Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Save the Peaks: Prayer Vigil, March and Rally

Please spread the word. If you cannot make it to Phoenix or Flagstaff please consider organizing a vigil, rally or event in your community! If you would like to help with outreach you can pick up posters at Taala Hooghan infoshop in Flagstaff (1700 N 2nd St. near Rt 66 and 4th St.) or you can print your own from www.savethepeaks.org. Volunteer support is also needed, contact phxrally@savethepeaks.org - Klee Benally
SAVE THE PEAKS!
July 15th - 16th, 2010
PHOENIX, AZ
Prayer Vigil • March • Rally
Arizona Snowbowl is attempting to expand development on the San Francisco Peaks and make fake snow out of treated sewage effluent on our public lands. This wastewater has been proven to contain harmful contaminants such as pharmaceuticals, hormones and cancer causing agents.
The US Forest Service has ignored public health concerns and approved this development without any tests to determine the health effects if our children eat the wastewater snow.
Snowbowl would be the only ski area in the world to use 100% wastewater to make snow. They would use 1.5 million gallons per day, storing and spraying this wastewater on a mountain that is holy to more than 13 Indigenous Nations.
Rideshare available: ride@savethepeaks.org
There is also a rideshare board at Taala Hooghan Infoshop
1704 N. 2nd St Flagstaff, AZ 86004
SCHEDULE:
THURSDAY, JULY 15TH: Taking Action for Healthy Communities

Free dinner and discussion - 6:30PM - 9:30PM
At Serena Juste (Padilla) Residence
Onk Akimel O'odham Nation (Salt River)
9312 E. Thomas Rd. Scottsdale, AZ 85256
Camping available
Please RSVP at www.savethepeaks.org
FRIDAY, JULY 16TH
Sunrise Prayer Gathering for Protection of Sacred Places
At Serena Juste (Padilla) Residence
Onk Akimel O'odham Nation (Salt River)
9312 E. Thomas Rd. Scottsdale, AZ 85256
NOON - Rally and March to Protect the Peaks
Wesley Bolin Memorial Park
1700 West Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
1:30 - 3:30 - Rally & Vigil
(Rally to continue outside for those who do not wish to enter courthouse)
Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse
401 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85003-2118
2:30 - Courtroom Oral Arguments
Public is welcome! Bring picture ID
Flagstaff Solidarity Vigil: July 16th -- 2PM - 4PM City Hall Lawn
More information: www.savethepeaks.org
phxrally@savethepeaks.org

Ben Powless Photos: G20 Toronto Arrests and Rally




Photos by Mohawk photographer Ben Powless, 23, at the G20 Summit rally in Toronto. Powless was arrested and jailed. When released, Powless maintained the resistance by speaking out on behalf of those arrested and described the inhumane conditions of imprisonment. Watch the video and read the statement from Digital Journal on Censored News:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/06/mohawk-photographer-ben-powless-whose.html
More Powless photos:
html/www.flickr.com/photos/powless/4745766737/

Mohawk Photographer Ben Powless: Inhumane Imprisonment at G20





Mohawk photographer Ben Powless, whose photos appear on Censored News, describes his imprisonment in Canada, as 900 people were jailed in inhumane conditions during the G20 in Toronto.
The Digital Journal reports:

Ben Powless, a First Nations environmental activist and student at Carleton University, talked about his experience when being arrested over the weekend where he said his treatment was horrid and the detention centre was less than adequate.
“I was one of the hundreds of people scooped up who were standing up for free speech and free assembly,” said Powless. “We suffered from one of the biggest mass arrests in history as we were arrested and witnessed police exercise media blackout so information couldn't get out as to what was happening to the arrestees.”
Powless continued that many people spent between 20 and 46 hours waiting to get out of prison, which were “completely unjust, completely arbitrary and punitive” against those who were presumed guilty instead of innocent.
The activist went onto state that when they were being arrested they were not being told why they were arrested or what they were being arrested for and were just grabbed by undercover police in unmarked cars.
“We were witness to one of the most disturbing detention systems, more of a resemblance to a prison camp, than I’ve ever heard of in Canadian society,” added Powelss. “They stole my bag, my wallet and my camera when I was in jail. When we were in jail, we were subject to 8X10 prison cells where many of 30-40 people were housed in cages. People had to go 12 hours without food and water and the only food we were provided with were food sandwiches, which many people were unable eat and going over 30 hours without any food at all.”
Many women, says Powless, were not given proper sanitary conditions, such as access to tampons and toilet paper. Powless added that police were making sexist disparaging remarks against women when they went to the washroom.
Similar to Canahan’s story, Powless states that people were forced to sleep on the concrete floor and were unable to sleep during their time in jail, “These conditions cannot be allowed to go under Canadian law and Canadian justice system and should be allowed to go free.”
Read article:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/293976

Monday, June 28, 2010

Blackwater's New Afghan Border Patrol: The New Sugar Daddy

Blackwater has new names and a quarter billion from its current US sugar daddy

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/


The Obama Administration has granted a quarter billion dollars in new contracts to Blackwater, whose operatives committed murder in Iraq. Blackwater renamed itself XE and is now also working under the names of US Training Center and Greystone LTD.

