Red Pepper News

No to the state of exception

The following statement is from various trade unions, left political parties and civil liberties groups in France.

Joint Communiqué, Paris, November 8th, 2005. Confronted by a revolt born from the accumulation of inequalities and discrimination in the “banlieues” (suburbs of Paris) and the poor areas, the French government has just passed a new and extremely serious threshold in the escalation of security measures. Even in May 1968, when the situation was a lot more dramatic, the public authorities did not use the extreme measure of declaring a state of emergency. The proclamation of the state of emergency is the answer to a revolt whose causes are profound and well known even at the level of state repression.

Australian MPs call for hijab ban

A year after the French hijab ban in schools came into force, the same measures are being pushed by two Australian politicians. Sophie Panopoulos and Bronwyn Bishop, MPs from the ruling right-wing Liberal party, called for a ban to curb what they claim is a rise in ‘Muslim extremism’. Bishop called the hijab ‘an iconic symbol of the clash of cultures’ before going on to equate the wearing of the headscarf with Nazism: ‘Now, this morning on a debate with a Muslim lady, she said she felt free being a Muslim, and I would simply say that in Nazi Germany, Nazis felt free and comfortable. That is not the sort of definition of freedom that I want for my country.’ The comments were condemned by Muslim and human rights groups. ‘We are appalled and offended that Ms Bishop would compare Muslim Women to slaves or our religion to Nazism. We demand an unequivocal apology,’ said Ms Maha Abdo of the Muslim Women’s Association. Agnes Chong, co-convenor of the Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network (AMCRAN), added: ‘The argument is tainted with racist overtones, and assumes Muslim women are weak and not fully intellectually developed.’

I Spy

The FBI has been busily spying on anti-war activists. Ok, no big surprise. But The Nation magazine’s report on the use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), FBI-led teams of state and local police and federal agents, still makes interesting reading. As well as keeping a close track of Cindy Sheehan’s Gold Star Families for Peace, JTTFs have a presence on virtually every campus in the US.

Meanwhile, back in London, the Met's Forward Intelligence Teams are gearing up for a busy week of harrassing activists at the DSEi arms fair.

Guantanamo Prisoners on Hunger Strike

200 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are on hunger strike, according to a lawyer representing a number of clients at the base.

Clive Stafford Smith, who returned from Guantamo a week ago, told an audience at the Greenbelt Christian Festival in Cheltenham: 'The world needs to know that these guys are going to die in the next two to three weeks. They are starving themselves to death.'