Det danske Fredsakademi

Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 11. november 2005 / Timeline November 11, 2005

Version 3.5

10. November 2005, 12. November 2005


11/11/2005
Våbenstilstand efter første verdenskrig, 1918.

11/11/2005
Peace Activist Reta Kaur on Trial - War Criminals Free
Details of the case:
Date: Monday, 28 November 05 to 2 December 05, from 10am daily. Five days have been allocated for my trial at tax payers' expense. The police have stacked up 9 police and 4 Shrine employees as witnesses to absolutely blow out the trial so it runs for 5 days.
Where: Magistrate's court corner of William and Lonsdale Street, close to Flagstaff train station.
Charges: Trespass and resist arrest at the Shrine on Remembrance Day 11/11/03.
I am representing myself as no pro bono lawyers have come forward to support me with this case. I'm shocked at the indifference of the legal profession and their charges of between $1500 to $2000 a day.
The Facts: 7 women went to The Shrine on Remembrance Day 03 to have a silent, peaceful vigil for "No more wars, and peace in the 21st-century. The police set us up, wouldn't allow us to be there, told us to move off the grounds. I was arrested. Another woman was assaulted by a digger, and the police refused to charge him.
We can trespass in Afghanistan and Iraq, kill thousands of people, destroy those countries, plunder their wealth, rape their women, kill their children. But when women or Scott Parkin protest at the carnage of war, our peace actions are criminalised. I will plead not guilty, advocate my case as best as I can, and use the opportunity to speak against our government of war criminals. We now have anti-terror legislation. It is also time for anti-war legislation, particularly after the 2 world wars, and many others in the 20th-century. The people of the world demand that the 21-century be dedicated to peace & justice. Demand anti-war legislation now. Put this as a slogan on every email you send out. Let us make this a slogan for peace in the 21st-century. Ban Wars, Peace in the 21-century.
Please come and fill the court. Our solidarity is our only protection. Visit our website: www.womenforpeace.org.au for more information. Tel: 93861071
I am inspired by Rosa Parks and the power of the word "NO". A friend also sent this quote from Rudyard Kipling who only opposed war when his own son was killed:
"If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied."
Add also, "Tell them, because our politicians lied."
The curse of war must be addressed by us in our lifetime. We cannot pass this curse on to our children, as was done to us. The power is with us. Please don't give it away.
Love
Reta Kaur
Women for Peace: No Weapons No Wars

11/11/2005
Report Scores Runaway CEO Pay, Alleges War Profiteering
By Abid Aslam
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0831-02.htm
WASHINGTON - Chief executives at U.S. defense contractors have seen a 200-percent pay raise since the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, widening the chasm between compensation in the corner office and wages on the factory floor, a new report said Tuesday.
Average CEO pay--$11.8 million in salary, stock options, bonuses, and incentives--rose last year to 431 times what the average worker earned, $27,460, according to the report from the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies and Boston-based United for a Fair Economy. In 2003, CEOs had made 301 times their average employees' pay.
The ratio had peaked at 525-to-1 in 2001.
"If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the U.S. would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour," the research and advocacy groups said.
The report charged that individual CEOs have profited from the Iraq War, with huge average raises at the biggest defense contractors. To arrive at this conclusion, it looked at 34 of the top 100 defense contractors of 2004. While most firms in the larger group were privately held, the 34 included in the report were publicly traded, meaning that their financial results were easier to research.
The 34 companies covered by the report--firms including United Technologies, Textron, and General Dynamics--made at least 10 percent of their revenues from defense contracts.
At these firms, average CEO pay rose 200 percent from 2001 to 2004--as compared to seven percent for all CEOs.
Examples cited in the report include that of David Brooks, CEO of bulletproof vest maker DHB Industries, who earned $70 million in 2004, up 3,349 percent from his 2001 compensation of $525,000.
Brooks also sold company stock worth about $186 million at the end of last year, spooking investors who drove down DHB's share price, according to the report. Analysts quoted in news stories said investors were worried about large insider stock sales.
In May 2005, the U.S. Marines recalled more than 5,000 DHB armored vests after questions were raised about their effectiveness, the report added.
The board of directors determines how much a company's CEO will be paid. Tuesday's report, the twelfth in an annual series, questioned the soundness of those decisions, charging the largest pay hikes went to:
"Stock tankers," or corporate chiefs who received the most pay in any given year between 1991 and 2004 only to see their company's stock lag far behind the Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 index in the following year.
"Pension underfunders," or CEOs whose firms maintained the most anemic pension plans for non-executive employees yet who received 72 percent more pay than the average large-company CEO.
"Tax dodgers," or CEOs at 46 large firms that paid no federal income tax in 2003 despite earning a collective $30 billion in profits. "Some of the savings wound up in the pockets of their CEOs, who made $12.6 million in average pay in 2004," the report said.
"Book cookers." In the last ten years, CEOs of firms with shady accounting appeared 18 times on the top 10 lists of highest paid executives, according to the report. "This includes leaders whose companies were either later found to have committed fraud or were forced to make material restatements of earnings to correct previous overstatements of profits."
To curb the "Executive Excess" that inspired the report and provided its title, the study's authors urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to foster competitive elections for seats on corporate boards.
"Corporate boards are self-nominating and overwhelmingly made up of current and retired CEOs who have a vested interest in not challenging compensation systems that they themselves benefit from," the report said.
The report also said shareholders should have ultimate say over CEO compensation.
"British shareholders must annually approve executive pay, a tradition that has contributed to greater restraint in executive pay than the United States has experienced," it said.
CEOs themselves could take action, and the report singled out for praise two bosses worthy of membership in an "Executive Pay Hall of Fame."
Brad Anderson, CEO of consumer electronics retailer Best Buy in 2003 decided to forgo $7.5 million in stock options and instead gave them to "outstanding non-executive employees," the report said.
At supermarket chain Whole Foods Market, it added, CEO John Mackey's pay is limited to no more than 14 times the average workers' pay.

11/11/2005

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