Inside: 

How Student Government won’t listen to you 
and doesn’t care about your needs

Guide for New Students Against the War

World Youth Forum Reports from Venezuela

Interview with Norman Finkelstein

The connection between the War 
and DePaul’s Law School
 

  Kanye West was right!  
 Stop the War and Racism Against Katrina Survivors!
Money for Hurricane Aid, Not for War in Iraq!

Introduction:  Welcome to Revolver.  It’s been a few years but DePaul’s social 
Justice Activists have finally gotten back to putting out a zine.  We are sick of the 
DePaulia selling ad space to the US Army and Hooters.  We are sick of Bill O’Reilly 
spreading his hate.  So in the Tradition of the Independent Media Center we decided, 
don’t hate the media, BECOME THE MEDIA! In this issue we tackle a number of 
issues affecting the DePaul community and world at large.  We are hoping to have 
more issues come out this year, so please submit anything you have to 
depaulnowar@yahoo.com.   We will be looking for art, essays, poetry, and even letters to 
the editors. We also need people to help with layout and design.  We also want to give 
a shout out to all the other independent media at DePaul­ Voices, Ahora DePaul, 
Black Pages and any we forgot! 
   

These photos are from a rally and March 
DePaul Students Against the war held last 
year on Tax Day, April 14th.  Performer 
Anna Roland (www.riotfolk.org) sang and 
students marched through the streets, and 
buildings, raised awareness about where 
our tax dollars really go (instead of going 
to CTA they go to the war) and called for 
an end to US militarism, and the policies 
of the World Bank and International 
Monetary Fund.

Welcome, Freshman
A left-wing guide to making the most
of your DePaul experience
By Raechel

You’re a progressive thinker. You figure that going to a somewhat

liberal school in Chicago will make the acclimation process simpler.
But there are so many organizations, classes, places to go, and people
to see, that you’re going to feel a bit overwhelmed. How can you get
the most out of college and also grow as a leftist? I have faired well
at this university for two years. So, with those memories and
experiences under my belt, I’d like to offer you some advice on some of
the most promising ways to learn, grow, fight the system, and have fun
while at DePaul.

Classes/Professors: Political Science, International Studies, Peace

Studies, Community Service Studies, Women’s/Gender Studies, and Latin-
American Studies are some of the departments that are most likely to
spawn discussion on relevant political and social justice issues.
However, I’ve found a few gems in the Communications and Culture
department as well, such as the classes on Intercultural Communication
and Communication for Social Change. The Education Department offers
classes like Social Justice and Education and Gender and Education, and
the History department has a course devoted to the study of different
Revolutions. Some personal favorite
progressive professors that I’ve had
include: Tyler Khademan (Education) and
Anthony Nicotera (Peace Studies), but I’ve
heard marvelous things about our infamous
and controversial Dr. Norman Finkelstein
(Poli Sci), as well as an English
Professor, Dr. Hugh Ingrassi.

Student Organizations: Here comes the

organization plug: I can safely say that
DePaul Students Against the War (DSAW) has
been one of the biggest positive influence
in my life since coming to DePaul (and I
bet it could do that for you, too!). I had
always been interested in activism, but had only been mildly involved
back in Cleveland with Food Not Bombs and a few protests and
demonstrations. When I started coming to DSAW I was participating in
planning wonderful anti-war events, attending huge city protests,
taking a trip to protest the war in Washington, D.C., and most
importantly, making wonderful friends who cared about the same things I
cared about. Being in DSAW makes me feel like I’m actually working to
solve the problems I’ve always bitched about, but never actually did
anything about. It’s also inspired me to make changes in my life
outside of DSAW, including attempting to end a long-time love affair
with Diet Coke….
Which brings me to my next organization: Activist Student Union
(ASU). The Activist Student Union has been focused on labor rights in
the past and does a lot of education and outreach regarding sweatshops,
but they will be activists for any worthy cause. The biggest campaign
ASU has worked on is the Anti-Coke Campaign. It was discovered that The
Coke corporation hired paramilitaries to kill Union leaders in Columbia
who were fighting for better conditions. ASU has had some success--
many, many people on campus have been informed of the Coke boycott, and
they have even managed to get the University to hold a panel discussion
with members from Coke as a way to try to solve the problem without
breaking their contract—however, the contract is still intact. There
is still more work to be done. First, put down your can of Coke; next,
come to our meetings.
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a wonderful
organization devoted to exactly what it says: Justice in Palestine. SJP
has had many events that inform the campus about the horrors
Palestinians face every single day under Israeli occupation. About a
month ago, Israeli’s were ordered to evacuate territories along the
Gaza strip, but the tension and strife between these two groups will
continue.
Concerned Black Students
(CBS) has lots of great events
that draw attention to the racism
still present in our system, and
in everyday life. They also have
some amazing talent amongst them,
and I always look forward to the
Spoken Word and Hip-Hop evenings
they host!
One of the most important
things I have fully realized
while at DePaul was not taught to
me in a class, but rather
repeated to me by DSAW member,
Spectrum President and SGA Vice
President Cyndi Torres: Gender
is a social construct!
Deconstructing gender is one of
the most political things you can do in our patriarchal, sexist system,
and Spectrum helps you do that. Spectrum is the group for Gays,
Lesbians, Transgendered, Queer/Questioning, and Allies on campus.
Spectrum chooses not to consider itself a politically affiliated
organization, but if you want to make it that for yourself, you can.
They offer supportive meetings for socializing and discussing, and
everyone looks forward to their always-colorful events. It is an
organization full of some of the best people I’ve met.
Survive is the group on campus that works to end violence against
women. This group is also full of really amazing, empowered people.
They help host The Vagina Monologues every year, as well as Take Back
the Night. [editors note- members of Survive have taken the group in a
new more action oriented direction and renamed themselves “Feminists in
Action”]
Amnesty International is an
international organization, and the DePaul
Chapter has succeeded in the effort for
human rights across the globe. They are
responsible for Theresa House service, the
trip to protest The School of Americas in
Georgia, and many other wonderful projects.
 For (fairly) non-violent good times, join the DePaul Dodge Ball
team. It’s fun, it doesn’t hurt anyone, and lots of swell people are on
our DePaul team.
Lots of people have lots of issues with the Student Government
Association at DePaul. However, that’s why it is our responsibility to
put our voices in at the SGA meetings! Don’t let your Student
Government make decisions that don’t include your voice. SGA has the
potential to do great things for our student body, and it’s our job as
the students to see that they follow through. We’re all very excited
about the upcoming SGA year, now that our respected DSAW peer, Cyndi
Torres, is Vice President!!!!!!!
You can also get your voice out through The DePaulia newspaper, or
WDRP, DePaul’s radio station. Simply submit an article, or host a show.
Trust me, they need more forward-thinking ideas circulating in those
arenas.
The DePaul Alliance for Latino Empowerment, Black Student Union,
South Asian Student Association (SASA), Asian Cultural Exchange (ACE),
and United Muslim Moving Ahead (UMMA) explore their culture, bring
awareness to others, and host amazing events. Attend some meetings, or
at least go watch the SASA girls dance!

Free Food: Many of us try to abstain from participating in capitalism

as much as possible, and also thrive on not letting things go to waste;
this leads to fervent searches for free food. As freshman, you all have
meal plans, but if your plan is small, and you still want to help
eliminate waste, consider the following:
1) Dumpster Diving-hop on your bike and take some friends to Whole
Foods or Trader Joes, or any bagel/bread places like Einsteins
or Panera. There’s no need to go in any of the aforementioned
locations, just go as far as the parking lot and find their big
blue dumpster. Watch out for rats, and find several days worth
of bread, barely expired boxes of food, and sometimes even
fruits and veggies. Enjoy for yourself or find the nearest Food
Not Bombs--a group that serves and feeds vegan meals to the
homeless or whomever is hungry, and they hardly ever spend a
penny--and donate it to them. If you have a large meal plan,
find the nearest older DSAW member and offer to buy them
dinner.
2) A lot of the cultural groups like UMMA and SASA host events
with amazing free food. Don’t just go for the free food,
because usually their events are incredibly entertaining,
enlightening, and informative. However, the food is a perk, and
there are always lots of vegan options. There are also lots of
other groups that host movie-nights, or discussions, etc., and
provide sandwiches and snacks.
3) I love baking, so I think I’m going to be bringing food to DSAW
and/or ‘Zine meetings. So, if you join us, I’ll feed you
sometimes. Other DSAW members surprise us with food from time
to time, as well.
Places to Go: If you have enough money to spend on a meal, the top
two best restaurants in Chicago for progressive eaters are The
Chicago Diner and The Heartland Café. Both have tons of really
amazing vegan food, which means they are helping saving the earth
and challenging Capitalist practices just in doing that. However,
both places also do great things for the activist community in
other ways. The first Wednesday of every month is Earthsave day at
The Chicago Diner, and profits from your meal go to Earthsave
Chicago. The Heartland Café has lots and lots of fundraising
events, and it’s run by really great activists!
The Hot House, The Buddy Space, and The Che Café hold art
exhibits, live performances, and other events of a progressive
nature. They are all also relatively DIY establishments. All of
them are a good time if you want to be surrounded by good people
and have a unique experience. Look for lefty films and
documentaries at The Gene Siskel Film Center, The MusicBox, and
Facets (it’s right down the street!). The Neo-Futurists are a
progressive theater group that will make you laugh, cry, and think
in just an hour. Every Friday-Sunday, they perform the 30 plays in
60 minutes.
Looking for something to read besides text books? Quimby’s is
one of my personal favorite places in Chicago; they are primarily
a ‘zine store, but have books, and other fun things as well. Lots
of activist literature!
Try buying groceries from someplace like Whole Foods or
Trader Joes, which offers lots more than Dominick’s for the
conscientious shopper, and usually for lower prices. They have
vegan and organic food galore, and carry all the brand’s that help
out with Earth-friendly practices.

Miscellaneous: *You will become quickly familiar with this

scenario: Addressor: “Street Wise!”; Addressee: (lack of
response, walks into Dominick’s); Addressor: “Maybe on the way
out!”. Standing outside of Dominick’s will be a man, (usually our
friend Tyrone), trying to get your mere dollar donation to help
the homeless by offering you the Streetwise newspaper. It is not
the fault of the homeless that they are in the state they are in;
it is the fault of the system. If you have some extra change, buy
a Streetwise.

*Keep your eyes and ears open for special events at DePaul, like
speakers and concerts. We’ve had everyone from Margaret Cho to
Kathy Kelly. And even if you don’t like the person, it’s always
good to go to question and answer sessions. Plus, they are usually
FREE for DePaul students. Be sure to look out for special guests
at our neighboring universities like Loyola and Columbia, too.

*The best hummus on campus is at The Bean Café in the gym. They
 also have the best vegan smoothies.

*Put your recyclable items in blue bags and the city of Chicago
will make sure they aren’t disposed of with the rest of your
trash. You can buy the blue bags from Dominic’s, or save your bags
from Whole Foods, which offers the blue bag as a choice. (But it’s
best to take a cloth reusable bag grocery shopping!)

*Make sure you have good bike locks; bikes are a hot commodity
here, you need to lock them well.

