Prison, où est ta victoire?

Le Black Panther Party fut fondé à Oakland, Californie, en octobre 1966. Deux militants noirs, Bobby Seale et Huey P. Newton, rédigent un manifeste initial en dix points. Le point n°8 stipule que les Panthères noires exigent que tous les Noirs emprisonnés dans des prisons fédérales ou d’Etat soient libérés. Très vite, le BPP entre dans le collimateur des agences de sécurité étasuniennes, et plusieurs leaders sont emprisonnés. L’objectif du BPP est d’utiliser la réclusion comme un moyen de développer la propagande. En détention provisoire depuis 1967 puis condamné en 1968, Huey P. Newton, auteur du texte présenté est la tête pensante du parti. Ce texte traite directement de la prison. Il est extrait d’un recueil de textes publié par Philip S. Foner, dont la première édition date de 1970. Le livre est resté un classique, comme en témoigne la récente réédition utilisée ici. The Black Panthers Speak fut en effet le premier ouvrage regroupant un grand nombre de déclarations, consignes, discours des Black Panthers eux-mêmes.The Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, in October 1966. Two black militants, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, wrote a ten points initial manifest. Point n°8 stipulated that the Black Panthers request that all Blacks detained in federal or state jails be freed. Quite rapidly, the BPP was at the heart of the American security agencies’ attention, and several leaders were imprisoned. The BPP’s objective was to use the reclusion as a means to develop propaganda. Huey P. Newton, sentenced in 1968, is the author of the text we chose to present. He was the thinking head of the group. This short text deals directly with prison and is extracted from a compendium of texts first edited by Philip S. Foner in 1970. The Black Panthers Speak was indeed the first book assembling a certain number of declarations, instructions and discourses by the Black Panthers themselves

The fundamental constants and their variation: observational status and theoretical motivations

This article describes the various experimental bounds on the variation of the fundamental constants of nature. After a discussion on the role of fundamental constants, of their definition and link with metrology, the various constraints on the variation of the fine structure constant, the gravitational, weak and strong interactions couplings and the electron to proton mass ratio are reviewed. This review aims (1) to provide the basics of each measurement, (2) to show as clearly as possible why it constrains a given constant and (3) to point out the underlying hypotheses. Such an investigation is of importance to compare the different results, particularly in view of understanding the recent claims of the detections of a variation of the fine structure constant and of the electron to proton mass ratio in quasar absorption spectra. The theoretical models leading to the prediction of such variation are also reviewed, including Kaluza-Klein theories, string theories and other alternative theories and cosmological implications of these results are discussed. The links with the tests of general relativity are emphasized.Comment: 56 pages, l7 figures, submitted to Rev. Mod. Phy

Prison et résistances politiques.

L'emprisonnement fonctionne selon le principe d'une soustraction physique et symbolique de l'individu du cours social ordinaire et de la visibilité publique. Mais l'enceinte carcérale n'est pas un univers immobile et froid. Elle est au contraire un espace en tension perpétuelle dans lequel se jouent de multiples manoeuvres et transactions pour maintenir un équilibre précaire entre "guerre" et "paix". Ce numéro est l'occasion de discuter la prison et d'analyser ses luttes comme une scène à part entière du politique. Imprisonment operates on the principle of the physical and symbol removal of the individual from the course of ordinary social life, and from public visibility. And what can be said about political resistance to this world of incarceration? The possibility of initiating collective movements is reduced in the extreme, and their realisation constitutes a threat to order in the prison, which should be crushed, and/or made silent. But the prison does not constitute an unmoving and cold universe. Instead, it is a space of perpetual tension in which occur multiple manoeuvres and transactions to maintain a precarious balance between “war” and “peace”. This issue of Cultures & Conflits takes the opportunity to discuss the prison in terms of its existence as an exemplary “other space” – the heterotopias of Michel Foucault – and to analyse those struggles that take place over the question of imprisonment, and to consider prisons as a possible location for politics. From a genealogical, and therefore critical, perspective, this issue proposes to examine these struggles through a series of case studies from France and elsewhere in the century that has just passed. It will not only look at these moments of resistance in themselves, but also reflect upon the various modalities of struggle which were at work, the many instruments of combat that were invented, and the actions which developed in each geographical and historical context

A Map of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the BEAST Experiment

We present the first sky maps from the BEAST (Background Emission Anisotropy Scanning Telescope) experiment. BEAST consists of a 2.2 m off-axis Gregorian telescope fed by a cryogenic millimeter wavelength focal plane currently consisting of six Q band (40 GHz) and two Ka band (30 GHz) scalar feed horns feeding cryogenic HEMT amplifiers. Data were collected from two balloon-borne flights in 2000, followed by a lengthy ground observing campaign from the 3.8 km altitude University of California White Mountain Research Station. This paper reports the initial results from the ground-based observations. The instrument produced an annular map covering the sky over 33 degrees < delta < 42 degrees. The maps cover an area of 2470 deg(2) with an effective resolution of 23' FWHM at 40 GHz and 30' at 30 GHz. The map rms (smoothed to 300 and excluding Galactic foregrounds) is 57 +/- 5 mu K (Rayleigh-Jeans) at 40 GHz. Comparison with the instrument noise and correcting for 5% atmospheric attenuation gives a cosmic signal rms contribution of 29 +/- 3 mu K (R-J) or 30 +/- 3 mu K relative to a Planck blackbody of 2.7 K. An estimate of the actual cosmic microwave background (CMB) sky signal requires taking into account the l space filter function of our experiment and analysis techniques, carried out in a companion paper. In addition to the robust detection of CMB anisotropies, we find a strong correlation between small portions of our maps and features in recent H alpha maps. In this work we describe the data set and analysis techniques leading to the maps, including data selection, filtering, pointing reconstruction, mapmaking algorithms, and systematic effects