this brave person did this by themselves! where is the sit-in? where is the lock down? where is the occupation of this space? now, more than ever, this city is in serious need of some people dedicated to action...
The popular revolt in Iran and subsequent disruption of network access by the Iranian government is only a glimpse of what is to come in the US and around the world, where the first line of attack against political resistance is to cut off network access. The internet as we know it, as a place for free exchange of information, as the center of what has been called a second 17th century with new ideas, creativity and innovation emerging daily, is rapidly coming to an end. We must use these last gasps of freedom to route around the disaster and create a truly free network.
How? Advances in wireless technology such as ubiquitous wireless routers, community mesh networks which are easily expandable and self-healing as well as long range wireless efforts such as HPWREN indicate a possible future for a community based internet free of the centralized control of telephone corporations and governments. Autonet is a project to create a wireless, global internet that can provide more reliability than corporate phone companies by being community based and freely licensed. --Read more from djlotu5--
Wiki || Sign up
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Direct Action Halts fence Construction for an Hour! (04/08/09)
this brave person did this by themselves! where is the sit-in? where is the lock down? where is the occupation of this space? now, more than ever, this city is in serious need of some people dedicated to action...
"I feel like my mission of sending a message of the importance of friendship was accomplished. Construction was stopped for a total of about an hour. Officials were mostly professional with me. I was not arrested. I was given a citation for tresspassing on Federal property and will receive a court date in the mail (no amount was specified on the citation). " --Read More from no borders?!?!?! NO BORDERS!!!! --
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bigots at KUSI Discriminate Against Transgender People (03/29/08)
I am so upset. The reporter from the San Diego Reader, Ernie Grimm, contacted me a few weeks ago to ask if I would do a television interview with him when the story came out on the cover of the reader about my performance Becoming Dragon. I accepted and the reader’s publicist contacted me about TV interview dates. They scheduled an interview with me for this morning with an 8:50am arrival time for a 9:20am live air interview. I arrive on time, conservatively dressed with a long skirt, tights and a scarf up to my neck. We chat cordially in the break room first and then move to the green room. The publicist goes to talk to the anchor, and returns at 9:18AM to say “Micha I have some uncomfortable news. I’m so sorry, but because of how you’re dressed, they can’t have you on the show.” She goes on to tell me how they want to cover the Second Life aspect of the story and not talk about transgender issues at all.
This is absolutely an act of gender based discrimination. Read More from Micha
KUSI e-mail: news@kusi.com KUSI Newsroom: 858-571-6397
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Its Time to Legalize in Mexico! (03/22/09)
Twenty-five year-old Juan Ricardo Flores believes in the market system. Rather than paper money, his wages are paid in ounces, like precious metals. He supports his three little girls, a wife, a cousin and an ailing mother by helping move the white gold through the pipeline from his barrio's "safe house" to the distribution points closer to the border. He even employs his daughters to play on the balconies and in the driveway to give legitimacy to the "casa" in a modest, middle-class neighborhood.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, 51, also believes in the magic of the capitalist model. After all, he should. Forbes Magazine, to the howl of the Mexican government, recently added him to their list of the world's self-made billionaires. Guzman, like our Bill Gates, is a legend to millions of his fellow citizens. Like Gates, Buffet and thousands of other modern capitalist robber barons, he seeks to corner the market, garnering ever greater shares of his country's resources. As the operator of the Sinaloa Cartel, like the heads of the other great cartels (the Gulf, Juarez and Tijuana Cartels) he provides jobs and income for hundreds of thousands of people; in a nation where unemployment is rampant and their is no social safety net.
Word on the street is that Guzman is a warm, caring person; who supports his family, neighbors, the Church and many private charities. Young Juan, of Tijuana, while he works for a rival Cartel, still feels pride and awe in the exploits of Guzman, comparing him to Zorro or Robin Hood... Read More from Rocky Neptun
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Audience Packs Library for Medical Marijuana Film
Alternative View of Africa at the World Beat Center (02/09/09)
Keith Harmon Snow ... delivered an alternative version of recent African history that slashed such progressive sacred cows as the United Nations, international charities, Jane Goodall and Ben Affleck, saying that all of them were essentially tools of the U.S. and the government of Uganda in their efforts to gain control over the resources of sub-Saharan Africa’s richest resource prize, the Congo.
Gorillas and chimpanzees are going to disappear because of the work of some of the people in the movement to ‘save’ them. The Jane Goodall Institute is involved in the civil war in the Congo and is directly funding some of the militias on the ground that they’re ‘protecting the gorillas.’ The people who live there are often involved in the bush-meat [gorilla and chimpanzee meat] trade because there’s nothing else for them to eat because of the Western economic system.”
“The people could educate themselves if they had schools and books, which they don’t. The Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall foundations are the problem, not the solution, according to the people who live there” — at least in part, Snow explained, because their insistence on setting aside large tracts of the Congo as wildlife refuges just reduces even further the areas on which Congolese can live without having to take jobs on the plantations that will exploit and quickly destroy them. --Read More from Mark Conlan--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
San Diego Protests as Israel Invades Gaza (01/08-09/09)
Updates (1/15): 1081 Palestinians killed, 3683 wounded (thurs morning, 1/15, since 12/27); UN compounds, hospitals targeted; LA and SF Israeli Consulates Shut Down by Protesters.
