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In the Streets

May 22, 2004 - 2:08pm -- jim
In the Streets

City To Impose Ban On Street Fairs

During GOP Convention


City street fairs will be banned in late August and early September during
the Republican National Convention.


Newsday reports the ban will be enforced because the Police Department will
be stretched thin during the Convention.

May 21, 2004 - 9:34am -- jim
Events
In the Streets

Mahtin writes:


Reclaim the Commons

San Francisco, June 3-9, 2004

Initially formed to oppose Bio2004, RECLAIM THE COMMONS has quickly grown from a single mobilization into a movement. Within this movement, we want to teach and demonstrate sustainable, life-affirming alternatives to biotechnology and corporate power in general: organic food, community gardens, water reclamation, urban transformation, a gift economy, and so much more. We do this hoping to inform, enrage, and inspire, as we spread the skills and tools we need to bring our visions to fruition.

May 13, 2004 - 12:03pm -- jim
In the Streets

NYPD Planning To Install Its Own Surveillance Cameras

NY1

The NYPD is reportedly planning to install hundreds of cameras
around the city that can automatically recognize the faces of
suspected criminals or terrorists.


There are already tens of thousands of private surveillance
cameras trained on city streets and buildings. According to the
New York Post, the NYPD wants to install its own centralized
system.


NYPD Deputy Commissioner James Onalfo is working on a plan for up
to $1 billion in new computer and camera equipment, according to
the Post. Facial recognition technology would allow police to
pick out and follow suspects in high-crime areas and near
potential terrorist targets.


Police reportedly hope to install many of the cameras before this
summer's Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden.

May 11, 2004 - 7:10am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

hydrarchist writes... well here is a report from an organizer with the Dublin Grassroots Network, protagonist of the demonstrations and actions "Against the Europe of Capital/No to Fortress Europe" which took place simultaneous with the official celebrations of EU enlargement that took placfe in Ireland on the Mayday Weekend. For the record, I was present myself but am not the author ;-)

The long march on Farmleigh

In terms of the development of a libertarian movement in Ireland
the march on the EU
summit at Farmleigh will probably be seen as a turning point. For
the first time the movement mobilized large number of people from
outside its own ranks, in a demonstration that was in direct defiance
of the Irish governments attempt to ban such demonstrations.

May 5, 2004 - 10:59am -- jim
News
In the Streets

"Protesters Ambush Conservative Think Tank:

Speaker Applauded for Lambasting Bush"

At the Heritage Foundation's annual Resource Bank
meeting in Chicago last
Friday, protesters masquerading as a right-wing
think tank took the stage
and announced that in light of Bush's
shortcomings, they were nominating
former Reagan Attorney-General Ed Meese for
president.

May 5, 2004 - 12:41am -- nolympics
News
In the Streets

Our second visit to the US base

One of our prime motivations for visiting the base again was to talk with Dennis Gray, an Associated Press reporter who, we were surprised to discover, was “embedded” inside the base. We had gotten his e-mail address and asked him to meet us at the gate. It took a while, but we did finally have the pleasure of meeting him. He seemed interested in our project, asked a lot of questions, and took notes while we answered. I don’t know if he has filed a story on us, or if it has made it past the editors. But we enjoyed talking with him, and were impressed to hear of his experiences in Cambodia and southeast Asia in the horrifying days of Pol Pot. Our interactions were sincere and mutually respectful. We left feeling glad that we had made the effort to contact him.

One thing did seem odd to us, though. Here was the only US reporter we had met in our entire trip, reporting on the situation in Najaf… from inside the barbed wire and defensive walls of the US camp. He had never walked freely down the streets of Najaf, as we did every day, and see the people going about their daily routine. He had never gone to the internet café to file a report, or stopped in at a neighborhood store for a bag of chips or some cookies. What kind of view did he have of Najaf? What can he tell the American people about what is really happening in Najaf?

May 3, 2004 - 8:51pm -- nolympics
News
In the Streets

mariogalvan44@hotmail.com writes

Yesterday we carried out a very successful action at the largest military base here, on the outskirts of Najaf on the road to Kufa. We were able to get a considerable amount of media, which no doubt contributed to the success of our action, and helped insure our safety.

We held a press conference at the al-Najaf Sea hotel at 1:00 pm. There were almost twenty video cameras trained on us, and more still photographers. The crowd of media was perhaps 30 altogether. We unfurled the banners we would carry to the base: one said "Peace" in arabic, english, and spanish. One said "U.S.A.:  Don't Be The New Saddam. Come Home" in English (addressed to the U.S. soldiers).  One said "No U.S. occupation" in Arabic. A third banner read "Peace" in Arabic, English and Spanish (Salaam in Arabic letters, Peace, Paz).  Each member of the delegation made a brief statement, and then we left in a cab for the base, which was just a kilometer or so down the road. On the way, the press followed us on all sides, with their cameras following us through the windows. Later we heard that the footage of our event was carried on twelve different stations. There press here is largely from the Arab world.

May 3, 2004 - 5:33pm -- jim
In the Streets

"NYC Direct Action Groups Bring Tactics to RNC"

Matthew Leising

Direct Action groups, building on the experiences of the WTO
protests in Seattle in 1999 and last year's anti-war actions in the
San Francisco Bay Area, are gearing up to let Republicans know they
are not welcome to celebrate their agenda in NYC this summer.
So, the upcoming Republican National Convention is not about the
Republicans, say Mayor Bloomberg and Ed Koch, whom Bloomberg picked
recently to be the public face of the convention. It’s about
celebrating New York, they insist.


Try telling that to the hundreds of direct action protesters — not
to mention the hundreds of thousands of more conventional activists
— who plan to flood the city starting Aug. 30.

May 2, 2004 - 3:10pm -- nolympics
Analysis & Polemic
In the Streets

Ernest EverHard writes

MAYDAZE!


A thesis on the Celebration of Alienation


(originally written in the 1970s)

This is supposed to be a celebration, but there is a stale scent about it - the scent of failure held up as success, of moldy platitudes held up as useful, critical ideas - the scent of an old, dying world, not the fresh air of a new one. Once again people come together because, deep down, all of them are fed up with their present existence; all of them want a life of unstifled tenderness, free creativity, limitless adventure. And once again, the Left, like the constipated rhinoceros it is, has managed after immense grunting and straining to produce the same dry, evil-smelling little pellets of slogans:


                            Jobs or Income Now!

                                  No Wage Cuts

                    No Cuts in Social Services

                        Fight Police Repression

Never mind that a movement which could enforce the granting of even one of the first three demands would be easily strong enough to overthrow capitalism... let's just keep on pestering Mommy and Daddy.

April 26, 2004 - 3:18pm -- jim
News
In the Streets

"Interrupting the Empire"

Montreal, 18 April, 2004

As US bombers continued to terrorise people in Fallujah, and as their troops
surround the holy city of Najaf, a small group of people in Montreal
succeeded in closing down the US consulate for four hours on Friday.

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