Sat 03/17/12 06:00pm | Noche Cultural por Wirikuta * Jornada de...

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Footage and personal interviews with #OccupySD since Oct. 7. Use the double arrows to scroll through the videos.

One year ago, direct action by millions of Egyptians resulted in the overthrow of long time dictator Hosni Mubarak.

Latest Story

Soapboxers take 5th and E for 100-year Commemoration
carrots | 03/13/12 12:48am

The intersection of 5th & E St. downtown was occupied for about an hour Feb. 8 as labor activists and historians crowded around soapboxes for the commemoration of the 1912 IWW San Diego Free Speech Fight.

Presenters spoke of that historical fight 100 years earlier and related it to today's struggles.

Local historian author Jim Miller, from a soapbox, asked the crowd to support the Millionaires Tax as a ballet initiative that would increase taxes for the wealthy to fund higher education programs.

2-person folk band the Proles entertained the crowd with classic Woody Guthrie and labor tunes. --Read More with Fotos and Video--

Previous Coverage: 1 || 2 || 3 || 4

Features

Okupan cuartel militar por el Dia de la mujer en Chiapas
Espoir Chiapas | 03/09/12 09:12pm

Okupan cuartel militar por el Dia de la mujer en Chiapas. Mujeres Abejas de Chiapas, despues de una peregrinacion, ocupan el cuartel militar de Majomut, para el Dia Internacional de La Mujer, el 8 de marzo

El dia de la mujer en Chiapas siempre es especial en Chiapas porque cada ano se juntan las mujeres de la organizacion civil Las Abejas, en resistancia desde 1992, construyendo su autonomia.

Se juntaron centenas de mujeres para hacer una perenigracion del Muncipio Autonomo de Polho hasta la comunidad sede de la organizacion: Acteal.

En su camnino las mujeres se pararon en el Campo Militar de Majomut, para empiezar a okuparlo con gritos de '"Chiapas Chiapas no es cuartel, fuera ejercito de el!!".

De repente una mujer saco los alambres de puas que protegia los soldados. De una vez entraron las mujeres okupando el cuartel, los soldados no pudieron impedir la llegada de tantas mujeres, y mientras que vino un respaldo de otros soldados no se pudo hacer nada.

Las mujeres invadieron el cuartel durante casi una hora, gritando y leyendo su comunicado antimilitarista! Los soldados se armaron y equiparon, entrando en sus camiones, armas en las manos! Pero tantas mujeres determinadas gritando en contra de ellos, la presencia de periodistas y de internacionales hizo que ellos se quedaron sin poder hacer nada.

Las mujeres terminaron la okupacion por una oracion! --Leer más--
Seventh Marcha Migrante Follows in the Steps of César Chávez
sdindymedia | 02/29/12 03:28pm

On Thursday, February 2 the seventh annual Marcha Migrante, a caravan bringing attention to the struggles of migrants and deaths along the border, began with a rally at César Chávez Park in Barrio Logan. Starting with an introduction to the goals of the Marcha by Enrique Morones from Border Angels, speakers at the rally talked about the separation of families by deportation and the difficulties for children, the connection of border policy to violence and suffering in other countries, the beneficial role of migrants in the economy, ongoing labor struggles and struggles for human rights. The rally was concluded with Danza Azteca by the Hummingbird Aztec Dancers.

With 2012 being the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Farm Workers, the caravan was focused on remembering the core values of UFW organizer Cesar Chavez about knowledge, helping the most needy and nonviolence. Every day of the caravan was devoted to one of Chávez's ten core values (pdf). The first day celebrated Chavez's acceptance of all people - Chavez was on the forefront of forming coalitions amongst diverse struggles, including partnering with queer struggles.

According to Morones, "When people say that people should get in line, we have to remember that there is no line. There is no line for those people who are dying in the desert every day. Every day we don't have humane immigration reform, two people die." The first stop from San Diego was Holtville Cemetery, the largest mass grave that is not a military gravesite. Almost seven hundred unidentified migrant workers who died crossing the border are buried there.

The Marcha ended at Border Field State Park on February 11.

Border Angels is an organization that has been providing water, food and clothing for migrants at stations along the remote sections of the Mexico-US border since 1986.