Local Palestinians and supporters have held a series of demonstrations over the past week+ in downtown San Diego and Balboa Park to protest Israel's air and ground attack on Gaza.
Since the offensive began on December 27, almost 800 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, including over 250 children, and more than 3000 wounded, with the vast majority being noncombatants. The Israelis have targeted women and children, schools, the Islamic University in Gaza City, mosques, medical personnel, at least four UN facilities, including a UN school, civil police and elected officials.
The attack comes in the context of Israel blockading humanitarian aid to Gaza for years, occupying Palestine for decades and ethnicly cleansing the Palestinians for over 60 years.
Solidarity actions have included widespread demonstrations in the West Bank, the occupation of the Toronto Israeli Embassy by Jewish Canadian women, and graffiti in San Cristobal, Chiapas.
January 1/Balboa Park, 200 people, candlelight vigil and demonstration: "What we hear on our local media in the United States doesn't give equal information on what is happening and the facts on the ground for a million and a half population, people living in Gaza, under siege, no electricity, no medical aid, no water, no schools, no hospitals. This is the time to raise our voice and educate our public for the facts on the ground in Gaza."
January 2/Federal Building Downtown, 300+ people, demonstration: Signs included: Stop the Massacre in Gaza, Stop Israeli Terrorism, US Taxes Pay the Bill for Israelis to Kill, We are All Gaza, Stop the Holocaust in Gaza, No Justice No Peace, End the Illegal Occupation of Israel in Palestine, In 2007 US Gave $6.8 million per Day to Israel, Justice Now, American Media = Biased Against Truth, Boycott Israeli Terrorism, Over 2000 Palestinian Children have been Killed by Israelis since September 29 2000, Gaza Massacre 400+ Gazans killed in 5 days vs. 28 Israelis killed in the past 8 years, 1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians while 10756 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel, Stop Israel's Cowardly Massacre in Palestine, End Gaza Siege Now, Stop Israeli Terror, Stop the Occupation, Honk 4 Peace, Stop the War in Gaza, Oppression Must End, Israel's Agression: Your Tax $$ at Work, Daily US Taxes: $6.8 million per day for Israel and $0.3 million per day for Palestinians, We Will NOT Give Up, Free Free Palestine.
January 4/Balboa Park, 300 people, demonstration: "We know the impact that walls of apartheid have on a people. And we also know the deaths that these walls can create. And while they may be two different walls that divide our people, our struggle is one struggle. Union del Barrio stands with Palestine and its people in this struggle and we know that it is the courageous resistance of the Palestinian people in the face of Israeli state-sponsored terrorism that is giving hope to millions and millions of displaced and conquered people all over the world."
January 9/Balboa Ave+805, 150+ people, demonstration:
January 13/Federal Building Downtown, 150 people, demonstration: Protesters spread the message on all four corners of Broadway and Front about Israel's war crimes and the courageous resistance of Palestinians in Gaza with signs showing the human cost of the bombs and energetic chants. SDPD was attempting to restrict where the protesters stood on the sidewalk, and one cop showed his weakness by arbitrarily detaining one person. That person was handcuffed, walked to a cop car, placed in the car for 20 minutes, cited and released.
SD Videos: January 1/Balboa Park || January 2/Downtown || January 4/Balboa Park
More Information: Israel Indymedia || Palestine News Network || International Middle East Media Center || The Angry Arab News Service || US Indymedia: 1 | 2 || Global Indymedia: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 || SF Bay Indymedia: 1 | 2
Local Organizations: Al-Awda | American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee | Council on American-Islamic Relations | Muslim-American Society
Demonstrations/Actions in Other Locations, from the Indymedia Network: Canarias || Israel || Toronto || Montreal || Manila || Austria || Belgium || Bristol || Calabria || Estrecho || Euskal Herria || Berlin || Grenoble || Ireland || Italy || Lille || Malta || Netherlands || Oslo || Switzerland || Torun || UK || Argentina || Cochabamba || Chiapas || Columbia || Ecuador || Mexico || Oaxaca || Puerto Rico || Uruguay || Aotearoa || Wellington || Sydney || Atlanta || Baltimore || Boston || Chicago || Cleveland || DC || LA || Twin Cities || New Orleans || NYC || Oklahoma || Philadelphia || Portland || Rochester || Ashland || SF Bay || Santa Cruz || Seattle || Worcester
-----------------------------------------------------------------
La Festival Mundial de la Digna Rabia (01/05/08)
This is my first set of photos from the Festival Mundial de la Digna Rabia, which took place in Mexico City over the last four days and is now moving to the Zapatista caracol in Oventik, Chiapas, Mexico. --View the Photos from kilo-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Eagle and The Condor Reunited by Peace and Dignity Journey Runners in the Kuna Nation / El Águila y el Cóndor unificada por los Corredores de la Jornada Paz y la Dignidad Finaliza en la nación Kuna (11/17/08) en español
Runners from the Northern and Southern routes of the Peace and Dignity Journey, a sacred journey starting in Tierra del Fuego and Alaska and traveling on foot thousands of kilometers through hundreds of indigenous communities, met Friday on a bridge crossing the Panama Canal in the Kuna Nation.