***Finally-Be open to new experiences. Allow yourself to challenge

your comfort zones. Realize that you can be a college student,
have fun, and still be politically and socially active. Know that
you can make a difference. Realize how fortunate you are, and try
hard not to take things for granted. Find something you are
passionate about. Never accept that things “have to be this way.”
Live and love uninhibitedly for positive change.

xoxoxoxoxo

Anarchy in New Orleans?  Not Quite.  
Genocide in New Orleans?  Bullseye.
An Informal Analysis of the Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
by Matt Muchowski

“I hate the way they portray us in the media.  If you see a black family, it says they're looting.  See a white 
family, it says their looking for food.  They've given them permission to go down there and shoot us. 
George Bush doesn't care about black people.” 
­Rapper Kanye West

“These Troops know how to shoot and kill and 
they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will.”
 Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco on the national guard troops who 
arrived in New Orleans from Iraq to fight “looting”.

The corporate media is up in arms.  Possibly thousands dead, a city under water, and yet when 
people take food they need to survive from corporate stores that have been abandoned, then it becomes a 
disaster and it's looting and anarchy according to to people like Bill O'Reilly.  
Well first of all, I don't think any true anarchist would call the situation in the areas ravaged by 
hurricane Katrina anarchy.  Chaos perhaps, but not anarchy.  While, like most philosophies, there are 
many different branches of anarchism, the basic idea is that people are inherently good, and can create a 
society based on radically direct democracy in all spheres of life­ political, economic, personal, social, etc. 
This would mean the eradication of government, bosses and capitalism, patriarchy, racism, and a host of 
other oppressive hierarchical systems.  
So looting is not quite anarchy.  Although some anarchists like Peter Kropotkin have proposed the 
eradication of the wage slavery system and currency to be replaced with en economic system of gift­
giving based on mutual aid, the looting in the Gulf region is only people taking for free.  There needs to be 
the other side of democratically organized work places offering their services and products for free for it 
to be called true anarchism.
Despite this, the looting in the hurricane zones is understandable and justified.  Those who could 
not afford to leave their homes before the hurricane hit were mostly African­American.  While Hurricanes 
don't judge people, the political and economic system in the US certainly does.  This system decided long 
ago to judge Africans as inferior, and to do what it cold to make sure they never rose to the top.  This is 
why so many Africans were hit the worst by the hurricane and flooding.
For to long the system in this country has kept many African­Americans in the south in poverty 
and given them barely enough to survive.  Looting was already justified before the hurricane.  Now 
people's homes, life savings, and personal belongings are forever gone.  Now that people are starving and 
in need of clothing, now that people need televisions to watch the news and decide what to do, looting is 
especially justified as an act of survival.  
There have also been reports of prison riots in the hurricane zone.  While it has been hard to 
validate this, one must also keep in mind the extreme racism in the prison industrial complex.  Professor 
and activist Angela Davis has written extensively on the topic of how the US targets poor communities of 
color with ridiculous schemes like the “war on drugs” in order to fill prisons with cheap slave labor for 
major multinational corporations.  Even though there might be some legitimately dangerous people in 
prison, there are far more dangerous people running the prisons.   If politically conscience, prison revolts 
can play a role in creating a society that is truly liberated.  Consider the prison uprisings in the 1960's 
inspired by the actions of Black Panther George Jackson.  
Some have started criticizing the US government for spending to much time and money on the war 
in Iraq and elsewhere than preparing for a major natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina.   Certainly 
Katrina has caused more property damage and possibly more deaths than 9/11.  
 While these criticisms have a point, certainly a sane society would spend it's resource on helping 
each other instead of bombing others, it's hard to believe that the US has good intentions in New Orleans. 
Sure there have been some dramatic helicopter rescues, but remember, marshal law has been declared. 
Police and the national guard have the law on their side if they shoot someone and claim that they were 
looting, who's going to question them?  Don't forget it was the national guard called up to quell rebellions 
in the 1960's and sent off to kill Iraqi's today.  As recent as late July of this year, New Orleans police 
murdered Raymond Robair a 48 year old black man, for the crime of sitting out on his porch at night. 
They also recently killed black youth 
Jenard Thomas and two officers 
were being charged with rape.  But 
like the New York Police 
Department after 9/11, the media 
conveniently forgot how it was the 
NYPD that shot Amadou Diallo 41 
times for reaching for his wallet.
One of the most frustrating 
things about this situation, is that the 
police and national guard, are all we 
have to rely on.  The Left in the US 
has yet to create an independent 
force capable of dealing with mass 
social and civil emergencies.  Sure,  Illustration 1: New Orleans Residents Taunt National Guard Troops for Arriving  
some charitable people will give to  to Late in New Orleans.  Source: Reuters
the Red Cross and Salvation Army to 
help provide food, medicine and clothing for the victims of Katrina.  But it should be kept in mind how 
both the Red Cross and Salvation Army maintain anti­gay discriminatory policies.  The Salvation Army's 
national office shot down the Salvation Army's West Coast's attempts to provide same­sex partner 
benefits.  The Red Cross is a big supporter of the Food and Drug Administrations ban on accepting blood 
donations from people who have engaged in homosexual sex acts.  If you donate money to one of these 
organizations, please at least write them a letter expressing your outrage at their homophobia.  
  The thought that is worrying many people though, is the idea that this hurricane wasn't 
completely an act of nature, but a possible effect of human induced global warming.  Consider the 
gigantic earthquake that led to the Tsunami earlier this year.  What's up with this drought in the mid­west, 
that statistically rivals that of the dust bowl?  Yet there is a myth being spread by right wingers.  A myth 
possibly as dangerous as holocaust denial­ global warming denial.  Oil tycoons, politicians and pundits are 
lining up to say that somehow they know better than the majority of scientists in the world.  
 You would think these kind of natural disasters, plus 
the fact that we are sacrificing our friends and 
family for oil in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the high 
price of gas would convince us to change our ways. 
What does Bush do though?  He uses the disaster in 
New Orleans to relax Environmental Protection 
Agency guidelines so that gas companies can 
produce gas quicker, cheaper, but also dirtier.
If we are to challenge all of this we must start 
asking ourselves tough and forward thinking 
questions.  Can looting in New Orleans be taken to 
the next level and lead to expropriation of the means 
of production?  Many factories and places of 
business must be abandoned and with authorities 
Illustration 2: A Child Calls out for it's Missing Mother in   overwhelmed elsewhere, a cooperative of workers 
New Orleans.  Source: Reuters could seize their former workplaces and operate 
them without bosses.  A similar movement is on the rise in Argentina as documented in the movie “The 
Take”.  
How can we resist martial law and racism in the hurricane zones?  How can we stop global 
warming?  How can we prevent the US from reinstating the capitalist status quo in the flooded areas?  We 
want New Orleans to be rebuilt with great Jazz and cultural centers, not with Starbucks, Wal­Mart and 
Haliburton.  Here's one audacious idea: radicals can flood the city of New Orleans and rebuild it 
ourselves.
For updates and more on how your can help visit www.neworleans.indymedia.org and 
Katrina.indymedia.org.  For the Chicago response visit www.chicago.indymedia.org 

Fundraiser for a destroyed Anarchist New Orleans Housing 
Cooperative: Saturday October 15th, 6­10 pm, 1766 W. Morris. 
Vegan Cajun food.

To Support Grassroots, Non­corporate and 
Non­Government Relief Efforts go to 
http://katrina.mayfirst.org/
 Troops begin combat operations in New Orleans
By Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer
September 02, 2005
http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1­292925­1077495.php

NEW ORLEANS — Combat operations are underway on the streets “to take this city back” in the 
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” Brig. Gen. Gary Jones, commander of the Louisiana 
National Guard’s Joint Task Force told Army Times Friday as hundreds of armed troops under his charge 
prepared to launch a massive citywide security mission from a staging area outside the Louisiana 
Superdome. “We’re going to go out and take this city back. This will be a combat operation to get this city 
under control.”
Jones said the military first needs to establish security throughout the city. Military and police 
officials have said there are several large areas of the city are in a full state of anarchy.
Dozens of military trucks and up­armored Humvees left the staging area just after 11 a.m. Friday, while 
hundreds more troops arrived at the same staging area in the city via Black Hawk and Chinook 
helicopters.
“We’re here to do whatever they need us to do,” Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon, of the Oklahoma 
National Guard’s 1345th Transportation Company. “We packed to stay as long as it takes.”
While some fight the insurgency in the city, other carry on with rescue and evacuation operations. 
Helicopters are still pulling hundreds of stranded people from rooftops of flooded homes.
Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and police helicopters filled the city sky Friday 
morning. Most had armed soldiers manning the doors. According to Petty Officer 3rd Class Jeremy 
Grishamn, a spokesman for the amphibious assault ship Bataan, the vessel kept its helicopters at sea 
Thursday night after several military helicopters reported being shot at from the ground.
Numerous soldiers also told Army Times that they have been shot at by armed civilians in New 
Orleans. Spokesmen for the Joint Task Force Headquarters at the Superdome were unaware of any 
servicemen being wounded in the streets, although one soldier is recovering from a gunshot wound 
sustained during a struggle with a civilian in the dome Wednesday night.
“I never thought that at a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans,” said Spc. 
Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion. “And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a 
hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.”
Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion pointed out that he knows there are plenty of 
decent people in New Orleans, but he said it is hard to stay motivated considering the circumstances.
“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting.” Ferguson said. “You have to think about whether it 
is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to 
fight a war. We came here to help."

Why is the National Guard Preventing 
Aid From Entering New Orleans?

Why does the Red Cross Obey the National Guard?

From the Red Cross Website:
http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4524

Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

* Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in 
constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

*The state Homeland Security Department had requested­­and continues to request­­that the American 
Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people 
from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

*The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters 
throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today 
operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.

*The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue 
to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our 
lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.

*The Red Cross does not conduct search and rescue operations. We are an organization of civilian 
volunteers and cannot get relief aid into any location until the local authorities say it is safe and provide us 
 with security and access.

*The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With 
the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome 
downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.
As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate role for the Red Cross is 
to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that their emergency needs are met. We are fully 
staffed and equipped to handle these individuals once they are evacuated.

Halliburton gets Katrina contract, hires former FEMA director 
1 Sept. 2005 
 h ttp://www.halliburtonwatch.org/news/hurricane_katrina.html
   

WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (HalliburtonWatch.org) ­­ The US Navy asked Halliburton to repair naval 
facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the Houston Chronicle reported today. The work was assigned to 
Halliburton's KBR subsidiary under the Navy's $500 million CONCAP contract awarded to KBR in 2001 
and renewed in 2004. The repairs will take place in Louisiana and Mississippi. 
KBR has not been asked to repair the levees destroyed in New Orleans which became the primary 
cause of most of the damage. 
Since 1989, governments worldwide have 
awarded $3 billion in contracts to KBR's 
Government and Infrastructure Division to clean 
up damage caused by natural and man­made 
disasters. 
Earlier this year, the Navy awarded $350 
million in contracts to KBR and three other 
companies to repair naval facilities in northwest 
Florida damaged by Hurricane Ivan, which struck 
in September 2004. The ongoing repair work 
involves aircraft support facilities, medium 
industrial buildings, marine construction, 
mechanical and electrical improvements, civil 
construction, and family housing renovation. 
In March, the former director of the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency 
(FEMA), which is tasked with responding to 
hurricane disasters, became a lobbyist for KBR. Joe Allbaugh was director of FEMA during the first two 
years of the Bush administration. 
Today, FEMA is widely criticized for its slow response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. 
Allbaugh managed Bush's campaign for Texas governor in 1994, served as Gov. Bush's chief of 
staff and was the national campaign manager for the Bush campaign in 2000. Along with Karen Hughes 
and Karl Rove, Allbaugh was one of Bush's closest advisers. 
"This is a perfect example of someone cashing in on a cozy political relationship," said Scott 
Amey, general counsel at the Project on Government Oversight, a Washington watchdog group. 
"Allbaugh's former placement as a senior government official and his new lobbying position with KBR 
strengthens the company's already tight ties to the administration, and I hope that contractor accountability 
is not lost as a result." 

