hyperpoem

more environmental bad news

Mon, 10 Oct 2005 22:31:24 GMT

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=570&ncid=570&e=6&u=/nm/20051010/sc_nm/environment_amazon_dc_1

MANAQUIRI, Brazil (Reuters) - The worst drought in more than 40 years is damaging the world's biggest rainforest, plaguing the Amazon basin with wildfires, sickening river dwellers with tainted drinking water, and killing fish by the millions as streams dry up.

"What's awful for us is that all these fish have died and when the water returns there will be barely any more," Donisvaldo Mendonca da Silva, a 33-year-old fisherman, said.

Nearby, scores of piranhas shook in spasms in two inches of water -- what was left of the once flowing Parana de Manaquiri river, an Amazon tributary. Thousands of rotting fish lined the its dry banks.

The governor of Amazonas, a state the size of Alaska, has declared 16 municipalities in crisis as the two-month-long drought strands river dwellers who cannot find food or sell crops.

Some scientists blame higher ocean temperatures stemming from global warming, which have also been linked to a recent string of unusually deadly hurricanes in the United States and Central America.

Rising air in the north Atlantic, which fuels storms, may have caused air above the Amazon to descend and prevented cloud formations and rainfall, according to some scientists.

"If the warming of the north Atlantic is the smoking gun, it really shows how the world is changing," said Dan Nepstadt, an ecologist from the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Research Institute, funded by the U.S. government and private grants.

"The Amazon is a canary in a coal mine for the earth. As we enter a warming trend we are in uncertain territory," he said.

385 arrested in white house civil disobedience against the war

Thu, 06 Oct 2005 17:36:32 GMT

photos:
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/57759.html

story:
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/130470/index.php
http://dc.indymedia.org/feature/display/130221/index.php

4th report from chiapas, back to san cristóbal

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 15:56:01 GMT

reposted from san diego indymedia:

http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/111277.shtml

I am woken up just before the alarm goes off by an insect buzzing in my ear and am hoping it is time to go, as the metal bench isn't so comfortable tonight. Then the alarm sings, 2:30am.

Adriana and I wake up at 2:30, because we were told that there is a car at 4:30, hora de dios. in zapatista territory, there are three different times people use: city time, hora de dios which is one hour behind city time and hora de lucha which is one hour ahead of city time.

so we pack our bags and walk out into the rain. We are happy to be leaving, as we only brought food which has to be cooked, only to find there is no available communal kitchen in the part of the municipality of Pancho Villa where we have stayed.

so we follow the directions that one driver gave us to get back to ocosingo: go to the end of this street here and there should be a car to ocosingo at 4:30, if there isn't, just walk to the crossroad and there will be a car later, if there isn't, well, that's the way it goes. So, we are up at what we think is 3:30 to be ready by 4:00am in case the car is a bit early. if we miss it, there won't be another car back to the city until tomorrow and we'll have to eat 3 more meals consisting of doritos from the local coop store.

At the end of the street, a dog starts barking at us, and we quickly agree to just walk to the crossroads in case the car doesn't show up.

We keep walking until we get to a place in the road where the houses end and at this time of night, we are just walking into the darkness where we can only see as far as my head lamp reaches. So, we decide to stop here.

I ask about the time, to make sure. the watch says 3:25, which means that the car will drive by in 5 minutes. Or will it? "so is hora normal one hour ahead of city time", I ask Adriana. "Yeah, its one hour ahead, so when it's 3:30 city time, it's 2:30 hora normal." And so we realize that we have miscalculated and are 2 hours early for our car. We are standing in the dark, in the rain, carrying all of our heavy bags.

The last house we passed has a small covered porch with lights, so we agree to go back to there for shelter, but very quietly so that the dogs that barked as we passed won't start barking again. just as we reach the house, the dogs across the street start howling and barking. So we decide to turn back once again. Now the dogs from the house with the porch start barking too, but this time they are braver and they come barking right up to us and i have to shoo them away.

Alright then, we decide we're walking to the crossroads, through the darkness. Adriana points out that her only fear is getting assaulted, but thoughts of people in the community repeating that this is not a tense community reassuringly run through her mind. Plus, we don't seem to have much choice, and we think it is close.

