Katrina's Hidden Race War
In New Orleans's Algiers Point, white vigilantes
shot African-Americans with impunity
Research support provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.
By A.C. Thompson
December 18, 2008
The way Donnell Herrington tells it, there was no warning. One second he was trudging through the heat. The next he was lying prostrate on the pavement, his life spilling out of a hole in his throat, his body racked with pain, his vision blurred and distorted.
It was September 1, 2005, some three days after Hurricane Katrina crashed into New Orleans, and somebody had just blasted Herrington, who is African-American, with a shotgun. "I just hit the ground. I didn't even know what happened," recalls Herrington, a burly 32-year-old with a soft drawl.
The sudden eruption of gunfire horrified Herrington's companions—his cousin Marcel Alexander, then 17, and friend Chris Collins, then 18, who are also black. "I looked at Donnell and he had this big old hole in his neck," Alexander recalls. "I tried to help him up, and they started shooting again." Herrington says he was staggering to his feet when a second shotgun blast struck him from behind; the spray of lead pellets also caught Collins and Alexander. The buckshot peppered Alexander's back, arm and buttocks.
Herrington shouted at the other men to run and turned to face his attackers: three armed white males. Herrington says he hadn't even seen the men or their weapons before the shooting began. As Alexander and Collins fled, Herrington ran in the opposite direction, his hand pressed to the bleeding wound on his throat. Behind him, Herrington says, the gunmen yelled, "Get him! Get that nigger!"
The attack occurred in Algiers Point. The Point, as locals call it, is a neighborhood within a neighborhood, a small cluster of ornate, immaculately maintained 150-year-old houses within the larger Algiers district. A nationally recognized historic area, Algiers Point is largely white, while the rest of Algiers is predominantly black. It's a "white enclave" whose residents have "a kind of siege mentality," says Tulane University historian Lance Hill, noting that some white New Orleanians "think of themselves as an oppressed minority."
A wide street lined with towering trees, Opelousas Avenue marks the dividing line between Algiers Point and greater Algiers, and the difference in wealth between the two areas is immediately noticeable. "On one side of Opelousas it's 'hood, on the other side it's suburbs," says one local. "The two sides are totally opposite, like muddy and clean."
Algiers Point has always been somewhat isolated: it's perched on the west bank of the Mississippi River, linked to the core of the city only by a ferry line and twin gray steel bridges. When the hurricane descended on Louisiana, Algiers Point got off relatively easy. While wide swaths of New Orleans were deluged, the levees ringing Algiers Point withstood the Mississippi's surging currents, preventing flooding; most homes and businesses in the area survived intact. As word spread that the area was dry, desperate people began heading toward the west bank, some walking over bridges, others traveling by boat. The National Guard soon designated the Algiers Point ferry landing an official evacuation site. Rescuers from the Coast Guard and other agencies brought flood victims to the ferry terminal, where soldiers loaded them onto buses headed for Texas.
In the case of one shooting victim, evidence indicates that the local police may have been complicit in his death. Eyewitnesses didn't see where the bullet came from, but when they took a bleeding Henry Glover to a police staging area hoping for medical assistance, they were met by blows instead. See A.C. Thompson's companion piece, "Body of Evidence."
Facing an influx of refugees, the residents of Algiers Point could have pulled together food, water and medical supplies for the flood victims. Instead, a group of white residents, convinced that crime would arrive with the human exodus, sought to seal off the area, blocking the roads in and out of the neighborhood by dragging lumber and downed trees into the streets. They stockpiled handguns, assault rifles, shotguns and at least one Uzi and began patrolling the streets in pickup trucks and SUVs. The newly formed militia, a loose band of about fifteen to thirty residents, most of them men, all of them white, was looking for thieves, outlaws or, as one member put it, anyone who simply "didn't belong."
The existence of this little army isn't a secret—in 2005 a few newspaper reporters wrote up the group's activities in glowing terms in articles that showed up on an array of pro-gun blogs; one Cox News story called it "the ultimate neighborhood watch." Herrington, for his part, recounted his ordeal in Spike Lee's documentary When the Levees Broke. But until now no one has ever seriously scrutinized what happened in Algiers Point during those days, and nobody has asked the obvious questions. Were the gunmen, as they claim, just trying to fend off looters? Or does Herrington's experience point to a different, far uglier truth?
Over the course of an eighteen-month investigation, I tracked down figures on all sides of the gunfire, speaking with the shooters of Algiers Point, gunshot survivors and those who witnessed the bloodshed. I interviewed police officers, forensic pathologists, firefighters, historians, medical doctors and private citizens, and studied more than 800 autopsies and piles of state death records. What emerged was a disturbing picture of New Orleans in the days after the storm, when the city fractured along racial fault lines as its government collapsed.
Herrington and Alexander's experience fits into a broader pattern of violence in which, evidence indicates, at least eleven people were shot. In each case the targets were African-American men, while the shooters, it appears, were all white.
The new information should reframe our understanding of the catastrophe. Immediately after the storm, the media portrayed African-Americans as looters and thugs—Mayor Ray Nagin, for example, told Oprah Winfrey that "hundreds of gang members" were marauding through the Superdome. Now it's clear that some of the most serious crimes committed during that time were the work of gun-toting white males.
So far, their crimes have gone unpunished. No one was ever arrested for shooting Herrington, Alexander and Collins—in fact, there was never an investigation. I found this story repeated over and over during my days in New Orleans. As a reporter who has spent more than a decade covering crime, I was startled to meet so many people with so much detailed information about potentially serious offenses, none of whom had ever been interviewed by police detectives.
Hill, who runs Tulane's Southern Institute for Education and Research and closely follows the city's racial dynamics, isn't surprised the Algiers Point gunmen have eluded arrest. Because of the widespread notion that blacks engaged in looting and thuggery as the disaster unfolded, Hill believes, many white New Orleanians approved of the vigilante activity that occurred in places like Algiers Point. "By and large, I think the white mentality is that these people are exempt—that even if they committed these crimes, they're really exempt from any kind of legal repercussion," Hill tells me. "It's sad to say, but I think that if any of these cases went to trial, and none of them have, I can't see a white person being convicted of any kind of crime against an African-American during that period."
You can trace the origins of the Algiers Point militia to the misfortune of Vinnie Pervel. A 52-year-old building contractor and real estate entrepreneur with a graying buzz cut and mustache, Pervel says he lost his Ford van in a carjacking the day after Katrina made landfall, when an African-American man attacked him with a hammer. "The kid whacked me," recalls Pervel, who is white. "Hit me on the side of the head." Vowing to prevent further robberies, Pervel and his neighbors began amassing an arsenal. "For a day and a half we were running around getting guns," he says. "We got about forty."
Things quickly got ugly. Pervel remembers aiming a shotgun at a random African-American man walking by his home—even though he knew the man had no connection to the theft of his vehicle. "I don't want you passing by my house!" Pervel says he shouted out.
Pervel tells me he feared goons would kill his mother, who is in her 70s. "We thought we would be dead," he says. "We thought we were doomed." And so Pervel and his comrades set about fortifying the area. One resident gave me video footage of the leafy barricades the men constructed to keep away outsiders. Others told me they created a low-tech alarm system, tying aluminum cans and glass bottles together and stringing them across the roads at ankle height. The bottles and cans would rattle noisily if somebody bumped into them, alerting the militia.
Pervel and his armed neighbors point to the very real chaos that was engulfing the city and claim they had no other choice than to act as they did. They paint themselves as righteous defenders of property, a paramilitary formation protecting their neighborhood from opportunistic thieves. "I'm not a racist," Pervel insists. "I'm a classist. I want to live around people who want the same things as me."
Nathan Roper, another vigilante, says he was unhappy that outsiders were disturbing his corner of New Orleans and that he was annoyed by the National Guard's decision to use the Algiers Point ferry landing as an evacuation zone. "I'm telling you, it was forty, fifty people at a time getting off these boats," says Roper, who is in his 50s and works for ServiceMaster, a house cleaning company. The storm victims were "hoodlums from the Lower Ninth Ward and that part of the city," he says. "I'm not a prejudiced individual, but you just know the outlaws who are up to no good. You can see it in their eyes."
The militia, according to Roper, was armed with "handguns, rifles [and] shotguns"; he personally carried "a .38 in my waistband" and a "little Uzi." "There was a few people who got shot around here," Roper, a slim man with a weathered face, tells me. "I know of at least three people who got shot. I know one was dead 'cause he was on the side of the road."
During the summer of 2005 Herrington was working as an armored car driver for the Brink's company and living in a rented duplex about a mile from Algiers Point. Katrina thrashed the place, blowing out windows, pitching a hefty pine tree limb through the roof and dumping rain on Herrington's possessions. On the day of the shooting, Herrington, Alexander and Collins were all trying to escape the stricken city, and set out together on foot for the Algiers Point ferry terminal in the hopes of getting on an evacuation bus.
Those hopes were dashed by a barrage of shotgun pellets. After two shots erupted, Collins and Alexander took off running and ducked into a shed behind a house to hide from the gunmen, Alexander tells me. The armed men, he says, discovered them in the shed and jammed pistols in their faces, yelling, "We got you niggers! We got you niggers!" He continues, "They said they was gonna tie us up, put us in the back of the truck and burn us. They was gonna make us suffer.... I thought I was gonna die. I thought I was gonna leave earth."
Apparently thinking they'd caught some looters, the gunmen interrogated and verbally threatened Collins and Alexander for ten to fifteen minutes, Alexander says, before one of the armed men issued an ultimatum: if Alexander and Collins left Algiers Point and told their friends not to set foot in the area, they'd be allowed to live.
Meanwhile, Herrington was staring at death. "I was bleeding pretty bad from my neck area," he recalls. When two white men drove by in a black pickup truck, he begged them for help. "I said, Help me, help me—I'm shot," Herrington recalls. The response, he tells me, was immediate and hostile. One of the men told Herrington, "Get away from this truck, nigger. We're not gonna help you. We're liable to kill you ourselves." My God, thought Herrington, what's going on out here?
He managed to stumble back to a neighbor's house, collapsing on the front porch. The neighbors, an African-American couple, wrapped him in a sheet and sped him to the nearest hospital, the West Jefferson Medical Center, where, medical records show, he was X-rayed at 3:30 pm. According to the records, a doctor who reviewed the X-rays found "metallic buck-shot" scattered throughout his chest, arms, back and abdomen, as well as "at least seven [pellets] in the right neck." Within minutes, Herrington was wheeled into an operating room for emergency surgery.
"It was a close-range buckshot wound from a shotgun," says Charles Thomas, one of the doctors who operated on Herrington. "If he hadn't gotten to the hospital, he wouldn't have lived. He had a hole in his internal jugular vein, and we were able to find it and fix it."
After three days in the hospital, which lacked running water, air conditioning and functional toilets, Herrington was shuttled to a medical facility in Baton Rouge. When he returned to New Orleans months later, he paid a visit to the Fourth District police station, whose officers patrol the west bank, and learned there was no police report documenting the attack. Herrington, who now has a wide scar stretching the length of his neck, says the officers he spoke with failed to take a report or check out his story, a fact that still bothers him. "If the shoe was on the other foot, if a black guy was willing to go out shooting white guys, the police would be up there real quick," he says. "I feel these guys should definitely be held accountable. These guys had absolutely no right to do what they did."
Herrington, Alexander and Collins are the only victims, so far, to tell their stories. But they certainly weren't the only ones attacked in or around Algiers Point. In interviews, vigilantes and residents—citing the exact locations and types of weapons used—detail a string of violent incidents in which at least eight other people were shot, bringing the total number of shooting victims to at least eleven, some of whom may have died.
Other evidence bolsters this tally. Thomas, the surgeon who treated Herrington, staffed one of the few functioning trauma centers in the area, located just outside the New Orleans city line, not far from Algiers Point, for a full month after the hurricane hit. "We saw a bunch of gunshot wounds," he tells me. "There were a lot of gunshot wounds that went unreported during that time." Though Thomas couldn't get into the specifics of the shooting incidents because of medical privacy laws, he says, "We saw a couple of other shotgun wounds, some handgun shootings and somebody who was shot with a high-velocity missile [an assault-rifle round]." The surgeon remembers handling "five or six nonfatal gunshot wounds" as well as three lethal gunshot cases.
In addition, state death records show that at least four people died in and around Algiers Point, a suspicious number, given that most Katrina fatalities were the result of drowning, and that that community never flooded. Neighborhood residents, black and white, remember seeing corpses lying out in the open that appeared to have been shot.
While the militia patrolled the streets of Algiers Point, the New Orleans Police Department, which had done little to brace for the storm, was crippled. "There was no leadership, no equipment, no nothing," recalls one high-ranking police official. "We did no more to prepare for a hurricane than we would have for a thunderstorm." Without functioning radios or dispatch systems, officers had no way of knowing what was happening a block away, let alone on the other side of the city. NOPD higher-ups had no way to give direction to unit commanders and other subordinates. As the chain of command disintegrated, the force dissolved into a collection of isolated, quasi-autonomous bands.
Around Algiers Point people say they rarely saw cops during the week after Katrina tore through Louisiana, and in this law enforcement vacuum the militia's unique brand of justice flourished. Most disturbing, one of the vigilantes, Roper, claims on videotape recorded just weeks after the storm that the shootings took place with the knowledge and consent of the police. "The police said, If they're breaking in your property do what you gotta do and leave them [the bodies] on the side of the road," he says.
As we drive through Algiers Point in a battered white van, Roper tells me he witnessed a fatal shooting. Roper says he was talking on his cellphone to his son in Lafayette one evening when he spied an African-American man trying to get into Daigle's Grocery, a corner market on the eastern edge of the neighborhood, which was shuttered because of the hurricane. Another militia member shot the man from a few feet away, killing him. "He was done," Roper recalls.
During our conversations, Roper never acknowledges firing his weapon, but in 2005 a Danish documentary crew videotaped him talking about his activities. In this footage Roper says, when pressed, that he did indeed shoot somebody.