                       This is Criminal
                            by Malik Rahim 

Malik Rahim, a veteran of the Black Panther Party in New 
Orleans, for decades an organizer of public housing tenants both  QuickTime and a
there and in San Francisco and a recent Green Party candidate for  TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
New Orleans City Council, lives in the Algiers neighborhood, the  are needed to see this picture.
only part of New Orleans that is not flooded. They have no power, 
but the water is still good and the phones work. Their 
neighborhood could be sheltering and feeding at least 40,000 
refugees, he says, but they are allowed to help no one. What he 
describes is nothing less than deliberate genocide against Black and poor people. ­ Ed. 

New Orleans, Sept. 1, 2005 ­ It's criminal. From what you're hearing, the people trapped in New 
Orleans are nothing but looters. We're told we should be more "neighborly." But nobody talked about 
being neighborly until after the people who could afford to leave … left. 
If you ain't got no money in America, you're on your own. People were told to go to the 
Superdome, but they have no food, no water there. And before they could get in, people had to stand in 
line for 4­5 hours in the rain because everybody was being searched one by one at the 
entrance. 
I can understand the chaos that happened after the tsunami, because they had no warning, but here 
there was plenty of warning. In the three days before the hurricane hit, we knew it was coming and 
everyone could have been evacuated. 
We have Amtrak here that could have carried everybody out of town. There were enough school 
buses that could have evacuated 20,000 people easily, but they just let them be flooded. My son watched 
40 buses go underwater ­ they just wouldn't move them, afraid they'd be stolen. 
 People who could afford to leave were so afraid someone would steal what they own that they just 
let it all be flooded. They could have let a family without a vehicle borrow their extra car, but instead they 
left it behind to be destroyed. 
There are gangs of white vigilantes near here riding around in pickup trucks, all of them armed, 
and any young Black they see who they figure doesn't belong in their community, they shoot him. I tell 
them, "Stop! You're going to start a riot." 
When you see all the poor people with no place to go, feeling alone and helpless and angry, I say 
this is a consequence of HOPE VI. New Orleans took all the HUD money it could get to tear down public 
housing, and families and neighbors who'd relied on each other for generations were uprooted and torn 
apart.  Most of the people who are going through this now had already lost touch with the only 
community they'd ever known. Their community was torn down and they were scattered. They'd already 
lost their real homes, the only place where they knew everybody, and now the places 
they've been staying are destroyed. 
But nobody cares. They're just lawless looters ... dangerous. 
The hurricane hit at the end of the month, the time when poor people are most vulnerable. Food 
stamps don't buy enough but for about three weeks of the month, and by the end of the month everyone 
runs out. Now they have no way to get their food stamps or any money, so they just have to take what they 
can to survive.  Many people are getting sick and very weak. From the toxic water that people are walking 
through, little scratches and sores are turning into major wounds. 
People whose homes and families were not destroyed went into the city right away with boats to 
bring the survivors out, but law enforcement told them they weren't needed. They are willing and able to 
rescue thousands, but they're not allowed to. 
Every day countless volunteers are trying to help, but they're turned back. Almost all the rescue 
that's been done has been done by volunteers anyway. 
My son and his family ­ his wife and kids, ages 1, 5 and 8 ­ were flooded out of their home when 
the levee broke. They had to swim out until they found an abandoned building with two rooms above 
water level. 
There were 21 people in those two rooms for a day and a half. A guy in a boat who just said "I'm 
going to help regardless" rescued them and took them to Highway I­10 and dropped them there. 
They sat on the freeway for about three hours, because someone said they'd be rescued and taken to 
the Superdome. Finally they just started walking, had to walk six and a half miles. 
When they got to the Superdome, my son wasn't allowed in ­ I don't know why ­ so his wife and 
kids wouldn't go in. They kept walking, and they happened to run across a guy with a tow truck that they 
knew, and he gave them his own personal truck. 
When they got here, they had no gas, so I had to punch a hole in my gas tank to give them some 
gas, and now I'm trapped. I'm getting around by bicycle. 
People from Placquemine Parish were rescued on a ferry and dropped off on a dock near here. All 
day they were sitting on the dock in the hot sun with no food, no water. Many were in a daze; they've lost 
everything. 
They were all sitting there surrounded by armed guards. We asked the guards could we bring them 
water and food. My mother and all the other church ladies were cooking for them, and we have plenty of 
good water.  But the guards said, "No. If you don't have enough water and food for everybody, you can't 
give anything." Finally the people were hauled off on school buses from other parishes. 
You know Robert King Wilkerson (the only one of the Angola 3 political prisoners who's been 
released). He's been back in New Orleans working hard, organizing, helping people. Now nobody knows 
where he is. His house was destroyed. Knowing him, I think he's out trying to save lives, but I'm worried. 
The people who could help are being shipped out. People who want to stay, who have the skills to 
save lives and rebuild are being forced to go to Houston. 
It's not like New Orleans was caught off guard. This could have been prevented.  There's military 
right here in New Orleans, but for three days they weren't even mobilized. You'd think this was a Third 
World country. 
I'm in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, the only part that isn't flooded. The water is 
good. Our parks and schools could easily hold 40,000 people, and they're not using any of it. 
This is criminal. These people are dying for no other reason than the lack of organization. 
Everything is needed, but we're still too disorganized. I'm asking people to go ahead and gather 
donations and relief supplies but to hold on to them for a few days until we have a way to put them to good 
use. 
I'm challenging my party, the Green Party, to come down here and help us just as soon as things 
are a little more organized. The Republicans and Democrats didn't do anything to prevent this or plan for it 
and don't seem to care if everyone dies. 

www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050902130928507

A Student Report from Louisiana

 "This is Solidarity, Not Charity"

 By C.A.N. 
  We are nine students from four 
colleges in New York  City ­ NYU, City College, Hunter College, 
Columbia ­  in Louisiana with a Relief Not War caravan organized 
by the Campus Antiwar Network. Some of us are grad  students; 
some are freshmen. Some of us grew up in the  South. Some of us 
have never been here before. All of  us felt that we needed to 
come here to join in the relief effort.
 Thursday, Sept 15: Setting off

 We got off to an auspicious start: during every leg of the 
trip to Louisiana, we met people eager to strike up a conversa­
tion about the hurricane. A Laguardia Airport bag checker asked 
us what we thought of Bush refusing Cuba's offer of aid. A black 
Avis worker in Atlanta shared stories she'd heard about the ra­
cist police in New Orleans ­ then told us the worst racism she'd 
encountered from cops was when she lived in New Jersey, not the 
Deep South. A white WalMart worker near Birmingham, who wore pic­
tures of her own small children on her uniform, told us that the 
hardest part for her was imagining what mothers in New Orleans 
must be going through.
  There are nine of us. Although some of us knew each other 
already from the Campus Antiwar Network, several of us knew none 
or only one of the others, and we had not been able to meet as a 
group prior to the trip. So at lunch we finally got to sit down, 
just shy of Birmingham, and introduce ourselves. We each said we
 had come. Some people spoke of their horror watching the TV news 
coverage. One white woman talked about growing up amid racism in 
the South, and wanting to do something after watching black 
people left behind in New Orleans. Another woman talked about 
freedom Summer, and wondered if our own lives would be changed 
by whatever we would find, in the same way those Northern college 
students' lives had been. A third has family in the area.
Having learned a little about each other, we headed off to 
WalMart to buy the supplies we would donate, as well as our own 
provisions. The shopping experience drove home the absurdity of 
the situation: faced with overwhelming abundance in front of us, 
and desperate need we would be traveling toward, we struggled to
 spend the thousands of dollars we had raised and cram everything 
into our car. It struck many of us that there had to be a better 
way to meet people's needs than for nine of us from New York to 
debate what kind of tampons women in Louisiana might want, or how 
many propane stoves we could fit into our minivans. 
 With cars fully loaded, we entered Mississippi. Here, for the 
first time,  we felt that we were in a disaster zone. Trees and 
signs lay overturned by the side of the road. The stench of raw 
sewage was overpowering. Army 
caravans roamed some of the 
streets. At the same time, we now 
truly felt being in the Deep 
South. Those of us who hadn't been 
here before were shocked to find 
children's toys adorned with Con­
federate flags in the gas station.
Finally we reached Camp Casey 
III, run by Veterans for Peace in Covington, Louisiana and 
pitched our tents in the dark, waiting for tomorrow.

 Friday, Sept 12

 Each day, the camp opens with a morning meeting. Today's had 
65 people. Much of the camp's work is traveling to nearby rural 
areas where people may be trapped without cars, or money for gas, 
and bringing supplies. The morning meetings report on the previ­
ous day's findings so the camp can distribute relief to
 the most desperate areas. Yesterday, one of the best successes 
was getting relief to an Indian reservation.
Today, our team of nine split up, taking volunteers and sup­
plies to two different areas: Jefferson Parish and New Orleans.

