On Monday, June 5, at Ginter Park Presbyterian on Richmond’s north side, amid the booming church organs and the well-rehearsed choir, religious leaders, community organizers, and hundreds of social justice-minded members and supporters of the religious coalition Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities (RISC) put council-members under the spotlight on the issue of living wage.

Paul Buhle, Brown University lecturer and ex-SDSer, talks about the history and meaning of this year's start of a new SDS.

An exercise in "love thy neightbor as thyself"
Methodist style.

For many years, the Pace Center at VCU has been a combination free speech zone and housing for movement groups. An array of feminist ,queer, peace,homeless advocates have met there.No more.

*Better than Television in **Charlottesville** to Host Anarchist Gathering*

Saturday, June 3rd 11 a.m. - 9 p.m., Charlottesville, Virginia

Better than Television (located at 112 E. Main Street, beneath the Jefferson Theatre on the downtown mall) will host a collection of workshops, films and music celebrating and exploring ideas of equality, environmental protection and civil liberty.

Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue) has put out a call for a week-long siege on the last abortion-providing clinic in Jackson, Mississippi from July 15-22, 2006. Their message is being spread far and wide and we are planning a massive clinic defense demonstration to keep the clinic open.

It was a general strike that immigrant workers and allies staged yesterday in order to remind the USA of the central role their labor plays in daily life here.

Just in time for Mother’s Day, the management of Eastern State Hospital in Williamsburg has retaliated against Debra Moore, an outspoken registered nurse and mother of four, by discharging her, making hers into a fight for free speech, the right to organize, and the dignity of workers and patients in Virginia. Advocates of free speech, women’s rights, and the right to organize are mobilizing to defend her and are calling for public support.

Enough of single-issue “LGBT rights,” constant focus on gay marriage and electoral politics, and corporate Pride… we can only be free as queer and trans people through a collective struggle against all systems of oppression. Come join us at a festive and fabulous gathering to network and learn about grassroots projects happening around the region, share strategies for organizing against assimilation, and to build a fierce movement of radical queers and trans people in the South!

There’s this book you want to buy. You could order it online from Amazon, but wouldn’t it be nice to browse a little and maybe buy a cup of coffee too? So you head to the nearest bookstore, Borders (or is it Barnes and Noble in your neighborhood?). Check the bargain table. Nothing interesting, but the glossy photos are pretty. Well, here’s an interesting novel. Fifteen dollars for a paperback! Forget it. Now for the book you’ve been coveting: not in stock. You hunt down a harried-looking clerk who tells you it will ship in seven days, just follow her and she’ll order it online. And are you interested in Super-Sizing your order for an extra fifteen dollars? If you join Hooked on Books you will save 10% on every third title for a year.

A 2005 Supreme Court ruling opened the door for possible future discrimination of internet content by American internet service providers. Previously, ISPs could not discriminate against creating or accessing unprofitable, unpopular, or "controversial" content, but that could soon change if the principle of network neutrality on the internet isn't maintained.

A call to act: MJS 2006 As the coal hearted mining companies continue to colonize and ravage the beautiful and sacred mountains of central and Southern Appalachia we will step up our resistance yet again and fight to save the land that is the foundation of our culture and gives us life.

Charlottesville doesn't look like a town where 25 percent of the residents
live in poverty, but that's only because the poor people's housing is
cunningly hidden off the main roads, so the UVa alumni who pour in every
fall for Cavalier games don't have to see it. If you shop at the upscale
Barracks Road Shopping Center instead of Sam's Club, if you drive instead of
taking the buses, you could live here indefinitely thinking everything is
just fine, thank you, ma'am -- unaware of the desperation going on within a
two-mile radius.

But I know the true state of things in this lovely Blue Ridge mountain town,
because I've been hanging out with the Virginia Organizing Project folks
ever since I moved here in 2001 -- agitating for a living wage in the local
hotels as well as the university, which is the largest local employer.
Another one of my informants is a lady who works behind the deli counter at
Whole Foods, and the fact that she does so tells you a lot about wages at
UVa: She has another full-time job there as a housekeeper.