Friday, December 30, 2011

Jules and Helen Rabin's Weekly Vigil



With War Over, Staging A Final Vigil

Saturday, 12/24/11 9:30am
LISTEN (3:37)
MP3 | Download MP3 - Vermont Public Radio
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VPR/John Dillon
Helen and Jules Rabin have occupied this sidewalk weekly in Montpelier in vigil for the Iraq War. They say they will hang up their signs at the end of the year.
(Host) The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq means the end of weekly anti-war protests for one central Vermont couple.
But as VPR's John Dillon reports, other activists say they'll continue to stage demonstrations until all U.S. soldiers come home from Afghanistan and other conflicts.
(Dillon) For nine years, veteran peace activists Jules and Helen Rabin have held a midday Friday vigil in front of the Montpelier post office.
They usually arrive around noon, unpack their signs, and stand with a half-dozen others as the lunchtime crowd streams by. A few offer silent nods, others look away or say some harsh words. And some, like Anne Sarcka, give a hug of gratitude as they walk past.
(Sarcka) "You are something else. Thank you for being out here all these years."
(Dillon) Jules Rabin is 87, a short, spry man with an expressive face and a ready smile. Before he hoists his sign, he stuffs disposable hand warmers inside his large leather gloves.
(Rabin) "I chill easily. And we've gone through a couple of boxes, big boxes of these."
(Dillon) Rabin says he feels the wind and chill more these days, so with the withdrawal of U-S troops from Iraq he's ending this form of outdoor activism.
(Rabin) "We've been doing this for nine years. And Helen and I been here just - with a few exceptions - just about every week for nine years. But we're getting cold and we're getting tired."
(Dillon) Rabin is a baker, well known for his sourdough bread, a former college professor, and a life-long peace activist. He protested the Vietnam War and in the early 1960s, Rabin took part in an 8,000 mile disarmament march across North America and Europe.
He says his Montpelier vigil is just one small part of a movement this year that has swept from Arab capitals to Wall Street.
(Rabin) "People are learning that it's not enough to vote every two or four years. You vote with your feet and you vote with a sign you make yourself when the spirit moves you. Something terrible is happening in the country then you express yourself. And that's a citizens vote, too.
(Dillon) Rabin has a new sign today. It says: "One war is over, now use defense spending to keep people warm."
It refers to federal cuts to a program that helps low income people heat their homes.
Helen Rabin says one goal of their weekly vigil was simply to remind the public what their government was doing around the world.
(Helen Rabin) "I feel like the destruction of Iraq, the social fabric of Iraq hasn't been in the forefront of people minds. And we were concerned about that. It's been mainly that, it's not like we feel like we could stop the war. It's just to keep the issue in front of people".
(Dillon) While the Rabins plan to hang up their signs others will maintain the weekly vigil.
Dave Connor is associate pastor at the Old Meeting House in East Montpelier.
(Connor) "We're happy that the war is officially ended in Iraq but we should probably be paying reparations right way for what we've done and left in Iraq behind us. We want to bring the troops home from Afghanistan. We support the troops in every way but we think the safest and best place for them is outside of Afghanistanand back home doing National Guard work in this country."
(Dillon) Connor says the Rabins are an inspiration for their enduring dedication to promoting peace.

Monday, December 19, 2011

A Man of Flesh & Cardboard: a play about Bradley Manning



Politics and Protest in Papier-Mâché Heads

Peter Schumann’s Bread and Puppet company, a staple of the Off Off Broadway calendar for 40 years, is a refreshing reminder of the vitality and power of street theater. Part carnival, part protest, all pageant, Bread and Puppet productions express political outrage and satire, sometimes coarse and raw.
Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation
Bread and Puppet Theater is presenting "Attica," a 1971 piece, at the Theater for the New City.

