.
http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1616.htm
2015-08-23
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