Spontenous March on Ridge Street

On Friday December 3rd, about midnight, there was a large spontaneous gathering of youth on Ridge Street.

On Friday December 3rd, about midnight, there was a large spontaneous gathering of youth on Ridge Street. From 100 to 150 teenagers, who had presumably gathered for a party, marched down the street for most of the length of Ride Street. The crowd was many layers deep and covered the entire street and the sidewalks. The crowd seemed to have no particular mission in mind. There were a couple of minor fights in the midst of the crowd, but no serious violence against persons or property. People from the neighborhood were able to pass through the crowd and down the street without being harassed. The teenagers were African American. As one might predict with any such gathering of people in the street, the police were called and arrived en masse. They used an interesting tactic of sending a few cars through the crowd, windows rolled up, sirens and lights turned off, one at a time. When they had several cars on the each side of the gathering, then they moved into to disperse the crowd, threatening curfew violation arrests. (The City of Charlottesville went to the Supreme Court to defend its curfew a few years ago. There have been claims that the curfew is enforced discriminatively.) This author has never seen a gathering quite like this in Charlottesville.

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Anti-War Toy Demonstration
Peaceful Play, fairtrade goodies, subversive x-mas caroling

Saturday, December 18th, 1-2 p.m.
Wal-mart parking lot.


Join us on the 2nd biggest shopping day of the year to protest wal-mart's mega supply of war toys. All welcome from 1-2 pm. in front of wal-mart to encourage shoppers that they can make peaceful choices for their loved ones.
to follow...come to the charlottesville catholic worker house on 615 bailey road for fairtrade beverages and homemade goodies...and warm up for the subversive christmas carloing at the downtown mall.

should be a great time. families especially welcome to come out w/ the kiddos.

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Buy Nothing Day 2004

“Free, What do you mean it’s free?” This was a question posed by a woman who came to the free store at Buy Nothing Day thinking it was a yard sale. The idea that things could be obtained with out an exchange of money was a very new one, but readily accepted as she and her family then proceeded to look for more free items.

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SOA protest swells to an estimated 15,000 with 15 arrested
reposted from atlanta imc

Thousands have assembled at the gates of Ft. Benning GA for the second day of protests against the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, with as many as 15,000 present by 10:30 a.m., according to SOA Watch. In a written statement read to the crowd, Sr. Diana Ortiz recalled that this month is the 15th year anniversary of her own abduction and torture in Guatemala. A graduate of the SOA who has been found guilty of her torture was honored by the SOA, she said, and the impunity continues with the evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib.

related link: http://www.soaw.org

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A+ Slave Auction on Court Square a success!
Mark Beliles of Grace Covenant declares slavery reenactment racist

In 2003 Ballou began thinking that the Historical Socity's treatment of the past-publicly neglecting the factual representation of slaves in American history had gone on too long. In 2004 undisclosed reenactors accosted a local black woman for smoking a cigarette outside her job on her work break. The die was cast, and with friends Cornelius A. Banker, and Jebediah Digital, Ballou stepped on to the auction block to reenact the first slave auction publicly displayed in Charlottesville in over one hundred and fourty years.

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Activists Dead SW Virginia
Note: New Information Indicates Domestic Violence, see Comments

Reposted from Richmond.indymedia.org

Giles County, VA -- One Virginian activist, Niklan Jones-Lezama, is believed dead and another, Sue Daniels, is missing.

On Saturday, Niklan's body was found by a search party of friends within a few hundred yards of Sue's cabin outside of Blacksburg. This past Thursday, Sue's cabin had been burned to the ground in an apparent act of arson. Sue and Niklan's two cars were found parked outside the charred remains of the building. The badly burned remains of what is believed to be a dog were found inside.

Both Nik and Sue were active around varous social justice issues, such as opposing war in the Middle East, oppression in Central America, and violent mountaintop removal in Appalachia. The two were in their forties and spent several months in federal prison last year due to their participation in the annual School of the Americas protests in Georgia. These annual SOA protests coincidentally occurred this past weekend. The last time people report seeing Niklan was when he was due to leave to attend the protests 5 a.m. on Thursday.

