Sent: Friday, October 28, 2011 10:27 AM
To: EPearlag@earthlink.net
Subject: Re: Oakland Mayor Now Supports the Occupy Movement, Orders "Minimal
Police Presence"
Ed, I'm active with PFP in Oakland and have been involved in especially
building Union support for ''Occupy Oakland ''. I was sent your email and i
thought you might find my comments re last night interesting along with what
the cynically dishonest letter ''damage control ''from Quan said in full.
Thanks,
Stan Woods Oakland
PS If you would like to forward my comments feel free to do so .
I was there last night . I did see a lot of huddling on stage with Sharon
Cornu, Quan's Chief of Staff and the Non Leaders Leaders of ''Occupy
Oakland ''. Cornu, former head of the Alameda labor council, was trying to
get them to agree to allow Quan to speak .
If she had been allowed she almost certainly would have been booed down .
Most people would justifiably not consider it to be a '' freedom of speech
'' issue .
Despite her dancing around the issue she was the one that ordered the
attack. To have her speak would be like allowing the a CEO of a struck
corporation to address a Union rallly !
As for the '' Recall Quan ''chant i didn't hear that .
One more thing that letter wasn't re published in full , Quan goes on to
write to demand that '' Occupy Oakland '' not reestablish the camp and that
they allow unfettered access to ''Public safety officers ''.Ie Allowing
cops to walk around , look inside tents etc. at any time .
Along those lines one of the disinfomation lies put out to justify the
attack was that there was an incident where ''Occupy Oakland '' people had
blocked paramedics from removing a sick or injured person from the camp .
Absolute Bullshit . According to numerous eye witnesses People actually
assisted the paramedics by clearing the pathway .
AFTER the person had been removed a few cops tried to exploit the opening
by charging in. At that point people did surround the cops and chanted ''
get out '' etc until they withdrew.
(the stance of the camp has been that No cops were to be allowed . And they
successfully upheld that until the attack .) Stan W.
PS Today should be very busy . Michael Moore is paying a visit and probably
speaking .
***
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,794133,00.html
Victory for Ennahda -- Why Tunisians Voted for the Islamists
By Mathieu von Rohr
DER SPIEGEL ONLINE 10/26/2011
In a major setback for Tunisia's elite, the Islamist Ennahda Party looks set
to lead the country's first democratically elected government. They appealed
to the common people who sought greater credibility in politics. But
concerns the country might soon become a new theocracy are exaggerated,
because Tunisian Islamists are looking to Turkey as their model.
Moderate Islamists with the Ennahda Party emerged this week as the victors
in Tunisia's first-ever free elections. The precise number of votes they
secured hasn't been finalized, but with more than half of all districting
reporting they are projected to win around 40 percent of the seats in a new
constitutional assembly.
Many in the West are confused by the results. They recall images of happy
young people on the streets of Tunis who in January toppled their dictator
and celebrated their newfound freedom. Now the Islamists have won? How could
it be that, given their first chance to vote, the people would cast their
ballots for religious parties? Germany's Bild tabloid newspaper even went so
far as to ask: "Can I still take my beach vacation in Tunisia?"
It would be easy and indeed tempting to link the news of the victory of the
Islamists in Tunisia with news of the reintroduction of polygamy in Libya.
But these countries are worlds apart. For starters, Tunisia's election
result is in no way surprising -- nor is it reason for panic.
First of all, it marks a victory for democracy. Sunday's election took place
without any problems, it was perfectly organized and free and fair, as all
international observers confirmed. More than 50 percent of those eligible to
vote went to the polls. That's very good news in a country in which
democratic elections are taking place for the first time. In addition, a
very large number of people, possibly even the majority, voted for parties
that aren't defined by religion.
Tunisia's Islamists Are Moderates
Nor is it expected that Tunisia will become a theocracy on the model of
Iran. The vast majority of Islamists with the Ennahda Party are moderates.
Rashid al-Ghannushi, their leader, has emphasized repeatedly that his party
supports the gender equality anchored in the old constitution and that they
will not force women to wear a headscarf, either. He has also said his party
has no intention of introducing polygamy or extreme forms of punishment.
Ghannushi likes to compare Ennahda's positions to those of the moderate
Islamists with Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Of course, Ennahda is a very large movement and it also includes factions
that are more conservative than the party's current leadership. But most
voters who supported Ennahda didn't do so because of a yearning for a rigid,
religious regime. They were instead attracted by the party's credibility --
and its perceived proximity to the common people.
Following Tunisia's independence from France in 1956, the country was guided
according to a post-colonial Western model by a francophone elite. The
country's founder, Habib Bourguiba, had no interest in religion, and he
called the headscarf an "odious rag." At Ramadan, he allowed himself to be
shown on television drinking orange juice, despite the fast. But under
Bourguiba, Tunisia was no democracy. Under his successor Zine El Abidine Ben
Ali, it became a dictatorship.
