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Santa Cruz Indymedia - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area
On October 17th, Naomi Klein spoke at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz about her new book: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
In The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America’s “free market” policies have come to dominate the world -- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries.
  Read More with Audio and Photos | Naomi Klein Speaks at Stanford
anonymous writes, "On October 18th both exterior surveillance cameras at the McDonald's on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz were stolen in a follow-up to the action in August. This time the cameras were removed and disposed of.
"McDonalds is a major sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics which are flooding the city of Vancouver with increased surveillance and police presence (and invading native lands that have never been surrendered with rapacious corporate development and profiteering). Our enemy has technological eyes everywhere, but that only means that it is easier to gouge them out anywhere." Read More
anonymous writes, "On the night after Columbus Day 2008 we vandalized eleven windows at the Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Recruiting Center in Santa Cruz County with a paint and acid mix.
"The U.S. government has always waged a war of extermination against land-based ways of life in order to impose capitalist exploitation of the earth and its peoples.
"For 516 years they and their predecessors have been met with resistance. Neither law enforcement nor the military can ever defeat our struggle." Read More
George Cadman interviews Antonia Juhasz about her new book, The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry and What We Must Do To Stop It.
As oil prices—and public outrage—skyrocket, Antonia Juhasz, a leading industry critic and expert on corporations and globalization, gives the hardest-hitting exposé of the oil industry in decades. In The Tyranny of Oil she investigates the true state of the U.S. oil industry—uncovering its virtually unparalleled global power, influence over public officials, and lack of regulatory oversight, as well as the truth behind $150-a-barrel oil, $4.50-a-gallon gasoline, and the highest profit in corporate history. Exposing an industry that thrives on secrecy, Juhasz shows how Big Oil manages to hide its business dealings from policy makers, legislators, and, most of all, consumers. She reveals exactly how Big Oil gets what it wants—through money, influence, and lies. Read More and Listen to the Interview
Glen Chase, a Professor of Systems Management, has released a third report detailing the methodical fraud that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Management perpetrated to attempt to create a bogus emergency eradication program for the Light Brown Apple Moth (LBAM). This third report demonstrates the fraud and deception within the program strategy that CDFA Management used and is continuing to use to qualify for $100's of millions of dollars of emergency taxpayer funds, which were intended for real emergencies.
CDFA's main method of fraud is "Fear and Solution." CDFA Management creates a false fear and then comes to the rescue with a solution. The false fear is the nearly harmless moth that CDFA characterizes as the moth of mass destruction. CDFA falsifies that eradication is necessary and possible, and extorts taxpayer emergency funds for the solution. It is very much like paying the CDFA to keep the sky from falling. Read More
Professor Chase's first report ( CDFA LBAM Eradication Program - A Fraudulent Program) revealed the falsehoods CDFA delivered after June 19 when courts and public pressure stopped the CDFA from aerial spraying synthetic pheromone based pesticides directly on cities. Professor Chase's second report ( LBAM in California: The True Story: Summary & References) revealed the fraud and misinformation delivered by CDFA from fall 2007 until June 19, 2008.
 download the third report: Fraud and Deception: The CDFA LBAM Eradication Program
Grand juries are one of the good intentions paving the road to our current legal system. Unlike a trial jury, which decides whether a suspect is guilty, a grand jury merely decides whether there’s probable cause to prosecute a suspect on felony charges. The goal was to create a filter to catch unjustified felony cases and stop them at an early stage, so that the suspect wouldn’t be wrongfully prosecuted (and have to spend unnecessary time in jail and unnecessary money on lawyers). But it all went very wrong.
Defense attorneys aren’t even allowed in same room as the grand jury, let alone permitted to put on defense witnesses, question the prosecution witnesses, or make any statements to the jurors. So grand juries nearly always just “rubber stamp” the cases brought before them. For example, in fiscal year 2000, federal grand juries voted to indict a total of 59,472 suspects and chose not to indict 29 suspects—only one out of every 2,000 suspects was left un-indicted. An additional factor in grand juries’ unwholesome compliance with prosecutorial plans is the frequent lack of diversity among the jurors.
download the PDF: What You Should Know About Grand Juries
On October 1st, green mesh fencing was put up again in Santa Cruz's Parking Lot #4 next to the downtown Farmer's Market. The market began at 2:30pm and by 3:00pm, many people were disappointed by the fencing around the trees and the absence of the sounds of drumming in the air. But the drumming got started when a little kid, a regular at the drum circle, began playing his drum in the dirt near the sidewalk on Cedar Street. People eventually removed the fencing around the trees and a drum circle formed, playing music into the night.