So we walk and we walk, in the rain, up and down this hilly, rocky road filled with puddles. We come to a point where a river is rushing over the road, "oh shit." Its about 10 feet across and who knows how deep. "I'll cross if you will," Adriana says. So we do. It is just deep enough to fully submerge my waterproof boots, so there goes any hope of being dry.

We continue walking on, and finally after a long time we come to the crossroads, relieved that we haven't accidentally passed them already. So we put our bags down and turn off our light so as not to attract attention.

At this point I'm viscerally scared. I realize that we're absolutely in the middle of nowhere, in the dark and that if anything happens, no one would even hear us scream, we'd just have to run. Then it starts raining harder.

So we wait, crouched by the side of the road, Adriana adjusts her rain jacket to cover her both bags to protect them from the water and we make small talk and watch the fireflies.

Finally, we see some light come over the ridge, but I don't believe it until I see the headlight because I'm afraid to be disappointed.

The truck pulls up. Its a standard car that we take to get into and out of these jungle communities, basically a pickup with a jungle gym type of thing on the bed so that people can pile in, stand and hang off the back. "Esta lleno," he tells us, all full. We look at the back of the truck in desperation and indeed it is filled with people hanging from the bars standing on the bumper. He says another car will be here in a little bit and drives off.

Fortunately another car comes, but it, too, is all full. Actually 3 more come, all full. We talk the second-to-last driver into letting us hang off the back. We hop on, and Adriana is able to get both feet in. I stand on the bumper, hanging from the bars with both hands as the car struggles up and down steep hills, puddles and huge bumps. Fortunately, about halfway through the 2 and a half hour ride, I get to stand with both feet in the truck.

We're back in Junax now, and I'm so happy to be here. All of our stuff is soaked from the ride, so we're spreading it out to dry. The same wonderful people from Chiapas and Puebla who I met my first night are still here and are very welcoming. Hopefully the indymedia office here will open soon and I can post this crazy story.

global warming news

Fri, 30 Sep 2005 02:44:47 GMT

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050929083717802

Experts at the US National Snow and Data Centre in Colorado fear the region is locked into a destructive cycle with warmer air melting more ice, which in turn warms the air further. Satellite pictures show that the extent of Arctic sea ice this month dipped some 20% below the long term average for September - melting an extra 500,000 square miles, or an area twice the size of Texas. If current trends continue, the summertime Arctic Ocean will be completely ice-free well before the end of this century.

Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the Colorado centre, said melting sea ice accelerates warming because dark-coloured water absorbs heat from the sun that was previously reflected back into space by white ice. "Feedbacks in the system are starting to take hold. We could see changes in Arctic ice happening much sooner than we thought and that is important because without the ice cover over the Arctic Ocean we have to expect big changes in Earth's weath

more reprots from chiapas

Thu, 29 Sep 2005 20:54:17 GMT

reposted from san diego indymedia: 1 | 2

Once the delegation ended, Adriana and I continued working on support projects to help the Zapatista communities.

One of these projects is a follow up from a previous delegation, the Mother Seeds in Resistance delegation. This delegation had the opportunity to observe a conference that the Zapatistas held to discuss their plans to begin testing their corn for genetic contamination.

Adriana and I travelled with two of the agro-ecology promoters to the community they live in to take photos of the testing process. These photos will be disseminated through the communities so that more people can help with the testing process.

Traveling through Chiapas, you see corn fields, or milpas, everywhere. Literally every mile you drive through contains corn fields. This time of year, most of them are folded in half for drying and are beige in color.

As we document testing the process, numerous people, young and old gather to watch. Once we finish, one agro-ecology promoter invites us into his home for pozol. Pozol is a thick drink made from corn, water and sugar. It is one of the indigenous customs of this region. I am nervous about drinking it, given the already precarious state of my stomach, but I do and it is very tasty.

Afterwords, we go into San Andres to find a car back to Oventik. In San Andres, I am reminded that we are in a war zone. Many of the buildings are old and worn and many people sit on the street and look at you. I'm speaking not only of the war that the Zapatistas are waging with the Mexican government, but of the economic war the U.S. is waging with Mexico. Subcomandante Marcos has said that Neo-Liberalism and Free Trade is "the finance bomb" that the U.S. has used on Mexico.