Fellow militia member Wayne Janak, 60, a carpenter and contractor, is more forthcoming with me. "Three people got shot in just one day!" he tells me, laughing. We're sitting in his home, a boxy beige-and-pink structure on a corner about five blocks from Daigle's Grocery. "Three of them got hit right here in this intersection with a riot gun," he says, motioning toward the streets outside his home. Janak tells me he assumed the shooting victims, who were African-American, were looters because they were carrying sneakers and baseball caps with them. He guessed that the property had been stolen from a nearby shopping mall. According to Janak, a neighbor "unloaded a riot gun"—a shotgun—"on them. We chased them down."
Janak, who was carrying a pistol, says he grabbed one of the suspected looters and considered killing him, but decided to be merciful. "I rolled him over in the grass and saw that he'd been hit in the back with the riot gun," he tells me. "I thought that was good enough. I said, 'Go back to your neighborhood so people will know Algiers Point is not a place you go for a vacation. We're not doing tours right now.'"
He's equally blunt in Welcome to New Orleans, an hourlong documentary produced by the Danish video team, who captured Janak, beer in hand, gloating about hunting humans. Surrounded by a crowd of sunburned white Algiers Point locals at a barbeque held not long after the hurricane, he smiles and tells the camera, "It was great! It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it." A native of Chicago, Janak also boasts of becoming a true Southerner, saying, "I am no longer a Yankee. I earned my wings." A white woman standing next to him adds, "He understands the N-word now." In this neighborhood, she continues, "we take care of our own."
Janak, who says he'd been armed with two .38s and a shotgun, brags about keeping the bloody shirt worn by a shooting victim as a trophy. When "looters" showed up in the neighborhood, "they left full of buckshot," he brags, adding, "You know what? Algiers Point is not a pussy community."
Within that community the gunmen enjoyed wide support. In an outtake from the documentary, a group of white Algiers Point residents gathers to celebrate the arrival of military troops sent to police the area. Addressing the crowd, one local praises the vigilantes for holding the neighborhood together until the Army Humvees trundled into town, noting that some of the militia figures are present at the party. "You all know who you are," the man says. "And I'm proud of every one of you all." Cheering and applause erupts from the assembled locals.
Some of the gunmen prowling Algiers Point were out to wage a race war, says one woman whose uncle and two cousins joined the cause. A former New Orleanian, this source spoke to me anonymously because she fears her relatives could be prosecuted for their crimes. "My uncle was very excited that it was a free-for-all—white against black—that he could participate in," says the woman. "For him, the opportunity to hunt black people was a joy."
"They didn't want any of the 'ghetto niggers' coming over" from the east side of the river, she says, adding that her relatives viewed African-Americans who wandered into Algiers Point as "fair game." One of her cousins, a young man in his 20s, sent an e-mail to her and several other family members describing his adventures with the militia. He had attached a photo in which he posed next to an African-American man who'd been fatally shot. The tone of the e-mail, she says, was "gleeful"—her cousin was happy that "they were shooting niggers."
An Algiers Point homeowner who wasn't involved in the shootings describes another attack. "All I can tell you is what I saw," says the white resident, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. He witnessed a barrage of gunfire—from a shotgun, an AK-47 and a handgun—directed by militiamen at two African-American men standing on Pelican Street, not too far from Janak's place. The gunfire hit one of them. "I saw blood squirting out of his back," he says. "I'm an EMT. My instinct should've been to rush to him. But I didn't. And if I had, those guys"—the militia-men—"might have opened up on me, too."
The witness shows me a home video he recorded shortly after the storm. On the tape, three white Algiers Point men discuss the incident. One says it might be a bad idea to talk candidly about the crime. Another dismisses the notion, claiming, "No jury would convict."
According to Pervel, one of the shootings occurred just a few feet from his house. "Three young black men were walking down this street and they started moving the barricade," he tells me. The men, he says, wanted to continue walking along the street, but Pervel's neighbor, who was armed, commanded them to keep the barricade in place and leave. A standoff ensued until the neighbor shot one of the men, who then, according to Pervel, "ran a block and died" at the intersection of Alix and Vallette Streets.
Even Pervel is surprised the shootings have generated so little scrutiny. "Aside from you, no one's come around asking questions about this," he says. "I'm surprised. If that was my son, I'd want to know who shot him."
By Pervel's count, four people died violently in Algiers Point in the aftermath of the storm, including a bloody corpse left on Opelousas Avenue. That nameless body came up again and again in interviews, a grisly recurring motif. Who was he? How did he die? Nobody knew—or nobody would tell me.
After hearing all these gruesome stories, I wonder if any of the militia figures I've interviewed were involved in the shooting of Herrington and company. In particular, Pervel's and Janak's anecdotes intrigue me, since both men discussed shooting incidents that sounded a lot like the crime that nearly killed Herrington and wounded Alexander and Collins. Both Pervel and Janak recounted incidents in which vigilantes confronted three black men.
Hoping to solve the mystery, I show Herrington and Alexander video of Pervel, Janak and Roper, all of whom are in their 50s or 60s. No match. The shooters, Herrington and Alexander tell me, were younger men, in their 30s or 40s, sporting prominent tattoos. I have never been able to track them down.
New Orleans, of course, is awash in tales of the horrible things that transpired in the wake of the hurricane—and many of these wild stories have turned out to be fictions. In researching the Algiers Point attacks, I relied on the accounts of people who witnessed shooting incidents or were directly involved, either as gunmen or shooting victims.
Seeking to corroborate their stories, I sought out documentary evidence, including police files and autopsy reports. The NOPD, I was told, kept very few records during that period. Orleans Parish coroner Frank Minyard was a different story. The coroner, a flamboyant trumpet-playing doctor who has held the office for more than thirty years, had file cabinets bulging with the autopsies of hundreds of Katrina victims—he just wouldn't let me see them, in defiance of Louisiana public records laws.
After wrangling with the coroner for more than six months, I decided to sue—with a lawyer hired by the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute—to get access to the autopsies. (We weren't the first to take the coroner to court. CNN and the New Orleans Times-Picayune had successfully sued Minyard, seeking particular Katrina-related autopsies.) This past May, Orleans Parish district court judge Kern Reese ruled in our favor, ordering Minyard to allow me to review every autopsy done in the year after the storm. But I soon learned that reconstructing history from the coroner's mess of files was next to impossible, because the paper trail is incomplete. "We carried the records around in our cars, in the trunks of our cars, for four months and, I mean, that—that was the coroner's office," Minyard said in a sworn deposition obtained during the course of our suit. "I'm sure some of the records got lost or misplaced." Even the autopsy files we got were missing key facts, like where the bodies were found, who recovered them, when they were recovered and so forth.
Many of the manila file folders the coroner eventually turned over were empty, and Minyard said he'd simply chosen not to autopsy some twenty-five to fifty corpses. The coroner also told us he didn't know exactly how many people were shot to death in the days immediately after the storm—"I can't even tell you how many gunshot victims we had"—but figured the number would not "be more than ten."
Under oath Minyard proceeded to say something stunning. The NOPD, he testified, was only investigating three gunshot cases, all of them high-profile—the Danziger Bridge incident, in which police killed two civilians, and the shooting of Danny Brumfield, who was slain by a cop in front of the Convention Center. Minyard's statement buttressed information I'd gotten from NOPD sources who said the force has done little to prosecute people for assaults or murders committed in the wake of the storm.
I contacted the police department repeatedly over many months, providing the NOPD with specific questions about each incident discussed in this story. The department, through spokesman Robert Young, declined to comment on whether officers had investigated any of these crimes and would not discuss any other issues raised by this article.
Sifting through more than 800 autopsy reports and reams of state health department data, I quickly identified five New Orleanians who had died under suspicious circumstances: one, severely burned, was found in a charred abandoned auto (see "Body of Evidence," page 19); three were shot; and another died of "blunt force trauma to the head." However, it's impossible to tell from the shoddy records whether any of these people died in or around Algiers Point, or even if their bodies were found there.
No one has been arrested in connection with these suspicious deaths. When it comes to the lack of action on the cases, one well-placed NOPD source told me there was plenty of blame to go around. "We had a totally dysfunctional DA's office," he said. "The court system wasn't much better. Everything was in disarray. A lot of stuff didn't get prosecuted. There were a lot of things that were getting squashed. The UCR [uniform crime reports] don't show anything."
In response to detailed queries made over a period of months, New Orleans District Attorney spokesman Dalton Savwoir declined to say whether prosecutors looked into any of the attacks I uncovered. The office has been through a string of leadership changes since Katrina—Leon Cannizaro is the current DA—and is struggling to deal with crimes that happened yesterday, let alone three years ago, Savwoir told me.
James Traylor, a forensic pathologist with the Louisiana State University Health Center, worked alongside Minyard at the morgue and suspects that homicide victims fell through the cracks. "I know I did cases that were homicides," Traylor says. "They were not suicides." NOPD detectives, the doctor continues, never spoke to him about two cases he labeled homicides, leading him to believe police conducted no investigation into those deaths. "There should be a multi-agency task force—police, sheriffs, coroners—that can put their heads together and figure out what happened to people," Traylor says.
One of the suspicious cases I discovered was that of Willie Lawrence, a 47-year-old African-American male who suffered a "gunshot wound" that caused a "cranio-facial injury" and deposited two chunks of metal in his brain, according to the autopsy report. Minyard never determined whether Lawrence was murdered or committed suicide, choosing to leave the death unclassified. However, the dead man's brother, Herbert Lawrence, who lives in Compton, California, believes his sibling was murdered. Herbert tells me he got a phone call from one of Willie's neighbors shortly after he died. The caller said Willie, whose body, according to state records, was found on the east bank of the Mississippi, was killed by a civilian gunman. "The police didn't do anything," Herbert says, pointing out that NOPD officers didn't create a written report or interview any relatives.
Malik Rahim is one of a handful of African-Americans who live in Algiers Point, and as far as he's concerned, "We are tolerated. We are not accepted." In the days after the storm struck, Rahim says, the vigilantes "would pass by and call us all kind of names, say how they were gonna burn down my house." They thought "all blacks was looting."
As he walked the near-deserted streets in that period, Rahim, 61, a former Black Panther with a mane of dreadlocks, came across several dead bodies of African-American men. Inspecting the bodies, he discovered what he took to be evidence of gunfire. "One guy had about his entire head shot off," says Rahim, who was spurred by the storm to launch Common Ground Relief, a grassroots aid organization. "It's pretty hard to think a person drowned when half their head's been blown off," he says. He thinks some of the gunmen saw Katrina as a "golden opportunity to rid the community of African-Americans."
Sitting at his kitchen table, while a noisy AC unit does its best to neutralize the stifling Louisiana heat, Rahim describes the dead and lists the locations where he found the bodies. He also shows me video footage taken days after the storm. On the tape, Rahim points to the grossly distended corpse of an African-American man lying on the ground.
Rahim introduces me to his neighbor, Reggie Bell, 39, the African-American man Pervel confronted at gunpoint as he walked by Pervel's house. At the time, Bell, a cook, lived just a few blocks down the street from Pervel. In Bell's recollection, Pervel, standing with another gun-toting man, demanded to know what Bell was doing in Algiers Point. "I live here," Bell replied. "I can show you mail."
That answer didn't appease the gunmen, he says. According to Bell, Pervel told him, "Well, we don't want you around here. You loot, we shoot."
Roughly twenty-four hours later, as Bell sat on his front porch grilling food, another batch of armed white men accosted him, intending to drive him from his home at gunpoint, he says. "Whatcha still doing around here?" they asked, according to Bell. "We don't want you around here. You gotta go."
Bell tells me he was gripped by fear, panicked that he was about to experience ethnic cleansing, Louisiana-style. The armed men eventually left, but Bell remained nervous over the coming days. "I believe it was skin color," he says, that prompted the militia to try to force him out. "That was some really wrong stuff." Bell's then-girlfriend, who was present during the second incident, confirms his story. (In a later interview, Pervel admits he confronted Bell with a shotgun but portrays the incident as a minor misunderstanding, saying he's since apologized to Bell.)
On my final visit to Algiers Point, I stand on Patterson Street, my notebook out, interviewing a pair of residents in the dimming evening light. An older white man, on his way home from a bar, strides up and asks what I'm doing. I reply with a vague explanation, saying I'm working on an article about the "untold stories of Hurricane Katrina."
Without a pause, he says, "Oh. You mean the shootings. Yeah, there were a bunch of shootings."
When I share with Donnell Herrington what the militia men and Algiers Point locals have told me over the course of my investigation, he grows silent. His eyes focus on a point far away. After a moment, he says quietly, "That's pretty disturbing to hear that—I'm not going to lie to you—to hear that these guys are cocky. They feel like they got away with it."
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
The First World Festival of Dignified Rage/Digna Rabia
COMMUNIQUÉ FROM THE INDIGENOUS REVOLUTIONARY CLANDESTINE COMMITTEE—GENERAL COMMAND OF THE ZAPATISTA ARMY FOR NATIONAL LIBERATION MEXICO.
Sixth Commission and Intergalactic Commission of the EZLN
26th of November 2008.
To the adherents to the Sixth Declaration from the Lacandona Jungle in Mexico and in the world:
To the guests of the First World Festival of the "Digna Rabia":
To the people of Mexico:
To the peoples of the world:
COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS:
BROTHERS AND SISTERS:
ON THIS OCASSION WE TELL YOU OUR WORD ON THE ADVANCES FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST WORLD FESTIVAL OF THE DIGNA RABIA.
FIRST. - UP UNTIL TODAY, WE HAVE THE CONFIRMATION OF ATTENDANCE FROM PEOPLE, GROUPS, COLLECTIVES AND ORGANIZATIONS, ASIDE FROM MEXICO, FROM THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES:
IRAN.
ARGENTINA.
ITALY.
FRANCE.
UNITED STATES.
BRAZIL.
SWEDEN.
COSTA RICA.
SPANISH STATE.
SWITZERLAND.
BASQUE COUNTRY.
CUBA.
CHILE.
ENGLAND.
AUSTRIA.
VENEZUELA.
BELGIUM.
GERMANY.