US Training Center is now recruiting online for military and law enforcement to serve as "mentors" to the Afghanistan Border Police, Afghan Police, Afghan Preventive Medicine and other positions, according to the XE website.

"We are seeking senior military and law enforcement professionals to provide individual mentoring services to the executive leadership of various government department heads of the Government of Afghanistan."

Along with mentor positions, XE is seeking contractors for hire as "Narcotics Interdiction Unit/ Operational Support Team Medic."

Jeremy Scahill exposes Blackwater's new contracts in the article, "Blackwater's New Sugar Daddy: The Obama Administration," in The Nation.

"Over the past two weeks, the Administration has awarded nearly a quarter billion dollars in new US government contracts to Blackwater to work for the State Department and CIA in Afghanistan and other hot zones globally," Scahill said.

Scahill names the lobbyist.

"No one is paying any attention to what should be a major part of the story of Blackwater's thriving second marriage to the current Administration: the money trail. Blackwater has spent heavily this year on lobbyists—particularly Democratic ones. In the first quarter of 2010, the company spent more than $500,000 for the services of Stuart Eizenstat, a well-connected Democratic lobbyist who served in the Clinton and Carter administrations. Eizenstat heads the international practice for the powerhouse law and lobbying firm Covington and Burling."

The London Guardian today reports the concern of Congress.

Congressman Jan Schakowsky said: "I'm mystified why any branch of the government would decide to hire Blackwater, such a repeat offender. We're talking about murder … a company with a horrible reputation that really jeopardises our mission in so many different ways."

XE's Greystone security company states it is located in Nairobi, Kenya, Abu Dhabi UAE, Bridgetown, Barbados and Moyock, North Carolina.

Scahill writes that Blackwater owners Erik Prince also owns a private intelligence company, Total Intelligence Solutions. Writing in the The Nation article, "Blackwater for Sale," Scahill said Greystone is an offshore mercenary operation. Prince also owns a construction company, Raven Development and Paravant, which has been used as a shell company to win training contracts in Afghanistan.

The murders committed by Blackwater were documented in Iraq. After Hurricane Katrina, the Bush Administration sent Blackwater into New Orleans.

Tucson Peace Vigils: Drones, Depleted Uranium and Raytheon

Tucson Peace Vigils opposing use of drones and depleted uranium ammunition at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base and war profiteering by Raytheon