 Friday: Jefferson Parish

 We went with a small group from the Vets­for­Peace camp, and a 
local from the Jeffereson Parish area, to deliver food and baby 
supplies to people in the mostly forgotten and deserted neighbor­
hoods of Jefferson Parish. We first stopped in a neighborhood in 
which families had no electricity or running water until just a 
few days ago.
We gave out a lot of food, diapers, paper towels and soap to 
families and residents.
One woman with a few children said that they didn't hear the 
20­hour evacuation notice, and that "armyboys" with guns had come 
and had told them that they had two hours to leave. 
Before going to the next neighborhood, we went to a distribu­
tion center now under FEMA's control. They wouldn't let us take 
food except on designated days. A woman from FEMA told us that 
they had started doing food­drops in Jefferson Parish a few days 
ago, and just found this distribution place and started
 bringing food there. However, if people wanted food they had to 
go there, though most people didn't have cars.
Next door, a group of firemen were gathered in a meeting. 
Firemen from New York City and Chicago fire departments were 
donating their fire trucks and food and other supplies. They were 
not willing to give us food to distribute.
Across the street, there were signs that read: "You Loot, We 
Shoot!" and "Neighborhood under security (We will shoot)." 
At the distribution center, we talked to a staff sergeant, 
Samuel, from Philadelphia. He had been there for10 days. He was 
first a part of the "search and rescue" teams, checking for 
people dead or alive. When asked about looting, he said he hadn't 
seen any, but he said that the signs outside "were legitimate." 
When asked about how he 
felt about being here, 
he said that he "cher­
ished every moment." 
The next neighborhood 
we went to was worse. 
QuickTime and a
The whole place was 
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture. abandoned. There were 
two families with six 
kids living across the 
street from one another. 
One of the kids talked 
about being in the 9th 
ward and having to swim 
in the water to leave 
after the storm hit. He had left his grandmother there, who had 
died in the flooding. Part of our distribution group started to 
play music with the kids, and they sang songs by the Temptations.
 Down the street was a middle­aged black woman who wanted a 
scented candle because her house smelled so bad.  Further into 
the neighborhood, there was an elderly white man who stayed be­
hind through the storm because he was worried about his 12 cats. 
Because no one knew he and his neighbor were there, they had 
spray painted on the street: FOOD WATER NEED. 
Our final stop was in the only neighborhood in Jefferson Par­
ish that had a security check­point. We gave the rest of our food 
to a black family living there, and then met Dameon, and young 
black man who lived in these projects. He talked a lot about liv­
ing in the projects after the storm. He had spent time in jail 
among other dozens of people who were arrested
for looting. 
While we were talking to him, a police woman and a  national 
guardsman drove up. The guardsman had an M16; he told us to be 
careful because this area was dangerous: "We call this the pro­
jects," he said. He had been in Iraq and said that being here was 
"like deja­vu." 
When he left, Dameon said that "he says it's dangerous here, 
but there's only 100 people here and he's the only one with a 
gun."
When talking about the rescue and clean­up efforts he stated, 
"Why'da quarta' dry, and the 9th's under six feet of water? 
Why'da quarta opening in five of six days, and the 9th's a dis­
aster zone?"
When asked what he would tell George Bush if he were here, he 
said "I would tell George Bush that he failed us. He's an idiot. 
His administration failed us, he was wrong, and he should resign 
and let somebody else have a try."  Right before returning back 
to the camp, we talked with a woman photographer from California 
who talked about how she couldn't get the national guardsmen to 
understand why they were not welcomed by people in the affected 
communities. Activists from all around the country had been de­
livering food and supplies; they were not afraid to help dis­
placed and poor families, while the guardsmen showed up with 
guns.

 Friday: New Orleans
 We left Camp Casey III this morning with a fellow  camper and 
fellow New Yorker named Todd. Because we arrived late last night, 
this was our first opportunity to see the Covington area in day­
light. At the campground, there were several rows of mobile 
homes, most of which had been destroyed to various extents by the 
storm. A few were crushed completely by fallen trees.
We made our way from the camp, past Covington, which seems to 
be largely up and running again, and headed across the Lake 
Pontchartrain Causeway into downtown New Orleans. We managed to 
get by the checkpoints without too much trouble, thanks to the 
press passes that a few of us have.
Driving into the city that we've seen plastered on the news 
for the past two weeks was somewhat surreal. We recognized the 
bridge near the Superdome where people camped out to stay above 
the floodwaters. The remains of their camps are still there on 
the bridge. Everywhere around the Superdome, we could see spots 
where people must have camped out during the flood. The area is 
littered with empty water bottles, tarps, clothes, and the rem­
nants of people's belongings.
Now that the lake water has been 
pumped out, downtown New Orleans 
is literally flooded with milit­
ary and cops. There were hummers 
on every street. We saw soldiers 
QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor with M­16s patrolling in a few 
places. The French Quarter has 
are needed to see this picture.

been turned into a massive com­
munal kitchen for fire, police, 
and military units. At one 
point, we drove by a familiar 
sight: an NYPD cop car, parked 
across the street.
What are all these cops and soldiers doing in New  Orleans? We 
certainly didn't see any of them distributing food, water, or any 
other supplies. They seemed to be more interested in setting up 
checkpoints. With the streets totally abandoned by
 ordinary people, and with debris and wreckage everywhere, we al­
most could have been driving through Fallujah or Baghdad.

 Ninth Ward

  After taking a brief tour 
of the downtown area, we made 
our way over to the Ninth Ward, 
where we were meeting some 
folks who were moving back into  QuickTime and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
their home, after staying for  are needed to see this picture.

the past few days at Camp Casey 
III. Andrea and a few of her 
friends are returning to set up 
a clinic out of the ground 
level of the house that they 
own on St. Claude Avenue.
Andrea said that they were doing it so that people in the 
neighborhood would be encouraged to move back into their houses. 
She is afraid that if they don't return soon, the whole place 
will be gentrified. The poor neighborhoods and the black neigh­
borhoods are central to this city, she told us. And that's what 
they are going to destroy. Andrea called it an "ethnic  cleansing 
of sorts." Later, when we were sharing stories about the day with 
our group that went to Jefferson Parish, we learned that a man 
they had met there, named Damien, had also used the term "ethnic 
cleansing" to describe what could potentially happen. 
While we were talking, Andrea's husband Jeff called her cell 
phone. He had been buying a car at a Honda dealership just out­
side of the city. The guy who sold him the car made a comment 
that New Orleans would be so nice "now that all the spooks are 
gone." Just a few blocks down the road was one of the two bridges 
connecting to the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the poorest neighbor­
hoods in the city, which also happens to be ninety­eight percent 
African­American. The military had totally sealed off the bridge. 
Only camouflage could cross over. That's where all the dead bod­
ies are, Andrea told us.

 Algiers
  After unloading a bunch of cleaning supplies we had with us at 
Andrea's, we continued on to Algiers, where we were supposed to 
pay a visit to Malik Rahim. Malik is a former Black Panther and 
co­founder of the Louisiana Green Party. He and his partner, Shar­
on, have set up a base of operations for relief work at their 
house on Atlantic Street. We gave a ride to a woman who is a 
trauma counselor from the Bay Area. When she had run across a few 
Red Cross workers earlier in the week, she had asked them what 
kind of relief operations they were doing in the Ninth Ward. They 
replied that they had only been going to do relief in "safe 
places." In other words, the Red Cross hasn't touched the places 
in New Orleans that need aid the most. We haven't seen any Red 
Cross anywhere we've been. Many of the people we've met have said 
the same thing. Who knows where the millions of dollars that 
people have donated has gone.
We arrived at Malik's place to find a bustling scene: people 
talking on phones, others unloading boxes and supplies from cars, 
and still others sorting and repacking the donated supplies. The 
director of the camp, a man named Scott, told us that a week ago 
there had only been five of them. Now there were probably twenty.
We were greeted with open arms, cold water, and army MREs­
Meals Ready to Eat. While we ate, some of the folks there un­
loaded all the rest of the supplies that we had brought out of 
the back of our van. Malik's garage had been turned into a mini 
warehouse where volunteers assembled family packs of toiletries 
and other necessities. His back yard was now a camp ground where 
those running relief during the day slept at night.
A few days ago, a team of French people had arrived with about 
ten computers. In the house next to Malik's, they had set up a 
tech center with the donated computers.  A few minutes away from 
Malik's house, volunteer doctors have turned a mosque into a 
health clinic. One woman working there, Lorrie, told us that she 
thought she would be doing emergency trauma medicine. Instead, 
she had arrived to face a health crisis long predating Hurricane 
Katrina. She had treated one woman with a serious case of asthma. 
The last time the woman had gotten any asthma medicine was 2003.
Outside the clinic, two large spray­painted signs read: "This 
is Solidarity, not Charity." Scott and others talked to us about 
their long­term vision for rebuilding this and other devastated 
neighborhoods in New Orleans. Unlike corporate America's dream, 
theirs does not call for pretty new high­rises, lofts, hotels, 
and casinos. Their vision is one that actually benefits the 
people who have lived in these communities for their whole lives. 
Scott confided to us, "As activists we are always fighting 
against something. But we rarely get the opportunity to build
 something. Maybe we take an intersection during a  demonstra­
tion. But now we get to actually build something­something com­
munity led, self­sustaining."
The talk was of free schools, an ongoing clinic, the necessity 
of teaching residents basic primary healthcare skills. These act­
ivists are already using tech center next door to Malik's house 
to develop the community resources and knowledge base.
On the way back to Malik's house from the clinic, we stopped 
at a house where a middle­aged woman was sitting on the porch. 
Scott jumped out of the car and discreetly delivered her a pack­
age of underwear that she had requested earlier. She smiled and 
laughed, promising us a delicious meal once regular food started 
making it back into the area again.
Joanna Bove, John Burns, Manijeh Moradian, Vinay Patel, Tiffany 
Paul, Francisco Pereyra, Jena Smith, Elizabeth Wrigley­Field, and 
Zach Zill contributed to this report. Visit the Campus Antiwar 
Network at www.campusantiwarnetwork.org

Current Student Organizations in the Boycott Coke Coalition at DePaul:
Activist Student Union asu_depaul@yahoo.com,
DePaul Students Against the War depaulnowar@yahoo.com,
DePaul Alliance for Latino Empowerment dale@condor.depaul.edu,
Concerned Black Students, Black Student Union,
United Muslims Moving Ahead, Students for Justice in Palestine,
ECO, Amnesty International, and more

Reports from the World Festival of 
Youth and Students in Venezuela
http://www.infoshop.org/infocities/blogs/index.php?blog=18
 In the beginning of august, four DePaul students joined 120 young
Chicagoans and seven hundred people from around the
country to go to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to
visit the 16th World Festival of Youth & Students, a
gathering that has met since 1947 in many different
QuickTime and a countries. There we met with some fifteen thousand
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
delegates from over one hundred different countries, and
are needed to see this picture.
thousands of young Venezuelans, all activists who are
struggling for social and economic justice in their
respective regions, and against imperialism worldwide.
We will be planning reportbacks in the coming months,
but here are some of the reports from a DSAW militant.

