Tag: Gaza

WERU News Report 11/20/12

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by: Carolyn Coe (and edited by Amy Browne)

Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, has been working for decades to bring attention to the plight of children in the Middle East spoke in Maine recently before heading back to Gaza with humanitarian aid. Today, in the first of a 2-part special, we’ll hear what she had to say. (FMI: www.mecaforpeace.org) But first we talk with investigative journalists from Naomi Schalit and John Christie of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, about their latest story, just released today, on Representative John Martin’s finances. (FMI: www.pinetreewatchdog.org)

WERU News Report 6/15/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributing Producer: Carolyn Coe with assistance from Lindsey Saunders

Segment 1: An interview with Lisa Savage, CODEPINK Maine Local Coordinator, about the upcoming annual mayor’s conference where a resolution will be considered that calls for Congress to “bring our war dollars home” to be spent on local community needs. Lisa will attend and report back to WERU next week. She will also be the contact person for a Mainer who will be on the next humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza at the end of June. “The Audacity of Hope” flotilla sets sail 13 months after the Israelis stormed a similar flotilla and killed several activists. Lisa Savage will also follow up with us over the next few weeks re: their progress. FMI: http://www.codepink4peace.org/section.php?id=429

Segment 2: When transnational mining companies discovered coal and moved into the department of Cesar, Colombia, paramilitaries also arrived. Local rivers have become contaminated, people and animals are getting sick, and social problems have worsened in the city of La Jagua and neighboring communities. Area leaders discuss the impacts of the coal mining on their communities.
Speakers:
Dioselina Carvajal Saravia, victim of paramilitary violence
Adanies Quintero, representative from agriculture sector
Ricardo Machado, union member, welder for Carbones de la Jagua (a Glencore mine)
Ana Marquez Martinez, police inspector, Boqueron
Oswaldo Aguilar Mejia, former univ. professor and member of local AfroColombian association, La Jagua
Jaime Giraldo Duque, president of the displaced persons association, La Jagua
Of note: According to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, the US-based Drummond Company paid paramilitaries for protection of its Colombian mining operations. http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/14935-us-coal-firm-drummond-paid-paramilitaries-wikileaks.html
Glencore, another transnational operating in the area, is about to sell publicly on the London exchange.

WERU News Report 4/12/11

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributor: Carolyn Coe

Segment 1: The Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing this afternoon on LD 1046
“An Act To Amend the Application of the Maine Human Rights Act Regarding Public Accommodations”, sponsored by Representative Kenneth Fredette. The group “EqualityMaine” is among those opposing the proposed legislation. They say it chips away protections under the Maine Human Rights Act. Here is some of the testimony heard by the committee this afternoon.

Segment 2: AntiWar rallies were held in New York & San Francisco– as well as here in Bangor, Maine on Saturday. The rallies in New York and San Francisco were organized by the United National Antiwar Committee, and endorsed by hundreds of other peace and human rights groups, and were held in conjunction with demostrations being held in the middle east, also calling for peace. One of the speakers in New York was (Ret.) Colonel Ann Wright — a peace activist, the subject of one of Robert Shetterly’s “Americans Who Tell the Truth” portraits, and participant in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was tragically raided by the Israeli military last year, resulting in several deaths. WERU’s Carolyn Coe recorded her speech, and spoke with her later, during the march.

Weekend Voices 7/3/10

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Contributors: Carolyn Coe, Lawrence Reichard

Segment 1:  Husam Zomlot and Ann Wright, speaking at the United for Justice with Peace strategy conference titled “Breaking the Siege of Gaza” on June 19,2010 in Cambridge, MA :  What are activists doing to build the movement and to end the seige of Gaza and U.S. support for the occupation of Palestine?  What was the experience of the passengers aboard the humanitarian flotilla raided by the Israeli navy?  Producer: Carolyn Coe

Segment 2: Lawrence Reichard report on conditions in Honduras, on the 1 year anniversary of the coup.

U.S./El Salvador Report 6/19/10

Producer/Host: Kathleen March, University of Maine

Hello. This is Kathleen March.  Welcome to WERU’s US-EL Salvador report. This week we discuss the protests in San Salvador against Israel’s attack on the humanitarian aid ship headed to Gaza.  The report is prepared by the University of Maine in collaboration with Radio Sumpul in El Salvador and US-El Salvador Sister Cities.