Regime Zealously Persecuted Islamists
For decades, the regime persecuted Islamists, locking up its supporters in
prisons and brutally torturing them. Many were forced to flee abroad --
including their leader, Ghannushi, who lived in London for 20 years and
first returned home in January. The ruling powers wanted Islam to play a
subordinate role in society. And it did. Before the revolution, the sight of
women wearing headscarves was a rarity on the streets of Tunis and working
women, at least in the capital, were plentiful. On the surface, the country
had a Western face, but that was only half the truth.
The cultural and social divide in the country had always been big and it
continued to grow in recent years. On the one side you had the rich Tunisian
elite in Tunis, who were often educated in France and tried to emulate the
French lifestyle -- sometimes even preferring to speak French over Arabic.
On the other, you had the common, mostly conservative population in the
country's interior and the capital city's impoverished suburbs. It wasn't
the elite who started the revolution and toppled Ben Ali, but rather the
young people from the country's poorest regions who were jobless and
desperate. It was this group who fought the police for weeks and from whose
ranks the largest number of casualties came.
Ennahda Promotes Economic Boom
Many of them have now voted for Ennahda. In their eyes, Ennahda embodies
everything the previous rulers did not: They are trustworthy, they aren't
corrupt, they are morally unobjectionable and the party is socially minded.
They were persecuted by Ben Ali, they were outsiders and they didn't profit
from the old system -- something that one couldn't say with confidence about
many other politicians. Ennahda also presented the prospect of an economic
boom built on the Turkish model in its campaign and succeeded in positioning
itself as the party most likely to preserve Tunisia's "Arab-Muslim"
identity.
Ennahda's success is also a slap in the face to the Western-oriented
Tunisian elite, whose secular, left-liberal parties achieved mediocre or
even disastrous results in some cases. They were unable to connect with the
simple rural population, whereas Ennahdas enjoyed a massive triumph among
these voters. For one, Ennahda was able to reach out to them because it is
better organized and financially stronger than other parties. The party has
tens of thousands of members around the country, they campaigned
relentlessly and it was the only one that succeeded in sending observers to
all the polls.
More than that, though, whereas the elite party candidates may have had
nothing to do with Ben Ali, they still looked to the voters like
representatives of the old system. That, at least, was the case with Ahmed
Nejib Chebbi, a smoothly shaven man who wears a suit and speaks perfect
French. In recent years, he had positioned himself as an opponent of Ben
Ali, and during the campaign he cast himself as the most critical counter
candidate to Ennahda with his left-liberal centrist Progressive Democratic
Party (PDP). Despite high expectations, his party looks to have won only a
handful of seats.
More Headscarves Visible
It's not just in Europe that people are worried about the Islamists' win.
Proponents of secular politics and women's rights in Tunisia are also
concerned. And by now it is indeed certain that Islam will have considerable
clout in Tunisia in the future. Since the revolution, the sight of the
headscarf or men wearing beards has become much more common. There have also
been reports of imams being driven out of mosques because they are
considered to be too liberal. And one week before the election, a broadcast
of the animated film "Persepolis," which includes an image of Allah in
defiance of Islamic rules prohibiting his depiction, triggered violent
protests.
Nevertheless, Tunisia has always been one of the most liberal Muslim
countries. It's populace is mostly conservative, but it is not considered
deeply religious and it is thoroughly influenced by European ideas. It's a
country that is also dependent on tourists and foreign investment and the
Islamists will neither wish to, nor can it afford to, scare them away.
Ennahda won't be able to govern alone. The majority of Tunisians didn't vote
for the party and it will likely have to seek partners from the ranks of the
secular parties in order to form a coalition government. Ennahda leaders
have already begun holding the first talks -- prior even to the announcement
of the final election results. They have named Secretary General Hamadi
Jebali as a candidate for prime minister, but stated they would not name one
for president.
A party spokesman indicated Ennahda will seek to form a national unity
government. That would provide a symbol of conciliation and also guarantee
the stability that is so urgently needed in Tunisia right now. The
politicians must take steps to stimulate the ailing economy and they need to
agree on the language of a constitution.
It will likely be a rocky road. Political views in the country are widely
divergent and it will be difficult to combine the Islamists' wish for a
return to the country's Arab-Muslim roots with the Western values of the
francophone, liberal urban classes. But the fact that the election went so
smoothly is an encouraging sign that Tunisia might be ready for the
democratic back-and-forth that will be necessary.
Under the current plan, the constitutional assembly should complete its work
within one year -- at which time new elections will be held. At that point,
all the other parties will have another chance.
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