NORWAY.
GREECE.
SECOND. - FROM OUR COUNTRY, MEXICO, COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS FROM THE OTHER CAMPAIGN, FROM WITHIN THE DIFFERENT STATES OF THE REPUBLIC WHICH WORK ON ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION MEDIA, HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE, IN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES, AGAINST REPRESSION, FOR THE PRESENTATION OF THE DISAPPEARED, FOR THE LIBERATION OF THE POLITICAL PRISONERS, IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS, IN ART AND CULTURE, IN UNIONS, IN WOMEN’S STRUGGLE, WITH THE MAQUILA WORKERS, IN THE CORNERS OF THE NORTHERN MEXICO, IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL STRUGGLE, IN SEXUAL DIVERSITY, IN THE TEACHER’S MOVEMENT, IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, WITH THE SEX WORKERS, AND THE OUTSTANDING STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT WILL BE ATTENDING.
THIRD. - DURING THE DAYS IN WHICH THE FESTIVAL WILL BE HELD IN MEXICO CITY (26th, 27th, 28th AND 29th OF DECEMBER) SOME OF THE PROGRAMMED ACTIVITIES ARE:
26th of December 2008.
1000 hrs. INAUGURATION.
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: EXPLOITATION. Open forum with the participation of maquila workers from Baja California and Tamaulipas, the National Confederation of Workers (CGT from the Spanish State), workers from Solano (Argentina) and workers from the Middle East (Iran), as well as those workers who wish to participate and who let us know in advance.
Moderator: Multidisciplinary Analysis Centre (CAM, UNAM, Mexico).
1700 hrs. The Other Paths: ANOTHER CITY. Open forum with the participation of the National Union of Popular Organizations from the Independent Left (UNOPII Mexico), the Workers and Socialist Unity (UNÍOS Mexico), young people from anarchist, punk, and libertarian collectives (Mexico). Street Brigade (Brigada Callejera Mexico), as well as those who struggle in the cities who wish to participate and who let us know in advance.
Moderator: UNOPII (Mexico).
27th of December 2008.
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: PLUNDER. Open forum with the participation of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI Mexico), dwellers of Lomas de Poleo (Ciudad Juárez) (Mexico), Indigenous Cabildos Association from the North of the Cauca (Colombia), as well as those who have a say on capitalist plunder who wish to participate and who let us know in advance.
Moderator: Bárbara Zamora (Mexico).
1700 hrs. The Other Paths: OTHER SOCIAL MOVEMENTS. Open forum with the CNUC -Tlaxcala (Mexico), Indigenous Chinanteca Force (Fuerza Indígena Chinanteca Mexico), People’s Front (Frente del Pueblo Mexico), Blanca Navidad Neighbourhood of Nuevo Laredo (Mexico), Independent Francisco Villa Popular Front (FPFVI Mexico), CACTO-Oaxaca (Mexico).
Moderator: CNI (Mexico).
28th of December 2008
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: REPRESSION. Open forum with the Doñas of Sinaloa and Chihuahua (Mexico), message from the Atenco political prisoners (Mexico), recorded message from Gloria Arenas, political prisoner (Mexico), We are all prisoners collective (Tod@s somos Pres@s (Mexico), National Network against Repression and for Solidarity (Red Nacional contra la Represión y por la Solidaridad (Mexico), and Bárbara Zamora (Mexico).
Moderator: UNÍOS (Mexico).
1700 hrs. The Other Paths: ANOTHER HISTORY, OTHER POLITICS. Roundtable with the participation of John Holloway, Felipe Echenique (Mexico), Francisco Pineda (Mexico), Raúl Zibechi (Uruguay), Olivier Besacenot (France), Mónica Baltodano (Nicaragua), Sergio Rodríguez Lascano (Mexico).
Moderator: Revista Rebeldía (Mexico).
29th of December 2008.
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: CONTEMPT. Open forum with the Anarcho-Punk Collective La KURVA (Mexico), National Indigenous Congress (Mexico), Braceros National Assembly (Mexico), Mercedes Oliveira (Mexico).
Moderator: CNI (Mexico).
FOURTH. - FOR THE SERIES OF MAGISTRAL CONFERENCES WHICH WILL BE CELEBRATED IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS, FROM THE 2nd TO THE 5th OF JANUARY 2009, THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE HAVE CONFIRMED THEIR PARTICIPATION:
Adolfo Gilly (Mexico)
Pablo Gonzalez Casanova (Mexico)
Monica Baltodano (Nicaragua)
Luis Villoro (Mexico)
Oscar Olivera (Bolivia)
Michael Hardt (USA)
Walter Mignolo (Argentina)
Pier Luigi Sullo (Italy)
Sylvia Marcos (Mexico)
Jotxe Iriarte (Basque Country)
Paulina Fernandez (Mexico)
Marcos Roitman (Chile-Spanish State)
Gustavo Esteva (Mexico)
Jean Robert (Switzerland)
Arundhati Roy (India) (who will send her participation)
Barbara Zamora (Mexico)
Carlos Aguirre Rojas (Mexico)
Raul Zibechi (Uruguay)
Carlos Gonzalez –CNI- (Mexico)
Juan Chavez –CNI- (Mexico)
John Berger (England) (who will send his participation)
Olivier Bensacenot (France)
Jaime Pastor (Spanish State)
Landless workers movement-MST (Brazil)
Sergio Rodriguez Lazcano (Mexico)
Via Campesina (International).
FIFTH. - ON BEHALF OF THE EZLN, THE FOLLOWING COMPAÑEROS HAVE CONFIRMED THEIR PARTICIPATION AS MODERATORS OR PARTICIPANTS (or just to be a pain -if you know who I mean-) AT THE CONFERENCES IN CHIAPAS:
COMANDANTA SUSANA.
COMANDANTA MIRIAM.
COMANDANTA HORTENSIA.
COMANDANTA FLORENCIA.
COMANDANTA EVERILDA.
COMANDANTE DAVID.
COMANDANTE ZEBEDEO.
COMANDANTE TACHO.
COMANDANTE GUILLERMO
TENIENTE CORONEL INSURGENTE MOISÉS.
CAPITANA INSURGENTE ELENA.
NIÑA LUPITA.
NIÑA TOÑITA.
SIXTH. - FOR THE INVITATIONS WE HAVE PROCEEDED WITH THE DATA WE HAVE FROM THE ADHERENTS TO THE SIXTH DECLARATION, THE CONTACTS MADE DURING THE OTHER CAMPAIGN TOUR AND THE DIRECTORIES OF ATTENDANCE TO THE DIFFERENT EZLN’S PUBLIC ACTIVITIES. IF ANY PERSON, GROUP, COLLECTIVE OR ORGANIZATION, FROM MEXICO OR THE WORLD, HAS NOT BEEN INVITED, IT IS SURELY BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THEIR DATA. SO WE RESPECTUFULY ASK THAT YOU EXCUSE THIS INABILITY OF OURS AND THAT YOU MAKE CONTACT WITH THE ENLACE ZAPATISTA WEB PAGE AT THE CORRESPONDING FESTIVAL-MUNDIAL-DE-LA-DIGNA-RABIA SECTION.
SEVENTH. - WE CLARIFY THAT THE INVITATIONS ARE TO PARTICIPATE AS EXPOSITORS. THE ENTRY TO ALL THE ACTIVITIES OF THE FESTIVAL ARE FREE AND OPEN FOR ANY PERSON WHO WISHES TO ATTEND AND GET TO KNOW THE DIGNA RABIA THAT ORGANIZES ITSELF IN MEXICO AND IN THE WORLD.
SOME TECHNICAL AND PROCEDURAL DETAILS WILL BE MADE KNOWN BY THE FESTIVAL’S ORGANIZATIVE SUPPORT TEAM, AT THE ENLACE ZAPATISTA WEB PAGE AT THE CORRESPONDING FESTIVAL-MUNDIAL-DE-LA-DIGNA-RABIA SECTION.
THAT IS ALL FOR NOW, WE WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED.
¡FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ATENCO!
From the Mexican South-eastern Mountains.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
EZLN’s Sixth Commission
Teniente Coronel Insurgente Moisés.
EZLN’s Intergalactic Commission
Mexico, November 2008.
Sixth Commission and Intergalactic Commission of the EZLN
26th of November 2008.
To the adherents to the Sixth Declaration from the Lacandona Jungle in Mexico and in the world:
To the guests of the First World Festival of the "Digna Rabia":
To the people of Mexico:
To the peoples of the world:
COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS:
BROTHERS AND SISTERS:
ON THIS OCASSION WE TELL YOU OUR WORD ON THE ADVANCES FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST WORLD FESTIVAL OF THE DIGNA RABIA.
FIRST. - UP UNTIL TODAY, WE HAVE THE CONFIRMATION OF ATTENDANCE FROM PEOPLE, GROUPS, COLLECTIVES AND ORGANIZATIONS, ASIDE FROM MEXICO, FROM THE FOLLOWING COUNTRIES:
IRAN.
ARGENTINA.
ITALY.
FRANCE.
UNITED STATES.
BRAZIL.
SWEDEN.
COSTA RICA.
SPANISH STATE.
SWITZERLAND.
BASQUE COUNTRY.
CUBA.
CHILE.
ENGLAND.
AUSTRIA.
VENEZUELA.
BELGIUM.
GERMANY.
NORWAY.
GREECE.
SECOND. - FROM OUR COUNTRY, MEXICO, COMPAÑERAS AND COMPAÑEROS FROM THE OTHER CAMPAIGN, FROM WITHIN THE DIFFERENT STATES OF THE REPUBLIC WHICH WORK ON ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION MEDIA, HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE, IN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES, AGAINST REPRESSION, FOR THE PRESENTATION OF THE DISAPPEARED, FOR THE LIBERATION OF THE POLITICAL PRISONERS, IN SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS, IN ART AND CULTURE, IN UNIONS, IN WOMEN’S STRUGGLE, WITH THE MAQUILA WORKERS, IN THE CORNERS OF THE NORTHERN MEXICO, IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL STRUGGLE, IN SEXUAL DIVERSITY, IN THE TEACHER’S MOVEMENT, IN THE COUNTRYSIDE, WITH THE SEX WORKERS, AND THE OUTSTANDING STRUGGLE OF THE NATIONAL INDIGENOUS MOVEMENT WILL BE ATTENDING.
THIRD. - DURING THE DAYS IN WHICH THE FESTIVAL WILL BE HELD IN MEXICO CITY (26th, 27th, 28th AND 29th OF DECEMBER) SOME OF THE PROGRAMMED ACTIVITIES ARE:
26th of December 2008.
1000 hrs. INAUGURATION.
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: EXPLOITATION. Open forum with the participation of maquila workers from Baja California and Tamaulipas, the National Confederation of Workers (CGT from the Spanish State), workers from Solano (Argentina) and workers from the Middle East (Iran), as well as those workers who wish to participate and who let us know in advance.
Moderator: Multidisciplinary Analysis Centre (CAM, UNAM, Mexico).
1700 hrs. The Other Paths: ANOTHER CITY. Open forum with the participation of the National Union of Popular Organizations from the Independent Left (UNOPII Mexico), the Workers and Socialist Unity (UNÍOS Mexico), young people from anarchist, punk, and libertarian collectives (Mexico). Street Brigade (Brigada Callejera Mexico), as well as those who struggle in the cities who wish to participate and who let us know in advance.
Moderator: UNOPII (Mexico).
27th of December 2008.
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: PLUNDER. Open forum with the participation of the National Indigenous Congress (CNI Mexico), dwellers of Lomas de Poleo (Ciudad Juárez) (Mexico), Indigenous Cabildos Association from the North of the Cauca (Colombia), as well as those who have a say on capitalist plunder who wish to participate and who let us know in advance.
Moderator: Bárbara Zamora (Mexico).
1700 hrs. The Other Paths: OTHER SOCIAL MOVEMENTS. Open forum with the CNUC -Tlaxcala (Mexico), Indigenous Chinanteca Force (Fuerza Indígena Chinanteca Mexico), People’s Front (Frente del Pueblo Mexico), Blanca Navidad Neighbourhood of Nuevo Laredo (Mexico), Independent Francisco Villa Popular Front (FPFVI Mexico), CACTO-Oaxaca (Mexico).
Moderator: CNI (Mexico).
28th of December 2008
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: REPRESSION. Open forum with the Doñas of Sinaloa and Chihuahua (Mexico), message from the Atenco political prisoners (Mexico), recorded message from Gloria Arenas, political prisoner (Mexico), We are all prisoners collective (Tod@s somos Pres@s (Mexico), National Network against Repression and for Solidarity (Red Nacional contra la Represión y por la Solidaridad (Mexico), and Bárbara Zamora (Mexico).
Moderator: UNÍOS (Mexico).
1700 hrs. The Other Paths: ANOTHER HISTORY, OTHER POLITICS. Roundtable with the participation of John Holloway, Felipe Echenique (Mexico), Francisco Pineda (Mexico), Raúl Zibechi (Uruguay), Olivier Besacenot (France), Mónica Baltodano (Nicaragua), Sergio Rodríguez Lascano (Mexico).
Moderator: Revista Rebeldía (Mexico).
29th of December 2008.
1100 hrs. The Four Wheels of Capitalism: CONTEMPT. Open forum with the Anarcho-Punk Collective La KURVA (Mexico), National Indigenous Congress (Mexico), Braceros National Assembly (Mexico), Mercedes Oliveira (Mexico).
Moderator: CNI (Mexico).