This photo features both Sue and Nik leading a procession into their 2002 trial for protesting the SOA in 2001.

sueandnik.jpg

related link: http://Richmond.indymedia.org

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Charlottesville Council resolves support of gay civil rights: Dice urban renewal vote postponed

The Dice project has every element of urban renewal for which Charlottesville is infamous. A private developer partnering with the government to purchase, improve at taxpayer expense, then resell private property to a different owner for a profit. Tax value of the property is promised to increase dramatically.

Dice Street between 5th and 4th
10th Street NW

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Cvilleindymedia Interest Meeting
Tuesday, November 16, 6:00

We are looking to open the Charlottesville IMC to writers, journals, activists, radicals of every stripe.

The meeting is this Tuesday, November 16th at the Better Than Television space on Goodman St. (the former Pudhouse).

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A Teach-In on UVA Privatization
Tuesday, November 16, 6:30 pm

~ Do you know what the Charter Initiative is? ~
Do you know how it will impact you?

Come find out this Tuesday evening at Clark Hall. There will be speakers representing students, staff and faculty.

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Green and Libertarian Presidential Candidates to Demand Ohio Recount
Reposted from FreePress.org

David Cobb and Michael Badnarik, the 2004 presidential candidates for the Green and Libertarian parties, today announced their intentions to file a formal demand for a recount of the presidential ballots cast in Ohio.

"Due to widespread reports of irregularities in the Ohio voting process, we are compelled to demand a recount of the Ohio presidential vote. Voting is the heart of the democratic process in which we as a nation put our faith. When people stand in line for hours to exercise their right to vote, they need to know that all votes will be counted fairly and accurately. We must protect the rights of the people of Ohio, as well as all Americans, and stand up for the right to vote and the right for people's votes to be counted. The integrity of the democratic process is at stake," the two candidates said in a joint statement.

related link: http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/851

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Evidence Mounts that the Vote was Hacked
Reposted from Common Dreams

While the heavily scrutinized touch-screen voting machines seemed to produce results in which the registered Democrat/Republican ratios largely matched the Kerry/Bush vote, in Florida's counties using results from optically scanned paper ballots - fed into a central tabulator PC and thus vulnerable to hacking - the results seem to contain substantial anomalies.

Just another corporate tool?

related link: http://ustogether.org/Florida_Election.htm

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Demcracy Now Survey
Your Input Wanted

Democracy Now is a hard-hitting news program produced by Pacifica Foundation. Democracy Now is running on Channel 13 Local Access Cable in the Charlottesville Area.
CvilleIndymedia is trying to get DN on local radio as well. Currently, DN is on from 8AM to 9 AM Monday to Saturday, and at Midnight on Mondays on Channel 13. CvilleIndymedia folks put quite a bit of effort into getting this show on the air locally. The station managers have been receiving a lot of supportive calls about DN, but also numerous requests that they air it more often or at different times. They are willing to consider altering their schedule, but are feeling stretched to handle the amplitude of public input they are receiving. Therefore, CvilleIndymedia is conducted a poll to ask people when they would like to see DN on Local Access cable. If you don't have cable, don't worry about it. But if you watch DN, or would watch it if it were on at a different time, please email your favored times for the program to run to
lexus51@bnsi.net
Our campaign to get DN on local radio is ongoing. Stay tuned for information about that.
Alexis

democracynow.jpg

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Kerry Won

from http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php
Kerry Won
Greg Palast
November 04, 2004
Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided known as spoilage in election jargon because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Palasts investigation suggests that if Ohios discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots.

Greg Palast, contributing editor to Harper's magazine, investigated the manipulation of the vote for BBC Television's Newsnight. The documentary, "Bush Family Fortunes," based on his New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, has been released this month on DVD .

kerry.jpg

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Prepare for Action on Novermber 3
Are you ready to defend this Democracy?

Across the nation, activist groups are mobilizing in the likely event of a tainted presidential election. Whether they are coalitions, de-centralized multiple actions, or local events unrelated to larger organizations, all are in preparation for a potential repeat of the Election 2000 fiasco or worse.