Today is the first official day of the World Festival of Youth & Students, and there is a bus leaving 
so I must be quick (I´ll try to come back and add more later).
I’ll report on some of the details a little bit later, but right now ill begin with the entry into Caracas 
yesterday, where I and seven other Chicago delegates entered wondering how organized it would be. we 
were immediately greeted with several coordinators and a large WYF banner, and after we breezed thru 
customs we were thrown into the two­level lobby where hundreds, possibly a thousand delegates from 
around the world were eating the snacks given to us from the Festival and excitedly making 
conversations. Most of the Salvadoran delegation are from the FMLN and they quickly explained to me 
the need to boycott Tacas Airlines­ the Central American airline that we had just flown in on. I began 
shaking hands, saying ¨United States¨ and most of the replies were ¨France¨or ¨Mexico¨, although over one 
hundred highly organized delegates from Suriname with Surinamese WYF yellow polo shirts came by. 
Unfortunately, of the people I was with I spoke the most Spanish so I became the resident translator, but I 
can use the practice.
Then came the sad part, 
where we found out about 
accommodations. The Venezuelan 
Festival organizers, worried about 
the possibility of an international 
incident, decided to put the seven 
hundred person U.S. delegation in 
barracks in a military base an hour 
outside of Caracas on a mountain 
overlooking the city of Los Toques. 
Our movement so far is highly 
controlled, but I have to go jump on 
this bus to the city. I´ll be back more 
to continue...
*
Well, I have a little more 
A Few Delegates to the Youth Forum
time now to chill and write. And it turns out that most of the delegations are being housed in military 
barracks. Perhaps one of the most exciting parts of the trip thus far has just occurred. The US delegation 
over filled Conscript, the base where we were, and one hundred of us were asked to voluntarily relocate to 
a base that housed Caribbean delegations. About seventy of us signed up, while another seventy five who 
had just arrived at the airport were also enlisted to go. The first base we went to was outside of Estado 
Miranda where Los Toques is, and was the wrong one. Then we arrived at the base where we had meant to 
go, which was predominantly (sleeping) delegates from Puerto Rico and Trinidad, but it was full, so for 
over an hour, we waited in the rain in a covered basketball court, making the best of it. Toward the end of 
our wait, some eight or so Puertorriquenos finally ventured out, and told me that all of the PR delegation 
is independentista, but an amalgem of different national and community groups from the island. They 
were also very excited to hear that Paseo Boricua (the Division Street Puerto Rican Nationalist enclave) 
had a large delegation. 
Now the one hundred and fifty of us from the US spillover have arrived at a fourth base, where a 
bus load of Syrian delegates were being displaced, as the US colonizes yet another land. The single 
Jordanian delegate, herself from the National Student Union in Jordan, translated during my brief chat 
with the Syrians, most of whom were older men from the National Student Union and Nation Youth 
Union. They told me that another fifty or so Syrians were to arrive from that country´s Communist Party, 
and as with the Puertorriquenos, they were very happy to speak to an estadounidense. Don´t worry, I have 
been representing the resistance within the US Empire very well. The Jordanian woman told me that the 
Palestinians had been denied visas, or hadn´t received them until too late, and so they were going to be 
represented by Venezuela´s Palestinian community. Another tip, this one from some Puerto Rican 
delegates yesterday, has it that there are only four Iraqi delegates, all from the Iraqi Communist Party. 
At this base there are also 24 Japanese , a Libyan and some others. According to a Japanese activist 
I just spoke to, half of them are from the Communist Party and the other half are from their youth group, 
although there is another delegation from a social democratic group in Japan. And at the airport he told 
me of large delegations from India, Viet Nam and one of the Coreas (he wasn´t sure which).
I am being shepherded off of the computer due to time restraints, but I will return with more. Stay 
tuned.
* * *
I have now met with some of the at least one hundred thirty Dominicans here and they are all 
mostly from their branch of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (which is generally connected to 
the national Communist Parties), but they say there are Dominicans from cultural groups too. There are 
also about one hundred Libyans, and I am told that they are from University groups, perhaps also WFDY 
connected. But there are also large delegations from Algeria and Morocco, and I have not received word of 
where they are from. Soon we will have a national meeting for the entire US delegation, and then to 
Caracas to the opening session.
* * *
The US just had its first official delegation meeting with 700 delegates crammed inside what is 
known on this base as the Ping Pong room, where they announced some numbers amongst the different 
delegations. There are over twelve thousand delegates from the Americas outside of Venezuela, including 
1800 Cubans, 3000 Colombians, over 750 Brasileiros, 700 from the US, and there are another 150 from 
Viet Nam, whose delegation has been very eager to connect with us from the US. 
The woman from Jordan, whose delegation was not able to come through (she was studying in 
London and was able to get in), told me that there are up to 200 Libyans and perhaps 350 Algerians. She 
wore a kaffiyah which was half black&white and half red&white, signifying unity between the Palestinian 
and Jordanian cultures, as well as between the different political movements in the Palestinian struggle.
Now we finally go to Caracas for a march where all of the delegations to march together. The US 
delegation, as per the suggestion of American Indian Movement veteran Robert, will march the US flag 
behind the Indigenous peoples´ banner, although I wonder about the wisdom of marching with the US flag 
at all.
Finally, I would like to end with a note. I am not writing this for my health. Please send feedback 
on these notes. 
* * *
MIERDA i stubbed my toe. that was 
sunday night, and it was deep and bloody. but the 
venezolanas were prepared and i received my first 
visit with a real doctor in over three years, 
excepting a late night visit with a friend´s father 
back when i had the pneumonia. and this first real 
doctor visit was with a CUBAN doctor. his name 
was roberto, a handsome man in his early thirties, 
who had worked for two year periods in Belize, 
Guatemala, Haiti, and now Venezuela, as is 
required and requested by Cuba for all of its 
medical professionals. But he had gone above and 
beyond and done it for longer than the usual. Perla Left­Wing President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez
Marina, a slightly older Venezuelan volunteer who was sweet as honey, took me to him, and we chilled, 
joked around, and I got real medical treatment.
I can only be briefly go into the events of yesterday, the march, the delegations, etc. First, all seven 
hundred or so estadounidenses met at one of the bases, and the highly impressive turn out from Chicago 
groups like the Batey & Zocalo delegation and the University of Hip Hop, Geny Y, and Southwest Youth 
Collaborative delegation, both which had organized entirely on their own, were very apparent. 
Most national delegations, from the 300­person Angolan delegation from the MPLA to the 
Algerians who are with their National Student Union, are with only one organization which is usually 
connected with their equivalent of our Communist Party (which in virtually all cases are very moderate). 
This is a large disappointment, but it was something I had anticipated. Some delegations also have their 
Socialist Party present.
The Cubans too are almost entirely from their youth communist group, but I was fortunate enough 
to meet up with the Cuban who coordinated my trip back in 2000. We had not seen each other since, and 
lost contact, but he ecstatically charged after me and offered to show me some of the more militant local 
and international activists in a neighborhood I had heard of previously known as something like 23 de 
Febrero. I will correct that later if it is incorrect.
 As we drove in, we saw the beautiful and coordinated delegations from Brazil, Viet Nam, Guyana, 
Algeria, Western Sahara, and elsewhere, and we felt ashamed. But the most exciting part of the day for me 
came early on in the march, when I found the 20 members of the PANAMANIAN DELEGATION. And 
they did not disappoint. At the sight of this insane Panamanian­American they were immediately jubilant 
and welcomed me into their group. Every single one dropped their email on my note book or gave me 
their card, and eventually we had all eighty of the Panamanians together. Only three of them were 
comrades from my trips to Panama, but they were easily one of the funniest, loudest, most festive and 
most militant groups, largely along with other West Indian delegations from St. Lucia and St. Vincent and 
the Grenadines. For those who wonder where I get my louder­than­a­megaphone vocal cords, apparently it
´s in my blood.
But what was most impressive to me about the Panamanian delegation was the politics. They had 
one of the most diverse delegations in the entire festival politically, almost all youth from the University 
and some from the unions, and virtually all of the over nine or ten heavily divided Marxist groups in the 
University were present. As the Panamanians explained to me, they left their ideological contradictions 
and divisions in Panama, because here in Venezuela at the Festival they are one. And I saw not one 
moment of tension between groups. Indeed, they proudly told me that the real language of our country is 
the kiss. For most of the rest of the day I stuck with them, although forays into the crowd found me 
warmly embraced by most of the rest of the delegations. particularly affectionate were those from Peru 
and Granada, among others, but all were warm and eager to trade contacts and take pictures.
Before I go, I must give special mention to Iraq. There was one Iraqi delegate in the march, a Iraqi 
Communist Party member from Canada, but later three unaffiliated radical Iraqis who study in Canada 
seized the Iraq sign and took over the delegation. The day ended with a speech from Chavez, but the 
estadounidenses were rude enough to walk out (forcing me and others who wanted to stay to come along 
to our buses). It is obvious that I will have the best experience when I am with my second delegation­ the 
Panameños! 

some pictures can be found at:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/61429
 Anarchists protest the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings in Sept. 2002 
Corporate News that we think must have been a Type­O (underlined is our correction)
Chicago Sun­Times 8/31/05: “President Bush on Tuesday answered growing anti­war protests 
with a fresh reason for American troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country’s 
vast oil fields that he said would otherwise fall under the control of other terrorist extremists 
aside from his administration.”