The goals of the journey were outlined by the Northern route coordinator, Jose Malvido, "We're doing a prayer run, a peace run, a unity run, we're running and praying for unity of all peoples, all nations, all indigenous nations and nonindigenous nations. Drawing from the traditions and wisdom of our ancestors and elders, we carry sacred staffs, so when we run, we're carrying the hopes, dreams, prayers and also some of the sorrows of some of the communities and families along the road."
San Diego contributed five core runners, those who participated through most to all of one of the routes: Gaby and Oscar in the South and Ymoat, Abel and Arturo in the North. The San Diego runners documented, from an indigenous perspective, the traditions and struggles of the communities through which they passed, as well as their own experiences (click here for blog posts, photos, audio and video), including...
In the South: running through volcanic ash from the erupting mountain Chaiten in Mapuche territory; participating in the Inti Raymi (Andean New Year) celebration in the community Tilcara; visiting the Uros communities that live on floating islands in Lake Titicaca (Peru); the toll that tourism takes on Sacred Sites and the maintenance of traditions; elders who measure the passage of time through the growth of the heart; and musical customs of AfroEcuadoran communities in El 
Valle del Chota. In the North: struggles of Athebascan communities in Alaska against government appropriation and pollution of Native lands and Sacred Sites; the impact of resource extraction on communities, including the looming struggle of the Wet'suwet'en and surrounding Nations (British Columbia) against Shell; stories of historical repression of Sun Dance and other traditions of the Plains Tribes; visits to Bear Butte and Wounded Knee, ecological restoration at Round Lake and White Earth (Minnesota); the Berkeley Oak Grove Tree Sit; and a meeting in El Salvador with indigenous president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who endorsed the journey.
The San Diego runners plan to organize and widely distribute their documented materials so as to promote communication and the goals of the journey.
In the North, the journey split in Canada into Plains and (west) Coastal routes, with additional splits and numerous feeder routes, including New York and Trail of Tears routes joining the Plains runners, and Baja and San Ysidro routes joining the Coastal runners. The Coastal route passed through the San Diego area in July, with stops including the Cahuilla, Santa Ysabel, Pala and Manzanita reservations, and the Sacred Site Chicano Park on Kumeyaay Land.
At least one person carrying a sacred staff travels every step of the journey. As the runners approach the land of an indigenous Nation, they are met typically by elders and community members, who walk the staffs into the community, where a welcoming ceremony, discussions with community members and other activities and ceremonies are held. Community members might assist the runners in traversing the route through their territory. For example, the Coastal route runners were met at the Cahuilla reservation boundary by an elder, who passed the sacred staffs to a group of reservation and community youth who had trained for the run with exercise, healthy food and learning about their traditions. The youth ran the staffs to the tribal community center, where elders, accompanied by Kumeyaay Bird Singers, walked the staffs to a welcoming ceremony and celebration. The youth ran the route to the next stop the following day.
The first Peace and Dignity Journey took place in 1992, the 500th anniversary of the arrival of the european colonizers, and it repeats every four years. This year's run honored indigenous Sacred Sites, many of which, including Black Mesa (strip mining), Quechan (gold mining), San Francisco Peaks (commercial skiing/wastewater snow) and Ward Valley (nuclear dump), are threatened by resource extraction or development. Previous journeys honored 500 years of resistance (1992), youth (1996), the family (2000) and women (2004).
Peace and Dignity Journeys is said to be a fulfillment of the Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, described by runner Oscar: "The eagle is representative of the nations of the North, and the condor is representative of the South. And there's an ancient, ancient prophecy, shared through all nations and can be seen way back to Mayan prophecy, with the eagle and the condor intertwined by the neck. That represents our people, all Native people, together as one people, without borders. There will come a time when the red people, the brown people, will be divided by society, by borders, by material possessions, by a new way of life, and we will be begin to lose ourselves as a people. But there is hope. After this period, there will come a generation that will make the eagle and the condor fly wing by wing once again."
[Runners Gaby, Ymoat, Oscar, Abel and Arturo pictured, clockwise from upper left.]
Peace and Dignity Journeys Links: Media and Runners' Blog || Abel's Blog || Main Website || Myspace
en español (TRANSLATED BY STEPHANIE OSUNA Y MIRNA CRUZ)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
B@sh B@ck! Raises Hell at Anti-Queer Mega-Church (11/14/08)
The Mount Hope Church is a deplorable, anti-queer mega-church in Lansing, Michigan.
The church works to institutionalize transphobia and homophobia through several repulsive projects including organized "ex-gay" conferences and so-called "hell houses", which depict queers, trannies and womyn who seek abortions as the horrors. Mt. Hope is complicit in the repression of queers in Michigan and beyond.
Bash Back! ain't down with that. And so on Sunday November 9th, about thirty radical queers from Lansing, Chicago, Memphis and Milwaukee disrupted the church's most well-attended sermon. --Read More from Bash Back!--
Bash Back! || Chapters: Lansing | Chicago | Memphis | Milwaukee
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Remembering the 5,000 Dead on U.S. Border (11/06/08)
Slightly over 5,000 men, women and children have died trying to cross into the United States since operation Gate Keeper began in the early '90s. I watch as Border Angels put names on the paper ribbons, attach them to that perverted fence to show the world that some of us will never forget the deaths and that we will fight like hell for those to come.