FOURTH. - FOR THE SERIES OF MAGISTRAL CONFERENCES WHICH WILL BE CELEBRATED IN SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS, FROM THE 2nd TO THE 5th OF JANUARY 2009, THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE HAVE CONFIRMED THEIR PARTICIPATION:
Adolfo Gilly (Mexico)
Pablo Gonzalez Casanova (Mexico)
Monica Baltodano (Nicaragua)
Luis Villoro (Mexico)
Oscar Olivera (Bolivia)
Michael Hardt (USA)
Walter Mignolo (Argentina)
Pier Luigi Sullo (Italy)
Sylvia Marcos (Mexico)
Jotxe Iriarte (Basque Country)
Paulina Fernandez (Mexico)
Marcos Roitman (Chile-Spanish State)
Gustavo Esteva (Mexico)
Jean Robert (Switzerland)
Arundhati Roy (India) (who will send her participation)
Barbara Zamora (Mexico)
Carlos Aguirre Rojas (Mexico)
Raul Zibechi (Uruguay)
Carlos Gonzalez –CNI- (Mexico)
Juan Chavez –CNI- (Mexico)
John Berger (England) (who will send his participation)
Olivier Bensacenot (France)
Jaime Pastor (Spanish State)
Landless workers movement-MST (Brazil)
Sergio Rodriguez Lazcano (Mexico)
Via Campesina (International).
FIFTH. - ON BEHALF OF THE EZLN, THE FOLLOWING COMPAÑEROS HAVE CONFIRMED THEIR PARTICIPATION AS MODERATORS OR PARTICIPANTS (or just to be a pain -if you know who I mean-) AT THE CONFERENCES IN CHIAPAS:
COMANDANTA SUSANA.
COMANDANTA MIRIAM.
COMANDANTA HORTENSIA.
COMANDANTA FLORENCIA.
COMANDANTA EVERILDA.
COMANDANTE DAVID.
COMANDANTE ZEBEDEO.
COMANDANTE TACHO.
COMANDANTE GUILLERMO
TENIENTE CORONEL INSURGENTE MOISÉS.
CAPITANA INSURGENTE ELENA.
NIÑA LUPITA.
NIÑA TOÑITA.
SIXTH. - FOR THE INVITATIONS WE HAVE PROCEEDED WITH THE DATA WE HAVE FROM THE ADHERENTS TO THE SIXTH DECLARATION, THE CONTACTS MADE DURING THE OTHER CAMPAIGN TOUR AND THE DIRECTORIES OF ATTENDANCE TO THE DIFFERENT EZLN’S PUBLIC ACTIVITIES. IF ANY PERSON, GROUP, COLLECTIVE OR ORGANIZATION, FROM MEXICO OR THE WORLD, HAS NOT BEEN INVITED, IT IS SURELY BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THEIR DATA. SO WE RESPECTUFULY ASK THAT YOU EXCUSE THIS INABILITY OF OURS AND THAT YOU MAKE CONTACT WITH THE ENLACE ZAPATISTA WEB PAGE AT THE CORRESPONDING FESTIVAL-MUNDIAL-DE-LA-DIGNA-RABIA SECTION.
SEVENTH. - WE CLARIFY THAT THE INVITATIONS ARE TO PARTICIPATE AS EXPOSITORS. THE ENTRY TO ALL THE ACTIVITIES OF THE FESTIVAL ARE FREE AND OPEN FOR ANY PERSON WHO WISHES TO ATTEND AND GET TO KNOW THE DIGNA RABIA THAT ORGANIZES ITSELF IN MEXICO AND IN THE WORLD.
SOME TECHNICAL AND PROCEDURAL DETAILS WILL BE MADE KNOWN BY THE FESTIVAL’S ORGANIZATIVE SUPPORT TEAM, AT THE ENLACE ZAPATISTA WEB PAGE AT THE CORRESPONDING FESTIVAL-MUNDIAL-DE-LA-DIGNA-RABIA SECTION.
THAT IS ALL FOR NOW, WE WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED.
¡FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ATENCO!
From the Mexican South-eastern Mountains.
Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos.
EZLN’s Sixth Commission
Teniente Coronel Insurgente Moisés.
EZLN’s Intergalactic Commission
Mexico, November 2008.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
This is a communique from a group of organized Albanian Migrants in Greece. After the initial boom after WWII, Greece has moved from being a primarily agricultural economy and is a gateway country for migrants who enter the EU. These days are ours too.
Greece: These days are ours, too
(The following text was distributed at the student picket outside the police headquarters today by people from Athens’ Haunt of Albanian Migrants. I wanted to translate and upload it here because it shows something very important: that ties of solidarity are being formed and strengthened across different sectors of the Greek society - a wonderful thing!)
These days are ours, too
Following the assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos we have been living in an unprecedented condition of turmoil, an outflow of rage that doesn’t seem to end. Leading this uprising, it seems, are the students - who with an inexhaustible passion and hearty spontaneity have reversed the whole situation. You cannot stop something you don’t control, something that is organised spontaneously and under terms you do not comprehend. This is the beauty of the uprising. The high school students are making history and leave it to the others to write it up and to classify it ideologically. The streets, the incentive, the passion belongs to them.
In the framework of this wider mobilisation, with the student demonstrations being its steam-engine, there is a mass participation of the second generation of migrants and many refugees also. The refugees come to the streets in small numbers, with limited organisation, with the spontaneity and impetus describing their mobilisation. Right now, they are the most militant part of the foreigners living in Greece. Either way, they have very little to lose.
The children of migrants mobilise en mass and dynamically, primarily through high school and university actions as well as through the organisations of the left and the far left. They are the most integrated part of the migrant community, the most courageous. They are unlike their parents, who came with their head bowed, as if they were beging for a loaf of bread. They are a part of the Greek society, since they’ve lived in no other. They do not beg for something, they demand to be equal with their Greek classmates. Equal in rights, on the streets, in dreaming.
For us, the politically organised migrants, this is a second french November of 2005. We never had any illusions that when the peoples’ rage overflew we would be able to direct it in any way. Despite the struggles we have taken on during all these years we never managed to achieve such a mass response like this one. Now is time for the street to talk: The deafening scream heard is for the 18 years of violence, repression, exploitation and humiliation. These days are ours, too.
These days are for the hundreds of migrants and refugees who were murdered at the borders, in police stations, workplaces. They are for those murdered by cops or “concerned citizens.” They are for those murdered for daring to cross the border, working to death, for not bowing their head, or for nothing. They are for Gramos Palusi, Luan Bertelina, Edison Yahai, Tony Onuoha, Abdurahim Edriz, Modaser Mohamed Ashtraf and so many others that we haven’t forgotten.
These days are for the everyday police violence that remains unpunished and unanswered. They are for the humiliations at the border and at the migrant detention centres, which continue to date. They are for the crying injustice of the Greek courts, the migrants and refugees unjustly in prison, the justice we are denied. Even now, in the days and nights of the uprising, the migrants pay a heavy toll - what with the attacks of far-righters and cops, with deportations and imprisonment sentences that the courts hand out with Christian love to us infidels.
These days are for the exploitation continuing unabatedly for 18 years now. They are for the struggles that are not forgotten: in the downs of Volos, the olympic works, the town of Amaliada. They are for the toil and the blood of our parents, for informal labour, for the endless shifts. They are for the deposits and the adhesive stamps, the welfare contributions we paid and will never have recognised. It is for the papers we will be chasing for the rest of our lives like a lottery ticket.
These days are for the price we have to pay simply in order to exist, to breathe. They are for all those times when we crunched our teeth, for the insults we took, the defeats we were charged with. They are for all the times when we didn’t react even when having all the reasons in the world to do so. They are for all the times when we did react and we were alone because our deaths and our rage did not fit pre-existing shapes, didn’t bring votes in, didn’t sell in the prime-time news.
These days belong to all the marginalised, the excluded, the people with the difficult names and the unknown stories. They belong to all those who die every day in the Aegean sea and Evros river, to all those murdered at the border or at a central Athens street; they belong to the Roma in Zefyri, to the drug addicts in Eksarhia. These days belong to the kids of Mesollogiou street, to the unintegrated, the uncontrollable students. Thanks to Alexis, these days belong to us all.
18 years of silent rage are too many.
To the streets, for solidarity and dignity!
We haven’t forgotten, we won’t forget - these days are yours too
Luan, Tony, Mohamed, Alexis…
Haunt of Albanian Migrants
http://www.steki-am.blogspot.com
Greece: These days are ours, too
(The following text was distributed at the student picket outside the police headquarters today by people from Athens’ Haunt of Albanian Migrants. I wanted to translate and upload it here because it shows something very important: that ties of solidarity are being formed and strengthened across different sectors of the Greek society - a wonderful thing!)
These days are ours, too
Following the assassination of Alexis Grigoropoulos we have been living in an unprecedented condition of turmoil, an outflow of rage that doesn’t seem to end. Leading this uprising, it seems, are the students - who with an inexhaustible passion and hearty spontaneity have reversed the whole situation. You cannot stop something you don’t control, something that is organised spontaneously and under terms you do not comprehend. This is the beauty of the uprising. The high school students are making history and leave it to the others to write it up and to classify it ideologically. The streets, the incentive, the passion belongs to them.
In the framework of this wider mobilisation, with the student demonstrations being its steam-engine, there is a mass participation of the second generation of migrants and many refugees also. The refugees come to the streets in small numbers, with limited organisation, with the spontaneity and impetus describing their mobilisation. Right now, they are the most militant part of the foreigners living in Greece. Either way, they have very little to lose.
The children of migrants mobilise en mass and dynamically, primarily through high school and university actions as well as through the organisations of the left and the far left. They are the most integrated part of the migrant community, the most courageous. They are unlike their parents, who came with their head bowed, as if they were beging for a loaf of bread. They are a part of the Greek society, since they’ve lived in no other. They do not beg for something, they demand to be equal with their Greek classmates. Equal in rights, on the streets, in dreaming.
For us, the politically organised migrants, this is a second french November of 2005. We never had any illusions that when the peoples’ rage overflew we would be able to direct it in any way. Despite the struggles we have taken on during all these years we never managed to achieve such a mass response like this one. Now is time for the street to talk: The deafening scream heard is for the 18 years of violence, repression, exploitation and humiliation. These days are ours, too.
These days are for the hundreds of migrants and refugees who were murdered at the borders, in police stations, workplaces. They are for those murdered by cops or “concerned citizens.” They are for those murdered for daring to cross the border, working to death, for not bowing their head, or for nothing. They are for Gramos Palusi, Luan Bertelina, Edison Yahai, Tony Onuoha, Abdurahim Edriz, Modaser Mohamed Ashtraf and so many others that we haven’t forgotten.
These days are for the everyday police violence that remains unpunished and unanswered. They are for the humiliations at the border and at the migrant detention centres, which continue to date. They are for the crying injustice of the Greek courts, the migrants and refugees unjustly in prison, the justice we are denied. Even now, in the days and nights of the uprising, the migrants pay a heavy toll - what with the attacks of far-righters and cops, with deportations and imprisonment sentences that the courts hand out with Christian love to us infidels.
These days are for the exploitation continuing unabatedly for 18 years now. They are for the struggles that are not forgotten: in the downs of Volos, the olympic works, the town of Amaliada. They are for the toil and the blood of our parents, for informal labour, for the endless shifts. They are for the deposits and the adhesive stamps, the welfare contributions we paid and will never have recognised. It is for the papers we will be chasing for the rest of our lives like a lottery ticket.
These days are for the price we have to pay simply in order to exist, to breathe. They are for all those times when we crunched our teeth, for the insults we took, the defeats we were charged with. They are for all the times when we didn’t react even when having all the reasons in the world to do so. They are for all the times when we did react and we were alone because our deaths and our rage did not fit pre-existing shapes, didn’t bring votes in, didn’t sell in the prime-time news.
These days belong to all the marginalised, the excluded, the people with the difficult names and the unknown stories. They belong to all those who die every day in the Aegean sea and Evros river, to all those murdered at the border or at a central Athens street; they belong to the Roma in Zefyri, to the drug addicts in Eksarhia. These days belong to the kids of Mesollogiou street, to the unintegrated, the uncontrollable students. Thanks to Alexis, these days belong to us all.
18 years of silent rage are too many.
To the streets, for solidarity and dignity!
We haven’t forgotten, we won’t forget - these days are yours too
Luan, Tony, Mohamed, Alexis…
Haunt of Albanian Migrants
http://www.steki-am.blogspot.com
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
guardian response to Lauren Smiley's border crossers
Sensational trans-bashing at SF Weekly
In San Francisco, can't we expect and demand better?
BY ROBERT HAALAND, CECLIA CHUNG, ALEXANDRA BYERLY, AND TITA AIDA
Wednesday December 3, 2008
SF Weekly published an article Nov. 26 with the headline "Border Crossers." The subhead explained the thesis: "Long rap sheet? No problem. Transgender Latina hookers in SF are successfully fighting deportation by asking for asylum."
The title successfully encapsulates the Jerry Springer-like journalism masquerading as a feature article in an alternative weekly in San Francisco. While I would normally just dismiss this as another example of how SF Weekly is turning into the National Enquirer, the article is important in that it reveals the intense discrimination transgender immigrant women who do sex work face in San Francisco — and unfortunately, quite possibly jeopardizes an incredibly essential legal protection.
The writer, Lauren Smiley, apparently believes she has unearthed a shocking secret: that transgender women may receive asylum in the United States based on intense discrimination in their home countries. So trans immigrants can avoid deportation even when they have been arrested for prostitution and have rap sheets.
As Smiley notes, immigration judges and asylum officers have the discretion to grant asylum when a transgender woman presents a showing of a well-founded fear of persecution based on gender identity. Even Smiley admits that transgender women face violence and intense discrimination in their home countries; however, what Smiley finds the most egregious is that some small subset of the asylum-seeking women have been prosecuted for sex work.
What Smiley single-mindedly ignores is the astonishing statistics that show an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent for transgender women of color, and perhaps even higher statistics for undocumented women in San Francisco. Instead of pointing to the well-documented obstacles transgender women face in employment, Smiley interviews one transgender woman who was able to get a job as evidence that transgender women really do not have to be "hookers" to survive. (Yes, she really did use the word "hookers".)
Without any context or analysis, Smiley quoted Dan Stein, president of the "Federation for American Immigration Reform" (FAIR) as a credible critic of the practice of granting asylum to immigrant transgender women. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently officially designated FAIR as a hate group, but nowhere in her article does Smiley mention that the organization is considered one of the least trustworthy, if not laughable, sources for information on immigration.