By Felice and Jack Cohen
Nuke Resister
nukeresister@igc.org


Please join us from 7:00-8:00 a.m. on the first Thursdays of April-November at Davis-Monthan AFB, and from 6:30-7:30 a.m. on the third Thursdays, April-November at Raytheon Missile Systems plant.
Please note that now the vigils are in the morning and not the afternoon for the hot part of the year.
1) First Thursday, July 1, from 7:00 - 8:00 a.m. at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Craycroft Road entrance (at Golf Links Road).
Why protest at Davis-Monthan AFB?
Air National Guard troops at Davis-Monthan AFB are deeply involved in the rapidly developing phenomena of robotic warfare, remotely piloting UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) that are firing Hellfire missiles and killing more civilians than targeted "terrorists" in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. Ground the Drones!
DEPLETED URANIUM:
A-10 warplanes that train out of Davis-Monthan AFB are responsible for the vast majority of radioactive ammunition - estimated at well over 400 tons - used in Iraq since 1991.
The Guardian newspaper in Britain recently reported on an Iraqi study that confirms Iraq is littered with high levels of nuclear and dioxin contamination, including depleted uranium, resulting in greater rates of cancer and birth defects near sites. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/iraq-nuclear-contaminated-sites
And while the Pentagon continues to deny any risk from depleted uranium weapons and thus refuses to help Iraq locate and decontaminate affected areas, the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons reported this winter that
"It has emerged that the United States is seeking alternatives to depleted uranium for the future development and production of medium calibre bullets for its armed forces..."
and that while the military procurement agency is
"not willing to single out a single reason for the policy change, [it] indicated that environmental considerations were a factor..."
See http://www.bandepleteduranium.org/en/a/307.html
Park at recreation field parking lot at N-W corner of Craycroft & Golf Links with access from Craycroft. Signs provided, or bring your own! More info: 323-8697.
2) Third Thursday, July 15, from 6:30 - 7:30 a.m. at Raytheon Missile Systems, Hermans Road entrance to the plant (3rd traffic light south of Valencia on Nogales Highway, the extension of South 6th Avenue).
Join the Raytheon Peacemakers as we demonstrate against war and those who profit from it. Survival demands better ideas, not better weapons.
Join us at Raytheon this Tax Day to say Tax dollars for schools, not missiles.
Raytheon Missile Systems is the most profitable division of the war profiteer. With its headquarters and largest factory in Tucson, Raytheon Missile Systems employs about 12,000 of our Southern Arizona friends and neighbors.
For more than a decade, Raytheon has hailed Tucson as the Missile Technology Capital of the World - a center for lethal innovation and cutting-edge killing for profit. From Standard Missiles to Star Wars "kill vehicles", Mavericks and AMRAAMs, microwave crowd control beams and pilotless drones, cluster bombs and cruise missiles - it's all made here, some even sold to friends and foes of friends alike.
We oppose the militarism that exploits this need, "developing" our own community at the expense of others around the world.
Park off Nogales Highway, between railroad tracks and highway at the Hermans Road entrance. Signs provided, or bring your own! More info: 323-8697.
.
Popcorn, beans and Raytheon Missiles
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
The Navajo Nation continues to have a Raytheon Missiles manufacturing plant on its commercial farm, Navajo Agricultural Products Industries, NAPI, south of Farmington. On NAPI land, where commercial food products are grown for major companies, NAPI has a Raytheon Missile plant.
This was one of the issues censored by Indian Country Today before I was terminated as a longtime staff reporter in 2006. Indian Country Today forbid me from writing about the Raytheon Missile factory on NAPI, even researching this, while NAPI was negotiating a food trade deal with Cuba. This was one of many issues censored.
Censored News was created as a result of this censorship. Today, Censored News maintains a boycott of Indian Country Today because of its longstanding violations of ethics.
ICT now engages in fraudulent journalism, practicing deception. Instead of sending news reporters out on news stories, armchair journalists plagiarize others work. They make a few phone calls, add a free photo and pretend they were there. Otherwise, they rewrite press releases and wire reports. As for the ICT reporters currently "covering" the Southwest, I haven't seen any of these reporters out on a news story in the past 28 years.
Raytheon continues as a war profiteer, producing weapons for profit to kill humanity, including Indigenous Peoples.
When Navajo Nation council delegates vote on continuing the Raytheon Missiles factory, where is the practice of the Navajo Beauty Way, the way of life of living in harmony with all Created things?

Tucson Resist 1070: Enough is Enough!


Coalición de Derechos Humanos, No More Deaths, Tucson Samaritans, UA Students Against SB 1070, Tucson May 1st Coalition, International Action Center of Tucson, Tierra Y Libertad Organization - TYLO, We Reject Racism Campaign

Press Conference: 11:30am
State Building, Northwest Corner of Congress and Granada, Tucson, Arizona
Communities across the state and the nation have galvanized in opposition to SB1070. Today we announce a press conference for tomorrow at 11:30 am, June 29, one month before the effective date, to call for RESISTANCE.
For the next 4 Fridays, our Tucson community will mobilize from 4 PM to 7 PM in front of the State building in Tucson, Arizona, to join with the hundreds of actions across the country demanding a repeal or nullification of this dangerous and racist law. From youth to labor to faith and community-based organizations, our commitment to social, economic, and political justice commands us to act in defiance of this and any other law that violates basic human rights. We act on the principle that if a law is unjust, our duty is RESISTANCE!
Our actions come from our acknowledgement that we are all one community and that our foremost responsibility is to care for one another. SB1070 is totally contrary to our basic duty to act to protect each another, and so we MUST resist any enforcement of this law.

¡YA BASTA!/ENOUGH!
Comunidades Uniéndose a La Resistencia
Communities Uniting To Resist

Mohawk Photographer Ben Powless Arrested in Toronto

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com
Photos by Ben Powless in Toronto

TORONTO -- Mohawk photographer Ben Powless, arrested and released, was among 900 arrested in mass by police in Toronto, who attacked journalists and peaceful demonstrators trapped behind police lines. Journalists were beaten by police, including London Guardian correspondent Jesse Rosenfeld. Inside the G20 Summit, the world's powerbrokers and elitists, including President Obama, wanted nothing less than to hear the voices of the world's poor and the defenders of the land.