As I look through the fence which slices through Border Field Park, the cruelty of the North American heart shows itself in the plastic mesh that is draped across the old fence, forcing activists to congregate in a small area near the monument. For decades, separated families have come here to touch one another. Husband and wives kissed through the wire mesh, doting grand-mothers, sitting in folding chairs could watch their grand-children play and grow through the years. Families passed food and dreams back and forth; a tiny space of connection and hope.
Yet, paranoid, exploitative officials at Homeland Security have been given liberty to destroy the very concept of Mexican-U.S. friendship by building a secondary fence through the center of the park, like something out of a Terminator movie. --Read More from Rocky Neptun--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Fletcher Speaks on Labor (11/04/08)
Organized labor in the United States is in its death throes as a movement, and the only way it can save itself is to renounce virtually all the core principles on which it was founded, said former AFL-CIO education director and presidential assistant Bill Fletcher at the Joyce Beers Center in Hillcrest October 24... Fletcher said in no uncertain terms that America’s capitalist ruling class is committed to the utter destruction of the U.S. labor movement, and organized labor in this country will die within the next decade unless it takes radical steps to reform itself and regain relevance to ordinary working people.
“In the 1930’s, an important segment of the owning class saw a need to ally with labor in order to save capitalism,” Fletcher explained. “Today the capitalist class is unanimous about the need to destroy all organizations of labor. We are in a fight for our lives. Their objective is our total destruction. Those labor leaders who call for a ‘new New Deal’ are missing the point.”
Fletcher presented a provocative historical analysis of where labor went wrong and the dramatic steps he feel it needs to take to regain its former influence and build a mass American Left. Surprisingly, his principal villain isn’t a capitalist or a politician. It’s Samuel Gompers, the late 19th century unionist who started the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and is generally considered the founding father of this country’s union movement. But, Fletcher said, Gompers built the U.S. labor movement on a set of principles that made sure it could never contend for real power in society or challenge the inequities of capitalism. --Read More from Mark Conlan--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
100 Students Rally Against Gun Ranges in City Schools! (10/21/08)
Just as there are axial moments in history; so too, I believe, there are axial moments in a person's life. A fleeting glance into the organic currents of public events that reflect staggering changes to come. As a cub reporter for a small town newspaper, I remember traveling for two-days with Ronald Reagan on the campaign bus as he sought re-election for governor. As a fan of his: he had dated my mother in the 1940's and had come to my high-school during his first try, chatting with me and giving me an autographed copy of his book Where is The Rest of Me?; I was all set to write a series of glowing articles on his visit to the twin counties. Yet, at the University of California at Riverside, where he had come to tour the pollution control lab, students who were protesting the imposition of tuition were being beaten and dragged across the pavement by their hair. As he looked through the window at the police excesses and brutality, a smile of approval came over his face and (as a young student myself) the shock and horror of that smirk enraged me. I wanted to reach over and smack his face, but of course I didn't. Reagan would go on to complete the right-wing take-over of the United States, its corporate ownership, perpetual wars by the industrial-military complex and over two million young people of color imprisoned.
A similiar axial moment occured last Tuesday evening as I watched over a hundred high school students, mostly youth of color, from Lincoln High School and Mission Bay High School confront the aged, degenerate, industrial-military complex owned San Diego School Board. They were there to protest the ludicrous notion of gun ranges in their schools. These courageous young people, standing against the militaristic fads of our times, want no part of 20th Century violence. They belong to the 21st Century and have no interest in pre-emptive wars, wars against terror, perpetual war or acts of violence against anyone. Their's is a generation that sees peace and non-violence as its goals. --Read More from Rocky Neptun--
Previous Coverage: 1 || 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tijuana March Remembers Slaughtered Students (10/14/08)
Several hundred young Mexicanos and Mexicanas took to the streets to remind their countrymen and the world that they would not stand by while their country marched back to those dark times; when governments could massacre peaceful protesters and their families.
October 2, 1968, the night blood drained dark from thousands of young Mexicans and innocent by-standers, including many infants and children, when troops equipped with armored cars and tanks massacred over 3,000 people in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas in Tlatelolco. Those opening shots and lethal salvos in the world oligarchy's response to the counter-culture's call for massive social and economic changes, would reverberate around the world from Mexico City; the establishment was prepared to kill its own children to remain in power.