What concerns me most is not the cheapness of the shot, but rather that — like so much sensationalist journalism — a piece like this gives fuel to right-wing activists like FAIR. Even Smiley notes that the Republican Party has included in its platform an end to the practice that has literally saved many lives.
What is even more astounding is that last year, Smiley received an award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for an article about how doctors were using a new treatment for transgender children so that they wouldn't develop into their biological sex until after puberty — which would give those kids the choice to transition later.
Yet in the Nov. 26 piece, when describing the landmark case of Geovanni Hernandez-Montiel, who was the first to get asylum based on gender identity, this award-winning writer frequently refers to Giovanni using the male pronoun "he." While I would not expect most journalists to give a nuanced perspective on Giovanni's gender identity, I do expect a journalist who has received an award from an LGBT media watchdog group to allow for a more fluid understanding of Giovanni's gender. I called Smiley and she acknowledged that she should have better described FAIR. When I asked her about the other problems, she simply said I should write a letter to SF Weekly.
In San Francisco, can't we expect and demand better?
In San Francisco, can't we expect and demand better?
BY ROBERT HAALAND, CECLIA CHUNG, ALEXANDRA BYERLY, AND TITA AIDA
Wednesday December 3, 2008
SF Weekly published an article Nov. 26 with the headline "Border Crossers." The subhead explained the thesis: "Long rap sheet? No problem. Transgender Latina hookers in SF are successfully fighting deportation by asking for asylum."
The title successfully encapsulates the Jerry Springer-like journalism masquerading as a feature article in an alternative weekly in San Francisco. While I would normally just dismiss this as another example of how SF Weekly is turning into the National Enquirer, the article is important in that it reveals the intense discrimination transgender immigrant women who do sex work face in San Francisco — and unfortunately, quite possibly jeopardizes an incredibly essential legal protection.
The writer, Lauren Smiley, apparently believes she has unearthed a shocking secret: that transgender women may receive asylum in the United States based on intense discrimination in their home countries. So trans immigrants can avoid deportation even when they have been arrested for prostitution and have rap sheets.
As Smiley notes, immigration judges and asylum officers have the discretion to grant asylum when a transgender woman presents a showing of a well-founded fear of persecution based on gender identity. Even Smiley admits that transgender women face violence and intense discrimination in their home countries; however, what Smiley finds the most egregious is that some small subset of the asylum-seeking women have been prosecuted for sex work.
What Smiley single-mindedly ignores is the astonishing statistics that show an unemployment rate of more than 50 percent for transgender women of color, and perhaps even higher statistics for undocumented women in San Francisco. Instead of pointing to the well-documented obstacles transgender women face in employment, Smiley interviews one transgender woman who was able to get a job as evidence that transgender women really do not have to be "hookers" to survive. (Yes, she really did use the word "hookers".)
Without any context or analysis, Smiley quoted Dan Stein, president of the "Federation for American Immigration Reform" (FAIR) as a credible critic of the practice of granting asylum to immigrant transgender women. The Southern Poverty Law Center recently officially designated FAIR as a hate group, but nowhere in her article does Smiley mention that the organization is considered one of the least trustworthy, if not laughable, sources for information on immigration.
What concerns me most is not the cheapness of the shot, but rather that — like so much sensationalist journalism — a piece like this gives fuel to right-wing activists like FAIR. Even Smiley notes that the Republican Party has included in its platform an end to the practice that has literally saved many lives.
What is even more astounding is that last year, Smiley received an award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for an article about how doctors were using a new treatment for transgender children so that they wouldn't develop into their biological sex until after puberty — which would give those kids the choice to transition later.
Yet in the Nov. 26 piece, when describing the landmark case of Geovanni Hernandez-Montiel, who was the first to get asylum based on gender identity, this award-winning writer frequently refers to Giovanni using the male pronoun "he." While I would not expect most journalists to give a nuanced perspective on Giovanni's gender identity, I do expect a journalist who has received an award from an LGBT media watchdog group to allow for a more fluid understanding of Giovanni's gender. I called Smiley and she acknowledged that she should have better described FAIR. When I asked her about the other problems, she simply said I should write a letter to SF Weekly.
In San Francisco, can't we expect and demand better?
transgender law center's open letter to sf weekly's Lauren Smiley
An Open Letter to the Editors of SF Weekly:
The Transgender Law Center (TLC) and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center are deeply disappointed
by the SF Weekly's recent sensationalistic story, Border Crossers, by Lauren Smiley. While the author may
have intended to increase awareness of the challenges that transgender immigrants face, we found the article's
language and framing to be offensive and misleading. By choosing to be titillating rather than informative, the
article fails to address the realities of violence, discrimination, and joblessness that transgender immigrants face
in their home countries and right here in our city.
TLC regularly hears from transgender people throughout the world who are experiencing life-threatening
violence and threats in their home countries. This year, we successfully represented a transgender woman who
was beaten, raped and tortured by the police in Brazil. Far from being an easy case, our client had to overcome
incredible, onerous challenges in her quest to find a safe place to live and work. Against all odds (and after
many months of violence), she was able to stay legally in the United States when she was granted withholding
of removal under the Convention Against Torture. More recently, we received a spate of inquiries from the
Middle East, where transgender people are being imprisoned due to their gender identity. State-sanctioned
violence against transgender people is forcing people to flee their homelands for the hope of a better life in the
United States. Instead of reporting on the chronic violence that transgender people face in many countries, the
SF Weekly chose to use hyper-sexualized images, discuss people's bodies in intimate detail (referring to one
transgender woman as an “altar to silicone”), condemn sex workers, and misleadingly suggest that some of the
most vulnerable members of society are “milking” the impenetrable U.S. immigration system.
Although the article could have told a story of our immigration laws doing just what they were designed to do –
give asylum to people who are not protected by their home governments - it instead told a sensationalized story
framed by anti-immigrant advocates. The author relies on the “expert opinion” of Dan Stein from the anti-
immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR is notoriously biased against
immigrants and has the distinction of being listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The article also failed to adequately explain the many economic barriers that limit work options for transgender
people in the U.S., resulting in relatively high rates of survival sex in the street economy. TLC's 2006 report,
Good Jobs Now!, a snapshot of the economic health of San Francisco's transgender communities, showed an
unemployment rate of 35% among transgender respondents – compared to 4.7% among the general population
at the time. More than 57% of respondents reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace.
More recently, nearly 700 transgender Californians responded to a statewide survey TLC conducted this
summer. The results parallel what we found in 2006 – despite solid education rates, transgender people continue
to be isolated from the workforce at alarming rates. About half of the respondents say they have lost a job or
been denied advancement at work because of their gender identity. Fewer than half are working full time – even
though rates of higher education exceed that of the average Californian. This data reflects what we know to be
an epidemic of un- and underemployment, discrimination and stigmatization impacting far too many
transgender people (and disproportionately impacting transgender women of color). Economic marginalization
demands that community members take creative actions in order to survive; as a result, our 2008 survey found
that about 1 in 5 has experienced homelessness and about 1 in 4 has participated in the street economy.
To improve this sad reality, a handful of social service organizations throughout the city struggle to provide
counseling, housing and healthcare services to transgender people while their budgets are cut by the City, and
San Francisco's Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative works hard every day to connect our
community with good jobs even in the midst of economic crises.
There are many stories to be told about the issues facing transgender immigrants. There is a grave need for
California to invest in workforce development for transgender people. There is a grave need for our federal
government to continue granting asylum to survivors of unthinkable torture. There is a grave need for public
education about transgender lives. We urge the SF Weekly to tell these complex stories through more balanced
investigative reporting, rather than relying on sensationalist, tabloid-style journalism. To this end, we invite the
editors and author to meet with transgender community leaders and members, especially those from the Bay
Area's Latina community, to better understand the real lives of transgender San Franciscans and immigrants.
Masen Davis Rebecca Rolfe
Executive Director Executive Director
Transgender Law Center San Francisco LGBT Community Center
Transgender Law Center The Center
870 Market Street #823 1800 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102 San Francisco, CA 94102
415-865-0176 phone (415) 865-5555 phone
877-847-1278 fax (415) 865-5501 fax
info@transgenderlawcenter.org Info@sfcenter.org
The Transgender Law Center (TLC) and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center are deeply disappointed
by the SF Weekly's recent sensationalistic story, Border Crossers, by Lauren Smiley. While the author may
have intended to increase awareness of the challenges that transgender immigrants face, we found the article's
language and framing to be offensive and misleading. By choosing to be titillating rather than informative, the
article fails to address the realities of violence, discrimination, and joblessness that transgender immigrants face
in their home countries and right here in our city.
TLC regularly hears from transgender people throughout the world who are experiencing life-threatening
violence and threats in their home countries. This year, we successfully represented a transgender woman who
was beaten, raped and tortured by the police in Brazil. Far from being an easy case, our client had to overcome
incredible, onerous challenges in her quest to find a safe place to live and work. Against all odds (and after
many months of violence), she was able to stay legally in the United States when she was granted withholding
of removal under the Convention Against Torture. More recently, we received a spate of inquiries from the
Middle East, where transgender people are being imprisoned due to their gender identity. State-sanctioned
violence against transgender people is forcing people to flee their homelands for the hope of a better life in the
United States. Instead of reporting on the chronic violence that transgender people face in many countries, the
SF Weekly chose to use hyper-sexualized images, discuss people's bodies in intimate detail (referring to one
transgender woman as an “altar to silicone”), condemn sex workers, and misleadingly suggest that some of the
most vulnerable members of society are “milking” the impenetrable U.S. immigration system.
Although the article could have told a story of our immigration laws doing just what they were designed to do –
give asylum to people who are not protected by their home governments - it instead told a sensationalized story
framed by anti-immigrant advocates. The author relies on the “expert opinion” of Dan Stein from the anti-
immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). FAIR is notoriously biased against
immigrants and has the distinction of being listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The article also failed to adequately explain the many economic barriers that limit work options for transgender
people in the U.S., resulting in relatively high rates of survival sex in the street economy. TLC's 2006 report,
Good Jobs Now!, a snapshot of the economic health of San Francisco's transgender communities, showed an
unemployment rate of 35% among transgender respondents – compared to 4.7% among the general population
at the time. More than 57% of respondents reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace.
More recently, nearly 700 transgender Californians responded to a statewide survey TLC conducted this
summer. The results parallel what we found in 2006 – despite solid education rates, transgender people continue
to be isolated from the workforce at alarming rates. About half of the respondents say they have lost a job or
been denied advancement at work because of their gender identity. Fewer than half are working full time – even
though rates of higher education exceed that of the average Californian. This data reflects what we know to be
an epidemic of un- and underemployment, discrimination and stigmatization impacting far too many
transgender people (and disproportionately impacting transgender women of color). Economic marginalization
demands that community members take creative actions in order to survive; as a result, our 2008 survey found
that about 1 in 5 has experienced homelessness and about 1 in 4 has participated in the street economy.
To improve this sad reality, a handful of social service organizations throughout the city struggle to provide
counseling, housing and healthcare services to transgender people while their budgets are cut by the City, and
San Francisco's Transgender Economic Empowerment Initiative works hard every day to connect our
community with good jobs even in the midst of economic crises.
There are many stories to be told about the issues facing transgender immigrants. There is a grave need for
California to invest in workforce development for transgender people. There is a grave need for our federal
government to continue granting asylum to survivors of unthinkable torture. There is a grave need for public
education about transgender lives. We urge the SF Weekly to tell these complex stories through more balanced
investigative reporting, rather than relying on sensationalist, tabloid-style journalism. To this end, we invite the
editors and author to meet with transgender community leaders and members, especially those from the Bay
Area's Latina community, to better understand the real lives of transgender San Franciscans and immigrants.
Masen Davis Rebecca Rolfe
Executive Director Executive Director
Transgender Law Center San Francisco LGBT Community Center
Transgender Law Center The Center
870 Market Street #823 1800 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102 San Francisco, CA 94102
415-865-0176 phone (415) 865-5555 phone
877-847-1278 fax (415) 865-5501 fax
info@transgenderlawcenter.org Info@sfcenter.org
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
TEXT LIST TO PROTEST ICE PATROLS!
The SF chapter of Copwatch is organizing to protest and disrupt ICE foot
patrols, check points and parked vans on our streets. We are currently
developing a rapid protest response when ICE is sighted, by means of
sending out a text to anyone who would like to be alerted. Our goals are
to impede ICE’s ability to surprise, intimidate and harass immigrants and
people of color by organizing a team that can be called upon to bring
bullhorns, banners, signs and friends when there’s an ICE sighting.
Everyone on the list won’t be expected to show up, but at least help get
the word out to others who might be able to participate.
A strong Sanctuary City is active and alert. Please support us in our
addition to the various tactics we all contribute to help out.
To be added to the ICE response list, please send your cell # to:
sf_copwatch@gmail.com , or 415.595.8251 (don’t worry, we won’t contact
you for any other purpose).
To report an ICE sighting, please call 415. 595. 8251, (ICE foot patrols,
check points and parked vans/ cars only please, we want to respect the
privacy of individuals if they have already been affected by a home or
work raid).
This is also the hotline number to report policed misconduct, please
contact us if you hear or witness anything that should be investigated.
We would also appreciate any material support, such as bullhorns, banner
material and banners/ signs already used in protests, cameras, access to
copying machines to reproduce fliers and know yr rights cards, and any
other way you’d like to help.
Also, days when SF Copwatch meets and monitors the police and ICE:
Tuesdays, 1pm at Cafe Le Bohem, (on 16th near Mission).
Meet for about 1/2 hour, then monitor police calls w/ a scanner and
document police activity. We also pass out “know yr rights”cards and talk
to workers and residents about both our Copwatch and ICE response teams.
Wednesdays, in the Tenderloin District, meet at the corner of Hyde and
Eddy at 1:30 pm then monitor SFPD activity and ICE vehicle check points in
the area and .
Fridays, 6pm, Redstone Building 2940 16th Street Suite #209, 2nd flr.
(corner 16th, Capp.)
