Yesterday, thousands marched and demonstrated in London, against the blockade and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Also the Irish Foreign Minister Dr Micheal Martin’s plea to let “Rachel Corrie into Gaza”, a poignant and poetic request was denied by the Israeli authorities.

News today has been announced that the autopsy report shows that those who were killed on the flotilla were shot in the head at point-blank range. The Israel government continues an inhuman blockade and denial of human rights and the victimisation of a people.

At The Multicultural Politic – we put forward these two voices of non-party political aligned though solidarity and human rights activists.

First, a five minute honest and quietly passionate account by Anne De Jong, a dutch anthropologist and SOAS student about why she joined the Flotilla.

Hat/Tip: Clare Solomon

Secondly, a detailed and visceral account by British Palestine Solidarity Campaigner: Sarah Colborne.

Hat/Tip: Luna17

An open letter by a Thai Labour activist: Junya Lek Yimprasert

Dear Comrades and Friends,

Surely you are monitoring the crisis in Thailand, one the worst and most cruel crackdowns in Thai history. It began on April 10. In just over a month the number of counted bodies is already over 60. Most have been killed by military sniper-fire. About 1,600 people have been hospitalised.

The demonstration is growing. More than half of Thailand is calling for the dissolution of Parliament and a General Election.

Thailand is a founding member of the United Nations, and of the International Labour Organisation, and active in global dialogue, but the struggle for democratic development in Thailand has been dominated by monarchists, corrupt government and military dictators who club together to suppress and crush the people at will. Since 1932 the Thai people have had to face 26 militaries coups and crackdowns, 18 constitutions which nobody can remember, and 27 Prime Ministers of which only one elected PM managed to stand for a full 4-year term – without being kicking-out by the military, namely Taksin Shinnawatra who was in any case kicked out by the military in 2006.

Since 19 September 2006 Thailand has had 4 PMs – an appointed Royal Thai Army Commander-in-Chief (and member of the Privy Council), two elected PMs from the former Thai Rak Thai Party that were forced from office and, now, from 15 December 2008, Mr Abhisit Vejjajiva, the democrat that gave permission to use live ammunition against his opposition last May 15th.

The mobilization of the opposition to the Abhisit Government, mainly the rural and urban poor, has been growing since the 2006 military coup. It faced a violent military crackdown in April 2009 and now again from 10th April 2010.

The so-called ‘Red Shirts’ are facing a huge military force. The ‘ Red Shirts’ say this time they are not going to give up and will fight to the death. Many thousands of lives are now at risk.

The current Government’s stubbornness, deceit and use of military force stems from fear that they cannot win a General Election.

The Thai people, not just the ‘Red Shirts’, want a General Election – to clear the situation and re-establish the democratic process – to stop the country falling into worse chaos and civil strife, but there is no legitimate institution in Thailand that is acceptable to both sides – to mediate between the demonstrators and the Abhisit Government.

The Abhisit Government has rejected proposals for UN intervention, but external intervention is needed.

The people of Thailand are in urgent need of your support and solidarity – to prevent further loss of innocent life and finally establish democratic justice.

The military forces must be withdrawn. The Abhisit Government must step-down. There is no other way. There must be a General Election as soon as possible.

The United Nations is needed to ensure that violence cannot escalate in Thailand, to mediate between the opposing parties, to oversee proceeding for a General Election and to establish an international commission to investigate the shooting of hundreds of civilians.

This is a critical moment in a time of deep crisis and we must act quickly.

We call upon all friends and comrades to help us bring our message to your Government and to the United Nations. We request your support in demanding that the Thai Government remove immediately all military forces, throughout the country – not just from the streets of Bangkok.

In the 1992 crackdown in Thailand (17 – 19 May) 48 people were shot dead by military bullets.

We request that our comrades and friends around the world, all who understand the tragedy that continues to unfold in Thailand, add their name / name of their organisation to the ‘Stop the Bloodshed in Thailand’ petition. http://www.petitiononline.com/10310/petition.html

Please distribute the petition through your networks and, if possible, print-out the petition and, with as many people as can be gathered, deliver the petition to your Head of State – on May 20 – the day that ended the 1992 massacre, or as soon as possible.

Please also send pictures of any actions You make – so that we can inform the Thai people of your solidarity and support.