Naomi Klein said the real crime scene was inside the G20. "What actually happened at the summit is that the global elites just stuck the bill for their drunken binge with the world’s poor, with the people that are most vulnerable," Klein told Democracy Now.

Ben Powless, 23, provided photos from both the Bolivia Climate Summit in April and Indigenous Day of Action in Toronto last week, on the eve of the G20 Summit, to Censored News. Powless also provided photos from one of the most censored stories in 2007, from UN Climate talks in Bali, to Censored News.


Powless describes his arrest in interviews now available: http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=Ben+Powless
(Photo right: Ben Powless: G20 Toxic Tour in Toronto.)

Powless also shares his experience in Cochabamba in the article, "Canadian Reflections on the Cochabamba Climate Summit."

"I was invited to sit as Secretary of the Indigenous Peoples Working Group, one of 17 distinct working groups. In all of the working groups, we built upon an online discussion process that had started weeks before, and involved people who couldn’t make it to the conference. In all the working groups, Indigenous peoples from South America were prominent, which gave a particular flavour to the documents and discussions.

This was evident in the discussions that pushed for a return to principles of 'living well,' granting rights to nature, and building upon long-ranging debates about interculturalism—beyond laissez-faire liberal multiculturalism—while ensuring that these ideas found a receptive audience in the global climate justice community.

Indigenous peoples called for transnational corporations to be banned from Indigenous lands, while calling for the universal application of the United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, not only as a protective measure for the climate, but also against the negative impacts of any climate 'mitigation' projects, such as biofuels or mega-dams, which have already devastated many Indigenous communities. Indigenous groups also made a call for people to 'live well' instead of seeking unimpeded economic growth."
Read the article at:
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3480

Last week, Powless photographed the Indigenous Day of Action, prior to the G20 Summit, and the G20 Toxic Tour.

Thank you to Ben Powless for your dedication and courage. Thank you also for sharing your photos with Censored News and the world.


(TORONTO: 5:30 PM Eatern Time, Monday)
Hundreds of people from all walks of life have congregated in front of Toronto Police headquarters for a jail solidarity rally. The Toronto Community Mobilization Network organized the protest, which began around 5:30 p.m. and is intended to be a peaceful one. Police officers in full riot gear are in the vicinity of the station at 40 College St., near Bay Street, should the situation get out of hand. Speakers slated to speak during the demonstration include Naomi Klein, Ben Powless, Judy Rebick, David McNally, and Abeer Majeed. People allegedly brutalized by the police during this past weekend's G20 Summit are also planning to share their stories during the demonstration.

Democracy Now! Police Arrest 600 in Toronto


Democracy Now!Toronto Police Arrest Over 600 in Crackdown Outside G20 Summit
Canadian police have arrested over 600 people in Toronto in a police crackdown on protests at the G20 summit. Riot police used batons, plastic bullets and tear gas for the first time in the city’s history. More than 19,000 security personnel were deployed in Toronto, and a nearly four-mile-long security wall was erected around the G20 summit site at the Toronto Convention Center. The security price tag for the summit is estimated at around $1 billion. Franklin Lopez of the Vancouver Media Co-op filed this report from the streets of Toronto.
Naomi Klein: The Real Crime Scene Was Inside the G20 Summit
As thousands protested in the streets of Toronto, inside the G20 summit world leaders agreed to a controversial goal of cutting government deficits in half by 2013. We speak with journalist Naomi Klein. "What actually happened at the summit is that the global elites just stuck the bill for their drunken binge with the world’s poor, with the people that are most vulnerable," Klein says.
Journalist Describes Being Beaten, Arrested by Canadian Police While Covering G20 Protest
Among the hundreds of people arrested at the G20 protests in Toronto were a number of journalists. Jesse Rosenfeld is a freelance reporter who was on assignment for The Guardian newspaper of London. He is also a journalist with the Alternative Media Center. He was arrested and detained by Canadian police on Saturday evening covering a protest in front of the Novotel Hotel.
One Year After Coup, Honduras Repression Continues
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. A year later, the coup’s repressive legacy continues, with ongoing reports of killings, disappearances, torture and impunity. We speak with Gerardo Torres, a member of the National Front of Popular Resistance in Honduras. --Democracy Now: www.democracynow.org