We meet up for about 1/2 hour then monitor police calls w/ a scanner and
document police activity. The night shift focuses on police abuse against
the homeless, mostly self-medicating, mentally ill and "poverty crime"
targets.
Please participate and donate. The SF_COPWATCH collective is still in
it’s beginning stages and needs more members and equipment to be
successful in this very important defense work. Thank you
From Greece to Chicago, from Chiapas to SF, the struggle continues, Que
Viva la Lucha!
patrols, check points and parked vans on our streets. We are currently
developing a rapid protest response when ICE is sighted, by means of
sending out a text to anyone who would like to be alerted. Our goals are
to impede ICE’s ability to surprise, intimidate and harass immigrants and
people of color by organizing a team that can be called upon to bring
bullhorns, banners, signs and friends when there’s an ICE sighting.
Everyone on the list won’t be expected to show up, but at least help get
the word out to others who might be able to participate.
A strong Sanctuary City is active and alert. Please support us in our
addition to the various tactics we all contribute to help out.
To be added to the ICE response list, please send your cell # to:
sf_copwatch@gmail.com , or 415.595.8251 (don’t worry, we won’t contact
you for any other purpose).
To report an ICE sighting, please call 415. 595. 8251, (ICE foot patrols,
check points and parked vans/ cars only please, we want to respect the
privacy of individuals if they have already been affected by a home or
work raid).
This is also the hotline number to report policed misconduct, please
contact us if you hear or witness anything that should be investigated.
We would also appreciate any material support, such as bullhorns, banner
material and banners/ signs already used in protests, cameras, access to
copying machines to reproduce fliers and know yr rights cards, and any
other way you’d like to help.
Also, days when SF Copwatch meets and monitors the police and ICE:
Tuesdays, 1pm at Cafe Le Bohem, (on 16th near Mission).
Meet for about 1/2 hour, then monitor police calls w/ a scanner and
document police activity. We also pass out “know yr rights”cards and talk
to workers and residents about both our Copwatch and ICE response teams.
Wednesdays, in the Tenderloin District, meet at the corner of Hyde and
Eddy at 1:30 pm then monitor SFPD activity and ICE vehicle check points in
the area and .
Fridays, 6pm, Redstone Building 2940 16th Street Suite #209, 2nd flr.
(corner 16th, Capp.)
We meet up for about 1/2 hour then monitor police calls w/ a scanner and
document police activity. The night shift focuses on police abuse against
the homeless, mostly self-medicating, mentally ill and "poverty crime"
targets.
Please participate and donate. The SF_COPWATCH collective is still in
it’s beginning stages and needs more members and equipment to be
successful in this very important defense work. Thank you
From Greece to Chicago, from Chiapas to SF, the struggle continues, Que
Viva la Lucha!
Sunday, November 16, 2008
French TVG high speed train and a surveillance camera still of the NYC "bicycle bomber"
France - Anarchists in three cities across France were arrested by anti-terror police Tuesday morning and accused of being responsible for a campaign of sabotage that severely disrupted rail travel throughout the country. It is believed that the campaign was designed to protest nuclear technology and coincided with the transfer of nuclear waste from France to Germany. Attacks on the railway lines were characterized by debris left on the tracks, shooting out power lines, and iron bars jammed into the overhead 25,000-volt power lines and left more than 150 high-speed TGV trains across the country hours behind schedule. Initially 20 accused radicals were arrested, but now only nine remain to face charges Five of those accused are women and four are men.
No acts of sabotage have been reported since the police roundup, which took place the same day that the nuclear waste transfer was completed. On the German side of the border the deadly shipments where delivered 20 hours behind schedule thanks to nearly 16,000 mostly passive demonstrators who built barricades, took part in protest and acts of civil-disobedience.
The group, some of whom are based on a rural commune in the tiny village of Tarnac located in the Corrèze region of central France, are alleged to have ties to like minded groups in Germany, Belgium, Greece, Italy, the U.K., and the U.S.. Last January two of those arrested Julien Coupat, 34, and Yldune L, 25 were detained attempting to illegally cross the U.S. border into Canada, while in possession of English language anarchist texts and photos of the Time's Square army recruitment center weeks before a lone bicyclist detonated a homemade bomb at the center. No one was injured by the bombing which echoed similar attacks on the British and Mexican consulates and were believed to be possibly connected to anarchists.
Coupat and L were no longer in the U.S. at the time of the recruitment center attack but were surveilled attending anarchist meetings during their stay in New York City. After the border incident the FBI asked French authorities to keep tabs on the pair and alerted the press about a possible French connection. Upon their return to France the French domestic intelligence service then began a surveillance operation that culminated in these arrests.
Coupat has been labeled "the leader" of the anarcho-autonomist group dubbed "the invisible cell." He is a former sociology student and faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted of heading a terrorist organization. Other alleged participants in the vandalism face charges of causing damage, criminal conspiracy and participation in a terrorist enterprise. No one was injured by any actions taken against the rail lines or by the bombing of the Times Square army recruitment center in NYC.
Authorities have said that they were able to recover fingerprints and DNA evidence from the sites of the sabotage but at least some of the suspects have refused to submit to DNA tests and it has not so far been relieved that any of the fingerprints match. A search of the Corrèze property allegedly yielded railway network maps, material that might be used for sabotage, anarchist literature and documents on how to attack overhead cables.
Neighbors of the Tarnac farm where many of the accused live have formed a support committee to aid the arrestees. Jean Plazanet, the town's mayor, said that Coupat "is of great intelligence and kindness" and that the media's portrayal of him and his housemates was inaccurate.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Shenzhen, China - Hundreds of rioters attacked police in Shenzhen on Friday afternoon after a motorcyclist died near a checkpoint. The violence continued until yesterday morning, when calm was restored in China's southern economic powerhouse. The protest was the latest in a series of confrontations over social issues in China, where thousands of riots erupt each year, many stemming from grievances over abuse of power, corruption or land grabs.
Anger flared when Mr Li Guochao, 31, crashed into a lamp-post after a local official threw a walkie-talkie at him as he sped towards a checkpoint set up by a sub-district office, according to a statement from the public security bureau in the city of more than eight million. Mr Li's family, who thought the mishap was caused by the police of a nearby district, attacked their station on Friday afternoon. They were joined by hundreds of others, some of whom burned a police car, the statement added.
The street where the violence took place had returned to normal yesterday afternoon. There was a beefed-up police presence outside the station where the riots took place.
Mr Li, who had no riding licence, had been stopped at the checkpoint in the city's Bao'an district while riding his motorcycle, which bore no number plate, the police statement said. An official tried to block his path when he turned back at a crossroad, but seeing that he was going to crash through the checkpoint, threw the walkie-talkie at him. Mr Li lost control of his motorcycle and crashed into the lamp-post, the statement said. He was taken to hospital where he died a few hours later.
Mr Li's relatives gathered about 30 people and carried his body to the police station, where they 'smashed things' and set off firecrackers, the statement added. By 5pm, more than 400 people had gathered at the police detachment with more than 2,000 others watching nearby. Some people threw stones and set fire to a police car. Police were able to disperse the crowd only at 2am. There were no other reports of injuries.
The checkpoint official has been detained by police, while the official Xinhua news agency said Shenzhen's public security bureau had established that police had shown restraint in handling the unrest. People living in the Bao'an area said the checkpoints were set up to enforce a ban on motorcycles following a spate of muggings by riders who snatched handbags.
China's top police official has urged officers to avoid inflaming protests at a time when social unrest is easily ignited. In June, residents in Weng'an town in south-western Guizhou province torched and ransacked police headquarters and government offices after allegations spread that police had covered up a girl's rape and murder.
London - A group calling themselves the DA! collective has occupied a six-storey Georgian townhouse in Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair, The property has been assessed at £6.25 million and has been called "Britain's poshest squat" The squat is less then 100 yards from the American embassy on Grovesnor Square.
A squatter who appeared on the balcony, next to a waving black flag, read out a statement prepared by the collective. "Who we are is not important. As a collective we have 'squatted' an empty, dilapidated building in Mayfair. We are making this place live through the exchange of knowledge and ideas," she said.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Capitalism Wins at the Polls! Anarchy Brewing in the Streets!
Critiques of capitalism and corporate media covered up printed election news this morning in selected sites nationwide.
Asuncion, Paraguay: At least 14 police were injured in a protest by farmers demanding agrarian reform. Paraguayan campesinos have been struggling against a wave of paramilitary violence linked to the expansion of genetically-modified soy biofuel monocultures in the countryside.
Vichy, France: Masked anarchists attacked police and torched three cars as about 2000 people protested the EU's repressive immigration policies. The meeting of 27 EU ministers to discuss immigration was the first international government conference held in Vichy, the former capital of the pro-Nazi regime during WWII. Many of the demonstrators compared current EU restrictions on migration to Nazi policies of mass deportation and genocide.
East Jerusalem: Israel demolished four unauthorized Palestinian-owned buildings in occupied East Jerusalem in one day, provoking local youths who threw stones at police and a demolition unit in Silwan, where two homes were razed. Five police were injured and several police vehicles damaged as clashes continued through the day.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Friday, October 31, 2008
SHUT DOWN ICE!!!
I.
IT HAS BEGUN. Last week we saw government officials blow open people's doors in the middle of the night to kidnap so called "gang members." They came for us.
Each night we wait in panic, waiting to see who next of our friends and family will be disappeared. But today is something else.
Today, a day when we celebrate the dead and disappeared-- a day when we don masks to make the real monsters tremble in their empty coffers-- it begins.
Some say it began 516 years ago with the arrival of European colonizers-- but how do we trace the beginning of domination? First we will try to offer you, in the language of numbers,
what they will call "evident." We are told we must begin with what is evident:
ICE disappeared 4,956 people in the past 11 months, from Oct 1, 2007 to Aug 31, 2008.
Last week over 20 ICE disappearances were carried out in the Bay.
How do we explain to our neighbors that what is evident for us began so many years ago? How do we explain that so many of our grievances stem from the way
wealth is organized, exchanged, and stolen? The North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 brought many of us here, into this country, following the wealth
as the working conditions in our own countries were degraded, as our farm lands were stolen. The rich in our countries lined their pockets while we found that our best option
was to leave behind our communities, loved ones. That, we suppose, is our first disappearance.
For us, it began there, in our leaving.
Our Dear San Francisco,
All Hollow’s Eve, 2008.
II.
AND HERE, IN THE US, WE DISAPPEAR. Our schools disappear us from their histories so our young people fight each semester to recognize themselves in the books they study.
We are disappeared into the dark corners of streets— for a breath of cold SF air, or to catch up with the block, the cops maddoggin us. Restaurants disappear us into the back
rooms of kitchens. We walk babies of the wealthy; our own motherhood disappeared behind a 1200-dollar stroller. We clean their homes. We are disappeared in the hour between
check in and check out, folding new bed sheets, replenishing the toilet paper for businessmen. We are disappeared into the gulf’s economic disasters. We are disappeared into labor
camps under firearms. We are disappeared in the brush behind manicured lawns. We are disappeared inside of sewing lairs and strung between trunks of new fall fashion. We disappear
in the drowned out steam of spas and massaged into other people’s pleasure. We are disappeared behind filter masks to hide our gagging from the feet we touch and clean every day.
We are disappeared into homeless and women’s shelters, SRO’s, public housing high rises. We are disappeared into their marriages. We are disappeared into their ballot boxes.
And finally, we are disappeared in the middle of the night, shoved into black vans, brought to the labyrinth of cells in the ICE building downtown. We are disappeared to Guantanamo,
into the industry of terror, or we are disappeared into the city, state, or federal prison industry so they can turn millions of dollars each year—so they can disperse our communities.
But today is something else.
III.
FOR US, We who laugh in the face of this absurd situation, We who are not so much in awe of the enormity of oppression as we are freedom fighters, mothers, rebel workers,
rebel students-- those of us who with our feet walk today towards their terrible theaters of power and dominance, with our arms push back harder, and with our hands build new worlds--
Today, we do not only denounce at our late night kitchen tables, we do not speak quietly, wounded, overwhelmed by the federal police.
Today we do not vanish into this terrible era of disappearances, today we become more than our enemies, more than their workforce, more than their electoral base--
today we become more than our own private traumas, today we learn to trust one another more than we trust the politicians, the bosses and their police--
we take a confident step towards a world where we meet our own needs with dignity, where we make justice real, malleable, palatable.
Last week, they came for us and today we come for them.
TODAY, IN SAN FRANCISCO, WE SHUTDOWN I.C.E. to help create a culture that will shut down every last one of their sick institutions, finally, and for good.
It is always beginning.
It was our backs you saw on the cover of the Examiner being hauled away by ICE agents,
countless numbers of your "criminal" kin in San Francisco,
Russel Khan
inez sunwoo
days in april collective
IT HAS BEGUN. Last week we saw government officials blow open people's doors in the middle of the night to kidnap so called "gang members." They came for us.
Each night we wait in panic, waiting to see who next of our friends and family will be disappeared. But today is something else.
Today, a day when we celebrate the dead and disappeared-- a day when we don masks to make the real monsters tremble in their empty coffers-- it begins.
Some say it began 516 years ago with the arrival of European colonizers-- but how do we trace the beginning of domination? First we will try to offer you, in the language of numbers,
what they will call "evident." We are told we must begin with what is evident:
ICE disappeared 4,956 people in the past 11 months, from Oct 1, 2007 to Aug 31, 2008.
Last week over 20 ICE disappearances were carried out in the Bay.
How do we explain to our neighbors that what is evident for us began so many years ago? How do we explain that so many of our grievances stem from the way
wealth is organized, exchanged, and stolen? The North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 brought many of us here, into this country, following the wealth
as the working conditions in our own countries were degraded, as our farm lands were stolen. The rich in our countries lined their pockets while we found that our best option
was to leave behind our communities, loved ones. That, we suppose, is our first disappearance.
For us, it began there, in our leaving.
Our Dear San Francisco,
All Hollow’s Eve, 2008.
II.
AND HERE, IN THE US, WE DISAPPEAR. Our schools disappear us from their histories so our young people fight each semester to recognize themselves in the books they study.