How Student Government Fails to Listen to Students
Matt Muchowski
Last Spring, Alejandro Acierto lost the presidency of Student Government by 22 votes to a leader 
of the DePaul Democrats­ Wes Thompson.  Thompson ran on a slate with a member of the DePaul 
republicans­ Nina Mohseni.  Despite the democrat­republican alliance, it was Acierto's running mate, 
Cyndi Torres, who won the vice­presidency of Student Government.  The two articles in the following 
issue of the DePaulia made no mention of how close the race for president was.  They also didn't mention 
that Torres received more votes than Thompson.  Those DePaulia articles especially did not mention of 
Thompson's attempts to disqualify Torres during the election.  
Student Government has more power at DePaul than many would like to admit.  It appoints 
students to funding boards like SAF­B and liaisons with many sectors in the University.  But the most 
powerful aspect of Student Government is vested in the President who is the only student allowed to attend 
board of trustees meetings.  It is at these meetings that the major financial decisions of the University are 
made.  They deal with everything from the price of tuition, to contracts with unethical corporations, and 
much more.  
Alejandro Acierto is my kind of guy.  I met him at an anti­war protest in downtown Chicago.  I 
would often find myself running into him at anti­war protests, without me even telling him about them. 
The best was when I was in New York City heckling some republican delegates from the GOP convention 
at a bar they were drinking at.  Several dozen people gathered outside the bar to shout obscenities at the 
murderers of Iraqi and Afghani people when I realized that Acierto was one of the people besides me. 
Acierto is a music major of mixed Philippine and Mexican descent, former Music School Senator for 
Student Government and a sweet guy.
 I met Cyndi 
Torres through her 
involvement in 
DePaul Students 
Against the War. 
Torres also 
became heavily 
involved in 
DePaul's queer 
group 
SPECTRUM.  She 
ran for 
homecoming 
queen and even 
though she lost 
(we're not told by 
how much) she 
still managed to 
freak out some of the sorority girls by wearing a suit instead of a dress to the dance.  She has been 
violently attacked just for being who she is­ a Mexican lesbian.  She never takes people's crap 
Cyndi Torres at a protest though.  After being 
attacked, she organized a rally against hate crimes on campus.  She's brave, funny and affectionate 
all in one. 
 It would be hard to find more dedicated and hard working people for social justice at DePaul. 
They looked good especially compared to the competition last Spring.  
As usual you had members of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity running the ultra­conservative slate. 
A few years ago DTD controlled Student Government, almost everyone of power was in the fraternity, or 
appointed to a position because they were dating a member of the fraternity.  
However DTD got sloppy with their abuse of power.  They disqualified myself and two other 
candidates in the 2003 Student Government elections for handing out campaign fliers that advocated 
political positions (dumping the Patriot 
Act, and calling for a boycott on coca­
cola).  Their Elections Board head used 
physical intimidation.  Plus their 
fraternity brother who was President of 
SGA, didn't tell students about the Board 
of Trustees plans to take computers out 
of the dorms.  It was only after groups 
like the Black Student Union protested 
and collected thousands of signatures on 
a petition that mini­computer labs were 
put in each dorm as a compromise.  I’ve 
met some newer members of the DTD 
fraternity though that seem to be a lot 
cooler and more progressive than older 
members.
Then there was a more center­
liberal slate that many of us thought we 
could work with.  Until we discovered 
racist and sexist comments directed 
against African­Americans, Asians and 
women on their pick for vice­presidents 
blog.
Which brings us to the Democrat­
Republican slate.  DePaul being in 
Chicago, one of the most liberal and 
Democratic party strongholds in the 
country, many people at DePaul knew 
Wes Thompson from the DePaul 
Democrats and thought he was the liberal slate.  I had to explain to them that his running mate was from 
the DePaul Republicans.  Students would look at me confused, and I would have to explain to them that if 
someone like Ralph Nader had a chance of winning, wouldn't the real democrats and republicans unite 
forces to stop it?  The Ralph Nader in this case being Acierto and Torres.  
Thompson and Mohseni were vicious in their attempts to silence progressive, radical and anti­
capitalist voices in the student government elections.  At one point they teamed up with the Delta Tau 
Delta slate and attempted to disqualify five progressive candidates (Alejandro Acierto, Cyndi Torres, Jon 
Reinert, Andrea Craft and this author) because those candidates were endorsed by a comic strip that 
parodied student government.  
The elections board rules were flagrantly disregarded in the rush to eliminate competition in the 
market place of ideas.  Not only was a comic strip parody that featured giraffes, alligators and hippos 
called libel, but even though the election bylaws called for two violations before a disqualification, with 
the option of an appeals hearing, those five candidates were sent disqualification letters after this first 
alleged violation.  Those candidates immediately appealed the decision and were let back on the ballot. 
However their attempts to overturn the alleged violation went unheard as they asked for an appeals board 
hearing, and were never granted one.
Consider the role Thompson has played in the recent 
revision of SGA's constitution.  All the DePaul democrats 
were supporting a move that would have merged the Senator 
for Students with Disabilities, the Senator for Multicultural 
Students and the Senator for International Students into one 
position.  So instead of having those three positions, you 
would have one.  They also shot down the idea of having a 
Senator to deal with Queer issues and instead opted to include that as one of the responsibilities of what I 
called the “token senator”.  
In the end there was to much opposition to this plan, and even though the real progressives in the 
room didn't go along with it, the democrats and republicans in the room eliminated the Senator for 
Students with Disabilities, and the Senator for inter­cultural awareness now does what the Senator for 
multicultural students did, plus the role of being a senator for Queer students.
During the campaign, several DePaul Democrats came to progressive and radical groups to co­opt 
them and their mission.  Just the way people like Senator Kerry do in real life.  Consider new Senator for 
the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Ronald Brooks.  Brooks came to a meeting of DePaul Students 
Against the War and asked for our endorsement.  We asked him one key question, “Do you support the 
immediate and unconditional retreat of US occupation forces from Iraq?”  Of course he didn't.  
Like many liberals, Brooks thinks that if the US left Iraq, it would be a mess, which is why we 
should try to form a more multilateral occupation force with the UN.  Sarcastically one thinks, because the 
deaths of 100,000 Iraqi’s would be justified under the UN flag instead of the US flag.  This kind of 
thinking ignores reality, because as long as the US or any occupation force is in Iraq, US troops will 
torture suspected insurgents and arrest Iraqi's who form unions.  To think the US should stay in Iraq is to 
support having Iraq's economy privatized and social security abolished, and to prohibit letting Iraqi's build 
a country that isn't going to be dominated militarily and economically by the US.  
DSAW sent Brooks away without an endorsement.
At one point Thompson and Mohseni came to a meeting of the Activist Student Union.  ASU has 
been working on anti­sweatshop campaigns for 5 years and have had several major victories in that time. 
ASU's major campaign right now is to get DePaul to cut it's contract with Coca­Cola.  Coca­Cola has been 
working with terrorist paramilitary groups in Colombia to prevent the unionization of it's bottling plants in 
Colombia.  So far Coke and the paramilitaries have assassinated nine union members, and kidnapped, 
tortured and threatened others.  There are eyewitness reports of this and one of the witnesses and victims, 
Luis Adolfo, lives in Chicago after receiving political asylum because of these attacks.  ASU has waged a 
high profile campaign against coke because of this issue, winning the support of thousands of students 
who have signed ASU's petition against Coke and several student groups who have asked us to provide 
alternatives to coca­cola at their events.  ASU also successfully lobbied the University to revive the 
Ethical Business Contracting committee.  This committee was originally formed because of the lobbying 
efforts of ASU founding members.   
Despite all this Thompson and Mohseni told ASU that they were against the boycott and would 
vote against any anti­coke measures in student government.  After being sworn in as President, Wes was 
able to attend the Ethical Business Contracting committee meeting.  At this meeting, the first thing he did 
was to try to get the ASU representative to the committee kicked off the committee saying that ASU 
doesn't represent a large enough student population.  To the Committee's credit, they didn't take Wes' 
request seriously, and lectured him “without ASU, this committee would not exist.”  ASU still has a 
representative to this committee, perhaps because ASU has more signatures on it's petition than Wes 
received votes in the last election.
It will be interesting to watch if Thompson and his crew of republicrats even attend the events of 
many of the groups they went asking for endorsements from.  Will they ever come to a United Muslims 
Moving Ahead event?  What about Concerned Black Students or the DePaul Linux Community?  I 
wonder what promises they made to those and other groups that they will break?  
I can count one promise they broke already.  Thompson and Mohseni promised to bring new faces 
into Student Government.  What was Thompson's first official action as president?  After implying that 
Cyndi could help him pick some members of the cabinet, Wes backpedaled and appointed many of the 
same people who were on the cabinet before.  People like Liz Marcus, Nina Mohseni and Marie Jensen. 
All three are members of the DePaul republicans.  The votes for 
them were close.  So close that Liz Marcus was voted in only by a 
tie breaker.  After realizing this was the case, she stormed out of 
the Student Government meeting, quiting her cabinet position.  
Despites Thompson's public pronouncements of being able 
to get along with Cyndi Torres there have been persistent rumors 
that the republicrats are planning on intimidating Torres until she 
QuickTime and a
quits Student Government.  If these rumors are true, those  TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
planning on messing with Torres need to recognize that they will 
not just be messing with her, but will be attacking progressive and 
radical students all over this campus. 
The battle for a truly democratic student government and 
University has just barely begun.  Progressive and radical students 
can support people like Cyndi Torres, Jon Reinhert, Andrea Craft 
and Auvergene Larry, progressives in Student Government.  It may 
even be possible that many of the new senators might be sympathetic to the demands of progressive and 
radical students.  
 We must keep in mind that the ultimate goal is to have a University that is not run by an unelected 
and unaccountable board of trustees.  Old white rich men who donate money to the school are not in touch 
with students needs and demands.  Only Democratically run student, faculty and staff councils will be 
able to meet and respond to the needs of the University community in a way that is fair and just.

BREAKING NEWS!

Thompson  Implies Grounds for Impeachment 
Against Torres on Ridiculous Charges  

Torres Fed Up with Intimidation, 
Resigns Vice­Presidency

SGA President Exiles Dissident Leader
In the time since the above article was written major developments have occurred in DePaul’s 
Student Government.  The rumors of attempts to get rid of Progressive Vice­President Cyndi Torres have 
been feuled.  In an E­Mail that President Wes Thompson sent to a former Senator of Student Government, 
he complains that Torres has not been attending cabinet meetings and that missing meetings is grounds for 
impeachment.  Despite the fact that Thompson’s appointed assistant, Ben Thrutchley, has been in 
Washington DC all summer sucking up to politicians, and unable to perform duties as an appointed 
cabinet member.  Thompson has made no comments regarding attempts to impeach Thrutchley.  The 
difference apparently being that Thrutchley is a DePaul Democrat and loyal to the two­party system and 
Thompson while Torres is an anti­war, pro­queer upstart.
This came after several summer meetings where, according to Torres, members of the cabinet that 
Thompson picked, were consistently rude to her, undercut her ideas, and derided her attempts to bring new 
voices into student government.  
Citing her frustration to accomplish anything of value in Student Government, she officially 
resigned Sunday the 18th of September, and was replaced by Democrat Matt Tweed Thornton.
In a separate incident, at the Involvement Fair on Sunday the 11th of September, a three year SGA 
member and former candidate who is currently not enrolled due to scholarship technicalities was forced 
off of the DePaul Student Government table. However, because this student was associated with the 
progressives of SGA, security was called to escort this student off the SGA table and he was initially 
threatened to be kicked out of the fair all together.  It is unclear at this moment which SGA official called 
security, although Thompson took responsibility, and it is clear that security was called before anyone 
from SGA approached the student and asked him to leave.  After the student shared some coarse words 
with Thompson, the SGA President, without warning, had security permanently kick him out of the 
Student Center at threat of arrest. President Wes Thompson defended the action saying that he had to 
maintain the integrity of his organization, and that he had the right to kick a former student off campus 
grounds because he didn’t like the individual. One witness contends that Thompson lied to Public Safety 
claiming that he had requested the individual leave before going to security.

rememberances
at the protests we find both support and spite
from the passersby. often, conservative guys
will ask if any of us have been to war. few of
us can say we have, but i have. and when i
tell them what i saw they have no response.
because what i saw, where i was, what i went
through, it throws them off.
i remember the build up to the invasion, not
this one, but the invasion of panamá in 1989,
which had been preceded by two dozen
invasions and one hundred fifty years of US military occupation. i remember
being a child waiting on my mama at the hair salon in michigan. my mother is
light-skinned, she can pass, but her heart is pure panamanian. but the hair
stylist didn't know, as that woman repeated the statement that dennis miller
later enacted on Saturday Night Live: "they should just
wipe that country off the face of the earth." i wanted to
hurt her. i wanted to hurt her for that. and i didnt
understand why my mama stayed silent in the chair. but
she felt the pain too. and i felt the pain years later when
i saw that rerun where dennis miller took scissors and
physically cut panama out of the map behind him to
thunderous applause. how were we supposed to feel?
the US Empire was threatening to bomb our country, our
people, our relatives, her father, her sisters, her
brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, off the face of the
planet in what was later the model for 'Shock & Awe,'
the initial military operation in the invasion of Iraq in
2003. the US Empire was threatening to bomb it clear off
the face of the planet, and US popular culture and US corporate news had
successfully sold the idea of genocide to the United States population. and
what of us? how were we supposed to feel?
my brother's first visit to our family 'down there' was during the Noriega
regime, a man much like Saddam Hussein. created by the united states,
trained in ruthless brutality by the united states, paid to commit torture and
repression by the united states, he had eventually begun to become
independent, and now the Empire was mad. Jesse Helms and others began
clamoring for blood. noriega had tortured relatives, my family protested him
in the streets, but we knew the US couldnt be trusted.
nevermind what happened. nevermind if it was four hundred or two thousand
or four thousand or seven thousand panamanian civilians killed according to
different estimates. nevermind that panama is and was a country with a
population 1% the size of the united states, with a military created by the
united states. nevermind if the country, especially the cities, especially poor
neighborhoods were flattened by the bombings. that was christmastime in
1989. but id never seen my family.
no, but i saw them a few months later in 1990, when the imperial occupation
was still going strong. the humiliation of a century and a half of near-colonial
rule had left a bad taste amongst the panamanians. resistance was constant
throughout. but in the biggest US Imperial military operation since they were
defeated by the poor millions of Viet Nam, the Empire showed who was on
top. like taking candy from a baby. with stealth bombers as back-up. and in
the only visit where i ever saw my grandfather, he got to show us bombed out
areas of the capital. blood stains on the streets. tanks in the streets. dud
missiles and defeated jet fighters in the parks, where children could play on
them. where i played on them. APCs rolling by. armoured imperial
stormtroopers everywhere you look. and military checkpoints, the very same
as those in the West Bank in Palestine, or in Iraq today.
I was eight years old when i saw war. you ask me why i protest. i aint no
pacifist, and i wouldnt take away my people's right to resist invaders. i
wouldn't take that right away from any poor folks in any of the world's third
world ghettos. but i saw what Empire can do. and so i ask you, why aren't you
in the streets with us?
 Draft Dodger Rag
By Phil Ochs

Oh, I'm just a typical American boy I got eyes

from a typical American town like a bat,
I believe in God and Senator Dodd and my feet
and a-keepin' old Castro down are flat, and
And when it came my time to serve my asthma's
I knew "better dead than red" getting
But when I got to my old draft worse
QuickTime and a
board, buddy, this is what I said: TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
Yes, think of
are needed to see this picture.
my career,
CHORUS my
Sarge, I'm only eighteen, I got a sweetheart
ruptured spleen dear, and my
And I always carry a purse poor old
invalid aunt I'd probably start to sneeze
Besides, I ain't no fool, I'm a-goin' to
school Chorus
And I'm working in a DEE-fense
plant Ooh, I hate Chou En Lai, and I hope
he dies,
I've got a dislocated disc and a Onething you gotta see
wracked up back That someone's gotta go over there
I'm allergic to flowers and bugs And that someone isn't me
And when the bombshell hits, I get So I wish you well, Sarge, give 'em
epileptic fits Hell!
And I'm addicted to a thousand Kill me a thousand or so
drugs And if you ever get a war without
I got the weakness woes, I can't blood and gore
touch my toes I'll be the first to go
I can hardly reach my knees
And if the enemy came close to me Chorus

Find this in your constitution!