What compels young people, mostly students, to take to the streets of Tijuana to remember an event that happened so long ago in Mexican history: marching through the heart of the central city, vowing to never forget what happened to their grand-parents, their relatives, their Patria. --Read More from Rocky Neptun--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After DNC/RNC, Fight ICE and Support Immigrant Rights Struggle: A Call to Action (09/07/08)
From Twin Cities Indymedia: After the DNC/RNC, as we are rinsing pepper spray residue off our bodies and clothes, recovering from coughs caused by teargas, hugging our friends and loved ones, debriefing with comrades, analyzing what we witnessed, thinking about the marches and direct actions we took part in, and learning from our mistakes, strengths, and victories against the empire, let's sustain the momentum created. Let's take the energy, the friendships we've made, the networks we've expanded, the trust and solidarity we've built, the firsthand experience of facing a monster, fighting an oppressive system, and together let's fight one of the most important struggles of our time. Many of us are weary from confronting a faceless system, and in this struggle it is hard to see evidence of change. Let's continue to fight the system and at the same time have a tangible positive impact on the lives of individual people, changes we can see, lives improved. Let's work with immigrant communities, let's support them and help tear down the terrorist organization known as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). --Read More from a primate against ICE--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Confronting Paranoia/Ageism During RNC Actions (09/06/08)
From Twin Cities Indymedia: I am a 54 year old resident of Minneapolis who has marched in every decade since 1969 against many manifestations of US imperialism and oppression... On 9/1 I chose to march from the capitol with the Anti-Capitalist Bloc, and followed the red & black flag through several confrontations with police, culminating in the 10 minute skirmish on Shepard Road, and the subsequent mass detainment and arrests. I was gassed when I slowed down to assist a kid who said he couldn't see when running from the encroaching riot cops.... A Republican delegate whom I confronted by myself entering a Party party at the Landmark Center looked at me and quipped, "Take a shower!" More than once a cop would say to me, "You're not caught up in this, right?" And I was called a pig by a young woman who was eye-balling me at the Cedar/12th St. standoff. --Read More from Jesse--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
RNC/DNC Newswire (09/05/08)
Reclaiming Sacred Dakota Land at Mni Owe Sni (Camp Coldwater) (09/04/08)
From Santa Cruz Indymedia: On September 2nd, members of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) of the Dakota Oyate reoccupied Coldwater Spring [Mni Owe Sni] and the surrounding land in Minnesota. The Coldwater Spring site is an abandoned property of the United States Department of the Interior's defunct Bureau of Mines. Dakota people consider the spring as essential to their spiritual lifeway and the surrounding land as a part of their homeland of B'Dote. Dakota people believe that they will be better stewards of the land than either the United States or the State of Minnesota has been. This is evidenced in the fact that the site is littered with dilapidated structures and the soil is polluted from the former Bureau of Mines. --Read More with Photos from ~Bradley--
Related: CALL IN YOUR SUPPORT! | Defend Camp Coldwater! | Dakota People Reclaim Sacred Site | Sacred Pipe (Video) | Sacred Sites | Peace and Dignity Journey 2008 (Sacred Sites): Blog/Photos/Video | Website
-----------------------------------------------------------------
One Story from RNC (09/02/08)
...We kept saying to them that we got out of a concert and wanted to go home... told them that the other OFFICERS told us to come here.... What is the point of a radio if u dont use it?? We said let us through, we are not part of a protest to the RNC... but if u dont let us through we are about to be a fucking protest.
...a cop car plowed through the people to close off the other side of the bridge... that is when i started getting scared because we could see at least one cop with tear gas gun... and we were trapped on a bridge... no where to go.
so we began to make the best of it all.... the crowd began to chant " WHERE DO WE GO?!?! WHERE DO WE GO??? WHERE DO WE GO? --Read More from SCAR Media Collective and friends --
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Hurricane Gustav Heads Towards New Orleans (08/31/08)
New Orleans Indymedia | Houston Indymedia | Go Away Gustav! (Blog from NO) | Common Ground Relief | Critical Resistance | National Hurricane Center Forecast | Real Time Storm Surge Data
from Critical Resistance: Hurricane Gustav is headed for New Orleans and is predicted to be a category 3 hurricane, the same as Hurricane Katrina... It is predicted that hurricane Gustav will pose great flooding potential regardless of its category rating, the levee that broke by elected official's decisions during Hurricane Katrina has not been fixed to it's potential, or replaced.
The over crowding Orleans Parish Prison, located in New Orleans, holds 2, 500 prisoners... During Hurricane Katrina there were prisoners able to evacuate and others who remained locked in their cells with a minimal chance of survival. Prisoners were left in flooded cells, with no food, and had minimal ventilation.
What will happen to the prisoners of Orleans Parish Prison located in New Orleans this time?
We are urging every member, ally and comrade of New Orleans across the country, to make at least one call --Read More from Prisoners of New Orleans need your help now!--
from Darwin BondGraham: Mike Howells, an organizer who lives in the French Quarter reports that in addition to the evacuation order the state has imposed a kind of marshal law. A 24-hour curfew will take effect after evacuations today banning all remaining residents who have chosen to ride out the storm from venturing into the streetsL "This order essentially places all who remain in the city on lockdown. The potential for misery that the twenty four hour curfew can inflict persons in New Orleans is great. The lockdown effectively discourages people from abandoning their residences even under the most dire circumstances. What is to become of those who flee home in the event of flooding or fire?" --Read More of Gustav Approaches: Politics and consequences of the storm?--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Homeland Security's Reign of Terror (08/30/08)
Gathering in front of the Federal Building in downtown San Diego on Friday, Aug. 22nd, representatives from a dozen community groups, held a news conference and rally as part of a "National Day of Action" across the country, demanding an "immediate moratorium on all raids, deportations, incarcerations and separation of families."... Speaking to most major media outlets, Enrique Marones, director of Border Angels, spoke at the news conference about the tragedy and absurdity of widening a campaign of terror against "good hardworking families." He blasted ICE's acting Director of Detention and Removal Operations Jim Hayes' pledge to "arrest more this year than last" and even more next year as additional agents are hired.