We are disappeared into the dark corners of streets— for a breath of cold SF air, or to catch up with the block, the cops maddoggin us. Restaurants disappear us into the back
rooms of kitchens. We walk babies of the wealthy; our own motherhood disappeared behind a 1200-dollar stroller. We clean their homes. We are disappeared in the hour between
check in and check out, folding new bed sheets, replenishing the toilet paper for businessmen. We are disappeared into the gulf’s economic disasters. We are disappeared into labor
camps under firearms. We are disappeared in the brush behind manicured lawns. We are disappeared inside of sewing lairs and strung between trunks of new fall fashion. We disappear
in the drowned out steam of spas and massaged into other people’s pleasure. We are disappeared behind filter masks to hide our gagging from the feet we touch and clean every day.
We are disappeared into homeless and women’s shelters, SRO’s, public housing high rises. We are disappeared into their marriages. We are disappeared into their ballot boxes.
And finally, we are disappeared in the middle of the night, shoved into black vans, brought to the labyrinth of cells in the ICE building downtown. We are disappeared to Guantanamo,
into the industry of terror, or we are disappeared into the city, state, or federal prison industry so they can turn millions of dollars each year—so they can disperse our communities.
But today is something else.
III.
FOR US, We who laugh in the face of this absurd situation, We who are not so much in awe of the enormity of oppression as we are freedom fighters, mothers, rebel workers,
rebel students-- those of us who with our feet walk today towards their terrible theaters of power and dominance, with our arms push back harder, and with our hands build new worlds--
Today, we do not only denounce at our late night kitchen tables, we do not speak quietly, wounded, overwhelmed by the federal police.
Today we do not vanish into this terrible era of disappearances, today we become more than our enemies, more than their workforce, more than their electoral base--
today we become more than our own private traumas, today we learn to trust one another more than we trust the politicians, the bosses and their police--
we take a confident step towards a world where we meet our own needs with dignity, where we make justice real, malleable, palatable.
Last week, they came for us and today we come for them.
TODAY, IN SAN FRANCISCO, WE SHUTDOWN I.C.E. to help create a culture that will shut down every last one of their sick institutions, finally, and for good.
It is always beginning.
It was our backs you saw on the cover of the Examiner being hauled away by ICE agents,
countless numbers of your "criminal" kin in San Francisco,
Russel Khan
inez sunwoo
days in april collective
Thursday, October 30, 2008
STOP THE RAIDS NOW!
dear comrades, dear family
i know you have gotten this email already, but i cannot stress the importance of doing what you can to show your support and/or presence, as well as turn out your people.
IN CASE you have not yet heard of the escalation of the 'low intensity war" on immigrants and people of color and their allies, it is critical that you take note of the recent activities in the bay area that have claimed more lives. in san francisco alone, 17 coordinated raids at 3 in the morning were launched by feds in a so called "sanctuary" zone, with information undoubtedly gathered by sfpd gang units, and charges carried out by sf DA kamala harris. the raids involved the use of explosives, tear gas, and military insurgency. they pulled this shit in the middle of the night when people were asleep. the police and feds have enjoyed much support in the form of funding, weaponry, training, intelligence gathering, racist ignorant vigilante factions, complicit media, sweeping legislation that criminalizes goddamn near everyone, and the fear instilled under homeland security. they heralded this attack to be a great victory. to us, it is nothing more that the same bullshit treatment that people who already who do all the shit work, for shit pay (if it is even paid or acknowledged at all) under shit conditions, live under. this has got to stop. you all know this.
for this reason, the youth came together to organize this demonstration. to wake us up. so come on. let's hit the streets, and take serious action, and back up the students who have organized to get one back. and not just the scenario where we march, go home, and read about another raid the next day. let's take it to another level.
if you have not already made arrangements to do so, please mobilize, and urge action on a broad level.
POC, and especially my Korean comrades, i'll see you there.
love,
inez
STOP THE RAIDS NOW!!!
PARTICIPATE IN THE YOUTH-LED RESISTANCE AGAINST THE IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND
DEPORTATIONS!
This 2008 year marks the 40th anniversary of the mass mobilizations that were going on globally in 1968. Looking back at the various liberation struggles within the U.S. during that time, we as youth take pride in the organizing efforts of our elders—our communities that paved the way for the present youth to continue that same resistance. We are inspired by the works of freedom fighters from the Black Liberation Movement, the Chicano Movement, the American Indian Movement, in their fight for land, education, justice, peace and self-determination.
Today, we continue fighting to keep what we have won and fight harder for our collective liberation. Giving honor to all those who fought not only for their communities, but for the generations to follow, we have to ask ourselves—Are we justly following in their footsteps? Most of the struggles that our elders fought for are still going on today!!
Through out the history of oppression, from slavery to incarceration, from Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, to the current immigration detention centers, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1920s, to Prop 187, HR4437, SB2611, Patriot Act and other recent bills, the U.S.
government has reinvented waves of hate and discrimination that have scapegoated people of color, the poor and working-class immigrant communities.
We have the power and the opportunity to do something about it! We cannot sit back and watch as the discrimination and racism continues to affect our people right before our very eyes. Think about it…
Will the future generations look up to us, as we do the freedom fighters of the ‘60s?
Will we be an inspiration, or a disappointment?
Since the nationwide mobilizations of May 1st 2006, the conditions in our communities have worsened. The repercussions of mobilizing have resulted in more I.C.E. raids than ever before, to instill fear and to prevent us from speaking up against these injustices. In 2007 alone, 276,912 U.S. residents were deported. Families continue to be separated and our communities targeted.
Free trade agreements and foreign policies are still in place as more walls continue to be built to define and secure borders. Natural resources continue to be extracted from our countries while the flow of money crosses borders. Our people are prevented from following work opportunities that have been taken from them in their country of origin.
As a society, we all benefit from the fruits of exploited immigrant labor. More importantly, as youth with the privilege to speak up and in comparison to those who risk everything, we have nothing to lose, therefore it is our duty to do something about these injustices. We cannot go on during our life time without standing up and taking action!
We must stop the persecution and criminalization of our people! End the attacks on economic and political refugees!
We cannot allow this government to continue to divide and conquer. We must break down the borders that were set up to divide us.
Young people…our time is NOW! Search deep within your soul and ask yourself—What Am I going to do? With the types of injustices going on in society today, nobody should be at peace or oblivious to the suffering of our communities.
We will not let them intimidate us into silence!
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL!!!
To get involved, please contact: stoptheraidsnow@gmail.com
i know you have gotten this email already, but i cannot stress the importance of doing what you can to show your support and/or presence, as well as turn out your people.
IN CASE you have not yet heard of the escalation of the 'low intensity war" on immigrants and people of color and their allies, it is critical that you take note of the recent activities in the bay area that have claimed more lives. in san francisco alone, 17 coordinated raids at 3 in the morning were launched by feds in a so called "sanctuary" zone, with information undoubtedly gathered by sfpd gang units, and charges carried out by sf DA kamala harris. the raids involved the use of explosives, tear gas, and military insurgency. they pulled this shit in the middle of the night when people were asleep. the police and feds have enjoyed much support in the form of funding, weaponry, training, intelligence gathering, racist ignorant vigilante factions, complicit media, sweeping legislation that criminalizes goddamn near everyone, and the fear instilled under homeland security. they heralded this attack to be a great victory. to us, it is nothing more that the same bullshit treatment that people who already who do all the shit work, for shit pay (if it is even paid or acknowledged at all) under shit conditions, live under. this has got to stop. you all know this.
for this reason, the youth came together to organize this demonstration. to wake us up. so come on. let's hit the streets, and take serious action, and back up the students who have organized to get one back. and not just the scenario where we march, go home, and read about another raid the next day. let's take it to another level.
if you have not already made arrangements to do so, please mobilize, and urge action on a broad level.
POC, and especially my Korean comrades, i'll see you there.
love,
inez
STOP THE RAIDS NOW!!!
PARTICIPATE IN THE YOUTH-LED RESISTANCE AGAINST THE IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND
DEPORTATIONS!
This 2008 year marks the 40th anniversary of the mass mobilizations that were going on globally in 1968. Looking back at the various liberation struggles within the U.S. during that time, we as youth take pride in the organizing efforts of our elders—our communities that paved the way for the present youth to continue that same resistance. We are inspired by the works of freedom fighters from the Black Liberation Movement, the Chicano Movement, the American Indian Movement, in their fight for land, education, justice, peace and self-determination.
Today, we continue fighting to keep what we have won and fight harder for our collective liberation. Giving honor to all those who fought not only for their communities, but for the generations to follow, we have to ask ourselves—Are we justly following in their footsteps? Most of the struggles that our elders fought for are still going on today!!
Through out the history of oppression, from slavery to incarceration, from Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, to the current immigration detention centers, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1920s, to Prop 187, HR4437, SB2611, Patriot Act and other recent bills, the U.S.
government has reinvented waves of hate and discrimination that have scapegoated people of color, the poor and working-class immigrant communities.
We have the power and the opportunity to do something about it! We cannot sit back and watch as the discrimination and racism continues to affect our people right before our very eyes. Think about it…
Will the future generations look up to us, as we do the freedom fighters of the ‘60s?
Will we be an inspiration, or a disappointment?
Since the nationwide mobilizations of May 1st 2006, the conditions in our communities have worsened. The repercussions of mobilizing have resulted in more I.C.E. raids than ever before, to instill fear and to prevent us from speaking up against these injustices. In 2007 alone, 276,912 U.S. residents were deported. Families continue to be separated and our communities targeted.
Free trade agreements and foreign policies are still in place as more walls continue to be built to define and secure borders. Natural resources continue to be extracted from our countries while the flow of money crosses borders. Our people are prevented from following work opportunities that have been taken from them in their country of origin.
As a society, we all benefit from the fruits of exploited immigrant labor. More importantly, as youth with the privilege to speak up and in comparison to those who risk everything, we have nothing to lose, therefore it is our duty to do something about these injustices. We cannot go on during our life time without standing up and taking action!
We must stop the persecution and criminalization of our people! End the attacks on economic and political refugees!
We cannot allow this government to continue to divide and conquer. We must break down the borders that were set up to divide us.
Young people…our time is NOW! Search deep within your soul and ask yourself—What Am I going to do? With the types of injustices going on in society today, nobody should be at peace or oblivious to the suffering of our communities.
We will not let them intimidate us into silence!
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL!!!
To get involved, please contact: stoptheraidsnow@gmail.com
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
grassroots media tour!
Aid and Abet Media Strategy, Publicity, and Tour Management
Presenter Schedule:
October 2 - 6 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jen Angel
October 7 - 8 Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jen Angel, Jordan Flaherty
October 9 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jordan Flaherty
October 10 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 11 - 13 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 14 - 15 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 17 - 23 - Hadassah Hill, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
–
October 2 – Chapel Hill, NC
Internationalist Books
405 W Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
7 p.m.
For more info: 919-942-1740 / Internationalist Books
October 3 – Greensboro, NC
The HIVE, 1214 Grove St.
(Near the Coliseum, Glenwood Library and UNCG)
7:30pm-9:30pm
More info: Isabell or 336.209.4641
October 4 & 5 – Asheville, NC
Firestorm Cafe & Books, 48 Commerce St. (next to the purple building), Downtown Asheville, NC
More info: 828-255-8115 or Kila
Oct 4: 7 p.m. Presentation
Oct 5: 12 noon “Pressed for Knowledge” workshop
Oct 5: 2 p.m.: “From Oral History to Radio Documentary” Workshop
October 7 – Atlanta, GA
Charis Books & More, 7 p.m.
More info: Kerrie
October 9 – Valdosta, GA
More info: Zachary
Hildegard’s, 101 E. Central Ave, 7 p.m.
October 10-11 – Miami, FL
The Workers Center, 6127 NW 7th Ave, Miami, fl, 33127
Oct 10: 7 to 9 p.m., Oct 11: Workshops, 1 to 5 p.m.
More info: Joseph or 305-759-8717 ext 1029
October 12 – Gainesville, FL
Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave
For more info: Civic Media Center or (352) 373-0010
Workshops at 3 and 5, Presentation at 7 p.m.
October 13 – Pensacola FL
More info: Open Books
3 p.m. “Pressed for Knowledge” Workshop: University of West Florida, Room 191 in Building 36, the Communication Arts building, 11000 University Pkwy, Pensacola, FL 32514, Sponsored by The Voyager
7 p.m. Presentation, Center for Social Justice, 1603 N. Davis Hwy., Pensacola, sponsored by Movement for Change
October 14 – New Orleans, LA
7pm
Seventh Ward Neighborhood Center, 1943 Pauger St (at Urquhart), New Orleans, LA
Co-Sponsored by New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival and Mondo Bizarro
More info: Jordan
October 16 & 17 - San Antonio, TX
Details TBA
More info: Graciela or DeAnne
October 18 – Houston, TX
Rice Cinema on the Rice University Campus, entrance #8, University and Stockton Drive
Workshops: 2 p.m., Presentation: 7:30 p.m.
Sponsors: Houston Media and Sedition Books
More info: Tish
October 19-21 – Austin, TX
Sponsored by Skillshare Austin
Oct 19: doors at 1, workshops 2-7:30 with dinner break. , 3121 E 12th, Austin, TX, 78702
Oct 20: 7 p.m. Monkeywrench Books, 110 E. North Loop, Austin, Texas 78751
October 22 – Denton, TX
8 to 10 p.m., J&J’s Pizza, 118 West Oak Street, on the square
Web Presence workshop, 2-3:30 pm, Texas Woman’s University library
Presenter Schedule:
October 2 - 6 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jen Angel
October 7 - 8 Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jen Angel, Jordan Flaherty
October 9 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jordan Flaherty
October 10 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 11 - 13 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 14 - 15 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 17 - 23 - Hadassah Hill, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
–
October 2 – Chapel Hill, NC
Internationalist Books
405 W Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
7 p.m.
For more info: 919-942-1740 / Internationalist Books
October 3 – Greensboro, NC
The HIVE, 1214 Grove St.
