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From the South Bronx – Southern Louisana Rebuilding Healthy People, Healthy Families And Healthy Communities
Enjoy a wonderful spring night roofstop with ……
Film Screening: “When the Levee’s Broke” & “ Jena Six”
Music by DJ SABINE
Performance by Climbing Poetree
Words from the Womyn of Casa Atabex Ache organizing the retreat.
Womyn of COLOR Grassroots Healing Team/ Louisiana Relief Through the People
When the government in place does not respond because I am Black, because I am poor, because I am Brown, because I am an immigrant, because I am a womyn, because I’m Queer, because I am a worker, I do not have to wait. I can create what I have been asking for. Self-Determination begins when people meet their own needs to go beyond survival. Therefore, when the government does not, our needs are not forgotten.
Creating a JUST, Sacred and Sustainable World!
WHAT: A 3day self-healing & organizing retreat that the spirit and soul of organizers & activist in New Orleans .
WHEN: Thursday, MAY 29, 2008
WHERE: Bluestocking ROOFTOP, 85 Stanton Street Apt 6A
TIME: 7-10pm
DONATION: $7-$10
Rain Space: Casa Atabex Ache @ 471 East 140th Street
/ for more info call Karen @ 718-585-5540/Karen
atcasa@aol.com
Never allow anyone to be your priority while allowing
yourself to be their option.
471 East 140th Street Basement LVL
Bronx, NY 10454
718-584-5540
www.casaatabexache.org
Join the Audre Lorde Project for two days of skills-building and political discussions about power, privilege & oppression.
May 3-4, 2008
11:30 AM - 6:00 PM (both days)
lunch at 11:30 AM; snacks throughout the day
DEADLINE TO SUBMIT YOUR REGISTRATION: Friday April 25th, 2008
There are a limited number of slots available.
This training is for: Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Two Spirit, Trans and Gender Non Conforming People of Color
*examine race, class, gender, police violence, transphobia & homophobia, immigration and health;
*develop creative strategies for fighting oppression;
*learn how to plan campaigns & actions;
*build facilitation and leadership skills; and
*share personal stories and learn about the journeys of others
Build both individual and collective power as a result of our training program!
DARE TO BE POWERFUL!
To sign up for the next training series, email the attached registration form to rmurray(at)alp.org by Friday April 25th, 2008. If your registration is accepted you will receive notification the week prior to the training.
“We are the gentlemen who work in the ocean … since the [Somali] civil war began the ocean has been our Mother.”
These are the words of the anonymous spokesperson of the Ocean Salvation Corps, a group of seafaring Somalians who refuse the label of pirate.
On Feb. 1st, the Gentlemen hijacked the Svitzer Korsakov, a tugboat on its way to break ice at Sakhalin II, a controversial natural gas project off the coast of Russia that threatens, among a great number of species and habitats, the critically endangered Western Pacific Gray Whale. They held the ship until March 18th, whereupon they released the ship and crew unharmed after receiving $700,000 as ransom.
The international media was quick to label the attack as just another strike by profiteering pirates. Since 1991, when a civil war broke out and deposed the totalitarian military rule of General Siad Barre, the 1,880 miles of Somalia’s coast have been considered a haven for piracy. Often, these pirates will claim to have the authority of one or another warlord and will hold foreign ships hostage until ransom is paid.
These men bloodlessly captured the Svitzer Korsakov in the Gulf of Aden and took the six members of its crew—including four Russian nationals, one Irish national and one British national—hostage, but they initially refused to ask ransom, claiming their intention to bring the seized vessels before justice. They had also taken control of an Omani fishing vessel. They explained themselves in an interview with Radio Garowe:
“I have contacted you after hearing reports through international media that pirates hijacked a ship after it left the port of Bossaso,” the anonymous spokesperson said. “The ships we now control have the equipment which destroyed the Indian Ocean.”
