the "Riverside Manifesto", which was motivated by an armed attack on the Mayor and City Council of Riverside by Joseph "Chessman" Neale, a disgruntled community activist;
4 July, 2005:
I am Matthew K. Owen, and I've been blogging since 1997.
I started this blog for the "League for Human Rights," which has been monitoring the state of human rights in the Inland Empire of Southern California since 1991.
Let me refer you to two pages that explain what the League is all about:
the "Riverside Manifesto", which was motivated by an armed attack on the Mayor and City Council of Riverside by Joseph "Chessman" Neale, a disgruntled community activist;
the Bill of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights , which remains the primary political project of the League.
After 9/11/2001, the cause of the advancement of human rights in the United States of America seemed lost.
While the human rights situation has deteriorated rapidly in the USA, however, real advances have been made in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and especially Venezuela, and the possibility, opened up by the Zapatista National Liberation Army via a Constitutional Consultation, of making the Mexican people aware of the possibility of extending the Bolivarian Revolution of Venezuela into Mexico, especially since 2006 will be a Presidential Election year.
The Bush Administration, however, is deeply hostile to the Bolivarian project, especially since President Hugo Chavez openly identified it as socialist: it is vital to the survival of Bolivarianism, and all the human rights advances it embodies, to counter the "lie machines" of the Venezuelan opposition and the Bush Administration, especially since they seek to convince the Colombian Government to confront the Venezuelan Government with US backing.
The most effective way I can contribute to this effort is to make human rights information as readily available as possible: to that end, I'm initiating the Human Rights Information Centre.
There will be many vital elections in 2006, in the US, Mexico, Venezuela, and elsewhere, so it is crucial that those who will vote in these elections have some idea of what their rights are, and how they are, or could be, constitutionally embodied.
They will then be better able to make decisions that will affect their lives for a long time to come.
The Human Rights Information Centre. isn't meant to be a mere web presence: I'm soliciting donations, both financially (so I can keep up my efforts) and of human rights literature which I can distribute.
If you feel, as I do, that we are rapidly reaching a turning point in the struggle for human rights worldwide, and that we can tip the balance in favour of the expansion of human rights, please visit the Human Rights Information Centre website, and donate whatever you can.
On behalf of those whose human rights are at stake, yours, in solidarity, Matt Owen.
27 July, 2005:
I have contributed to the efforts of the Neighbourhood Action and Preservation Association to resist the construction of a lake in San Bernardino's most historic neighbourhood since its foundation.
Now others have renewed our resistance: Paul and Deanna Adams are now in the vanguard of the resistance. I support their efforts, as they support ours, and I urge you to help us resist the destruction of our neighbourhood, which will benefit no-one except greedy out-of-town developers.
03 September 2006:
The Mexican Presidential elections have passed, and the "nightmare scenario" of deep, unresolved division between the official victor, Felipe Calderón of the PAN, and the popular challenger, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD threaten to turn the Zocalo in Mexico City into another Tienanmen Square.
Meanwhile, with US Congressional and Venezuelan Presidential elections approaching, to what extent will the Bush Administration allow free and fair elections in either country?
What is to be done?
Some of us in the League have formed the San Patricio Bolivarian Circle: Like any Bolivarian Circle, we support the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, led by President Hugo Chavez; unique to our efforts, we seek to promote the combination of the Zapatista "Other Campaign" and the National Democratic Convention called for by the PRD by holding an "Other Consultation" on the Zapatista demands for a new politics, new Constitution, and programme of struggle at the Convention; we also seek to make the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela available to the Convention.
We live in dangerous times, especially in the Middle East: with the enormous risks, however, come tremendous opportunities we would be foolish to overlook.
 |
© 1997 yclept@iname.com
Get your own Free Home Page