E-News Bulletin Friday, 18 May 2012

Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey
By Michael Dickinson

On February 20th 2010 Cihan Kırmızıgül, a junior industrial engineering student of Galatasaray University, was waiting at a bus stop in Istanbul after a visit to a college friend’s home.  Suddenly he was approached by Turkish police who arrested him violently, one cracking his skull with a blow from his rifle butt, and took him away to be detained at a prison in the west of Istanbul, charged with “membership of an illegal organization” and “harming private property”.  The reason for his surprise arrest was the scarf he was wearing around his neck – the traditional black and white checked Arab headdress known as the ‘keffiyeh’.

Read report on: http://www.alresalah.ps

Thaer Halahleh’s letter to his daughter: "My Beloved Lamar…Forgive me"

Below this email is a moving and heartbreaking letter by the Palestinian political prisoner on hunger strike, Thaer Halahleh, to his two-year old daughter. Here is an extract:

"My Beloved Lamar, forgive me…despite the fact that I was deprived from holding you and hearing your voice...and that I was deprived of my role as a father with my daughter, your existence has given me all the power and hope. Lamar my love: I know that you don’t yet understand why your father is going through this battle of hunger strike for the 75th day, but when you grow up you will understand that the battle of freedom is the battle of going back to you, so that I can never be taken away from you again or to be deprived of your smile or seeing you, so that the occupier will never kidnap me again from you.”.

Read report on: http://electronicintifada.net

Solidarity for Hunger Strike Needed-Their Fate is in Our Hands May 17th: 24 hours of hunger in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails

Thursday, May 17, will mark a month to the hunger strike, with over 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails participating in it. As Israel refuses to accept the prisoners' demands for their basic rights, including humane treatment, many of them face immediate risk of death as the world watches over in silence.

Read report on: http://popularstruggle.org/content/their-fate-our-hands

Socialist China? Two hundred Foxconn workers threaten suicide
By Ben McGrath

Two months after the release of a report by the US-based Fair Labor Association (FLA) into working conditions at Foxconn plants in China, 200 company employees threatened suicide at its Wuhan facility.

The workers walked off the job on April 27, climbed onto the factory roof and threatened to jump in the second collective suicide threat over wages and conditions at the plant since January. The facility mainly produces Xbox 360s—one of Microsoft’s most profitable products.

Read report on: http://www.wsws.org

Defiant Message from Greece
By James Angelos

ATHENS—The head of Greece's radical left party says there is little chance Europe will cut off funding to the country and if it does, Greece will repudiate its debts, throwing down a gauntlet that could increase tensions between Greece's recalcitrant politicians and frustrated European creditors.

A financial collapse in Greece would drag down the rest of the euro zone, says Alexis Tsipras, the 37-year-old head of the Coalition of the Radical Left, known as Syriza, and potentially the country's next prime minister. Instead, he says, Europe must consider a more growth-oriented policy to arrest Greece's spiraling recession and address what he calls a growing "humanitarian crisis" facing the country.

Read report on: http://online.wsj.com

Nurses and Tom Morello Heal America, Tax Wall Street, May 18 in Chicago

Nurses are rising up and joining forces to demand a Robin Hood Tax on Wall Street. Let's tell the world it's time to tax Wall Street to heal our sick economy. Even a small tax on Wall Street transactions would generate more than 350 billion dollars a year that can go to healthcare, jobs, housing and education.

Read report on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNele9F3NmI