Richard Myers, union activist, writer, labor historian, graphic artist, photojournalist, poet, and proud worker, passed from this world on Thursday evening.  His loss leaves the Denver social justice community stunned and heartbroken.

Richard was born and raised in Nebraska and came to Denver in his youth.  He worked in a factory for 33 years, where he also began a career as a union activist.  Richard served as a steward in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.  Later he joined the Industrial Workers of the World, where he played a vital role in making the Wobblies an important player in the Colorado social justice community.  For two years, Richard also served the IWW as Branch Secretary of the Denver General Membership Branch.  He joined the fight for grocery and retail workers, with the United Food and Commercial Workers.

Richard worked passionately for many other causes and could always be found where people were fighting the good fight.  He was one of the founders of Colorado Indymedia and a major participant in our predecessor, Rocky Mountain Indymedia.  His poster art has been an important feature of almost every radical and progressive campaign in the area, for decades.

Richard's writings in The Daily Kos, TPM Cafe, Industrial Worker, H-Labor, and many other venues, have brought a compassionate working class view to readers worldwide.  He also served as joint editor and an author of Slaughter in Serene, published in 2005, and available at http://workersbreadandroses.org/ as well as many bookstores and libraries.

Coloradans, can you help Mainers fend off a Denver-based Big Gas attack on Penobscot Bay?   Creative actions needed to confront BIg Gas in its home habitat.

LPG gas distributor DCP Midstream LLC, a BIG natural gas port, pipeline & megatank operator, is close to getting its OKs to transform and industrialize our bay's estuary, heart of the lobster ecosystem, by establishing the east coast's biggest Liquified Petroleum Gas terminal in the our bay's brackish waters..

CAN COLORADANS HELP US SHAME DCP AT ITS CORPORATE HQ? 

http://www.timescall.com/news/lo...

Anti-fracking demonstrators disrupt, delay Boulder County oil and gas hearing
Group demands ban or commissioners' resignation
By John Fryar Longmont Times-Call timescall.com
Posted:   12/04/2012 04:50:45 PM MST, Updated:   12/05/2012 02:42:05 PM MST

Neshama Abraham, of Boulder, right, applauds while other anti-fracking supporters silently show their support during public discussion, Dec. 4, 2012, at Boulder County Court House (Matthew Jonas/Times-Call) (Matthew Jonas)

BOULDER -- Anti-fracking activists delayed the start of the Boulder County commissioners' Tuesday afternoon meeting on oil and gas regulations for nearly half an hour, chanting their opposition to that drilling technique and demanding the commissioners resign if they won't ban hydraulic fracturing in unincorporated Boulder County.

Among those reading loudly from prepared scripts was a pair of school children, one of whom said, "We are standing up for our future ... Protect us from the dangers of fracking."

"We deserve a fighting chance," said Zapporah Abraham Paiss, a 13-year-old Centennial Middle School student. "With vibrant water, soil and plants," said Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, a 12-year-old Centennial School student. They said afterward that they're members of Earth Guardians.

Commissoners Will Toor, Cindy Domenico and Deb Gardner left their seats and the packed hearing room when the demonstration began and returned only after it had ended.

http://vimeo.com/54985754

Boulder County Commissioners Fracking hearing MIC CHECK

Boulder County Commissioners Fracking hearing MIC CHECK from 23rd Studios on Vimeo.

from 23rd Studios

Domestic workers and family members, in front of the mural wall at El Centro Humanitario. (photo credit: El Centro Humanitario)

The long awaited report on domestic labor in Colorado, entitled ON THE JOB WITH DOMESTIC WORKERS:  Workplace Abuse and Worker Exploitation in Colorado’s Invisible Workforce, by Prof. Tony Robinson, and graduate students Jessie Dryden and Heather Gomez-Duplantis, was formally released on Tuesday, November 27, 2012, at El Centro Humanitario.  A pdf of the report can be found here:

http://www.centrohumanitario.org/domestic_worker_study.pdf

It is difficult to read, due to the page layout, but worth the effort, especially for those who have no personal knowledge of this type of work.  The report includes and is based on personal interviews with domestic workers who are and have been employed in Colorado.  Similar research projects have been recently and concurrently undertaken in other parts of the U.S., with an eye to finding ways to combat abuses faced by domestic laborers.  This is the first such study of domestic labor conducted locally, in Colorado.

