Queer in Flux: a Radical Queer Convergence
November 12th, 13th and 14th
@ OSU Union (1739 N High St)
queerinflux.wordpress.com

OSU student group Queer in Flux is hosting a radical queer convergence examining the intersection of racism, feminism, and gender within a queer/trans lens through workshops, film and performance. A multitude of themes will be covered ranging from prison abolition and sex work, to writing and music as revolutionary acts of expression. Author Julia Serano will be featured as the Key Note speaker as well as many other presenters and performers traveling here from across the country.

To register or to find more information on the convergence, check out our website:

(Stony Ridge, OH) For decades a quiet neighborhood in the suburbs of Toledo Ohio has been home to working class Americans and the place where their children were raised. There is even a local park and playground right around the corner complete with Little League field. Its idyllic serenity has not been spared from the pains of the current economic and housing crisis. On the morning of May 3^rd, one working-class anarchist and laid-off auto-worker facing eviction resulting from just one more of the nearly 1.5 million foreclosures in the U.S., decided that now was the time to stand his ground.

    March 2nd, Value City Arena at the Ohio State University. It was the last home game of the season and the champsionship game of the Big-Ten and OSU fans were out in droves, but there were a group of students who had more to say than beat Illinois. During the 2nd half of the game a group of students wearing purple SEIU (service employees international union) shirts pulled out banners and signs saying CLEAN UP SODEXO while chanting "O-H-I-O Clean Up Sodexo". The arena security were none too happy with the banners and proceeded to take them away from the protestors. After the banners were gone another round of chanting was cut premature as the threat came from security that there would be repurcussions for OSU students if they didn't stop. The irony of students potentially being in trouble for chanting at a OSU game was not lost on many. The crowd in general was confused and annoyed that people were disrupting their viewing experience but at this point the buckeyes were already up 9 points and there wasn't excitement happening on the court.

    This action was the the latest in a campaign by students supporting Sodexo workers who primarily work in the food service behind the scenes at the Arena. Two days prior a group of students met with Gordon Gee's assistant Kate Wolford to address the many issues they have with Sodexo's treatment of it's employees. Some of the concerns are employees get poverty-level wages, sub-par health coverage and no annual percentage raises. This is a cost-cutting measure at OSU that enables them to take advantage of workers that are making far less than they would if they were OSU employees and enjoying far less benefits. Organizers say this will not be the last action as they continue to support the effort of Sodexo employees to unionize.

image: 

Indymedia.us is happy to announce that we've managed, after nearly a year of legal action on our behalf by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to successfully fight back against a bogus subpoena request issued by the FBI in conjunction with a grand jury investigation. The request demanded we turn over all IP address logs for a day in June of 2008 - not only did Indymedia.us object to this blatantly illegitimate and overly broad request, but, per accepted Indymedia best practices, we do not keep such logs in the first place, in order to maximally ensure the privacy of our site users.

I am not suggesting that the United States should walk on eggshells or otherwise cater to our enemies or adversaries, nor am I embracing the idea that the United States is the villain in global affairs.

Rather, I am suggesting that members of the US general public not believe in absurdities regarding US foreign policy or otherwise embrace cartoonish or simplistic ideas about US foreign policy.

Maybe coming to terms with the likelihood that the United States will sooner or later lose its super-power status is a good idea, in terms of preserving quality of life in our society. No empire in history has lasted forever.