When passing through cities and places that aren't exclusively Zapatista, it is important to be cautious of talking about why you're here. Not everyone in Chiapas supports the Zapatistas, and the danger of the situation is apparent when you're in a city looking for a ride somewhere. You don't want to end up being taken somewhere you don't want to be going. We sit on the side of the highway, waiting for a taxi to pass.

Outside of the carcoles, you never know who is Zapatista and who isn't, so you never want to talk too much about what you're doing. I had already made the mistake of talking too much in the car on the way here to San Andres, and Adriana told me I shouldn't. So I was already nervous.

The police drive by as we sit. One car offers us a ride, but our friend, the promoter, says that he thinks they are drunk. Finally an official collective taxi arrives and we drive home as night sets in.

The next day we make plans to go to another Caracol, La Garrucha. Adriana has never been there and we want to work on some projects there as well.

Before we leave, we meet with the people who run the bike workshop. They give us a detailed report of how they spent the last donation a member of a Schools for Chiapas delegation gave them. They also show us their wonderful bike workshop, with lots of well arranged tools, an air compressor for tires and for painting and a rack for holding bikes to work on. They recently received a donation to have electricity installed in their workshop, which they want us to see. They tell us of their need for more support and their plan to make the bike workshop more sustainable so that they can help set up workshops in other communities. With more tools to fix car tires, they would be able to bring in income from people needing car repair. They say that there isn't a place to repair car tires within an hour and a half drive, so it is a major need of the community.

/////

Adriana and I arrive in Ocosingo at night to take the morning car out to La Garrucha. We're told they only leave at 5am and 7am. In the morning we head down to where the cars leave from.

Again we're in this careful negotiation for transportation, where we don't want to tell everyone that we're going to La Garrucha, so it looks like the vans say they're going to San Quintin, which becomes our destination. So we sit in this huge dirt lot where vans for various destinations come, and find out that the car should be there in a few hours, and I sleep with my head on my bag.

Finally the car shows up, a pickup with a sort of cage on the back so that people can stand up and hang on. We start the ride to La Garrucha and I quickly learn why they have this setup. The road is dirt and full of holes, mud puddles and huge rocks, with steep up and down inclines through the mountains. This is the drive into the Selva Tzeltzal region in the Lacandon jungle. The trees and landscape are beautiful, but it takes all of my effort to help myself up so that my ass isn't smashed on every bump or so that my head doesn't hit the bars while I'm standing up. It's a long, difficult ride that lasts over 2 hours.

We arrive in La Garrucha at the Caracol Hacia un Nuevo Amanacer, which means towards a new dawn. The caracoles have their own names and the municipalities also have their original names and their autonomous names. It makes me think of this whole project as something so human and something I can relate to so much. What would you rename your community or city? The autonomous name for La Garrucha is Francisco Gomez. The name of the Caracol in Oventik is possibly my favorite, Caracol en Rebeldia y Resistencia por la Humanidad, or Caracol in rebellion and resistance for humanity.

We're received in La Garrucha by the comite de vigilancia, who's building has a gorgeous black, red and white mural on the outside depicting a well known photo of a Zapatista woman pushing a Mexican soldier back.

After talking to them, and the comite de comunicacíon who have a great satellite dish painted like a Zapatista on top of their office, we head to the dormitory for the peace observers. Its a short wooden building and all over the inside of it is wonderful graffiti from the many nationals and internationals who have stayed here. Some in italian, some in german, some in spanish. Some of it reads "the only good fascist is a dead fascist", "I want to be a flower, but if I can't, I'll be a rifle", "no gods, no masters and no fucking balls". I add "queremos un mundo sin capitalismo, sin fronteras, collectivo organic".

There is a lot of activity here. Possibly because of the Encuentro that was held here the past weekend to discuss the Sixth Declaration of the Selva Lacandon and the Other Campaign to send a committee of Zapatistas out of the jungle and around Mexico in order to build a broad alliance of leftist groups working outside of, or beyond, the electoral sphere.

We meet and talk to some peace observers from Argentina and Matamoros and meet a guy from Barcelona who we also saw in Oventik. He's volunteering with the health clinics.

There are lots of animals, more pigs here than in Oventik, as well as the usual dogs and chickens. There are also more beautiful murals that we photograph.