El 4 de junio un grupo de simpatizantes del Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FLMN) protestó en San Salvador contra Israel por el asalto a una flota que llevaba ayuda humanitaria como alimentos y medicinas, rumbo a Gaza, causando por lo menos 9 muertos y decenas de heridos.

Los manifestantes, convocados por un comité de solidaridad con el pueblo palestino y el FMLN, se concentraron frente a la legación diplomática israelí con carteles y gritos. “Estamos pidiendo el cese del cerco a la franja de Gaza y que se retomen inmediatamente las negociaciones por la paz establecidas en los diferentes instrumentos internacionales”, declaró el diputado del FMLN Jorge Schafick, quien ha pedido que la comunidad internacional exija de Israel una solución inmediata a la situación.

Los manifestantes llevaban banderas palestinas y carteles con mensajes como: “Cese a la agresión contra los pueblos de Palestina” o “Terroristas israelíes fuera de los territorios del Líbano y Palestina”.  Schafick es hijo del fundador del FMLN, de origen palestino que murió en 2006.  Criticó el que el Parlamento salvadoreño no aprobara una iniciativa presentada por el FMLN y “otros diputados de origen palestino” sobre el tema.

La Asamblea Legislativa ha afirmado que la comisión analizará la solicitud, para que el Parlamento exprese su “profunda indignación por la acción criminal de las Fuerzas de Defensa y Gobierno del Estado de Israel en contra de los integrantes de la flotilla de la Libertad”.

Por lo menos nueve activistas de derechos humanos fallecieron durante el asalto de los militares israelíes, que tuvo lugar en la madrugada del 31 de mayo.  Cerca de 40 activistas internacionales y cinco soldados israelíes resultaron heridos.

Israel mantiene un bloqueo marítimo contra la ciudad de Gaza como represalia contra la resistencia palestina, que lleva a cabo una justa lucha por la independencia, según el deseo de Yasser Arafat.  Raúl Martínez, del Comité de Solidaridad con Cuba, dijo que “repudiamos enérgicamente este acto criminal contra una embarcación humanitaria, cometido por el ejército y gobierno israelita, gobierno fascista que también apoya el bloqueo económico contra Cuba Socialista.”  Marlon Anzora, estudiante de la UCA (Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas), explicó que “estamos aquí para solidarizarnos con el sufrido pueblo palestino, para decirle que no está solo, que la conciencia del mundo repudia este atentado terrorista de Israel, somos pueblos hermanos en el dolor y la esperanza.”

This has been Kathleen March with the WERU US-EL Salvador report. This week we discussed the protests in San Salvador against Israel’s attack on the humanitarian aid ship headed to Gaza.  The report was prepared by the University of Maine in collaboration with Radio Sumpul in El Salvador and US-El Salvador Sister Cities.

RadioActive 1/14/10

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

Today we’re joined by Tom Jackson, filmmaker, founder of Joe Public Films, and producer of the award-winning “Out of Balance”, “Greetings from Missile Street”,
“Worlds Apart: 9-11 First Responders Against War”, and “Defending the Commons: Making Water a Commodity”   He has just returned from a trip to Gaza, where he taught Palestinian youth documentary filmmaking skills, American Friends Service Committee, and where he, and they, participated in the “Gaza Freedom March”.
FMI: www.joepublicfilms.com

Weekend Voices 7/25/09

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Contributors: Carolyn Coe, Eric T. Olson

Segment 1: WERU volunteer Carolyn Coe visited Gaza in May & June, 2009 and has produced a series of reports on the conditions she witnessed. Today’s segment: The Qattan Centre for the Child in Gaza City, a library serving children under age 15. What cultural centers exist for the people of Gaza?
What is the role of the arts in meeting the psychosocial needs of traumatized children? How does the continued seige of Gaza affect daily life for Palestinians there?
Guests: Reem Abu Jaber, Director, El Qattan Centre for the Child, and screaming (happy) children

Segment 2: Writing Socialist History. a talk by Professor David Roediger, Kendrick Babcock Chair of History and Afro-American Studes at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. (Speaker is introduced by Prof. Nathan Godfried of the University of Maine.) What are effective approaches in conducting interviews for biographical works? How did radical activists of the twentieth century view their struggles from the perspective of their later lives? Why is it important to record the life stories of the radical activists of the twentieth century? Recorded/produced by WERU volunteer Eric T. Olson. This lecture was part of the Spring 2009 Controversy Series at the University of Maine