Robert Norse comments, "The Drum Circle assembly isn't particularly newsworthy, except when Coonerty's Constables attempt to disrupt the public assembly there. No news is good news.
"Apparently, the police were told to resume their duties elsewhere--a sensible directive, and one wonders why it wasn't followed in late August and early September--avoiding a lot of public tension, anger, and hubbub. Could have something to do with Coonerty's reelection campaign, or some ambitious gentrification gents, or a new $43 million parking garage...or too many cops with too much time on their hands."
Only time will tell what will happen in Parking Lot #4 on Wednesday, October 8th and beyond. Will the green mesh fencing return? If so, will it come down again, one way or another? Will people be able to freely congregate, make music, and share food without surveillance and harassment by the police? Read More and View Photos
previous coverage of Parking Lot #4: September 10 || September 17 || September 24
Marcella "Sali" Grace Eiler, a solidarity activist with the struggle in Oaxaca and Chiapas, was found dead on September 24th in a deserted cabin twenty minutes from the village of San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico. She was brutally raped and murdered. On different occasions and to different people, Sali mentioned that recently she had suffered political persecution and surveillance in Oaxaca. Many people believe that her murder is part of the widespread repression against the social movement and directed particularly at international observers.
In Santa Cruz last week, at least three individuals were visited by FBI agents and compelled to give DNA samples. The agents possessed court orders for their DNA in investigation of a "violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act."
Another individual was served with a subpoena for a federal grand jury hearing. FBI Special Agent Andrew Myers found her in downtown Santa Cruz as she hung out with friends last weekend. The grand jury hearing is scheduled for October 23rd at the federal courthouse in San Francisco.
An anonymous contributor to Santa Cruz Indymedia states, "Anyone with more specific information should post here. We need to be as public about this as possible. We need to let folks facing FBI intimidation know that they have our utmost support, and send the FBI the message that we will never cooperate with their witch-hunts." Read More
previous coverage: Information on Grand Juries || Know Your Rights || Santa Cruz Resident Nathan Pope/Knoerl Arrested in Oceanside by the FBI || FBI Agents Visit Individual's Workplace in Oakland
On September 27th, four windows, a glass door and an ATM were smashed out at the Wells Fargo on the corner of Soquel Drive and Thurber Lane in the unincorporated area of Santa Cruz. Wells Fargo is one of the largest single stockholders in the GEO Group, a private prison outfit with prisons and detention centers spread across the world. Among many others, the GEO Group runs the ICE (Immigrations & Customs Enforcement) Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. The Geo Group also operates a Migrant Operations Center in Guantanamo Bay, on the grounds of the Naval Base, adjacent to the more infamous "Gitmo".
Ironically, Wells Fargo is also one of the largest methods of private remittances--money sent home to family abroad by working immigrants. They benefit off of the cash transfers of the migrant community on one hand, and profit off of their incarceration with the other. Read More
previous attacks: Santa Cruz Wells Fargo Paint Bombed || ATMs Attacked In Solidarity With Olympia Rioters || Smashed ATMs on UCSC Campus
After 10 months of occupying in 100-foot high redwood trees, tree sitters at UCSC's Science Hill are ready for students to return for school. The tree sitters say that their presence is more important than ever since the Santa Cruz City Council settled their lawsuit with the University. The settlement gives the City Council's blessing for UCSC to begin the first phase of their construction plan that will eventually destroy 120 acres of forest and add at least 4,500 new students to the area.
UCSC tree sitters have taken a stand against construction before it begins. Precious watershed regions, unique manzanita groves and hundred-year old redwood forests will be destroyed by the University's unfettered construction. The homes of such rare native animals as the burrowing owl and the endangered red-legged frog will be devastated. The University's plan sacrifices the unique ecosystems, as well as the highly esteemed liberal arts education that attracts many people to Santa Cruz. Following the trend of privatizing public universities, current students are paying more for education and receiving less. Read More
previous coverage: Tree Sitters Maintain Perch as UCSC Settles Lawsuit || With Students Gone, UCSC Tree-Sit on Alert || Standoff with Police as Activists Occupy Redwoods to Oppose UCSC Expansion
7PM Wednesday Oct 29
Peace is Every Bite
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