Election Coverage on IMC:

Michigan Indymedia will have two days of special coverage on N2 and N3, including a live webstream, a toll-free call-in number, and a text-messaging system to keep people up to date. IMCs in Portland, St. Louis and Cleveland, among other places, are also planning election coverage. The US site is up and running as of today.

related link: http://us.indymedia.org/en/

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Satisfied with Y-ville?
Better Than Television needs You!

We call Charlottesville Y-ville and the Y stands for Yuppie. It also stands for w-h-y? Why this city? Why is this the greatest place to live in America? Why-ville? Why a city at all? Questions we don't think to ask.

Y-ville does have some great things going for it. Food Not Bombs, Indymedia, Catholic Worker House, and Community Bikes, all sprung up here in the past few years. All of these are volunteer-run collective organizations trying to build community while high-end development dollars flow into Y-ville, rents skyrocket and Yuppie culture thrives. Does this alarm you at all? The clone culture is taking over this town, but why not do something besides grumble: like creating a lo-no yuppie alternative.

Our Proud Banner
Here's the main space, scene of art/music shows, workshops, etc.
The library.
A symbolic stairwell
Ian reads a zine...
from the collection.
We found a good use for televisions.
Our cafe seating.
Some art
More art

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Activist Musicians in Town
Stephan Smith, Sandman the Rappin' Cowboy hit the Starr Hill Gallery

Radical Music! (says me)

STEPHAN SMITH & MATT WERTZ
with SANDMAN THE RAPPIN' COWBOY and CHRIS CHANDLER
Wednesday, 10/20 at 8:00 (doors at 7:00) in the Starr Hill Gallery
(I don't know the price, so call Starr Hill)

related link: http://www.starrhill.com

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Biodiesel, Salvation or Disaster?

Biodiesel is the fastest growing alternative fuel in the U.S. For the proponents of biodiesel, it promises to deliver us into an age of clean and renewable fuel. If present trends continue, biodiesel is more likely to escalate human misery around the world for years to come.

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Indymedia Servers Returned, No Explanation

reposted from indymedia.org

On Wednesday, October 13th, Indymedia's seized hardware was mysteriously returned in the same way it disappeared -- without any information provided as to who took it or why, and on whose orders. An employee at Rackspace, the U.S.-based web hosting company that handed over Indymedia's disks to the U.S. government on 7 October, emailed an Indymedia volunteer to say that the disks were returned and that "the court order is being complied with... I will pass along any more information that becomes available and that I am allowed to."

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Anarchy Is Not the Answer

Anarchy is not the answer for activists or independent media outlets that take their business of reform seriously. Independent Media groups and activists around the country (no matter how loosely organized) can not afford the luxury of either acting like, or being labeled, anarchists.

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Indymedia Under Siege

article reposted from Indymedia.org

Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace ordering them to hand over Indymedia web servers to the requesting agency. Rackspace, which provides hosting services for more that 20 Indymedia sites at its London facility, complied and turned over the requested servers, effectively removing those sites from the internet.

Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia. Talking to Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the concerned parties on what is happening.

It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside the US jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.

At the same time an additional server was taken down at Rackspace which provided streaming radio to several radio stations, BLAG (linux distro), and a handful of miscellanous things.

The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent media by the US Federal Government. In August the Secret Service used a subpoena in an attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC by trying to get IP logs from an ISP in the US and the Netherlands. Last month the FCC shut down community radio stations around the US. Two weeks ago the FBI requested that Indymedia takes down a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited by the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand, Indymedia and other independent media organisations were successfull with their victories for example against Diebold and the Patroit Act. Today however, the US authorities shut down IMCs around the world.

The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille (all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, part of the Germany site, and the global Indymedia Radio site.

The article believed to have prompted FBI action is now mirrored here:

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mtoups/nantes/copsinnantes.htm

Nyc indymedia on possible links to RNC:

http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/126066/index.php

Urbana-Champaign seems to have good coverage of this story:

http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/20764/index.php

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