In Solidarity,

Junya Lek Yimprasert

For more information and overview of Thailand democracy struggle: http://timeupthailand.blogspot.com/2009/05/voters-uprising-that-is-changing.html

Join the Thai Solidarity Facebook Group and leave a comment for more information about a UK demonstration.

From The Poor Mouth

Christopher Chope, friend of the Vulture Funds

There exists in the world a group of businessmen and women who can plumb the depths even further than the amoral bastards who run Trafigura. These are the likes of Paul Singer and his firm Elliot Associates who wallow in the fetid depths of finance known as vulture funds.

So what is a vulture fund? A vulture fund is a financial organisation that specialises in buying securities in “distressed environments”, such as equities that are near bankruptcy. Companies are not their only target: they also buy up public debt at very low prices. Then seek to recoup the whole of the original debt plus interest. They are not averse to suing governments in order to freeze their assets. International courts have at times prevented countries from paying to other debtors because one of these funds had requested an embargo.

According to the Independent a private members bill had been going through parliament to protect some of the world’s poorest countries from debt sharks. The Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Bill was designed to curb their activities, ensuring that creditors cannot pursue debt repayment beyond the level assessed as fair and sustainable by the World Bank.

Because of the lack of time before the general election, the Bill’s only chance of making it on to the statute book was if there were no protests in the Commons. But to the fury of Labour MPs, one lone voice piped up: “Object!” Three Conservatives were in the chamber but it was not clear at the time who had intervened.

On Friday evening it emerged that Christopher Chope had been the backbencher to raise his objection. He believes that the proposed legislation has not been properly debated in the Commons. “If you are concerned about this Bill making progress, you should be asking why the Government hasn’t given it extra time. As far as today’s proceedings are concerned, there’s a big Government spin operation to shift the blame to other people.” He told the Independent

He also claimed the opposition frontbench had covertly supported the move – an allegation fiercely denied by the shadow Treasury minister, David Gauke, who said the Tories had worked “in a co-operative manner at every stage of this Bill.”

Nick Dearden, director at Jubilee Debt Campaign, said: “Significant compromises were made to this bill in order to pass it through. Early indicators suggested that the Tories supported it. To be blocked at the last minute like this is … very concerning.” He said some finance firms saw the bill as “another step towards further government regulation in the financial services market,” adding that the UK could now be “one of the major territories where vulture funds will continue suing third world countries.”

While I would agree that this is the sort of legislation that should have been introduced by the Government Chope’s objection was an utter disgrace. I have no idea what he hoped to achieve by ensuring that the bottom feeders of the financial sector (and they are up against some stiff opposition) can continue to buy up debts and bilk nations that can least afford to pay.

Chope is the MP for Christchurch, an area where Tory votes are weighed, not counted. It is a place where a dog turd with a blue rosette will be elected. It would seem that the people definitely voted for the dog turd. I hope they are proud of him for what he did last week.

According to the latest estimates, the earthquake could have caused 100,000 deaths in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.

The home of the world’s first and only successful slave revolt and the Western hemisphere’s first post-colonial black nation, Haiti was still struggling to recover from the four hurricanes that hit it in 2008 when around 1,000 people died and 800,000 were left homeless. Reports state that most of those who have escaped with their lives have spent their first night without any shelter, some even sleeping amongst dead bodies and this is likely to continue, whilst hundreds or possibly thousands are buried alive underneath the devastation.

This disaster is not only shocking in scale but especially shocking because of the inability of Haiti to help itself. Haitians have been struggling with chronic unemployment affecting 75% of the population, 70% without adequate access to sanitation; 78% of the population live on a meagre $2 a day (the so-called absolute poverty threshold). All this plus coups and civil wars have brought intermittent political stability since 1990.

Though Obama and many leaders in the international community have pledged emergency rescue assistance, and as I write NGOs and charities descend to deliver most-needed emergency relief. It will take more than this to help Haiti into a stronger nation, but international aid and interference in the past has moved Haiti away from policies that would have delivered a higher minimum wage and agricultural strength to provide food self-sufficiency to the policies of further impoverishment to stimulate “foreign investment”.

These problems however must be tackled another day, for now do we should do all we can to help Haiti.