This report, with its political science focus, illuminates the power relations of domestic labor.  Domestic workers are among the most exploited and abused of all workers.  The research uncovered two sets of reasons for this-- discrimination against the workers because of their sex, race, citizenship status, documentation issues, and language; and employer attitudes about domestic work itself.

Chhttp://www.examiner.com/article/large-turnout-for-lakewood-walmart-strike

Large Turnout for Lakewood Walmart Strike

Black Friday
November 23, 2012
By: Chris Time Steele

The strike at the Lakewood Walmart located at 7455 W Colfax Ave. began at 8 a.m. on Nov. 23, 2012, and had an estimated turnout of 300 plus people. The strike was in regards to Walmart associates being fired and silenced for speaking out against unfair working conditions, lack of healthcare, and low wages.

OURWalmart and Making Change at Walmart, which is composed of Walmart associates, community organizations, and community members urged customers entering the store to sign their petition to support Walmart workers. Making Change at Walmart is supported by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW), who were in attendance at the protest. Other organizations who came to support the strike were the Industrial Workers of the World, Colorado Wins, National Education Association, Occupy Denver, ACLU, and UFCW Local 7.

Chants during the strike included: "Walmart listen, we want justice"; "They steal your money and your rights"; and "Walmart escucha, estamos en la lucha." At 9:30 a.m. a delegation delivered a message for the manager to give to corporate about allowing Walmart associates to voice their concerns without fear of being fired. Before the strike occurred most of the 36 check-out lanes were open and by the end of the strike six check-out lanes were open. A delegation was delivered to a Walmart in Castle Rock last night at 8 p.m. and more are scheduled to be made throughout Black Friday around the Denver metropolitan area.

Video by Jason Bosch --thanks Jason!

Denver For Gaza 11.15.2012 from Jason Bosch on Vimeo.

 https://vimeo.com/53733939

**********************************************

Also, some excellent pictures by Chris Steele

http://www.examiner.com/article/...

http://occupydenver.org/peaceful...

Sheriffs, SWAT, and Assault Rifles

(Photos by Ambrose Cruz)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?fea...

(Video By Pat Boyle)

The March For A World Without Police and Zombies by Phillip Reynes

It was a beautiful fall night this past Saturday as people gathered for the third anuual March For A World Without Police. The police presence was oppressively heavy which made me wonder at the judgment of our new lair and chief; oh, excuse me I mean Chief of police, who supposedly is a reformer but to anyone here this night seemed to want to provoke trouble. Chief White has a credibility problem with this community ever since the march in February where he at his press confrence fragrently lied about the arest and the reasons for it at the March. COIMC took over 1,1oo pictures on that march and nothing he said about water balloons full of urine or excrement was true!! That was not a good start for Chief White and this march just serves to show that he thinks dissent can be quelled through intimidation.

Come check out the amazing Fly Away Zine Mobile when it comes to the Denver Zine Library! Look through the zines in this mobile collection and join us for a possible impromptu zine reading!

Thursday, October 4 at 7pm
2727 West 27th Avenue, Denver CO

The Fly Away Zine Mobile is a free lending library, self-publishing skill-sharer, and mini reading room that travels around North America, organizing/supporting events around literacy and self-publishing and hosting open library/reading hours. There are currently about 1,500 zines in the collection; current sections include Do-It-Yourself/How-To; Healing and Wellness; Prisons/By Prisoners; Personal/Autobiographical; Comics/Drawings; Cooking/Food; Field Guides/Place-Related; Political; Parenting; Zines by Kids; Poetry; Librarian-Made Zines; and Animal-Related Zines.

http://zinemobile.wordpress.com/

Stop The Empire

Protest the Presidential Debates @ Denver University

Wednesday October 3rd 5:30pm

March Meet up Location: McWilliams Park

@ E. Yale Ave & S. Steele St.

The first of the three Presidential “debates” will take place in Denver, Colorado on October 3rd. We have no doubt that this charade will produce plenty of false promises, lies, empty platitudes and misleading statements. The conversations at these “debates” are designed to divide people into polarized camps, reinforce the illusion that we are dependent on our elected officials, and divert our attention from addressing the root problems this nation is facing. The American Empire, although few outside of academic circles would dare to call it that, is one such problem.