The man said that the Svitzer Korsakov was “part of the environmental destruction” and that the Omani fishing vessel had “more than 70,000 tons of fish species onboard.” He went on to say that they promised to safeguard any journalist who would like to confirm their reports first hand.
No reporter did so, of course.
The spokesperson also told the radio station that although “it has been the tradition to take ransom payment, […] we will bring these ships in front of the law.”
The hostages where unharmed during their ordeal.
It is interesting to note that since Somalia’s government has collapsed, small “fiefdom” governments have been selling licenses to allow foreign ships to overfish to a remarkable degree, resulting in further poverty for many Somalians and a increasing environmental disaster in the waters. The Svitzer was not innocent either:
The Svitzer Korsakov is a tug vessel owned by Svitzer, a Danish company. Svitzer’s parent company is Moller-Maersk, a massive energy and shipping corporation based out of Copenhagen. The boat was built in St. Petersburg and was on its maiden voyage to Sakhalin when it was captured. The Russian built, Danish owned, internationally staffed vessel was flying the flag of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a flag of convenience that allows Svitzer to avoid taxation, labor laws and safety regulations.
On Feb. 5th, Omar Shafdero was arrested for his alleged connection to the hijackers. Omar, an employee of the Puntland Ministry of Finance—Puntland being a semi-autonomous region of Somalia—escaped jail a short time later under mysterious circumstances.
NATO was contacted and the US Navy responded. They tracked the hijackers to Eyl, a small coastal town in Puntland. On Feb. 11th, they fired upon a number of local boats under the presumption that they might be aiding the Ocean Preservation Corps. The US Navy also fired three missiles into the town, destroying the airstrip, but no casualties were reported.
On Feb. 13th, a Puntland police force raided the town and exchanged fire with gunmen thought to be re-supplying the hijackers. One police officer was injured and one unarmed civilian was killed.
By the next day, many families evacuated the town, unable to fish for fear of the US Navy, unable to stay on the mainland for fear of further violence.
The Navy continued to blockade the hijackers until March 18th, when a ransom of $700,000 was paid for the Svitzer’s release.
Whether through intention or happenstance (and there seems little reason to doubt their intelligence), the Ocean Salvation Corps struck a very controversial target. Sakhalin Island, the Svitzer Korsakov’s destination, is home to an expansive, expensive and destructive gas and oil project: Sakhalin II.
The existing resource extraction infrastructure on Sakhalin—an island off the coast of Siberia and immediately north of Japan—has already been in the habit of dumping millions of tons of waste into the island’s Aniva Bay. But the new project, estimated to provide 8% of the world’s LNG needs, will be significantly more destructive when fully operational. Over 500 miles of LNG pipeline will be run from one end of the island to the other, crossing through dense coniferous forests and over 1000 waterways. Over 100 miles will be run underwater, impeding on the only known feeding ground of the Western Pacific Gray Whale—of which there are estimated to be less than 100 individuals left. It will also impact at least 10 other endangered species, as well as destroying much of the local fishing and reindeer herding economy.
Also of interest is the area’s high level of tectonic activity, with a Richter 6 quake in 2000 and in 1995 a 7.6 Richter quake killed over 2000 on the island.
Sakhalin II is a project run by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, Ltd., a consortium led by Gazprom, a Russian government owned business. The other leading investors are Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui.
Already, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a prospective financer, has withdrawn support after citing the absurd level of ecological devastation that the project will cause. Banks operating under the Equator Principles—a set of guidelines for global development financing—have refused funding as well.
So far, at least three Japanese businesses are set to receive LNG from Sakhalin: Tokyo Gas, Tokyo Electric Power Company and Kyushu Electric Power Company. Korea and the USA are also set to receive LNG from Sakhalin. Russians, however, will be unable to afford the energy, as the prices have been set at the international level, rather than the Russian level.
Fortunately, Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources has put a least a temporary halt on the project, citing incomplete documentation of the environmental impacts.
The oil that spilled into the San Francisco bay was black. We are the black army.