One afternoon it rains. Its a hard jungle rain that pounds on the metal roof of our dormitory. It goes on and that night the lights go out, so we all head into the cafeteria for light and company. In the cafeteria we talk to pass the hours. The woman from Matamoros talks about her work to educate people in Mexico about the grim reality of crossing the border and I tell her of our campaign against the border and for human rights for migrant people. Many people have asked Adriana and I about the US, how much it costs to go there and f there's work. Clearly the U.S.'s economic war with Mexico is taking its toll and like any war torn country, lots of people want to migrate out of it.

After about two days, we decide to head out to the municipality of Pancho Villa to learn about their schools and see what their needs are. This is another crazy ride through the muddy, rocky roads of the selva, but this time we depart at 5am for the 2 1/2 hours back out to the transportation center and 2 1/2 hours back into the deep jungle after waiting about 5 hours for a truck that will go to the community.

In Pancho Villa we have a meeting with the Education Promoters. They tell us of their many needs, like the need for a typewriter, as simple as it is. They stress that overall their schools need money because they can buy materials with the money. We also hear of their reasons for starting autonomous schools. The government schools don't teach or speak in the indigenous languages, which contributes to their disappearance and to the loss of indigenous culture. A promoter from one community tells us that the closest government school is a 5 hour walk and that the little ones can't make the walk because of the mud. Many of them speak of teaching "with love and care" and respect for the children, saying that in Mexican schools many teachers still hit the children. The promoters and the school coordinators tell us that they are still planning and working and trying to develop better methods of education than the state methods, saying that it is an important part of their autonomy.

100,000 in DC, why not in New Orleans?

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:35:11 GMT

The disonance between what is happening in Washington DC tonight and what is happening in Louisiana is too much for me to rationalize. Progressives talk about ending racism, poverty, and showing how much they "care" about other people. But it seems that for too many people, those ideals are values of convenience. And when it becomes inconvenient, uncomfortable, or frightening - then the values become almost valueless.

http://neworleans.indymedia.org/news/2005/09/5603.php

some photos from chiapas

Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:07:14 GMT

On San Diego Indymedia.

First Report from Zapatista Rebel Territory

Sun, 25 Sep 2005 19:30:24 GMT

reposted from san diego indymedia:
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/111214.shtml

At Junax, I met many awesome people who were in town for the Plenary of the EZLN over the weekend. I met some people from Puebla and D.F. but also some people from Greece who work with A School for Chiapas and Athens Indymedia. There was a lot of excitement about La Otra Campana and La Sexta and all of the new developments there.

In the morning, I took the combi from San Cris to Oventik, the caracol where I was supposed to meet Adriana from Schools for Chiapas with the rest of the delegation from the US. A combi is a van that takes lots of people to different places cheaply, for example the one hour ride to Oventic was about 15 pesos, or $1.50.

A caracol is like a center for a Zapatista community. Now that I have been here a bit I have been learning from Adriana a bit more of the structure of the Autonomous communities. There is a long history behind the name caracol, but it means mostly that the caracols are centers for information to come in and out of, and the offices of the various community councils are located there.

Driving into Oventic and passing the sign 'usted esta entrando territorio Zapatista, aqui el pueblo manda y el gobierno obedece', I realized the gravity and reality of the Zapatista struggle for the first time. Its one thing to read about the rebellion and the EZLN rising up and taking over San Cristobal and kicking out the government, but its another, far more real thing, to see a large scale autonomous zone with my own eyes.

Arriving at the gate of Oventik, you are met by the masked Guardia, or Guard, men and women who you must ask to enter. A banner in 5 languages in the auditorium where we slept describes the EZLN as 'el guardia y corazon del pueblo', the guardian and heart of the community. Once you ask to come in, the Guardia takes you to the Comite de Vigilancia, who keep track of who is coming an going from the caracol. As a Zapatista center in a war, there is a strong feeling of a culture of security here.

The first night in Oventic it rained hard. Oventic is at a very high elevation and is cold all the time. You can see the clouds hugging the surrounding mountains, and at times they envelope the caracol as well.

The next day we travelled to San Juan de La Libertad. The Junta Del Buen Gobierno emphasizes that people should go to other communities as well as Oventik, since Oventik is the closest to the city and gets the most traffic. Zapatista territory is made up of 5 regions, and each region has a caracol as its center of information. Within each region there are many municipalities and each municipality has its own Consejo, or community council. The Junta Del Buen Gobierno is a council for the entire region which makes decisions about equally distributing resources, allowing visitors in and resolving community conflicts. It is made up of volunteers from the community who are rotated every 10 days or so. At least this is my simple understanding from being here for a few days and asking questions. It seems to be like a clear, beautiful example of horizontalism and direct democracy.

