Guantánamo is our national shame. Five years after Camp X-Ray opened to house prisoners from the US war in Afghanistan, about 500 prisoners remain there. Not one has been charged, tried, or convicted for any crime.

On January 11th, the 5th anniversary of the first prisoners arriving at Guantánamo, about 200 protesters turned out for a demonstration against the detention center and the troop increase in Iraq proposed by President Bush the day before. A dozen Rochester "prisoners" donned the prisoners’ black hoods.

According to Witness Against Torture—a campaign to shut down Guantánamo—only 8% of detainees were even considered to be Al Qaeda fighters by the US government. 95% of detainees were handed over to the United States by third parties in exchange for bounties offered.

The UN Commission on Human Rights has said treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo ‘seriously undermines the rule of law and a number of fundamental universally recognized human rights, which are the essence of democratic societies.’ Our country is losing its soul at Guantánamo. To regain one’s soul, one must repent. Read the full article here.

Photos from January 11th Protest in Rochester: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Additional Information: Indybay coverage: International Protests Against Torture and Detention || Amnesty International’s 12-Point Programme for the Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by Agents of the State || Protesting Guantánamo by Frida Berrigan || Reprieve's Seeds of Hope campaign for Guantánamo gardeners || Truth, Torture, and the American Way

Feeling a bit frosty with the sudden blast of winter weather we're experiencing? Want to get warmed up—quick? Do strippers and/or radical labor organizing give you heart palpitations? Then come out this Friday and get hot watching strippers—unionize that is!

Rochester Indymedia presents Live Nude Girls Unite! for our January After-Mass screening.

Where: St. Joe's House of Hospitality located at 402 South Ave.
When: Friday, January 26th, 7-9PM
What is Critical Mass? Don't put that bicycle away just yet! Ride daily—celebrate monthly!

This first person documentary follows Julia Query, lesbian/stand-up comedian/peepshow-stripper, and daughter of a feminist activist, on her raucous journey to help organize the only union of strippers in the United States. Shot on a variety of formats, Live Nude Girls Unite! weaves backstage and dancing footage with labor organizing, street protests, stand-up comedy and comic-book style "animation" making an intelligent and dramatic cutting-edge film.

Free refreshments provided with discussion to follow. St. Joe's is wheelchair accessible and the event is free and open to the public.

This is a labor film about the formation of a strippers union.
This is not a porn film.
Additional Information: Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights | COYOTE | Exotic Dancers Alliance | Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWAP-USA) | $pread Magazine

On January 3rd, the Harley School hosted a screening of the documentary Water-Proof: A Study of Post-Katrina Culture to a packed auditorium. The screening was a fund raising event for Harley House—a Flower City Habitat for Humanity/Harley School effort—currently being built on the North Side of Rochester. It was also a call to action for people to aid in the rebuilding of post-Katrina Louisiana.

The documentary chronicles the reconstruction effort, the devastation that remains a year later, and the struggle of everyday life currently underway in post-Katrina New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. According to their press release, the film-makers—Sawyer Carter Jacobs, Andrew Douglas Rea, and Rashid Albert Duroseau (all graduates of Harley School)—“hope to inspire our audience into volunteering, and entreat them to fall in love with the great coastal city.”

Currently the film-makers are finishing the epilogue and are going to be entering the documentary into film festivals around the country. Rochester Indymedia has been in contact with the trio in the hopes of presenting a free screening sometime in May or June. Stay tuned for more information. See the trailer on YouTube. Contact the film-makers at bgfilms@gmail.com. If you'd like to get involved with the Harley House project, call 442-1770 ext. 3109, or email at harleyhouse@harleyschool.org.

Additional Information: Water-Proof: the film | New Orleans Habitat for Humanity | Flower City Habitat for Humanity | Harley House | Still Photos from the Film | New Orleans Indymedia

From Indymedia US: Common Ground Collective co-founder Scott Crow Under Investigation by FBI | Katrina Volunteers depart to Lebanon | Dozens of Cities Participate in "Critical Mass" Solidarity Ride on the Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina | 9 Arrested in Action to Reopen New Orleans Public Housing | Common Ground Under Pressure

On December 1st, the Newspaper Guild of Rochester voted 51 to 4 against the Democrat and Chronicle’s “final, firm and best” offer in a recent exchange in the 14 year old labor struggle.

In response to the vote, Gannett Corporation, the owner of the D&C, sent the union a letter on December 6th, in which Wendell Van Lare, Gannett's senior vice president for labor relations, stated that, “it is the Company’s view that we are at a good faith bargaining impasse,” and further that because of this “good faith impasse”, as the company calls it, they will “implement such portions of the final, firm and best offer as we deem appropriate,” by January 1st, 2007. The company stated it would decline further negotiations.

In the Guild’s newsletter there was a response to the Gannett letter as reported by Krestia DeGeorge in City Paper:

“We won't recite all of Mr. Van Lare's misstatements and mischaracterizations here; they're too numerous. We can only assume that this letter was written with the idea that his corporate bosses would read it and find favor with what he says. (Must have worked. This week, he, along with some others in Gannett, was rewarded with 2,000 shares of Gannett stock for a job well done. Remember that when you're asked to bring your own food to a holiday pot luck next week.)”

It is unclear what the Guild will do now. It may appeal to the National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) in an attempt to prove that the company was not negotiating in good faith. It also appears that, according to DeGeorge, a strike seems like an unfeasible option due to the union busting tactics Gannett used against laborers in Detroit.

Feel free to contact the management of the D&C and the owners of Gannett Corporation to express your disgust at the tyrannical actions of this company against its workers.

Additional Information: City Paper coverage by Krestia DeGeorge: The Guild and Gannett (Scroll down) and Gannett Stiffs the D&C Newsroom | Why I Quit the D&C | Rochester Paper's Union Becomes 2nd to Question Gannett's 'Info Center'

On Saturday, December 23, 2006, eight activists stood up for the 750,000 hens imprisoned at Wegmans Egg Farm in Wolcott, NY. Demonstrators were well-received by members of the public and employees alike at the East Avenue store in Rochester, NY. Several passing motorists expressed their support for the campaign, and several copies of "Wegmans Cruelty" were distributed to interested consumers.

Adam Durand, one of the documentarians of Wegmans Cruelty and the President of Compassionate Consumers, was sentenced to 6 months in jail on May 16, 2006 for a first time offense of trespassing by Judge Dennis Kehoe. However, Durand was released after being granted a stay of sentence nearly a month later after appealing the harsh sentence, which was an obvious attempt to silence critics of the company’s inhumane practices. Adam’s appeal is set to be ruled on in mid-February.

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Additional Information: See the documentary here | Sign a petition asking Wegmans to phase out battery cages | Donate to the Legal Defense Fund