Video of Opening Event (English y Español) || Reportback from Marcha Migrante 7 || Previous Coverage: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 || Border Angels Web Site || Event Announcement
"Sissy ni watumishi wa community / We are servants of the community" — Nyagah wa Kamau / Stephen Nyash, RIP
Global/Kenya Indymedia | 02/28/12 08:13pm

Kenya Indymedia has reported that on Tuesday, February 21, radio journalist and organizer Stephen Nyash was shot dead in the Korogocho ghetto of Nairobi, where he had lived and worked for most of his life. Korogocho is the third largest slum in the world.

At writing, the motive for his murder is not clear. Nyash was one of the founders of KOCH FM [2], a close partner of Kenya Indymedia. He was also a leader in "Koch Hope" and "Ghetto Films," which worked to empower the slumdwellers of Korogocho.

He brought this wealth of experience to the fourth IMC-Africa Convergence in Senegal last March as a representative of Kenya Indymedia. He was also integral in organizing a "Conference of People" held in Korogocho to coincide with the Conference of Parties (COP-17) gathering on climate change.

To our knowledge, Nyash is the third Indymedia worker to be killed. On June 29th, 2004, 23-year old Lenin Cali Najera of Indymedia Guayaquil in Ecuador was assassinated by agents of the Ecuadorian government [Global indymedia, Ecuador Indymedia]. On October 27, 2006 Bradley Roland Will of New York City Indymedia was assassinated by paramilitary forces of the Mexican government while documenting the on-going struggle of the people of Oaxaca. [NYC Indymedia, Global Indymedia]

Read More: English || Español
Syrian-Americans and Allies Rally in Balboa Park for a Free Syria
carrots | 02/28/12 03:05am

A small but loud group of Syrian-Americans and their allies marched through Balboa Park Feb. 19 in support of the uprising in Syria and to renounce acting dictator, President Bashar Assad.

Syria has been in a declared "state of emergency" since 1963. Dissidents have lived in fear of murder, disappearance, torture and imprisonment. The Bashar regime continued his father's legacy of repression with the continued use of secret police to silence any opposition, going as far as requiring internet cafes to record comments posted online. --Read More--
Tijuana Wirikuta: Jornada de Solidaridad con el Pueblo Wirrárika
Tijuana Wirikuta | 02/26/12 04:23am

El 17 de Febrero del 2012, desde la esquina más nor-occidental de México, desde Tijuana, una luminaria de corazones en fusión con el humo de incienso del copal, se elevó con el son del tambor y la danza mexica bajo una noche clara, viajando por las estrellas hasta llegar al corazón sagrado de Wirikuta, prosiguiendo hasta la sierra madre occidental donde cohabita la mayoría de los wirraritaris (huicholes), llevando el mensaje de solidaridad con su lucha espiritual por la salvaguarda de sus sitios sagrados. Solidari@s con la demanda del pueblo Wirrárika de que el presidente Felipe Calderón declare una “moratoria” inmediata y posteriormente cancele definitivamente todas las conceciones mineras en Wirikuta, y proteja todos los territorios sagrados en San Luis Potosí y tres estados más (Jalisco, Nayarit y Durango), el colectivo Tijuana en Defensa de Wirikuta (TDW) organizó un evento que pausó momentaneamente el bullició de la gran afluencia de gente en el centro comercial Plaza Rio de esta ciudad fronteriza. Se escuchó la rítmica tonada de avezados y desconocedores de esta lucha espiritual bajo la luz de neón y de la verdad pronunciando el lema de la noche "¡Wirikuta no se vende, se le ama y se le defiende!"

Frida Garibay del colectivo TDW hizo lectura de los dies puntos de la "Declaración de Wirikuta." Este documento fue recientemente redactado por representantes wirraritaris después de consultar a los espíritus de los ancestros (en su reciente peregrinaje y peritaje histórico a Wirikuta el pasado 6-7 de febrero) sobre como seguir la lucha por la protección y renovación de la vida, y el balance del universo. Con el fuego y la energía de la danza ceremonial mexica del grupo Chicahuac Ollin, en una jornada más de conscientización sobre Wirikuta, los tijuanenses se declararon contra el posible etnocidio de una cultura milenaria y la salvaje destrucción del capitalismo neoliberal, en este caso representado por las concesiones mineras que el gobierno de Calderón le otorgó a compañías mineras canadienses sin importale los pactos, decretos, leyes nacionales e internacionles que el señor presidente había prometido respetar. --Leer más--

More Features

Radical Feminists Hold Pro-Abortion Rally and March on Roe v Wade Anniversary
sdindymedia | 02/10/12 04:54am

On Sunday, January 22 the San Diego Radical Feminists held a rally, march and speakout at the Civic Center Plaza and in downtown on the anniversary of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision of 1973 that ruled that many state and federal restrictions on abortion were unconstitutional under the due process/privacy clause of the fourteenth amendment to the US constitution.