On our way to San Juan de La Libertad we passed a Government military base. When we spoke to the Consejos, someone asked about the base. They told us of numerous times when the military has tried to enter the community and the men, women and children gathered and told the military to leave. Each time the military left. The consejos also told us of the community's many needs and call for continued support. They said they were very pleased and honored to have visitors from as far as the United States.

For more info see:

http://www.ezln.org
http://chiapas.indymedia.org
http://schoolsforchiapas.org

This is the first of a number of reports I plan to write about my experience here...

once again, cops get away with murder

Tue, 13 Sep 2005 20:16:31 GMT

This is from last year when a woman was shot in the eye with a "less than lethal" weapon, and died instantly. The person who shot her was trainer for police, who is supposed to instruct them to never shoot these weapons at head level.

Cops Not Charged For Murdering Innocent 21 Year Old

Officer Rochefort Milien and the other cops involved in the murder of Victoria Snelgrove, a 21 year old Emerson College at the Red Sox pennant victory celebration last year, will not face charges, the Boston Globe reports. I think some sort of protest/direct action would be appropriate, more on this if it happens.

Agora Exchange

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 02:24:09 GMT

http://agoraxchange.org

Welcome.

25 March 2005
agoraXchange is an online community for discussing and designing a massive multi-player global politics game challenging the violence and inequality of our present political system.

We put forward agoraXchange to elicit collaboration for challenging a world in which myths about birthright result in violence and suffering within and among nations and families. We urge eliminating the laws responsible for nation and marriage because we believe that these institutions misshape our material and psychic lives and constrain the imagination in ways that stunt us all.

We are disturbed by the familiarity and even acceptance of war among much of the world's population, where each day on average hundreds will die from bombs, guns, machetes: over six million dead in wars since 1989, tens of millions friends and relatives in grief. We see but cannot fathom a world in which a family will live for a year in southern Africa on less than what a few businessmen pay for a quick lunch in London. And we are mystified as to why each year tens of thousands of people should die from drowning, suffocation, dehydration, and being shot and stabbed simply because they lack a piece of paper and attempt to move between borders, to whose location they never agreed. We also believe human beings deserve an earth that has air that is not toxic, water that is uncontaminated, and an infrastructure that affords everyone basic education and health care.

Finally, we see the travails of war, hunger, restrictions of movement, environmental degradation, the lack of compassion in our political institutions and in our families, as largely rooted in laws that use birth for assigning us our place in life. It is the law of nationality that makes one's place of birth determine where one may move and live, and not competencies of language, knowledge of a Constitution, or even education. It is the laws giving us inheritance and kinship that determine whether one will have access to the hundreds of trillions of dollars in wealth from estates or whether one will grow up in poverty. It is marriage law that produces the family tree, whose roots are always national.

poverty in the US

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 02:13:55 GMT

found on To the Barricades
on Anarchoblogs

The UN has recently released a report on poverty in the United States which states that the poorest sectors of the American population live in Third World conditions. This, of course, is a little discussed fact in self-deluded Amerika (Man at Camp Casey NYC yesterday: "What if you told poor people in India, in China, people in Iraq, that there are people sleeping in the streets of New York City, people sleeping in Union Square? They wouldn't believe you! They wouldn't believe you!)

To me, the only really shocking figures relate to infant mortality, shocking in their magnitude and that we could live in such an inhumane society as to let this happen despite it being easily preventable. "The infant mortality rate in the US is now the same as in Malaysia." Malaysia. This is capitalism, my friends.

polls, do they mean anything? and another hurricane

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 01:29:39 GMT

Poll: Bush approval dips below 40 percent

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9279799/

WASHINGTON - President Bush’s job approval has dipped below 40 percent for the first time in the AP-Ipsos poll, reflecting widespread doubts about his handling of gasoline prices and the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Nearly four years after Bush’s job approval soared into the 80s after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Bush was at 39 percent job approval in an AP-Ipsos poll taken this week. That’s the lowest since the the poll was started in December 2003.