Joining him at the press conference were representatives from Casa Refugio Elvira, Hermandad Mexicana, Familia Latina Unida, Sin Fronteras, Comite Latina Primeros Cien Dias, Gente Unida and Si Se Puede. Several U.S. citizens spoke about their being attacked by ICE because of their skin color. They all called for an immediate end to the persecution of immigrants, an end to the campaign of hunting down people like animals, forcing them from their jobs and homes, "hounded at every turn and forced to live in the shadows." --Read More from Rocky Neptun--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
DNC C.I.R.C.A. Field Report (08/28/08)
We arrived to the convergence center in Denver on Brighton Street, overshadowed by the Pepsi Center, via clown car, excited to play games with our many new friends in Denver. What we saw when we got there :
A whole bunch of well-organized and well-educated individuals who were ready to make their voices heard, and who were sick of being squashed by the corporate-media-police-state-conglomerate. Everybody was gearing up to head into the "shit" - Downtown Denver. It seems that anyone who departed the convergence space in a personal automobile was immediately pulled over. I learned later that the Denver Police had rented a space across Brighton. When one carload was stopped, someone rode their bike down to the scene to provide legal support. When he arrived, the police arrested him, deleted pictures he had taken of the incident from his camera, and erased the People's Law Project phone number from his cell. He was arrested and charged with, literally, Pedestrian Use of a Sidewalk. He was later released. (The buddy system is highly recommended for this kind of reconnaissance.) --Read More from Jesus-id--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tijuana: Empire's Slum? (08/20/08)
With heavy heart, vacillating with intense rage; I stand on the corner of Revolution and Third Avenues, and watch as several hundred federal police officers block off all of 3rd Avenue, between Madero and Constitution, with huge buses. As startled tourists run for taxis and Mexican shoppers scurry away, 250 “Federales” in ominous, dark-black uniforms, carrying machine guns, automatic rifles and a few grenade launchers, spread out along the streets...
My adopted city (or the city that has ensnared me) is failing. Dominated by American Empire and local corruption, both a battle-ground and a staging-ground; Tijuana reflects a nation torn between the illusions of freedom and the reality of a corporate-owned oligarchy which increasing requires a police state mentality and totalitarian controls. --Read More from Rocky Neptun--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Get Trained by the Clown Army for the DNC/RNC (08/16/08)
Are you going to the DNC or the RNC to protest the circus farce of the upcoming elections? Want to help make it a real circus? The Boredom Patrol of CIRCA, the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army, does. We want to use our direct action, clowning skills to increase the DNC disruption with bubbles, laughter and silliness. Because all you can do in front of the farce of democracy is to laugh, laugh, laugh until you're rolling on the floor, in the middle of an intersection, in the way of the delegates, in a big puppy pile of smiles. --Read More from Boredom Patrol--
Boredom Patrol Rebel Clowning Teaser (Training) to prep for the Farce of Democracy at the DNC & RNC!!!
Sunday, June 17th,12-4pm
Ice cream shop on 30th & Juniper South Park
-----------------------------------------------------------------
San Diego Company MexCare Carries Out Privatized Deportations for Hospitals/Compañía “MexCare” realiza deportaciones privatizadas para los hospitales en San Diego (08/03/08)
from indo: MexCare, a company based in Chula Vista, aids hospitals in deporting uninsured undocumented immigrants. "An alternative choice for the care of the unfunded Latin American national," the website boasts, can "result in significant savings for U.S. hospitals." A corporate media outlet reports that 87 immigrants with medical cases plus 265 immigrants crossing the border are deported under medical deportation from San Diego annually.
The corporate media outlet also reports that this procedure for shifting u.s. societal costs to economically disadvantaged countries is conducted without fed involvement and often (in contrast to MexCare's claim on their website) without the consent of the patient or their family: "Repatriation is pretty much a death sentence in some of these cases."
Compañía “MexCare” realiza deportaciones privatizadas para los hospitales en San Diego
MexCare, una compañía basada en Chula Vista, ayuda los hospitales en la deportación de inmigrantes indocumentados que no tienen seguros médicos. “Una opción alternativa para la asistencia del ciudadano latinoamericano sin fondos,” presume la página de Internet, puede “resultar en ahorros significantes para los hospitales estadounidenses.” Un medio de comunicación empresarial reporta que cada año se deportan de San Diego 87 inmigrantes con casos médicos mas 265 inmigrantes cruzando la frontera.
El medio de comunicación empresarial también reporta que se realiza este procedimiento para cargar los gastos sociales de los EEUU a los países económicamente desfavorecidos sin participación federal, y muchas veces (en contraste con las afirmaciones de MexCare en su página de Internet) sin el consentimiento del paciente o su familia: 'En algunos de estos caso, la repatriación es mas omenos una pena de muerte.'
UPDATE: Following the corporate media's article, MexCare posted a 'press release' to their website claiming they don't participate in involuntary deportations, but it looks like they forgot to mention the leverage they have in negotiating with undocumented folks. If anyone has any experience with MexCare or knows of someone who does, please contact us at imc-sd@lists.indymedia.org or publish the story on our newswire: Publish>>.
