Members, allies and supporters of the Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition came together on April 25th, 2012 to hold a vigil a against the anti-immigrant Arizona law SB 1070. The Supreme Court began hearings that day on whether the controversial law in constitutional. SB 1070 requires local and state officials in Arizona to enforce immigration laws and legally opened the door to racial profiling against latin@s and other people of color. The vigil at the state capitol in Austin gathered at the vigil to say that this law divides our communities and makes all of us unsafe. They stood together is solidarity to say "Somos uno", "We are one".
OCCUPY COMES TO CAMPUS! Learn more about how the university tries to silence student voices, and how that just makes us louder! The fight for democracy and ethnic studies continues!
Produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala. This is a zgraphix production. http://zgraphix.org
Austinites gathered to read Martin Luther King's "Beyond Vietnam" speech. The speech was originally delivered on April 4th, 1967, at the Riverside Church in New York City and was his most direct critique of U.S. militarism.
Edited & Produced by Jeff Zavala. Vidography by Jeff Zavala & Grace Alfar. http://zgraphix.org
On April 1, 2012 Democracy Now! co-host Juan González spoke at 5604 Manor. González, who is also a columnist for The New York Daily News, spoke about his most recent book, "News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media" and on "The News Media, Democracy, and Race." His investigative reports on the labor movement, the environment, race relations, and urban policy have garnered numerous accolades, including two George Polk Awards for commentary and a 2004 Leadership Award from the National Hispanic Heritage Foundation.
Filmed by Jeff Zavala & Grace Alfar. Produced by Jeff Zavala. A ZGraphix Production. http://zgraphix.org
On March 28, 2012, Dr. Norman Finkelstein spoke at the University of Texas at Austin about the Israel-Palestine conflict. His talk focused on the background and context of the struggle and his perspective on its future. Dr. Norman Finkelstein is a renowned American Jewish professor, political scientist, activist, and author who has worked on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict for over three decades. Dr. Finkelstein received his doctorate in 1988 from the Department of Politics at Princeton University and has written six books about the Israel-Palestine conflict. He has held faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Hunter College, New York University and more recently DePaul University. For many years he taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict and currently writes and lectures. This event was sponsored by the Society for Islamic Awareness (SIA), Amnesty International, Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), and the International Socialist Organization (ISO).
Austin, Texas - Saturday March 31, 2012
video by Rene Renteria Photography
In order to celebrate and recognize the role of Cesar E. Chavez as a civil rights, farm worker & labor leader, a diversity of organizations and community members participated in the 11th Annual "Si Se Puede" Unity March. The Unity March also commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Farm Workers Union.
The event was organized by PODER - People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources.
The video highlights speaker excerpts from:
* Honorable Gonzalo Barrientos
* Mike Martinez - Austin City Councilman
* Margaret Gomez - Travis County Commissioner, Precinct 4
* Anita Quintanilla - Organizer for Cesar Chavez
The Austin Alliance For Peace (AA4P) is a trans-partisan organization dedicated to promoting peaceful solutions in an era where violence and threats are too often employed. The First Annual Austin Alliance for Peace 'Peace Rally" was held on Saturday, April 14 from noon-2 PM on the South Steps of Texas State Capitol. The purpose of the event was to reinvigorate the anti-war sentiment in the great State of Texas with the Peace Rally the day before National Tax Day. We are pleased that renowned peace activist, Dr. Dahlia Wasfi and the host of anti-war radio, Scott Horton were headliners for this event. Other speakers from the Austin area spoke on how the cost of war has deeply effected our local community through such issues as police brutality, regional fusion centers, implementation of an American urban warfare state in major cities across the U.S. (including Austin) with the implementation of Urban Shield programs, and how local politicians accept "federal money" to further the growth of the police state in local communities. AA4P objectives are: 1) To educate the public on violations of peace in any form, 2) To mobilize the citizens of the state of Texas to bring peace wherever it is absent, 3) To pursue the redress of grievances in alignment with the tradition of non-violent resistance. 4) To build a constituency whose main priority is to practice diplomacy and to always strive to resolve problems without the use of violence,
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