The public’s view of the nation’s direction has grown increasingly negative as well, with nearly two-thirds now saying the country is heading down the wrong track.

Also, there's another hurricane already set to hit the US. Scientists have predicted that this year will see twice as many hurricanes as previous years.
http://www.10news.com/weather/4940452/detail.html

Will Bush be put out of office by global warming, when even an illegal, immoral war couldn't? Among with 10 other huge scandals the people of the US have forgotten, including an election rampant with fraud? Or two fraudulent elections?

More Good Katrina Blogging

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 18:37:05 GMT

...there may be nothing normal about New Orleans, because the floodwater, spiked with tons of contaminants ranging from heavy metals and hydrocarbons to industrial waste, human feces and the decayed remains of humans and animals, will linger nearby in the Gulf of Mexico for a decade.

"This is the worst case," Hugh B. Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency, said of the toxic stew that contaminates New Orleans. "There is not enough money in the gross national product of the United States to dispose of the amount of hazardous material in the area."

found on Where We Are Bound

Where the fuck is the help?

We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak.

And, the crux of it?

WWL: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.
NAGIN: Really?

WWL: I know you don't feel that way.

NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request?

You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?

And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview is over.

WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.

NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.

And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

You need to listen to the audio. The man is sincere. More sincere than I've ever heard any politician. And they are both crying in the end.

Oh, and...the fucking military ad before the interview. Nice touch.

found on Drublood

found both of these on anarchoblogs.protest.net

Photos with racist captions removed from Yahoo!

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 18:30:29 GMT

white people find things. black people loot things.

These photos were removed from Yahoo's website after much internet discussion of the inherent racism of their captions. They replaced them with this statement.

The US Government bringing the war home

Fri, 02 Sep 2005 18:21:13 GMT

This is insane. They're just aying this so openly:

Gov. Kathleen Blanco called the looters "hoodlums" and issued a warning to lawbreakers: Hundreds of National Guardsmen hardened on the battlefield in Iraq have landed in New Orleans.

"They have M-16s and they're locked and loaded," she said. "These troops know how to shoot and kill, and they are more than willing to do so, and I expect they will."

From the San Diego Union Tribune.

Here it is. The war on Iraq coming home in a very, very real way. Here is our government finally saying to the poor, starving masses, so desperate for food in New Orleans that they will kill them. This is the main story today, I've read it in various places.

This is unbelievable and intolerable. This disgusting government of ours really has only one answer for our problems and the problems of the world "Shoot to Kill".

US TROOPS have been ordered to shoot to kill to stop the anarchy that has overtaken hurricane-devastated New Orleans.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco said the 300 troopers from the Arkansas National Guard had been authorised to open fire on "hoodlums" who terrorised the flooded city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"These troops are fresh back from Iraq, well trained, experienced, battle tested, and under my orders to restore order in the streets," Ms Blanco said.

Meanwhile, the chaos is getting even worse. I've read reports that 300,000-400,000 people are still inside New Orleans. This morning there were explosions and fires.

By midmorning Friday, despite a constant buzzing of military helicopters overhead, there was still no sign of the relief to the tens of thousands lined up outside the convention center.

"I'm trying to keep hope alive, but slowly my hope is fading," said refugee Carl Clark. "Believe it or not, these people are human. Right now they're crowded like animals. They're trying to keep their dignity. ... I don't even know what the Red Cross looks like."

Raymond Whitfield, 51, watched a National Guard truck drive by the convention center, but like most other official vehicles, it did not stop.

"The National Guard just drives around and around. I know the police, the National Guard, they got generators, so they can sleep and eat," he said.

"Look at them," he said of the men inside the truck, "they're not even sweating."

"Everybody's on the edge right now," said 28-year-old Kenya Green. "Every day, it's 'The bus is coming, The bus is coming,' but still nothing. ... They don't give us no information."

...

Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell – it's every man for himself.'"

And people wonder why they are shooting at the helicopters and the police? Think about being a person who's lived your whole life knowing that the police don't help, they just show up to hurt you. Then think about being in this situation where the National Guard is driving by and not helping you and your dying family, where the helicopters are flying over your ruined home and not doing anything to help. Wouldn't you shoot at them too? In the desperate hope that their vehicle might have some food, or fuel or water in it?

