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.

SF OCT 31 2008 ICE takeover

link to beautiful slideshow by manuel ortiz

www.alianzanews.com

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

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