(Near the Coliseum, Glenwood Library and UNCG)
7:30pm-9:30pm
More info: Isabell or 336.209.4641
October 4 & 5 – Asheville, NC
Firestorm Cafe & Books, 48 Commerce St. (next to the purple building), Downtown Asheville, NC
More info: 828-255-8115 or Kila
Oct 4: 7 p.m. Presentation
Oct 5: 12 noon “Pressed for Knowledge” workshop
Oct 5: 2 p.m.: “From Oral History to Radio Documentary” Workshop
October 7 – Atlanta, GA
Charis Books & More, 7 p.m.
More info: Kerrie
October 9 – Valdosta, GA
More info: Zachary
Hildegard’s, 101 E. Central Ave, 7 p.m.
October 10-11 – Miami, FL
The Workers Center, 6127 NW 7th Ave, Miami, fl, 33127
Oct 10: 7 to 9 p.m., Oct 11: Workshops, 1 to 5 p.m.
More info: Joseph or 305-759-8717 ext 1029
October 12 – Gainesville, FL
Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave
For more info: Civic Media Center or (352) 373-0010
Workshops at 3 and 5, Presentation at 7 p.m.
October 13 – Pensacola FL
More info: Open Books
3 p.m. “Pressed for Knowledge” Workshop: University of West Florida, Room 191 in Building 36, the Communication Arts building, 11000 University Pkwy, Pensacola, FL 32514, Sponsored by The Voyager
7 p.m. Presentation, Center for Social Justice, 1603 N. Davis Hwy., Pensacola, sponsored by Movement for Change
October 14 – New Orleans, LA
7pm
Seventh Ward Neighborhood Center, 1943 Pauger St (at Urquhart), New Orleans, LA
Co-Sponsored by New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival and Mondo Bizarro
More info: Jordan
October 16 & 17 - San Antonio, TX
Details TBA
More info: Graciela or DeAnne
October 18 – Houston, TX
Rice Cinema on the Rice University Campus, entrance #8, University and Stockton Drive
Workshops: 2 p.m., Presentation: 7:30 p.m.
Sponsors: Houston Media and Sedition Books
More info: Tish
October 19-21 – Austin, TX
Sponsored by Skillshare Austin
Oct 19: doors at 1, workshops 2-7:30 with dinner break. , 3121 E 12th, Austin, TX, 78702
Oct 20: 7 p.m. Monkeywrench Books, 110 E. North Loop, Austin, Texas 78751
October 22 – Denton, TX
8 to 10 p.m., J&J’s Pizza, 118 West Oak Street, on the square
Web Presence workshop, 2-3:30 pm, Texas Woman’s University library
STAND AND EVACUATED NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS RELEASE SHELTER CONDITIONS REPORT AND GAIN CITY SUPPORT FOR RESIDENT DEMANDS
CONTACT: SAKET SONI 504 8816610
STAND / NEW ORLEANS WORKERS' CENTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
STAND AND EVACUATED NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS RELEASE SHELTER CONDITIONS REPORT AND GAIN CITY SUPPORT FOR RESIDENT DEMANDS
Never Again: Lessons from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation
On a rainy Monday morning, less than one week since returning home from state-run warehouse shelters, over fifty evacuees with STAND and The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice exposed Louisiana's differential shelter policy and the sub-human condition in press conference on the door step of City Hall. Upon the release of a comprehensive reports on Louisiana's warehouse shelters, entitled "Never Again: Lesson from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation," STAND and residents demanded an end to the inhuman shelters condition and state policy that forces mother to bath their newborn in dirty portable toilet using bottle water.
As resident marched into city hall to delivering over 1500 petition signatures and the report, they demand their city Leaders Mayor Ray and Council Member Fielkow to take a public stance. What residents discovered where two different responses. Upon arrival to Mayor Ray Nagin office, residents and supporters were immediately met with close doors and arm security guards. While the mayoral staffs agreed to set up meeting with evacuees, Mayor Ray Nagin continued to avoid taking a public position by choosing to dine out at "Little Dizzy" instead of receiving New Orleans evacuees in a meeting. Still determined, Stand and New Orleans residents immediately met with City Council Member Arnold Fielkow and asked that he take a public stand on whether he support residents' demands to revoke the state differential treatment policy that forced the most vulnerable New Orleans' residents into inhumane shelter conditions.
As evacuated New Orleans residents took their demands to City Hall, they saw the beginnings of public recognition of the state's failures. Louisiana Department of Social Services Secretary Ann Williamson resigned and Governor Jindal finally publicly stated his disappointment with aspects of the Gustav Evacuation. They continue to put pressure on local and state elected officials to revoke the differential treatment sheltering policy, apologize, and involve affected residents.
The newly released report, Never Again: Lessons from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation exposes Louisiana's differential treatment sheltering policy which directs that in disasters, the state shall segregate evacuees relying on city/ state transportation in state-run warehouse shelters separate from evacuees using their own cars. Pursuant to this policy, the state advisory system directs self-transporting evacuees to separate parish, Red Cross, and church shelters with better conditions. Those who evacuate by bus are primarily the residents who do not have the economic means (or the cars) to self-evacuate, including homeless residents, public housing residents, low-wage workers, low-income renters, and their families – almost all African American.
This report's findings are based on assessments of the state-run warehouse shelters and extensive interviews of hundreds of affected residents. The findings expose startling inequity. In the Gustav evacuation, the state's differential treatment policy subjected the most vulnerable state residents to extremely inhumane shelter conditions. In each of the four state-run warehouse shelters, over a thousand evacuees were housed in a single large one-room space. Women, infants, children, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled were all using the same space, without privacy, and sharing the same bathrooms – outdoor portable toilets. They had no access to running water inside the facilities. The only showers-- until close to the end of the evacuations-- were the portable toilets outside, in which mothers were washing themselves and their babies with bottled water. Residents had limited access to medical care, and no access to counselors or to news from the state about the hurricane and its aftermath.
KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT:
• As Gustav approached, the poorest communities had no choice but to place themselves in the hands of the state at their most vulnerable moment. They trusted that Louisiana's plan for evacuation, sheltering, and return was designed for their safety. Communities counted on the state for access to humanitarian relief in a time of disaster.
• The state's plan achieved the very opposite result. The Department of Social Services sheltering policy had profoundly inequitable impacts on the poorest evacuees – blocking them from humanitarian relief. The policy forced those who were worst off into the worst shelter conditions.
• The inequitable impacts persisted well beyond the disaster. The state policy drove residents into cumulative disadvantage: over the course of seven days, residents became poorer and sicker as a direct result of shelter treatment and conditions. As a result, residents returned home to New Orleans in greater economic disadvantage and more vulnerable that when they left.
• In large part these were residents who were already disadvantaged as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Three years after the breach of the levees, these residents were still profoundly experiencing displacement and poverty as the result of the failed governmental response to Katrina and its aftermath.
• These residents are now deeply unwilling to trust the state or to participate in future evacuations. Almost without exception, residents expressed their preference to risk staying even as a hurricane approaches rather than to evacuate into the deplorable and humiliating conditions they had to face during Gustav.
CONCLUSIONS:
• Louisiana Governor Jindal and DSS Sec. Williamson should revoke the differential treatment sheltering policy, apologize for the suffering it caused vulnerable residents, and direct DSS to work with directly affected communities and their representatives to develop a new sheltering policy.
• The state's new shelter plan must be based on principles of inclusion, access, and equity for poor and working class African Americans and for all communities in Louisiana.
• The state must include the directly affected communities-- those who have the hardest time evacuating-- in creating the plan for shelters during disaster.
• A state shelter plan must give the hardest-hit communities equal access to humanitarian relief during every phase of disaster-- because they need it the most.
• The state must ensure that the policy is equitable. The present differential treatment shelter policy plays out to proactively disadvantage poor and working class African Americans – whether by intention, or by impact. The state must instead adopt an equitable disaster policy that proactively advantages the poor by prioritizing them at the precise time that they are most vulnerable.
STAND / NEW ORLEANS WORKERS' CENTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE
STAND AND EVACUATED NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS RELEASE SHELTER CONDITIONS REPORT AND GAIN CITY SUPPORT FOR RESIDENT DEMANDS
Never Again: Lessons from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation
On a rainy Monday morning, less than one week since returning home from state-run warehouse shelters, over fifty evacuees with STAND and The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice exposed Louisiana's differential shelter policy and the sub-human condition in press conference on the door step of City Hall. Upon the release of a comprehensive reports on Louisiana's warehouse shelters, entitled "Never Again: Lesson from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation," STAND and residents demanded an end to the inhuman shelters condition and state policy that forces mother to bath their newborn in dirty portable toilet using bottle water.
As resident marched into city hall to delivering over 1500 petition signatures and the report, they demand their city Leaders Mayor Ray and Council Member Fielkow to take a public stance. What residents discovered where two different responses. Upon arrival to Mayor Ray Nagin office, residents and supporters were immediately met with close doors and arm security guards. While the mayoral staffs agreed to set up meeting with evacuees, Mayor Ray Nagin continued to avoid taking a public position by choosing to dine out at "Little Dizzy" instead of receiving New Orleans evacuees in a meeting. Still determined, Stand and New Orleans residents immediately met with City Council Member Arnold Fielkow and asked that he take a public stand on whether he support residents' demands to revoke the state differential treatment policy that forced the most vulnerable New Orleans' residents into inhumane shelter conditions.
As evacuated New Orleans residents took their demands to City Hall, they saw the beginnings of public recognition of the state's failures. Louisiana Department of Social Services Secretary Ann Williamson resigned and Governor Jindal finally publicly stated his disappointment with aspects of the Gustav Evacuation. They continue to put pressure on local and state elected officials to revoke the differential treatment sheltering policy, apologize, and involve affected residents.
The newly released report, Never Again: Lessons from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation exposes Louisiana's differential treatment sheltering policy which directs that in disasters, the state shall segregate evacuees relying on city/ state transportation in state-run warehouse shelters separate from evacuees using their own cars. Pursuant to this policy, the state advisory system directs self-transporting evacuees to separate parish, Red Cross, and church shelters with better conditions. Those who evacuate by bus are primarily the residents who do not have the economic means (or the cars) to self-evacuate, including homeless residents, public housing residents, low-wage workers, low-income renters, and their families – almost all African American.
This report's findings are based on assessments of the state-run warehouse shelters and extensive interviews of hundreds of affected residents. The findings expose startling inequity. In the Gustav evacuation, the state's differential treatment policy subjected the most vulnerable state residents to extremely inhumane shelter conditions. In each of the four state-run warehouse shelters, over a thousand evacuees were housed in a single large one-room space. Women, infants, children, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled were all using the same space, without privacy, and sharing the same bathrooms – outdoor portable toilets. They had no access to running water inside the facilities. The only showers-- until close to the end of the evacuations-- were the portable toilets outside, in which mothers were washing themselves and their babies with bottled water. Residents had limited access to medical care, and no access to counselors or to news from the state about the hurricane and its aftermath.
KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT:
• As Gustav approached, the poorest communities had no choice but to place themselves in the hands of the state at their most vulnerable moment. They trusted that Louisiana's plan for evacuation, sheltering, and return was designed for their safety. Communities counted on the state for access to humanitarian relief in a time of disaster.
• The state's plan achieved the very opposite result. The Department of Social Services sheltering policy had profoundly inequitable impacts on the poorest evacuees – blocking them from humanitarian relief. The policy forced those who were worst off into the worst shelter conditions.
• The inequitable impacts persisted well beyond the disaster. The state policy drove residents into cumulative disadvantage: over the course of seven days, residents became poorer and sicker as a direct result of shelter treatment and conditions. As a result, residents returned home to New Orleans in greater economic disadvantage and more vulnerable that when they left.
• In large part these were residents who were already disadvantaged as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Three years after the breach of the levees, these residents were still profoundly experiencing displacement and poverty as the result of the failed governmental response to Katrina and its aftermath.
• These residents are now deeply unwilling to trust the state or to participate in future evacuations. Almost without exception, residents expressed their preference to risk staying even as a hurricane approaches rather than to evacuate into the deplorable and humiliating conditions they had to face during Gustav.
CONCLUSIONS:
• Louisiana Governor Jindal and DSS Sec. Williamson should revoke the differential treatment sheltering policy, apologize for the suffering it caused vulnerable residents, and direct DSS to work with directly affected communities and their representatives to develop a new sheltering policy.
• The state's new shelter plan must be based on principles of inclusion, access, and equity for poor and working class African Americans and for all communities in Louisiana.
• The state must include the directly affected communities-- those who have the hardest time evacuating-- in creating the plan for shelters during disaster.
• A state shelter plan must give the hardest-hit communities equal access to humanitarian relief during every phase of disaster-- because they need it the most.
• The state must ensure that the policy is equitable. The present differential treatment shelter policy plays out to proactively disadvantage poor and working class African Americans – whether by intention, or by impact. The state must instead adopt an equitable disaster policy that proactively advantages the poor by prioritizing them at the precise time that they are most vulnerable.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Tijuana, Mexico - Inmates of La Mesa state prison seized control of the facility Sunday afternoon after a 19-year-old prisoner was allegedly murdered by guards, during a mid-day search for contraband. Rioting broke out shortly there after while 1,200 visitors were in the prison. About 600 of the visitors were trapped inside as federal police surrounded the compound. 3 Prisoners were killed, and another 25 seriously injured during the unrest.
Inmates took 8 prison officials hostage and burned down many prison buildings. Three prisoners attempted to escape during the confusion but were quickly recaptured. Masked inmates hung a banner from the roof of one of the prison buildings that read in Spanish 'Justice. Guards. Assassins.' Prison guard Alex Cervantes Jaramillo was arrested, and police are looking for the prison's top commander Marco Antonio Ibarra Chavez, and his lieutenant, Daniel Ibarra Perez in connection to the murder of inmate Israel Marquez Blanco.
It took joint force of federal soldiers and riot police 12 hours to free the hostages and regain control of the facility which continued to burn into the night. Much of the prison was destroyed by the fires.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