Join the coalition to Stop the Empire as we march to the presidential debate to let the two corporate candidates know we are finished listening to their meaningless conversations that do nothing except maintain the current power structures that are morally and fiscally bankrupting this nation and communities across the world. Democracy or the American Empire? We can’t have both. The only way to avoid the fate of all empires is to admit that America is exactly that, a full-blown Empire; and to start honestly discussing and understanding within our communities why American imperialism, financial colonization and capitalism are creating more terrorism, eviscerating our Constitutional rights here at home, and violating international law abroad.

The 2nd issue of the new Anarchist Journal Modern Slavery - A Liberatory Critique of Civilization is coming out soon.

http://modernslavery.calpress.or... Issue 2 includes: An Introduction to Modern Slavery (Part 2) by Jason McQuinn Curtains of Blood: A Peek behind the Phenomena of the Grand Guignol by Paul Z. Simons p.11 Raoul Vaneigem: The Other Situationist by Jason McQuinn p.25 A Surreal Interview with an Anarchist: Ron Sakolsky Oppositional Currents: Anarchy in the UK: Chapter 2 of The Old World is Behind You by Karen Goaman The Greatness of my Hostility: Chapter 2 of Strangers in an Alien World by Wolfi Landstreicher Slavery & Slack: Part 1 – Slavery by J.T. Winogrond p.104 AND MUCH MORE

Join us for Denver's Third Annual International October Day of Action Against Police Brutality.

Saturday October 20th, 7:00 PM
Sonny Lawson Park at 24th and Welton

This city is under attack. A powerful gang roams the streets – organized, brutal, and extremely dangerous. Their colors are blue and black. They carry guns and engage in organized crime: from prostitution and dealing meth to selling illegal weapons.(i) They rape, beat, and kill with impunity.(ii) When their deeds are brought into the open, they conspire, under the guise of a brotherhood, to maintain a strict code of silence. They control everything that goes on. The city's leaders are in their pocket. The City is Denver. The gang goes by the name of “the police.”

Tuesday August 21st

6:00pm

La Alma Park (13th and Mariposa)

Justice for Kevin Ryberg!

End Denver police terror!

Free Amelia Nicol!

Solidarity with those resisting state repression in the Northwest!

On July 31st, metro area police murdered yet another unarmed person. 22 year old Kevin Ryberg was shot multiple times while being held in the back of a Denver police cruiser while it was en route to the District 2 police station in Northeast Denver.

Ryberg is alleged to have assaulted the officer driving the car. Police claim he was able to slip out of his handcuffs and somehow get through a metal and plexiglass security wall that specifically exists to protect a police officer from a passenger attacking them. A second police vehicle came up alongside the car. It is unclear which officer shot the suspect, and how the events transpired.

At least one of the officers involved in the shooting, Randall Krouse, has a history of lying about suspects assaulting officers, not to mention using racially inspired epithets against suspects. According to the Denver Post, “In January 2006, Krouse used a Taser on the neck of a handcuffed drunk, Kenneth Rodriguez, 46, who ended up serving four days in jail after Krouse filed a report falsely accusing the suspect of assaulting another officer. A videotape of the incident showed Krouse asking, "Understando Taser?" before using the Taser while escorting the belligerent but unarmed Rodriguez into a holding cell.”

The dust has barely settled on this most recent shooting, but already it is hard not to think of the various incidents in recent history where Denver area law enforcement have killed unarmed suspects. The names of Alonzo Ashley, Oleg Gidenko, Marvin Booker, and Emily Rice are but a few that most in Denver might be familiar with.

on july 9th in response to the second anniversay of the murder of marvin booker in downtown denver's detention facility two banners were dropped and revolutionary graffiti was put on walls. one banner on highway 93 said "no tears for dead cops vengeance for marvin booker" in regards to an anti-police brutality rally cancelled out of "respect" for a denver police officer killed breaking up a fight in park hill.

another banner was hung demanding freedom for amelia nicol, who had a court date on july 9th after being arrested and jailed for squatting more than six months ago. graffiti demanding the freedom of several other anarchist prisoners along with anti-police slogans were also sprayed on several walls.

july 9th, the day marvin booker was killed, should always remain a day of struggle, conflict and agitation towards the police and state. it is with regret that this was all that was mustered.

don't be pacified by populism and big tents. refuse the left's theft of confrontational oxygen and rhetoric. occupy is dead!