From the constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Article 78: Children and adolescents are full legal persons and shall be protected …
Article 79: Young people have the right and duty to be active participants in the development process…
Article 80: The State shall guarantee senior citizens the full exercise of their rights…
Article 81: Any person with disability or special needs has the right to the full and autonomous exercise of his
or her abilities and to its integration into the family and community…
Article 82: Every person has the right to adequate, safe and comfortable, hygienic housing…
Article 83: Health is a fundamental social right and the responsibility of the State, which shall guarantee it as
part of the right to life…

DePaul’s Law School and the Iraq War
Matt Muchowski
In the world of politics, names can be deceiving.  Take the No Child Left Behind Act which cut 
funding for schools that need it most.  There is the National Endowment for Democracy which helped 
orchestrate a failed coup against democratically elected President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez.  The 
frosting on the cake however is the Department of Defense.  You have to look past deceiving titles like 
“Operation Iraqi Freedom” to get to the real meat of the issues.
At DePaul Univeristy's Law School there is a group called the International Human Rights Law 
Institute (IHRLI).  They have a program called “Raising the Bar: Legal Education Reform in Iraq.  This 
program is funded by a several million dollar grant from the State Department's United States Agency for 
International Development (USAID).   This reform project is intended to teach Iraqi lawyers, judges and 
law professors what they need to know to create a legal system modeled on the supposedly democratic US 
model.
On the surface the program looks like it is doing good and helping Iraqi's rebuild their country. 
IHRLI has brought Iraqi lawyers to visit the US and meet with judges and lawyers in Chicago.  They have 
rebuilt the law library at Baghdad University.  The director of the Institute, M. Cherif Bassiouni has even 
been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in creating the International Criminal Court.
Underneath the surface there is a different story though.  Originally “Raising the Bar” was to be 
directed by Feisal Istrabadi.  Istrabadi is a member of a conservative group of Iraqi exiles that supported 
the US invasion of Iraq called the “Iraqi Forum for Democracy.”  Istrabadi took a position in the puppet 
government instead though.  For  time under the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Istrabadi was 
Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations, as appointed by the US.  
It was during this time that he made a visit to DePaul.  He gave a speech and when the time came 
for questions, one student asked Istrabadi, “You speak of democracy and elections in Iraq, but since Iraq 
has already taken out 11 million dollars in loans from the International Monetary Fund, what option will 
ordinary Iraqi's have at the ballot but US approved, pro­free trade, pro­sweatshop, pro­Washington 
Consensus candidates?”
Istrabadi replied, “I would hope that Iraq sees more of the 
Washington consensus.”   
      Directing the Clinical Education aspect of the “Raising the Bar” 
initiative is Haider Ala Hamoudi.  Hamoudi has stated several times 
that he wishes to run a corporate law firm in Baghdad.  Hamoudi 
has also said that he sees challenges in Iraqi law, like how being a 
QuickTime and a
capitalist and being able to own a company does not exist in Iraqi  TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
legal code.  He used to work for the international corporate law firm  are needed to see this picture.
Debevoise & Plimpton, which represented clients such as J.P. 
Morgan, AT&T, and Shell Oil.  They were also involved in a 
representing “numerous engineering and construction claims against 
foreign sovereigns including Iraq.”  
At a forum at DePaul IHRLI member Yaser Tabbara 
described how “Raising the Bar” was going to help Iraqi law professors learn about a number of topics 
including international human rights law, international business and  trade law.  
It seems upon closer inspection that IHRLI's project        Cherif Bassiouni, head of IHRLI
 is concerned with making sure that Iraqi's accept corporate law.  Even if individuals involved with IHRLI 
think they are promoting learning and cooperation between Iraqi's and American's, it must be kept in mind 
that the State Department and USAID 
would not give IHRLI millions of dollars 
unless “Raising the Bar” served the 
interests of the US.  Even if some 
members of IHRLI are well intentioned 
and opposed the invasion, they are 
playing into the hands of the invading 
and occupying force and providing a 
liberal cover for a right wing campaign.  
For example, one of IHRLI's other 
projects in Iraq is the collecting of personal experiences from victims of Saddam Hussein.  What this 
project is desperately missing is for IHRLI to collect personal experiences from Iraqi's who have been 
victimized by the US invasion and occupation.  It needs to interview the mother whose son was bombed, 
the prisoner who was tortured at Abu Ghraib,  and the labor activist who was arrested for organizing a 
union.  But IHRLI is not acting as a non­partisan human rights group, rather it is being funded by USAID 
and thus must act in accordance to with US goals in Iraq.  
In the US model of Iraq, they will need professors to teach corporate law to a new generation of 
law students.  This educated elite of Iraqi law students will not fight for ordinary Iraqi's but will instead 
fight for the rights of multinational corporations to open up sweatshops in Iraq.  They will be elected to 
public office, sign free trade agreements and privatize Iraq's major resources, like oil, selling them to the 
highest bidder.  They will continue to enforce law 150 Saddam Hussein made in 1987 banning Unions 
among workers, a law that the US military occupation continues to enforce against groups like the 
Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq.  Since they took out loans from the World Bank and 
International Monetary Fund, they will be indebted forced to implement Structural Adjustment Programs 
that drive poor countries even further into debt and   makes the global rich even richer.         
IHRLI is teaching Iraqi lawyers international human rights law to try Saddam for war crimes, but 
what about using that same law to try those in Washington 
who supplied Saddam with chemical weapons in the 1980's, 
who enforced the sanction on Iraq that killed over ½ million 
children, and who invaded Iraq killing upwards of 100,000. 
QuickTime and a
IHRLI's director, M. Cherif Bassiouni, could teach Iraqi's  TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
how to bring people like Bush Sr., Bush Jr., Bill Clinton,  are needed to see this picture.
Madeline Albright, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and 
even Saddam Hussein to the International Criminal Court. 
Unless IHRLI redefines it's mission in Iraq along these lines, 
it should immediately cease all operations in Iraq. 

US Puppet Feisal Istrabadi

Sources:

Adcock, Thomas.  “Associate Hopes to Start Law Firm in Iraq.”  New York Law Journal.   Oct. 10, 
2003. News Page 16.

Bacon, David.  “In Iraq, Labor Protest is a Crime.”  CounterPunch. Aug. 2003.

Debevoise & Plimpton website.  www.debevoise.com/about/about.asp  and 
www.debevoise.com/practices/area.asp?areaid=17&groupid=2&langid=1

Goodman, Amy; Perkins, John.  Democracy Now!  Nov. 9, 2004.  “Confessions of an Economic Hitman: 
How the US Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries out of Trillions.” 
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251

Gorner, Jerem.  “DePaul Helps Form Middle Eastern Law.”  The DePaulia.  Oct. 10, 2003.  Page 3.

Horan, Deborah.  “DePaul Team Seeks Stories to Help Iraqi Victims of Hussein Heal.”  Chicago Tribune. 
June 2, 2005.  Section 2, page 2. 

Horan, Deborah.  “Iraqi's Learn Lessons of Law: DePaul Helps Legal Scholars with US  System.” Chicago 
Tribune.  Aug. 9, 2004. Section 2, page 1.

Klein, Naomi.  “Baghdad Year Zero.  Pillaging Iraq in Pursuit of a Neocon Utopia.”  Harpers Magazine. 
Sept. 2004.  

Muchowski, Matt.  “Notes from Illinois Society for International Development's 'Focus on Development in 
Iraq: Legal Education Reform and Human Rights.'” June 8, 2004.

Muchowski, Matt.  “Notes from the Chicago Humanities Festival's 'Government Panel:  Iraq: Constituting 
a Nation.'” Nov. 13, 2004.

Roberts, Les; Lafta, Riyadh; Garfield, Richard; Khundhairi, Jamal; Burnham, Gilbert.   “Mortality 
Before and After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq: Cluster Sample Survey.”   The Lancet.  Vol 364, Issue 
9448.  Nov. 20, 2004.  Pages 1857­1864.

Smiley, Travis; Istrabadi, Feisal; Shallal, Anas.  “Discussion on Iraqi American Views on the War in Iraq.” 
National Public Radio.  April, 2, 2003. 

United Nations International Childrens Emergency Fund.  “Iraq Shows Humanitarian Emergency.”  Aug. 
12, 1999.  www.unicef.org/newsline/99pr/29.htm

Setting the Record Straight

Revolver’s Matt Muchowski
Interviews DePaul Professor, Author and Activist
Norman Finkelstein
 Many new students might be asking, “Who is Norman Finkelstein and why should
we care?” Finkelstein is a professor in the political science department, who has become
famous and controversial for his defense of justice in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While some
authors defend Israel no matter how atrocious it’s occupation of Palestine is, and go as far as to
twist the facts, Finkelstein has consistently pointed out the glaring differences between what
Israel claims to be- a democracy with a good human rights record, and it’s actual actions in
Palestine. A Jewish professor, both of whose parents survived the horror of the holocaust,
Finkelstein has become a voice for those who are not heard in Palestine. Several weeks ago he
was on the front page of the Chicago Reader, a free weekly paper, because of his new book
“Beyond Chutzpah: on the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and Abuse of History,” and his ongoing feud
with Harvard Professor and Israeli apologist Alan Dershowitz. Revolver managed to send
Finkelstein an e-mail with several questions, which he was gracious enough to respond to and
answer.

Revolver: Tell us a little bit about your new book.

 
Norman Finkelstein: The subtitle summarizes the book's
content. It's about how Israel and its American apologists
use the claim of anti-Semitism to immunize Israel from
criticism, and how American apologists for Israel like Alan
Dershowitz falsify the historical record to protect Israel.
QuickTime and a
Rev: What are your thoughts on the Gaza pullout? Is this TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
making Gaza a giant isolated prison? Is it a retreat on
Israeli's part? Is Sharon going soft or is he using it as a
diversion to add more settlements and build the wall in the
West Bank?
 