Speakers at the rally emphasized that the right wing 'pro-life' fight to restrict abortion rights and womyn's control over their bodies has resulted in deaths and health problems for womyn, not fewer abortions; the legal history of increasing restrictions on rights of womyn to control their bodies; the impact of 'pro-life' false propaganda, especially in the Barrio communities, in changing the support for womyn's rights; the foundation of abortion restrictions in the economic interests of the 1% and in controlling womyn; and the need for an unapologetic, unco-opted movement to fight for womyn's rights.

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Adriane:
"Up until the mid-1800s in this country, abortion was legal and freely available. It was allowed by both the Protestant and Catholic churches. In the mid 1800s, with the monopolization of the medical industry, and midwifery being banned, it was a strictly economic decision to ban abortion, so that doctors had control over what they could charge and what procedures could be performed… Under the ninth amendment, the constitution is not supposed to take any rights away. But [abortion] was legal at the time the constitution was written. So by the strictest constitutional analysis, abortion should be legal."
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Zakiya:
"We need what we have today, an unapologetic abortion rights movement that can confront these lies… The pro-choice movement has left the streets in favor of tactics of conciliation, lobbying, and supporting Democrats, and this has gone along with the rise of the right wing, and paved the way for more and more restrictions on our rights. Imagine a womyn's movement that changed the dialogue about abortion the way that Occupy has changed the dialogue about income inequality."
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Cecile:
"What they really want is for womyn to be baby factories. To create the next generation of workers for their exploitation, as we know it as part of the 99%. That's what they really want. And they want to not have to pay us to have and take care of those children. They are already getting free labor for womyn in families who raise children without any support from our government. That's work! Its a full time job. And in fact during infancy it is a 24 hour job to raise a child. And we are doing it for free. They're not paying us to do that. They don't want us to have the right to choose not to do that for free when it is not the right time for us to do that."
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--Read More with Video-- || Film: When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories || Event Announcement
Queer Liberation Started in San Francisco, Not at Stonewall
Mark Gabrish Conlan | 02/01/12 09:53pm

“By day I was a reporter for KGO-TV” — the San Francisco affiliate of ABC — “and by night I was a writer for the Berkeley Barb,” the Bay Area’s pioneering “underground” paper. Laurence also led a double life of another sort — as a closeted Gay man in an era when almost nobody was “out” in the modern sense — until March 1969, when the firing of a friend with whom he’d appeared in a provocative Barb photo led him to found the Committee on Homosexual Freedom (CHF) and lead the first protests in U.S. history against a private employer for firing a Queer employee...

What they did was mount a picket outside the States Steamship headquarters from noon to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday. Laurence recalled that his group started with 13 “core” members and ultimately grew to about 25, plus other people on a contact list they could bring out for the States pickets and other demonstrations. Brown recalled that he was made picket captain “because I already had experience leading demonstrations with the anti-Viet Nam War movement.” He sought out training from the American Friends’ Service Committee (AFSC) on how to do nonviolent protesting, but that group — which, Brown recalled, had “organized in the South and risked their lives for Black civil rights” — refused to help a Queer group mount a protest. So Brown bought a dozen copies of the AFSC’s instruction manual on nonviolent civil disobedience and the group’s members taught themselves.

CHF founders realized they needed allies — and they looked for them in the same places modern Queer activists often do: the militant organizations of people of color. In 1969 that meant the Black Panther Party and the United Farm Workers (UFW). Laurence and Brown recalled how CHF joined the UFW’s pickets outside Safeway supermarkets to get people to stop buying grapes. In addition to signs with the UFW’s slogans, they also carried signs reading “Gay Is Good” and other messages from the new Queer movement. Not everyone on the UFW picket lines liked the idea of marching with a group carrying “Gay Is Good” messages. So, Laurence said, they went right to the top. “We called [UFW president] César Chávez, and he said, ‘Let them picket.’”