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Using outsize papier-mâché heads and intricate masks and costumes, the shows offer a funhouse-mirror reality. Narration is barked through a megaphone, and words are usually secondary to the music: loud beats of a drum, cymbal or gong, backing Mr. Schumann’s screechy violin and razzy kazoo. Plots are mostly sketchy, but images nestle firmly in memory. There isn’t a lot of nuance in a cartoon.
Now at the Theater for the New City, the company, based in Glover, Vt., is offering a program of two works. (It is also presenting a separate show for young audiences called “Man = Carrot Circus.”) The first, “Attica,” revives a piece Mr. Schumann first created in the weeks following the notorious 1971 riot at that prison and its aftermath; a giant-headed governor is undisturbed by the bloody resolution he orders, while a “gentleman angel” hovers over a prisoner’s corpse.
A new work, “Man of Flesh & Cardboard,” is an extended howl at the treatment of Bradley Manning, the Army private now imprisoned for more than 18 months on charges that he provided government files, including a video of an American helicopter attack in Baghdad, to WikiLeaks. (On Friday, a day before Private Manning’s 24th birthday, he will have his first public hearing: the military equivalent of a grand jury will be convened to determine whether prosecutors may proceed with his court-martial.)
Much is inscrutable in “Man of Flesh & Cardboard,” which presumes a great deal about the case. At times two women portray a Private Manning and a Soldier Manning. News organizations — embodied as an old, compliant woman — are indicted for being credulous and complicit with the military. At one point, figures clad in black pirouette with their arms extended, like the posed prisoner in Abu Ghraib; at another, cardboard skeletons share a dance of death.
Now in his 70s, Mr. Schumann shows that he remains urgently invested in the politics of the age. In introductory comments to the audience, he calls Private Manning a prisoner “for having committed the crime of exposing war crimes.”

Sunday, December 11, 2011

When a non-violent protest ends in death


Nabi Saleh, a small village of about 550 people, 20 km northwest of Ramallah
in the West Bank, has been organising non-violent protests against land theft
since 2009. On December 9, 2011, the Friday demonstration began as it
always did: villagers, international and Israeli activists gathered in the centre of
the village and marched towards land usurped by the Israeli settlement of
Halamish. Soon after, the Israeli military drove to the entrance of the village
 in jeeps and began firing teargas at the protesters.

Mustafa Tamimi, 28, was protesting with other young men from the village. As
the jeeps stopped to let a bulldozer clear rocks that had been placed in the road
to prevent their entrance, Tamimi and a few others moved closer to throw stones
in a symbolic gesture against occupation.An Israeli soldier opened his door, aimed
his gun and shot Tamimi directly in the face with an "extended range" teargas
canister; he was shot from a distance of less than 10 metres, according to witnesses.
Tamimi died from his injuries.

Some experts trace conflict in the area back to 1976, when the illegal Israeli
settlement of Halamish (or Neveh Tzuf) was established on land belonging to
Nabi Saleh. Since then, the settlement has continued to grow and expand. In 2008,
residents of the village challenged the construction of a fence by Israeli settlers
on private Palestinian land. When the case was brought to Israeli court, it was
decided that the fence must be removed. However, like many Israeli court rulings
on Palestinian grievances, it was not upheld "on the ground" and the settlement
continued to illegally annex Palestinian land.

Soon after, settlers seized control of several springs which were all located on
land belonging to Nabi Saleh residents. Today, around 13 per cent of the villagers
has been arrested by Israeli authorities for participating in the demonstrations -
including 29 children and four women.

Recently, two prominent leaders of the non-violent struggle, Naji Tamimi and Bassem
Tamimi, were arrested and remain prisoners in Israel. They are charged with "incitement"
and organising "illegal" demonstrations.
fter Friday prayers, residents of Nabi Saleh, with international and Israeli activists, marched towards land stolen by an Israeli ettlement [credit: Lazar Simeonov]
A
Israeli soldiers arrived and blocked the road leading out of the village [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, attended the demonstration [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

La Rue was welcomed to the village by a special, Palestinian-brand of modern art:  empty teargas grenades hanging from wires [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

The demonstration escalated when Israeli soldiers fired teargas at the protesters [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

With the illegal Halamish settlement in the background, Palestinian youth throw stones at Israeli soldiers [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

Some youth managed to throw some of the teargas canisters back at the Israeli soldiers [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

Mustafa Tamimi was shot in the face by an extended range teargas canister from a distance of less than 10 metres, according to witnesses [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

There is no hospital in Nabi Saleh, the closest one is 20 km and a few checkpoints away in Ramallah. But without an ambulance on the scene, protesters had to wait for the first available car to try to save Tamimi [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

It was clear to witnesses that Tamimi's injuries were critical, and that he had lost a great deal of blood [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

Tamimi's sister Ola (left) and cousin Nariman (middle) were prevented from reaching critically-injured Tamimi by the Israeli soldiers [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

A Palestinian woman angry at the soldiers after they shot Tamimi [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

Demonstrators non-violently protesting the shooting of Tamimi [credit: Lazar Simeonov]

For the first time, a resident of Nabi Saleh was killed in the weekly demonstrations, and it came as a shock to villagers and international activists alike [credit: Lazar Simeonov]
Lazar Simeonov is a freelance photographer based in Ramallah, West Bank. You can visit his website here.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Howard Zinn Puppet Show at SUNY New Paltz




The Red Wing Blackbird Theater presents a short "mic check" show prior to a Noam Chomsky lecture.
The tape of the lecture which was made by SUNY follows: