Chen Guangchen’s speech in preparation for UN Human Rights Day. UN Human Rights Day is Monday, December 10th this year.

Here’s an excerpt I liked:

How can the international community turn a blind eye to the crimes committed by the Chinese Communist Party in maintaining its power? How can the leaders of the Free World keep silent watching the blood and tears of fellow human beings flow and Tibetans burning themselves? How can the world leaders remain unmoved?

Citizens of the world, let your voice be heard in support of justice. And people of China, we are capable ought to joint together to work for our own rights. We can rely on our own actions to establish and maintain a fair and just social system. 

Don’t expect some emperor to bestow rights upon us, or some upright official to defend our rights. God helps those who help themselves. Our fate is actually in our own hands.

Human Rights Day belongs to each and every one of us on this planet. Each individual has his or her rights, and these rights should be respected. As human beings, we should take actions to vigilantly improve and defend human values. It is the the benefit of our long term and essential interests and needs. Not just through words but more importantly through action.

This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Noam Chomsky:

We have enormous freedom. That’s not a gift that was given to us, it’s a legacy that was left to us by centuries of struggle. By centuries of people that most of whose names are completely forgotten, the ones who created the freedom and the rights we now have, and that will be taken away unless you constantly defend them.

Target’s Anti-Union Propaganda Video

If you like the Clash and revolution, check out this podcast called A Riot of My Own: The Clash

Clampdown - The Clash

1-2-3-4!
Hey, hey!
Ooh!
the kingdom is ransacked
the jewels all taken back
and the chopper descends
they’re hidden in the back
with a message on a half-baked tape
with the spool going round
saying im back here in this place
and i could cry
and there’s smoke you could click on

What are we gonna do now?
Taking off his turban, they said, is this man a Jew?
Cos working for the clampdown
They put up a poster saying we earn more than you!
When we’re working for the clampdown
We will teach our twisted speech
To the young believers
We will train our blue-eyed men
To be young believers

The judge said five to ten but I say double that again
I’m not working for the clampdown
No man born with a living soul
Can be working for the clampdown
Kick over the wall ‘cause government’s to fall
How can you refuse it?
Let fury have the hour, anger can be power
D’you know that you can use it?

The voices in your head are calling
Stop wasting your time, there’s nothing coming
Only a fool would think someone could save you
The men at the factory are old and cunning
You don’t owe nothing, so boy get runnin’
It’s the best years of your life they want to steal

But, you grow up and you calm down and
You’re working for the clampdown
You start wearing the blue and brown and
You’re working for the clampdown
So you got someone to boss around
It makes you feel big now
You drift until you brutalize
You made your first kill now

In these days of evil presidentes
Working for the clampdown
But lately one or two has fully paid their due
For working for the clampdown
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong!
Working for the clampdown
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong!
Working for the clampdown

Yeah Im working hard in Harrisburg
Working hard in Petersburg 
Working for the clampdown
Working for the clampdown
Ha! Gitalong! Gitalong
Begging to be melted down
Gitalong, gitalong
Work
Work 
And I give away no secrets ha!
Work
More work
Work
Work

Sarah Silverman explains voter ID: ‘Lawmakers are trying to fu*k you’

…but forgets about one key demographic: WOMEN 

Check out what the President of League of Women Voters, Elizabeth MacNamara, has to say:

“Women in general and elderly women in particular are being disproportionately harmed by the new laws. In some instances citizens who have been voting for decades are being required to obtain birth certificates (which some elderly people do not have since they were born at home) and their wedding certificates in order to prove who they are. In some states they are faced with a catch 22 – you must have a photo ID in order to obtain a birth certificate and you can’t get a birth certificate without a photo ID. In most cases there are costs associated with getting a birth certificate and marriage license. This becomes more complicated if you were born or married in a state in which you are not currently living. Birth certificates cost between $7 and $30 dollars, depending on the state, and can take up to eight weeks to obtain.”