Later Laurence got a call from the Black Panthers, who essentially wanted him as a human shield to forestall a police raid on their headquarters they’d been tipped was about to happen. “They wanted some white people there,” he recalled. “I went down and it was obvious that I was Gay. The Panthers were impressed, and they taught us. --Read More from Mark Gabrish Conlan--

Update: Audio Links for this Event

See also: Gay Liberation DIDN’T Begin at Stonewall!!!
Human rights activist Cipriana Jurado: Justice for Maquiladoras in Ciudad Juarez
Persimmon | 01/30/12 11:17am

On Friday, January 13th, Cipriana Jurado presented her work from the last twenty years as human rights defender and advocate for maquila workers as part of Enero Zapatista. The discussion and presentation took place at the Centro Aztlan Marco Anguiano and was organized by Colectivo Zapatista, San Diego. Cipriana has been organizing in Ciudad Juarez since the 80's, when at the age of 14 she started working in the maquilas.

Much of Cipriana's work has been addressing the victimization, kidnappings, murder and disappearances of women by the Mexican military. She is a co-founder of Centro de Investigaciones y Solidaridad Obrera (Center for Investigation and Worker Solidarity). This is dangerous work and she herself has been the victim of state violence. In fact, she is the first person to be granted asylum in the US due to Mexican military persecution. In 2008 she was taken, without warrant, by masked members of the Mexican military. She described the kidnapping in suspenseful detail and witnessed the brutality of the military first hand. --Read More (with Video coming soon)--

Centro de Investigaciones y Solidaridad Obrera || Colectivo Zapatista San Diego F***book Page
Peace and Dignity Journeys Honors the Water at World Beat Center in Celebration of Enero Zapatista
PDJ SD Media Committee | 01/30/12 10:51am

The San Diego Peace and Dignity Journeys familia met for an event discussing the upcoming 2012 Journey, a run Honoring the Water, at the World Beat Cultural Center on Sunday, January 22 as part of Enero Zapatista. After enjoying a delicious potluck meal, about fifty community members watched three videos that described the run and indigenous struggles regarding water and sacred sites. They then participated in a circle where individuals described their roots and their relationships to the Journeys and water.

In the circle, director Makeda Dread, noted that the World Beat Center (and the adjacent Centro Cultural de la Raza) used to be water tanks, and the strong connection of the World Beat to the Journeys and to broader indigenous struggles.

Peace and Dignity Journeys is a spiritual run uniting indigenous communities and strengthening indigenous culture that occurs every four years - starting in the South in Tierra del Fuego, and the North in Alaska. Runners carry sacred staffs that contain the struggles, hopes, dreams and prayers of the ancestors and the indigenous communities they visit. Fulfilling the prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, the runners from the North and South meet somewhere in the middle of the continent. In 2012, they will meet in Guatemala. The Journeys began in 1994 as a response to the 500th anniversary celebrations of the start of colonization of Turtle Island by Columbus. Each Journey has a theme - in 2008, the theme was honoring Sacred Sites and in 2012 it is honoring the sacredness of Water and its life-giving role. --Read More (with Video)--

Peace and Dignity Journeys Web Site || Abuela Grillo Video (struggle against water privatization from inigenous perspective) || Video: In Defense of Sacred Site Wirikuta and Sierra de Catorce || Local Organizing to Save Wirikuta
San Diego Radical Labor History 101 at City College
sdindymedia | 01/30/12 03:25am

On Thursday, January 26, San Diego residents filled the Saville Theatre of the downtown community college to remember the excluded history of their city, the Industrial Workers of the World's Labor Organizing/Free Speech Fight of one hundred years earlier.

The evening started off with the premiere of a short documentary about the San Diego Free Speech Fight and continued with local authors Jim Miller and Kelly Mayhew, reading short segments from the novel Flash, a fictionalized investigation of the actual free speech fight and local Wobbly history; local musicians the Proles and Gregory Page performing labor classics Bound for San Diego and Which Side Are You On?, amongst others; and a panel of fellow workers, students, teachers and historians performing a Peoples history of San Diego. The evening ended with an audience sing-a-long of the union anthem Solidarity Forever.

--Read More (with Photos, Video and Audio)-- || Prior Coverage: 1 | 2 || Event Announcement

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