Last night we paintbombed and vandalized a Bank of America in Berkeley. The bank is on Shattuck Avenue near the Berkeley/Albany border. The ATMs and the walls of the entrance were covered with paint and a message was left on one of the walls facing the street: THIS BANK KILLS MOUNTAINS (A).
Bank of America invests in companies which, in order to extract coal from the planet, destroy entire mountains and then dump their remains into the valleys below. this practice, known as mountain top removal, destroys hundreds of ecosystems, rivers and mountains which took thousands of years to form.
And yet Bank of America fully finances documentaries like 'Planet Earth', a spectacle designed to make humans feel sad about the rape and devastation of the planet while simultaneously rendering them completely passive. a screen cannot replace reality. An electronic polar bear is not a polar bear. Bank of America funded this documentary in an attempt to buy a 'green' image. the only reason it funded such an undertaking was to trick the population into thinking they gave a shit about the planet. Let us assure you, they do not.
Bank of America invests in many other things as well, things which we advise you to research. the black army does not wish to do all the work you should be doing.
Many other corporations invest in many other things. for example, VW and McConalds are investors in the 2008 Olympic games...
The oil that flooded the bay was not brought here by us. It was brought here by them. we are merely giving it back to them in a million different ways. The black army has no members. If you wish to join the black army, feel free.
We would like to wish everyone in San Francisco godspeed today.
-the black army
Linda Nguyen , Canwest News Service
A judge in Sydney, N.S., granted bail Sunday for two men arrested Saturday on an anti-sealing vessel in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The two officers of the Dutch-registered vessel, the Farley Mowat, were taken into RCMP custody early Saturday following a confrontation with a coast guard ship on March 30.
The men have been charged with approaching a seal hunt without a permit.
The Farley Mowat closes in on a sealing vessel off the east coast of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Handout
Captain Alexander Cornelissen and first officer Peter Hammarstedt will be released on $5,000 bail, a spokeswoman with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said Sunday.
“They haven’t been released yet,” Allison Lance said Sunday. “We’re posting bail and they will be released as soon as that happens.”
If convicted, the maximum penalty is six months in jail and a $100,000 fine.
A criminal trial has been set for May 1.
Cornelissen and Hammarstedt were the only two who were criminally charged after armed RCMP officers seized the Farley Mowat, and arrested 17 of its crew members.
Everyone was brought into Sydney late Saturday night.
Lance said six crew members remain in custody by Canada Customs and Immigration because they declined to fill in immigration papers.
“They have refused to sign themselves into Canada,” she said. “They didn’t want to come into Canada. They were brought at gunpoint into Canada.”
The six have been identified as Amber Paarman of South Africa, Dan Villa, Greg Hager and Merilee Nyland of the United States, Anne Fournier of France and Merryn Redenbach of Australia.
The group have gone on hunger strike to protest their situation.
The 11 who have been released, have also staged a hunger strike in front of the jail where their fellow crew members are being detained.
Lance said the seized Farley Mowat is expected to arrive at the Sydney harbour later Sunday.
Canada’s fisheries minister Loyola Hearn defended his decision to raid the anti-sealing ship Saturday, saying that it had taken place in Canadian waters and in accordance with Canadian fisheries legislation.
He said the ship had failed to comply with warnings to proceed immediately to Sydney and continued to violate marine and fisheries regulations.
Canadian authorities allege that the Mowat endangered lives when it came close to a group of sealers on March 30, about 60 kilometres off of Cape Breton.
Nova Scotia sealer Shane Briand said at one point, the Mowat broke the ice up beneath a sealer as he stood on a floe.
Briand said the much larger Mowat harassed his ship and crew until a coast guard icebreaker arrived and put itself between the two ships.
The Fisheries Department says during the incident the icebreaker was “grazed” by the Mowat, while the Sea Shepherd Society says its ship was rammed.