Approximately two years ago, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI attempted to seize the Colorado Indymedia server because somebody posted a communique here taking responsibility for the breaking of windows at an ICE office. If you want to read more about the incident and our response, see our article at http://colorado.indymedia.org/no...

I filed Freedom of Information Requests to the Loveland Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and a couple other agencies to find out more about the investigation that almost took our site offline. I received a couple dozen pages of records. Because of the contents of these records, we now have conclusive proof the DHS/FBI agents that visited the organization that hosts our server (Denver Open Media) lied to them about having a warrant to seize the server. While I am not in the least bit surprised that they lied about this (and they are certainly allowed to under the law), we now know for certain that it was a lie. This serves as another reminder that you should always double-check the claims that police make.

I've posted the records here in case anybody else may find them useful in researching political repression in the area. Please note that you cannot use any personal information from the records of Loveland PD or other state agencies for business/solicitation purposes per C.R.S. 24-72-305.5 (see http://www.colorado.gov/dpa/doit...).

Records from CIAC (Colorado Information Analysis Center/Fusion Center)

http://colorado.indymedia.org/fi...

Records from the FBI

http://colorado.indymedia.org/fi...

Pictures of the vandalism from the Loveland PD:

http://colorado.indymedia.org/fi...

Loveland PD Records

http://colorado.indymedia.org/fi...

The summer without police violence event planned for 6/30 has been canceled because of the memorial service that day for the police officer killed at city park. It will be rescheduled at a future date.

Summer Without Police Violence Vigil & Protest

Saturday, June 30, 2012
12:00pm until 2:00pm
Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center (490 W. Colfax Avenue) and Police Admin Building (1331 Cherokee Street Denver, CO 80202)

Historically, racial profiling and police violence drastically increase over the hot summer months. The month of July commemorates the deaths of Paul Childs, Marvin Booker, Alonzo Ashley, the beatings at Denver Diner, and other incidents at the hands of Denver law enforcement. We are coming together to remember these victims of police violence, to demand accountability, and to put Denver law enforcement on notice. We are letting the City and law enforcement know that we are keeping a close eye on them this summer.

The action will serve to commemorate victims of police violence AND to launch a July campaign that includes Know Your Rights trainings, Community Racial Profiling Clinics, and much more. Take a look here for more information.

http://progressivecoalition.org/...

This action is being organized by the Race to Justice Coalition, a coalition of groups working on police accountability in Denver. These groups include the American Civil Liberties Union, Colorado Progressive Coalition, National Lawyers Guild, Community Reentry Project, GLBT Center, Colorado Latino Forum, and NAACP.

More about the Race to Justice Coalition
Race to Justice is a broad ACLU of Colorado campaign to address systemic problems with our state’s criminal justice system. Law enforcement practices, sentencing policy, conditions of confinement and recidivism all fall within the scope of this campaign. However, the current events involving Denver’s police and sheriffs have led us to start with addressing the most glaring problems of profiling and excessive force.
 

Ward Churchill will be before the Supreme Court of Colorado on June 7th.  In a very encouraging move, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider all of the plantif's questions without qualification, which is very rare.  The Westword article has a good interview with the atorney David Lane about their chances, and you can also see the recent article from the Daily Camera.   For a very in-depth look at the case, visit wardchurchill.net.  See you in court!

June 7: Colo. Supreme Court Oral Argument

Thursday, June 7, 2012      1:00 pm

New location:  Old Supreme Court Chambers

 
Wild Roots Feral Futures is an informal, completely free and non-commercial, and loosely organized event operating on (less than a) shoe-string budget, formed entirely off of donated, scavenged, or liberated supplies and sustained through 100% volunteer effort. 

This year, we are reaching out to the greater community in an appeal for funding donations. All proceeds go directly to acquiring essential collective supplies and food, as well as reimbursing trainers, speakers, teachers, performers, medics, and others who are traveling long distances to provide us with their services, knowledge, skills, and expertise.

Donation records & expense reports will be openly reviewed on the ground at Wild Roots Feral Futures by the organizers' collective and any other attendees/participants interested in such transparency and accountability.

Every dollar helps. Thank you in advance!