From MexCare's website:
2220 Otay Lakes Road, Suite 502
Chula Vista, CA 91915-1009
Bob Barraza - North County Office
Office: 760.839.2370; Cell: 760.822.0513; Fax: 760-839-0512
E-mail: bbarraza@mexcare.com
George Ochoa - South County Office
Office: 619.397.7088; Cell: 619.781.3596; Fax: 619.397.7089
E-mail: gochoa@mexcare.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Anarchist Convergence - Looking to Form a Network (08/01/08)
calling all revolutionaries, radicals, and anybody who can make good vegan cookies near the inland empire or north county: we are looking to organize a network of collectives and food not bombs chapters near riverside county and north county sd for a more unified movement and for coordinated actions.
the anarcat collective from temecula is looking to form a network of different collectives or food not bombs chapters in our area, mostly the inland empire, la, and san diego areas for a united movement and coordinated actions. to do this we want to have a convergence where we share ideas, experiences, hold workshops, and work to create a radical community that can support itself from one area to another.
the law, media, and economy are all in every town, why shouldnt we be? --Read More from anarcat collective--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Just Another Day in San Diego... (08/01/08)
I woke up on Friday to the sound of a knocking on a window. I usually sleep with the window open, so it was a strange sound, coming through my window, of someone knocking on the neighbor's window. Since my neighbor's house is close to mine and they're usually noisy in the mornings, I just shut the window and rolled over... I looked out our bathroom window, which faces the neighbor's house. There was a man with a green bullet proof vest, a red tshirt, a baseball cap and some kind of gun in his hand standing near the corner of the house...
When I get home from work, my housemates tell me that they came back later in the day and took a man from our neighbor's house. They left his child though, and apparently his young wife. Who knows what will become of them. What more could we have done to help? Who's next? --Read More from city heights resident--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Peace and Dignity Journey Arrives in San Diego Wednesday (7/21/08)
Runners on the northern coastal route of the Peace and Dignity Journeys will be arriving in San Diego at Chican@ Park in a program and ceremony starting at 5pm this Wednesday, July 23.
Peace and Dignity Journeys is an intercontinental spiritual run, held every four years, that began in Alaska and Tierra del Fuego in May, is passing through hundreds of indigenous communities, and will meet at the Panama Canal in November. The goals of the journey include strengthening and sharing indigenous culture and uniting indigenous peoples -- thereby fulfilling the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor. This year's journey is focused on honoring indigenous sacred sites, so many of which are threatened by development and resource exploitation, including San Francisco Peaks, Ward Valley, Black Mesa, Yucca Mountain and Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The run arrived in the San Diego region at the Cahuilla Reservation on Monday, will journey to the Pala Reservation on Tuesday, Chican@ Park Wednesday and Thursday, and to the Manzanita Reservation on Friday, stopping at or meeting with communities from many of San Diego County's 19 reservations along the way.
San Diego has contributed five core runners, those who will complete the entire journey. Please come out on Wednesday to support our compañer@s: Ymoat (Berta), Oscar, Gaby, Arturo and Abel.
Welcoming Program and Ceremony: Wed July 23 5pm Chican@ Park -- flyer
Runners' Blog, Photos and Video (en/es): Peace and Dignity Journeys 2008 Blogs | Northern Route Slideshow | Video from Abel (coming soon) | Map (coming soon)
Interviews with San Diego Runners: Ymoat | Gaby and Arturo | Abel and Oscar
Peace and Dignity Journeys Website
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Cyclist Killed by Car in Hillcrest (7/20/08)
from a: On Friday around midnight a motorist struck a cyclist in Hillcrest at the intersection of Park Blvd and University Ave. He was taken to the UCSD Medical Center where he remained in critical condition until this afternoon when he passed away.
His name is Atip.
The bike community is encouraged to come out to support the friends and family of a cyclist that will pedal no more. There will be a vigil and a ghost bike memorial at the location of the incident:
Sunday July 20 8PM.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
UCSD Service Workers Strike for a Living Wage (7/18/08)
This past week 8500 UC service workers held a strike to highlight UC's intransigence in providing a living wage for thousands of their hardest working employees - wages are 25% below the low wages for service workers at community colleges and 96% of UC service workers are eligible for public assistance, by most accounts higher than the comparable figure for Walmart associates. UC is one of the world's wealthiest universities, sufficiently flush with cash to provide almost a million dollars per year to their president, off-scale salaries to their administrators and funds for an ecologically destructive opulent building spree.
The strike was complicated by a temporary restraining order issued by SF judge Patrick J. Mahoney, who has a history of siding with elites on such topics as gentrification and gang injunctions. This is a typical management strategy - find a compliant judge (preferably one who belongs to the same exclusive clubs or wants to) to issue an injunction right before a strike, with a hearing date weeks later where the management complaint will be found to be unsupported by the facts. More about the injunction here.
from lotu5: As the students drove past the picket in their cars, they seemed unaware of what was going on, unaware that their future rights as employees are on the line with this strike, as the chorus of bosses saying that we just have to buckle down for hard economic times and work more for less money rises, these workers are bravely standing up and saying NO. With this week's economic bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, people are literally running on the banks and pulling out their money. Its already beginning to sound like the days before the uprising in Argentina in 2001, with a story I heard on the radio yesterday saying that the police had to intervene to calm down a situation at a Freddie Mac branch in escondido. Yet with all of the uncertainty, AFSCME service workers are braving the threats of being fired to collectively stand up and demand that they be paid a living wage because it is perfectly clear that the university has millions, it just chooses to spend it on the people it thinks are more important. The injunction itself proves how important these workers are. --Read More--
Photos: UCSD Med Center (SCAR Media Collective) | UCSD Campus (dj lotu5)
Videos: UCSD Med Center (SCAR Media Collective) | Facing Poverty at UC (Cristensen/Brashear)
AFSCME Local 3299 Website | Indybay Report
-----------------------------------------------------------------
UCSD and Community Groups Oppose I.C.E. Raids (7/16/08)
Following a May 15 raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) of the French Gourmet catering company in Pacific Beach in which 18 workers were kidnapped, UCSD student and community groups organized a rally and forum on May 22 to express their outrage and organize against future raids, and a benefit dinner on June 14 at which over $800 was raised to assist the families of the workers.