In a news release Sunday, Captain Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said he is worried about images and video that were contained on computers and laptops on the Mowat now under the possession of the Canadian Department of Fisheries.
“It is these images of brutal sadistic slaughter on the ice floes that Canada is desperate to keep hidden,” he said in the statement. “What the Sea Shepherd crew have witnessed over the last two weeks has exposed the lies of Canadian government claims that the seal slaughter is inhumane.”
Watson who was en route to Sydney Sunday, called the arrests “an act of war,” claiming that the vessel had been out of Canadian jurisdiction when it was seized.
See also:
Hysterical Hearn Hatefully Harasses Harp Seal Heroes
Seal Defenders Attacked!
The Farley Mowat Has Been Illegally Stormed and
the Crew Assaulted
JOIN US THURSDAY APRIL 17TH TO RALLY, MARCH & CELEBRATE THE FIGHT FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE!
3:00pm - RALLY at Union Square (wear RED for SOLIDARITY!)
4:00pm - MARCH down Broadway
5-7:30 - Community Celebration in Judson Memorial Church (Share a FREE DINNER - $4.00 Metro Card and CHILDCARE provided!)
This Community Day of Action brings together our community to speak out against all forms of economic oppression of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, trans and gender nonconforming people:
We rally against violence against our communities and within families; We demand accountability from the HRA and city agencies who refuse to follow the law and comply with providing non-discriminatory services for LGBT/GNC folks; Recognition that the fight for state-sanctioned marriage has eclipsed more pressing issues such as homelessness, unemployment, healthcare,immigrant-rights, police brutality; We oppose the effort to gentrify and privatize the public spaces homeless people call home, which leads to the targeting of the poor and homeless by the NYPD; We condemn the racist and xenophobic "immigration debates" in congress and oppose indefinite and mandatory detention of non-citizens.
Join us after the march and rally for a COMMUNITY CELEBRATION in Judson Memorial Church (55 Washington Square South). Come together over dinner with performances, small groups, games (food, Metro Card and childcare provided!).
We have an ever-growing list of endorsers we are very proud to announce including:
-Ali Forney Center
-Audre Lorde Project
-Brecht Forum
-Bronx Community Pride Center
-CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities
-Casa Atabex Ache
-CHAMP
-Child Care Collective/Regeneracion
-Coalition for the Homeless
-Domestic Workers United
-Empire State Coalition of Youth and Family Services -FIERCE!
-Generation Q
-Immigrant Justice Solidarity Project
-Irish Queers
-Jews for Racial and Economic Justice
-The LGBT Community Center
-Metropolitan Community Church
-Movement for Justice in el Barrio
-National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce
-NYC Association of Homeless and Street Involved Youth Organizations
-NYC Anti-Violence Project
-Q-Wave
-Sylvia Rivera Law Project
If your organization would like to join the growing list of endorsers or receive more information about endorsing or the action itself please contact Elysa (elysa.fein@gmail.com) or Reg (reginald.gossett@gmail.com) through e-mail or by phone: (212) 564-3608
Check out our facebook page!
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=14
We would love to have everyone's solidarity and support and see you out there with us on Thursday, April 17th fighting for economic justice within the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender non-conforming communities and economic justice for all!
A benefit for the In Our Hearts Network and the 123 Community Space in Brooklyn.
with:
Broadcast Live (anarchist hip-hop band from Albany)
From the Depths (new ex-Requiem & Catharsis hardcore Crimethinc. band from NC)
Brother Justice (revolutionary MC from the 512 Collective)
Agnostic Prey (post punk: members of Rabia & Oogle Orphanage 1st show)
Whack (energetic anarcho-dance Balkan influenced rhythms)
Show starts at 9pm, doors at 8pm
At John Bosch
744 Willoughby Ave
Brooklyn NY
JMZ or G trains to Myrtle Ave
Please don't bring outside alcohol and absolutely NO GLASS BOTTLES. We will have a bar that serves Liberation Lemonade along with stronger stuff.