Apparently, Black members of congress are angry about the federal response. Of course this language of "hoodlums" ignores the real human suffering and need on the ground and criminalizes anyone trying to feed their children in a disaster situation.

Why isn't everybody angry about the federal response? We have a natural disaster and Bush's answer is SHOOT TO KILL?!?!

while we're spending hundreds of billions on war

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 19:32:30 GMT

poverty is increasing, fewer people hav health care and people are making less money, according to business week.

on hurricanes, institutionalized racism in the corporate media and looting cops

Wed, 31 Aug 2005 17:57:41 GMT

http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/006681.html

updates on violent rave shut down

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 01:36:18 GMT

Interview with one of the promoters on radioActive sanDiego:
archive on radio.indymedia.org

More at www.music-versus-guns.org

======


Sir-,

We wish to deplore and condemn the violent, abusive and uncalled for actions
by a militarized task force of Utah police raiding an electronic dance music
event on August 20th, 2005.

The use of armed force to subdue so-called undesirable elements of society
has a long history: the Civil Rights movement, anti-war demonstrations, and
Women's Equality have all witnessed the blunt end of a system of law that
has been later, and justly, found in the wrong. For the past twenty years,
this systematic use of militarized force has been directed against
electronic dance music cultures, not only in the United States but
throughout the world, and often under the supposed reasoning of the War on
Drugs, as well as due to mostly inaccurate perceptions of electronic dance
music culture as violent, drug-ridden, and sexually irresponsible.

As educators, academics, artists and researchers of electronic dance music
culture, we wish to dispel these all-too prevalent myths that raves--the
primary form of experience and expression of this multifaceted, global and
diverse culture--are the dens of illegality they are made out to be. Raves
and other electronic dance culture events are, on the whole, a far safer and
more affirmative experience than most bars, hockey rinks and football games;
certainly they warrant no special attention among the fundamental rights of
humans to appreciate, gather and express their freedoms. At their best,
raves exhibit the positive characteristics that electronic dance music
culture cherishes and cultivates: a sense of peace and respect shared
through the common love of dance, art and music. They are today's carnivals
and fairs, the folk gatherings that humanity has enjoyed for millenia.

We feel that electronic dance music culture has been unduly marked by a far
more dangerous and violent sector, in short, a State bent on the
militarization of society. We ask of the public to celebrate and protect
their rights and freedoms in the face of ever-increasing limitations and
pressures. Without the ability to express the freedoms every human
cherishes, the ubiquitous rhetoric that necessitates their defense with
force rings all the more hollow.

Yours sincerely,


======

Fascism: coming to a party near you!

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:02:28 GMT

So it looks like the kind of police state violence that protesters have been experiencing for so many years is finally reaching its ugly fingers into mainstream parts of society in the United States.

At a Rave this weekend, members of the US Military conducted a raid of the event complete with barking dogs and violent arrests.

Watch This Movie and learn what the US is turning into
Read More, see photos and story

It's getting to be about that time folks, when we all have to stand up and fight back. How much is it going to take?

This is strangely, very similar to the recent violent raid on the Czech Tekno Festival which left One dead and over 50 injured

Also this weekend, non-violent demonstrators at recruiting centers in Pittsburgh were subjected to tasers and dog bites. Tasers have been linked to over 70 deaths.

so no other imc's thought this was useful?

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 09:52:16 GMT

I was trying for a bit to get other Mir based IMC's to put a link in their navigation that says "Help Support IMC Software" and links to this page:

http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/MirNeedsAndRequests

maybe the text of the link can be improved.

unfortunately, i haven't seen it on any imc's except for ours, san diego. translation would help too.

a new low for wal-mart: murder

Sat, 20 Aug 2005 07:13:41 GMT

from:
To The Barricades

Wal-Mart's corporate office on Tuesday refused to discuss its procedures for detaining and using force against shoplifting suspects in wake of the death of Stacy Clay Driver, 30, on Sunday.

Driver, of Cleveland, was chased by employees after he left the store in the 6600 block of FM 1960 East with items they said he stole. Four employees in the Atascocita Wal-Mart wrestled Driver, who was shirtless at the time, to the ground and struggled with him on the hot pavement for 10 to 30 minutes, witnesses said. He stopped breathing and later died at a Humble hospital.

and while we're on the topic of fucked up corporations...