Video (two parts) from UCSD Forum and Photos from Benefit Dinner || Rally and Forum Announcement || More Information
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Organizing North of San Diego (7/14/08)
from ken: we are the anarcat collective, a group of mostly student aged activists in the temecula/murrieta area... we do food not bombs twice a month and bike rides, we're looking to network with groups in the area for coordinated actions and help with outreach. se habla spanglish --Read More--
anarcat july schedule:
19-bike n hike
20-meeting at the park 24-anarlit club meeting @ perks coffee (ynez/winchester)& flier night
25-bike ride starting at the duck pond, meet at 7pm
27-FOOD NOT BOMBS BREAKFAST DAY!
from E4SJ: As residents of Escondido, a city rich in culture and history, we can look longer sit and watch the injustices that are being committed on behalf of the Escondido City Council and the Minutemen groups...We do not want Escondido to be another Rancho Bernardo; we want our city back. A city that welcomes everyone who lives and visits here. Escondidians for Social Justice e-mail: esco4justice [at] gmail.com web: http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/E4SJ --Read More--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
San Diego Resists Biotech (07/14/08)
The BIO convention, the major anual gathering of the biotech industry where the elites pat themselves on the back and pitch their bioweapons of mass destruction, dangerous engineered foods, and further plans for crushing small-scale agriculture, met at the San Diego convention center during the week June 17-20.
San Diegans expressed their resistance to biotech's corporate fantasyland in a number of ways throughout the week, including Reclaim the Streets, Say Goodbye to Biotech Party, Zombies Swarm San Diego and two film screenings (1 | 2).
from Rocky/SD Renters Union: It was June 19th, 2008, the usual would-be “masters of the universe” were in town. Twenty-two thousand conspirators, Corporate CEO’s of polluting companies, chemists dedicated to turning pure foods into unnatural concoctions, various snake oil salespersons – all dedicated to owning, hoarding and selling the total processes of life – were enshrined in San Diego’s finest hotels for the annual convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO... Our spunky youth of last week marched right up to the glass doors of the Convention Center. “Fuck you, don’t mess with our future” and “You assholes, messing with people’s live,” they spat at startled bio-tech CEO’s and lackeys. Chanting “Bio-tech, go home,” they stood, eye-to eye, with corporate executives wearing Rolex Watches and designer clothes. Wealthy Sheiks and bought politicians from foreign lands, trembled as they realized that there is, indeed, opposition to their ownership of the world... Hours of confrontation, challenging, cursing , singing, marching up and down the sidewalk, frightening the delegates, while the police looked on helplessly; recharged and energized this small contingent (our hope for the future). Soon, the world will tremble; these youth, like millions of their brothers and sisters across the globe, in the Lacandon jungle or the slums of Caracas, will overthrow a corporate-owned humanity. --Read More--
from Don J/Scar Media Collective: I can't help but to emphasize the need for critique of what happened surrounding these protests/ events. It is also important to note that romanticizing or just straight lying about what happened at any event is not helpful to any movement, which is trying to make concrete and sustainable change... The RTS in itself lacked the appearance and feeling of being organized at all and was far from a movement that would "soon make the world tremble.." as described by Rocky...With the lack of numbers and the lack of cohesion, it was extremely obvious that the event took place without much preparation (lack of people, few if any affinity groups and general confusion)... The movie night also lacked organization. The documentary from Bio Justice 2001 was obviously unscreened, the outreach did not reach far (not very many people attended) and the people who were supposed to be centers of discussion left... I cannot say much as far as the Food Not Bombs and the Free Market went because I caught the end. I will note that it did end early, but I respect ideas for resistance that revolve around creating community instead marching and yelling....The zombie swarm was a complete mess. A total of 6 or 7 zombies came out... I can only sum this up to lack of preparation and outreach. --Read More--
Videos: BIO Protest Summary | Biojustice Week 2008 Video
Biotech Medicine Zine
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Eagle and The Condor: Peace and Dignity Journeys Benefit Concert (07/11/08)
A concert will take place at the World Beat Center on Sat July 12 7PM -- a fundraiser and awarenessraiser for the Peace and Dignity Journeys. The funds raised will go to help support the runners, including five of our compañer@s from San Diego: Ymoat (Berta), Oscar, Gaby, Arturo and Abel.
Peace and Dignity Journeys is a run from Alaska and Tierra del Fuego, meeting in Panama, to strengthen indigenous culture and unite indigenous communities. It has particular significance in the borderlands where indigenous people have been divided by arbitrary boundaries.
The run is going to be arriving in the San Diego region on July 21 (Cahulla Reservation), and at Chican@ Park on July 23 5PM. On that day, a feeder run from the border will meet the runners between the World Beat and the Centro and then proceed together to Chican@ Park for a welcoming ceremony.
Video (Gabriella and Arturo) | Video (Berta) | Benefit Flyer | Peace and Dignity Journeys Website | Video (Abel and Oscar)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Feature Archive: 10/07-Present | 1/02-8/07