$7-20 Donations requested
Don't forget to check out the 2nd annual 2008 NYC Anarchist Film Festival Friday and the Bookfair during the day Saturday.
Upcoming events:
April 15th ABC Political Prisoner Leter Writing Night at 123
April 20th Really Really Free Market at Pratt in Brooklyn followed by Grub a free community dinner
Get involved with In Our Hearts!
Do you have an idea you think we'd be interested in that you'd like help with, or do you want to help out with an existing project? Get in touch and maybe we can support each other. We always need volunteers to help us gather and cook food for Grub community dinners, fund-raise for political prisoners, organizing Really Really Free Markets as well as street actions and helping out at the 123 space.
--
In Our Hearts is a New York City based anarchist network made up of autonomous collectives, projects & individuals who share the goal of building a culture of resistance in the City and beyond.
123 Tompkins Ave., Brooklyn
www.123communityspace.org
www.myspace.com/anewworldinourh
Read Bombs and Shields http://bombsandshields.com/ - Stories of struggle and resistance from around the world, meant to inspire and incite strong hearts.
The Struggle for Quality Public Education: 1968-2008
Stanley Aronowitz, Sally Lee, Edwin Mayorga, Roberta Thomas & Jitu Weusi
1968 REVISITED
Co-sponsors: New York Coalition of Radical Educators & Teachers Unite
In 1968, Ocean Hill-Brownsville, Brooklyn, was the site of an experiment that gave local communities control of their public schools. The controversy sparked from this movement still resonates throughout the city. This panel discussion will explore the political moment that gave rise to the community control experiment and will attempt to compare it to today's context. How are NYC Communities responding to the current mayoral control of our public schools? How do these contrasting forms of school governance impact classroom teaching and learning?
Panelists include: Stanley Aronowitz, author of Education Under Siege: The Conservative, Liberal, and Radical Debate over Schooling; Sally Lee, Teachers Unite; Edwin Mayorga, New York Coalition of Radical Educators; Roberta Thomas, Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE) and Jitu Weusi, Teacher in Ocean Hill Brownsville.
The Brecht Forum451 West Street
(Between Bank and Bethune off of the West Side Highway)
212-242-4201
www.brechtforum.org
Thursday, April 10
7:30 pm
Sliding scale: $6/$10/$15
Free for Brecht Forum Subscribers
On Sunday morning the intersection of North 9th Avenue and 6th Street was witness to the unusual sight of approximately 30 volunteer workers digging holes, planting plants, and installing park benches on some vacant ground just north of downtown.
Consisting of a variety of concerned people, including neighborhood residents, staff of nearby businesses and non-profits, and visiting youth, the group spent most of the day building what a new sign announces to be the “Ramona-Magon Memorial Garden and Autonomous Community Park.” Created without city involvement, the new garden is meant, according to one participant, to be a protest and obstacle to the city’s proposed, and highly controversial, Downtown Links project.
Downtown Links is the latest plan to connect the Barraza-Aviation Parkway to Interstate 10, a highly contested and ever-changing scheme that has been in progress for decades. The project would include a 4-lane, high-traffic road, and the newest alignment for the road would call for it cutting right through the vacant land where the new garden is now installed. Neighborhood stakeholders are upset because this road would evict several local organizations and businesses, including BICAS (the nonprofit bicycle education organization), in addition to cutting off and isolating the Dunbar-Spring neighborhood from downtown.
Discussion and argument continue between planners, officials, and stakeholders. One Dunbar-Spring resident stated after a March 11 meeting on the issue “The way this process is happening is totally disrespectful of downtown residents and this might mean we need to make more noise…. The City Council is making the decision. They need to hear from us… how many neighborhoods, businesses, and individuals are against the new alignment and the process that created it.
Meanwhile, the volunteer gardeners plan to return to the site regularly to add to and maintain the plants, and they strongly encourage community use of and involvement in the garden.
