Occupy Austin activists gathered at an overpass on IH 35 to display their message that love is greater than fear. Austin Police also gathered at the nearby gas station responding to the action by shutting it down. "Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." - Jack Layton.
On October 22, 2012 at the University of Texas, Tricia Rose, professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, discusses hip hop's retreat from politics and the potential for that music to help tell the stories of the dispossessed today. Rose is author of the ground-breaking 1994 book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, Longing To Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy, and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters. http://www.triciarose.com/index.shtml
Video produced and edited for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala. A ZGraphix production. http://zgraphix.org
The third of three weekend art workshops on corporate personhood was held at At 5604 Manor on October 20, 2012. It focused on corporate personhood not as a political debate but as an instance of "cultural lag"- the idea that institutions, such law and corporations, take time to catch up with changes in cultural standards. In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court?s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the goal is to create art that can help close the gap between the dominant corporate mentality and the people?s desire to recapture control of our lives and environment. After a short discussion led by a local attorney, participants work is primarily in the mediums of pen and ink, poetry, and collage. Art may be collected into a published handbook.
Video produced for Austin Indymedia by Jeff Zavala. Filmed by Grace Alfar. A ZGraphix production. http://zgraphix.org
An unprecedented wave of Walmart protests grows with strikes in five states! Austin activists joined the call to protest against Walmart! The key word to describe the wave of worker walkouts and protests against Walmart in recent weeks: unprecedented. As Walmart warehouse strikers in Illinois go back to work with full back pay, other workers were striking. Josh Eidelson captures just how unprecedented this is: For the second time in five days and also the second time in Walmart's five decades, workers at multiple US Walmart stores are on strike.
Austin, TX (10/6/12) Occupy Austin members say they wanted to help the homeless--at least that was their mission before police broke up a Saturday protest and arrested three Occupiers. To commemorate the one year anniversary of the local Occupy movement Saturday, protestors planned to march from the new Highland Mall ACC Campus to an abandoned Home Depot warehouse. It was at that location they planned to set up a temporary homeless shelter appropriately named "Tent City."
Activist Josh Pineda caught on camera when police confronted the Occupy members at the protest. "I was out there trying to film the police to make sure they werenapos;t beating anybody or wrongfully arresting anybody," Pineda, a member of police watch dog group the Peaceful Streets Project, said. Instead, Pineda and another protestor were arrested. Police say they were trespassing. Before he was placed in cuffs, Josh can be seen backing away from officers. He also can be heard yelling questions at the other man getting arrested. "I was trying to get Luke Smithapos;s information,? Pineda said. ?They had grabbed him and I was trying to ask him what was going on. That was when I stumbled and they snatched me." Outspoken activist Kit O?Connell says homeless services around town fall short for those who need a roof over their head. "We want them to take some of these empty properties, abandoned properties, unused spaces and allow people to camp there to stay there," he said. In the meantime, the idealists want the government to know jail time will not stop their mission. "If they think any of these actions are going to deter us, they are dead wrong. If anything it is going to further amplify us," Pineda said. The three Occupiers arrested Saturday are out of jail, but are charged with criminal trespassing. The group says they expect the charges to be thrown out.
Videography by Jeff Zavala and Meg Seidel. Video produced and edited by Jeff Zavala. A ZGraphix production. http://zgraphix.org
Members and community supporters of The Workers Defense Project reflect on 10 years of creating a more dignified Austin for working people, and honor the women who let us along the way. Video produced by Jeff Zavala. A ZGraphix production. http://zgraphix.org
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