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As police fired rubber bullets through tear gas in Quebec City, many reporters echoed the claim that “free trade” promotes democracy. Meanwhile, protesters struggled to shed light on a key fact: The proposed hemispheric trade pact would give large corporations even more power to override laws that have been enacted — democratically — to protect the environment, labor and human rights.

Newsweek responded to the turmoil at the Summit of the Americas with a column by Fareed Zakaria, a favorite policy analyst in elite circles. He declared that “the anti-globalization crowd is antidemocratic ... trying to achieve, through intimidation and scare tactics, what it has not been able to get through legislation.” In recent decades, of course, the same was said about cutting-edge demonstrations for such causes as civil rights, peace in Vietnam and environmental safeguards.

In a five day period in early May, the United States was justifiably slapped around at the United Nations. It’s about time. While the mainstream media encourages U.S. citizens to angerly mutter “Why are they picking on us? We’re so good,” the reality is the U.S. deserved to be voted off the Human Rights Commission on May 3. This is the first time in the history of that body that the U.S. has not had a seat on the Commission. It would be an irony of the highest sort to keep the U.S. on the Commission when our current president routinely executed people as Governor of Texas at a rate higher than the vast majority of nations in the world. The U.S. came in last of the four nominated countries – Sweden, France and Austria. Not only do they all have better records on Human Rights, they all have significantly higher rates of voter turnout. With the recent findings by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission – the fact that for every ten black votes not counted in Florida’s last election, only one white vote was voided – perhaps the first thing the U.N. Human Rights Commission could do would be to investigate the massive human rights violations in the rogue state of Florida.

Beacon Fellowship is a non-profit, Interfaith organization who’s Mission is to unite people to create change in communities. We are not a political group, we are not a church, we are a small community organization working on Social Justice issues that impact all of us.

Our Social Justice focus includes racism, homophobia, violence, poverty, substance abuse and youth issues. Ongoing projects include:

• Beacon Against Violence Initiative (BAVI)

• Quarterly and Monthly publications
• Beacon Against Racism project
• Interfaith Socials and Social Justice Gatherings
• Small group Educational Programs
• Day of Remembrance Interfaith Gatherings, April 20, 2002
• Beacon Against Violence Day, October 12, 2001
• Substance Abuse Education

Cindie Cyrus, Democratic Party regular and progressive activist, passed away this past April. Cindie’s untimely exit from our world has caused tremendous mourning among her friends and admirers.

A large group of Cindie’s friends, family, activists and party regulars got a chance to reminisce at her memorial, presided over by the Rev. Gary Witte, about her dedication to social justice and human rights. There are many who have fond memories of working with Cindie Cyrus, here are some excerpts from her friends’ words:

Cindie had many passions in life. But three loves were greater than others. Cindie dearly loved her mother, daughters and grandson. She read books to him from the time he was born. When he showed an interest in plants and flowers, she encouraged him to create his own garden in the backyard. People just naturally bloomed around Cindie.

For A Better Ohio (FABO), Columbus’ own advocacy group for the reform of cannabis legislation, had several successful acts of hemp activism and agitation this spring in hopes of raising awareness regarding its current efforts to decriminalize personal use. This effort, in the form of an initiative petition utilizing the city’s policy of home rule, would, if successful, make misdemeanor quantities of marijuana the lowest priority misdemeanor in the city. Misdemeanor quantities can safely be defined as quantities that are for personal use and not for distribution.

FABO has been spending this year collecting signatures to put the initiative on the ballot this November. In order to promote the initiative, For A Better Ohio has also staged a “potluck” picnic on OSU’s campus, a march down High Street, and most recently, the annual Hempfest, also held on campus.

The first biography of Mumia Abu-Jamal by Terry Bisson

Covering Mumia’s childhood in the North Philly projects, a turbulent youth in Oakland and New York, a promising career in radio journalism, and a fateful sidewalk altercation that changed everything, Bisson’s colorful sketches tell the story of one of the stormiest periods in American history, and of a young rebel who came of age in its crucible.

$12.00/£8.00, Softcover, 240 pages, 36 photos, ISBN #0874869013 Discounts for 10 or more copies. To order phone:

US: 800-806-3079, UK: 0800 018 0799, INT: 44 (0)1580 883 344

Email: editor@litmusbooks.com

Disclaimer: The Free Press wants to point out that the opinions in this article are those of the writer, that Libertarian Party members do not particularly behave the way those in this article do, and that this article is mostly about Mojo Nixon and should be taken as such by the reader. Libertarian Party members are given our wholehearted welcome to write their own article and email it to this site.

As I was sifting through my agenda for the week, trying to figure what I was supposed to write about, I saw that Mojo Nixon was coming to town for the Libertarian state convention. I guess we all have bills to pay and it sounded better than the usual Monday night city council meeting—that and the fact I have been a Mojoholic for a while now. For years Mojo used to wear a blue t-shirt on stage that said Vote Libertarian. He had been practicing for this gig forever.

In Mojo’s opinion, “the Republicans and Democrats are selling us the same bag of shit with different colors on it! They have a monopoly on politics. If you don’t go through them you’re screwed, except in a few little places…like Vermont, apparently anything goes in Vermont.”