Disney Accused of Condoning Sweatshops (again)

The Detroit Free Press reports that the labor advocacy group, National Labor Committee, has released a collection of reports on the systematic use of sweatshops in Disney’s supply chain.

In China, young women and men are forced to work 10 to 13 hours a day producing Disney’s children’s books six and seven days a week, working a grueling 60 to 90 hours a week. The workers are paid just 33 to 41 cents an hour, trapping them in misery. It is common for the workers to be cheated of their overtime pay. In some factories, women are denied their legal maternity rights. Eight to 12 workers are housed in primitive dorm rooms sleeping on double level bunk beds and fed horrible food at the factory canteen. Workers often faint from exhaustion and the unbearably stifling heat in the factories. Workers have no health insurance, no pension, no rights. They have no right to freedom of association or to organize.

from Guerilla Science

fascism and the minutemen

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 18:21:10 GMT

There is a great posting on sd indymedia today explaining how the Minutemen, and the other racist vigilante groups that have been popping up around the US to oppose migration, are a clear example of fascism, by looking at historical examples.

from
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2005/08/110496.shtml

fascism is...

15.08.2005 11:04

A bunch of racists advocating violence against migrant people is plain old fascism. How much more obvious can you get? But if you really must press the issue, you fit into all of the following categories:

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism. From the prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins, the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the regime itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity were common themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually coupled with a suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on xenophobia.

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda, the population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame forfailures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and“terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism. Ruling elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructure that supported it. A disproportionate share of national resources was allocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute. The military was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite.

5. Rampant sexism. Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses.

7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was usually an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond any constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting “national security,” and questioning its activities was portrayed as unpatriotic or even treasonous.

8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion.

9. Power of corporations protected. Although the personal life of ordinary citizens was under strict control, the ability of large corporations to operate in relative freedom was not compromised. The ruling elite saw the corporate structure as a way to not only ensure military production (in developed states), but also as an additional means of social control. Members of the economic elite were often pampered by the political elite to ensure a continued mutuality of interests, especially in the repression of “have-not” citizens.

10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated. Since organized labor was seen as the one power center that could challenge the political hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was inevitably crushed or made powerless. The poor formed an underclass, viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being poor was considered akin to a vice.

12. Obsession with crime and punishment. Most of these regimes maintained Draconian systems of criminal justice with huge prison populations. The police were often glorified and had almost unchecked power, leading to rampant abuse. “Normal” and political crime were often merged into trumped-up criminal charges and sometimes used against political opponents of the regime. Fear, and hatred, of criminals or “traitors” was often promoted among the population as an excuse for more police power.

Excerpted from a study of the charasteristics of fascism in the following regimes: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Franco’s Spain, Salazar’s Portugal, Papadopoulos’s Greece, Pinochet’s Chile, and Suharto’s Indonesia.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4113.htm

Interrupt the Forum! Stop the Minutemen!

Thu, 11 Aug 2005 04:23:53 GMT

http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2005/08/110431.shtml

This is where our tax dollars go, to Senators organizing racist anti-immigrant forums for the Minutemen to spew their hate in Southern California.

Fortunately, a number of social justice and migrant solidarity groups will be converging on this forum to put a stop to it. It's going to be a circus.

Check out the background articles too. The school cancelled on them, so they sued the superintendent, who then backed down.

Can you say "institutionalized racism"? This is such a huge example, from the Senator starting it to the judge supporting the lawsuit.

Anarchism Triumphant

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 15:52:00 GMT

Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright
by Eben Moglen

The spread of the Linux operating system kernel has directed attention at the free software movement. This paper shows why free software, far from being a marginal participant in the commercial software market, is the vital first step in the withering away of the intellectual property system.

I. Software as Property: The Theoretical Paradox
II. Software as Property: The Practical Problem
III. Anarchism as a Mode of Production
IV. Their Lordships Die in the Dark?
Conclusion

ftaa summit of the americas in Argentine, Nov 4-5th

Tue, 09 Aug 2005 07:40:25 GMT

Can someone please help translate all this awesome info from Indymedia Argentina about the upcoming mobilizations?

http://argentina.indymedia.org/features/resistencia/

If so, see:

http://translations.indymedia.org/Translations/1123573060/index_html