Fink: The consensus among all serious commentators is
things will probably deteriorate yet further in Gaza after the
Israeli pullout. It's also useful to bear in mind that all human
rights organizations - Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem -
agree that the disengagement doesn't mean the end of the
Israeli occupation of Gaza. Under international law Israel's
continued military control of Gaza after disengagement means it remains an occupying power.

Rev: You are friends with Professor Noam Chomsky, and have called him one of your biggest
intellectual influences, but you are a communist and he's an anarchist. Do you guys ever get in
friendly arguments about it? With you cheering for Marx and Lenin and Chomsky rooting for
Bakunin and Kropotkin?
 
Fink: We talk about Lenin and Marx about once every 10 years. I suppose we don't agree but it
doesn't keep me up nights. The practical legacy of Marxism - the Soviet experiment, China
under Mao - is an abiding interest of mine, but not the theoretical side.

Rev: In the Chicago Reader article about your feud with Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz
Dershowitz is quoted saying that he will fly out to Chicago next year when you are up for tenure
to make a case against you receiving tenure. Are you worried that DePaul might listen and be
swayed by his claims? I'm told by my classmates that DePaul already tried getting rid of you
once, and if it wasn't for students protesting and defending you that they might have succeeded.
What can students do to help your chances of receiving tenure?
 
Fink: When I read that remark of Dershowitz's in the Reader, I
thought of the song, "Bring on the Clowns." I assume he's just
trying to use up his "frequent flier" miles. I never tell students
what to do: they're smart enough to figure things out on their own.

Rev: Dershowitz is known for his support of Israeli torture

QuickTime and a techniques like sticking hot nails under the fingernails of
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
Palestinians in Israeli prisons. Are issues like this being lost in
are needed to see this picture.
the focus on the argument over whether or not he is guilty of
plagarism and fraud in his book? The Chicago Reader article for
example had no mention of Dershowitz's support for torture.
 
Fink: I cannot dictate a journalist's storyline. Two-thirds of my
book is devoted to Israel's human rights record as documented by
mainstream human rights organizations, juxtaposed against
Dershowitz's falsification of this record.

Rev: Dershowitz has been trying to prevent the success of your new book at every step. One of
the more outrageous attempts to silence "Beyond Chutzpah" was when DePaul's own
bookstore canceled an appearance and booksigning with you. I understand that public pressure
convinced them to reschedule your booksigning though. Do you have any thoughts or
comments about this episode or Dershowitz's campaign in general?
 
Fink: I'm glad that Barnes and Noble was responsive to the feedback of customers. It shows
that when people act, things can change.

Rev: Any closing thought or comments on topics we didn't touch on?

 
Fink: In a few days I'll be back in my office, 24-7, as usual.

Some Upcoming Events
(To have yours listed email depaulnowar@yahoo.com)

(Tentative) Amnesty International Fall Schedule:

Oct. 22- Movie Night
 Nov. 12- Non-Violence Training
Nov. 18-20- School of the Americas Protest
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Join the National Lawyers Guild Chicago chapter for
"Activists: KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!" - A teach-in.

Saturday October 15, 1-3 p.m., at DePaul University College of Law, Room
803.
25 East Jackson Boulevard.

More info: NLG Chicago - 312-913-0039, www.nlgchicago.org

See also:
http://www.nlgchicago.org
http://www.nlg.org
--------------------------------------------------------------------
7th Matthew Shepard March for LGBT Rights!
8 PM
Saturday, October 8th
Corner of Halsted & Roscoe Streets
Chicago, Illinois
Sponsored by the Gay Liberation Network
(formerly known as the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network)

Support Two DSAW Militants at courtdate for Flagburning on 4th of July

Belmont Courtroom at Western 9am October 21st

Target Hope: Free HIV/AIDS testing the Multipurpose room all day on October
3.

DePaul Alliance for Latino Empowerment will have it’s Noche Cultural Event
in the Multipurpose room on October 5 from 7:30- midnight. The event will
have alterernatives to coca-cola as part of the boycott.

The Battle of Algiers, a movie about the Algerian revolution against colonial
France will be shown on October 27th, at room 313 of the student center.

The communist Hip-Hop group “the Coup” will be performing at the Abbey
Pub on October 21st. Tickets are $15 or $18 at the door.

News Briefs
Racial Profiling at DePaul: On Thursday the 8th of September, 2005, Chicago Police attacked 
students in a racist method by racially profiling.  The police rode around, blasting their sirens, doing U­
Turns in crowded intersections and going the wrong way down one­way streets, pulling over at least two 
black men.  One was a DePal alum with close connections to many student groups.  The police were 
looking for a black man in a red car, allegedly behind a recent bank robbery.  

Central American Free Trade Agreement Passed:  This summer CAFTA passed the US house by 2 
votes with 15 democrats, including Illinois Congresswoman Melissa Bean, breaking rank to vote in favor 
of the agreement.  This agreement will continue the expansion of Free Trade Agreements like the North 
American Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade Area of the Americas.  Expect more sweatshops and 
outsourcing of jobs.  When the Guatemalan Congress met to pass CAFTA, thousands of protestors 
surrounded the capital building, where two anti­CAFTA protestors were murdered by the police.

Counter­Recruitment Hitting the Achilles Heel of the War:  What if they threw a war and no 
one came?  Last summer the US military’s recruitment goals have not been met.  Many young people are 
seeing their friends come back from Iraq in body bags, and deciding that they don’t want to end up like 
that.  Anti­war protestors have been taking this message to high schools and the streets all summer.  In 
Chicago counter­recruitment fliers were passed out at the Taste of Chicago and the Blues Fest.  On the 
first day of Chicago Public Schools, activists and Senn High School, Lincoln Park High School and others 
handed out opt out forms so students could opt out of having their information given to recruiters.

Televangelist Terrorism:  Religious  fundamentalist and televangelist Pat Robertson called for the US 
to assassinate Hugo Chavez, the democratically elected leader of Venezuela over the Summer. Rumsfeld 
called Robertson “a private citizen with rights to his own opinions,” although we know he wouldn’t be so 
free speech­oriented had it been an Islamist proclaiming a fatwa against a US crony. 

Cindy Sheehan Speaks Out Against the War: Casey Sheehan, a 24­year­old soldier, was killed in Iraq 
on April 4th.  Outraged by her son’s death, Casey’s mom, Cindy Sheehan, is now dedicating her time and 
voice to speaking out against the injustice that has been administered by the Bush regime. She and other 
family members of soldiers have formed Real Voices (http://realvoices.org/rv/index.html), which is now
running television ads directed to telling Bush the real cost of his war. Sheehan and hundreds of
others camped out for nearly two weeks in front of Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was
vacationing.

Iraqi Labor Tours:  Six Iraqi labor organizers toured the US to speak with the labor movement. Their 
intentions were to educate US trade unionists about the conditions faced by Iraqi workers and their 
struggles, and to build direct worker­to­worker, union­to­union solidarity and support for Iraqi trade 
unionists in their effort to build a progressive, secular Iraq and to end the US occupation.  Chicago was 
one stop on the tour, which also included stops in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, several cities in California, and 
more. The speakers on tour were also aired on Jesse Jackson’s television show. DePaul Students were able 
to meet the touring leaders, and gave a small donation to the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions 
in Iraq. 
Raechel’s
Anti-War/Political
Mix Tape

*Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist-The QuickTime and a

Weakerthans TIFF (Uncompressed) decompres
are needed to see this picture.
*Those Anarcho Punks are Mysterious-Against Me!
*Throw-1905
*Imagine-John Lennon
*Let’s Not Shit Ourselves-Bright Eyes
*Hey Kathleen, Are You Hungry?-Defiance, Ohio
*Self-Evident-Ani DiFranco
*Headlines-The Devil Is Electric
*It’s A Hit-Rilo Kiley
*The War-Lucero
*There’s Never A Reason Not To Party-Latterman
*Jerusalem- Mirah
QuickTime and a
*We Did It All For Don-Against Me! TIFF (Uncompressed) decompre
are needed to see this picture.
*The Guns of Brixton-The Clash (or Nouvelle
Vague)
*Penny for a Thought-Saul Williams
*Celebration Guns-Stars
*Up the Punks-Ghost Mice
*Stolen Flower-Cadre
*Support Our Troops (Black Angels OH)-Xiu Xiu
*Blowin’ in the Wind-Bob Dylan
*Succexy-Metric
*Give Peace A Chance-John Lennon
QuickTime and a
if you want me to make you a mixtape or cd, email TIFF
are (Uncompressed) decomp
needed to see this picture
lavieenrose24@earthlink.net. in return, I ask for a mix of
your favorite songs! Or just email a list of your favorite
political mix, and we’ll include it in the next issue!

some of the many cool places to hang out or get some non­chartwells grub:
 new world resource center bookstore (1300 N Western), unity center 3339 S
Halsted St. Paseo Boricua (Western on Division to Humboldt Park), Casa
Aztlan (1831 S Racine Ave), Casa Guatemala (4554 N Broadway), Decima
Musa (1901 S Loomis St), Che Cafe (1058 W Taylor St), heartland cafe (7000
N Glenwood Ave,), Haifa Cafe (165 N Wells St, 410 S Clark St, 318 W Adams
St)
cool web resources:
www.chicago.indymedia.org, www.electroniciraq.net, www.infoshop.org,
www.counterpunch.org, www.gnn.tv, www.alternet.org, www.marxists.org
www.lumpen.org, www.zmag.org, www.broadleft.org, www.riseup.net

In a sea of despair, I dream of disaster.

The barbed­wired fences, padlocks, and brick walls keeping you out are the very same things keeping you 
inside. The tons of concrete slabs and skyscrapers crushing the fertile soil into submission and the 
blinding street lights and neon signs that have come to replace the cosmos by blocking them out. 

The skin cream advertisements proposing an unreachable ideal for women's beauty, urging them to ransom 
their self­confidence by pouring their income into corporate coffers. 

The landowners who sanctioned off the planet, forcing you to work in order to pay their bills with threat of 
eviction, jail or death. 

The fruits and vegetables for sale in the grocery store, soon to be thrown away into locked dumpsters 
while the hungry starve a block away. The taxes on the sales of those vegetables, which pay for prisons to 
hold men who will slave there as their ancestors did in chain gangs and slave plantations before them, 
building cluster bombs disguised as food packages sent as foreign aid to governments plotting to oppress 
and kill their own in the name of free trade. 

The workers who sell their time, health, dignity, and emotions so they can afford a disproportionately 
small portion of the goods and services made by others like them. The hospitals, politicians, insurance 
companies, psychiatrists, psychoactive drugs, self­help gurus, and religions waiting like circling vultures 
for the bodies and minds of the workers to weaken and betray them, poised to plunder their bank accounts 
and drive their children back to work. 

The lifeless computers flooding us with pornography, popularity contests, virtual reality, blinking lights, 
and buzzers paralyzing us in the world of images and denying us the world of sensations, screening us 
from reality. 

The hush in the air, the absence of friends laughing together, of the shouts of children playing.  The 
children are all inside with video games and television, and no one wants to be here, everyone wishes they 
were somewhere far, far, away. Farther than even the palm­tree spotted scenes on billboards advertising 
vacation resorts and malt liquor... 

You may not see one altercation; you may not feel every bruise; but the feeling in the air is the feeling of 
war.