Also see:
VIDEO: Real News Journalist Punched in Face by Cops in Toronto

Native People outside makeshift prison: For us this is what we know, this is Canada:
http://toronto.mediacoop.ca/story/outside-makeshift-prisonfor-us-native-people-what-we-know-canada/3895
Update Toronto Sun: 900 Arrested in Toronto
http://www.torontosun.com/news/g20/2010/06/28/14542356.html
Amnesty International: Police Excesses, Arrest of Journalists, in Toronto:
http://www.amnesty.ca/resource_centre/news/view.php?load=arcview&article=5453&c=Resource+Centre+News
WATCH VIDEO: WeAreChange and InfoWars Reporters Denied Entry into Canada:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouqh0kvAq3M

US Social Forum: Photos with music


Alyra Rose with Photos by Jim Ellinger:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7953162
Watch more videos from the US Social Forum Detroit at Earthcycles: http://www.earthcycles.net

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Mohawk Nation News: Mind Control Disaster


MIND CONTROL DISASTER
Mohawk Nation News

MNN. Sept. 20, 2010. People have been conditioned to follow orders and not think for themselves. The Nazis and church knew how people could be destroyed for generations by taking children from a natural life and putting them into an artificial world. Mind control is sexual and mental abuse called social engineering.

German Nazi Heinrich Himmler and his researchers studied families who had abused their children for generations. The Third Reich wanted to continue creating obedient masses for the fascist world order.

After World War II in 1947 US President Harry Truman was persuaded to import Nazi mind control scientists. The CIA and National Security Act were born. Operation “Paper Clip’ was created to systematically remove civil rights. The scientists were placed in universities, governments and corporations.

MKULTRA, a CIA research program run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence was set up. Many victims unknowingly were given drugs, LSD and mental manipulation to alter brain functions. Files were destroyed in 1973 to avoid investigation. Over 30 universities and institutions were involved.

Mind control is an artificially designed identity. They know intuition, our connection to the natural world, is repressed through sexual abuse to separate the instinct from the mind. Perverted sex replaces natural relationships. The mind is unbalanced and results in disordered peoples.

For hundreds of generations the victimized white race was conditioned to memorize data, take orders and not to question. Their past and true culture were erased, repressed or revised. Today their minds are manipulated through pop culture such as music, movies, education, porn, drugs and all manner of remote control. There is no free thought, free will or compassion. Media tells them what to do, wear, eat and how to act. Distorted sexuality and narcissistic self-mage are constantly promoted. Care for the environment is almost totally disregarded.

The state wants mistreated kids to be turned over to their institutions. Psychiatrists and councilors advise troubled victims to further compartmentalize their brain, which makes them easier to influence. They are sought for training in jobs to work against their people.

Sexual predators are sent into our lives and communities. Residential schools were part of this strategy. Mental and sexual abuse tried to separate us from the natural world and our survival instinct. We were to be made incomplete, dysfunctional, to distrust sincere caring people and have difficulty reasoning or remembering. To avoid beatings, torture, death and forget the horrors, we had to appear obedient.

Mind control cults and religions based on altered knowledge are now being adapted and inserted into our communities.

Ongwehonwe means real humans forever who adhere to all that is natural in an unaltered creation. Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law teaches us that we have the ability to reason.

Human energy comes from using both our intellect and intuition together. We are complete when the oyentera, orenda and the onigonra work together [mind, body and energy]. We pass on our ways through our language, stories, songs and culture.

Is the white race waiting for their orders? And what are their orders?

Kahentinetha, MNN Mohawk Nation News Kahentinetha2@yahoo.com For more news, books, to donate and to sign up for MNN newsletters and to go to www.mohawknationnews.com More stories at MNN Category “colonialism”.

Store: Indigenous author – Kahnawake books – Mohawk Warriors Three – Warriors Hand Book – Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy. Category: World – Colonialism - Indian holocaust/genocide – Great Turtle Island – History – New World Order – courts/police Economics/trade/commerce – Land/environment – military/industrial complex. Tags: North American Indians – Turtle Island – Indian holocaust/genocide – NAU North American Union – History Canada/US – United Nations – Cointelpro - colonialism.

Indigenous Peoples at US Social Forum: Halting the Legacy of Genocide


By Brenda Norrell
Narcosphere
Photos by Brita Brookes/US Social Forum Detroit
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2010/06/indigenous-peoples-us-social-forum-halting-legacy-genocide

DETROIT -- Speaking out on environmental genocide, Indigenous Peoples describe the legacy of death and destruction from mining, power plants, toxic dumping and the nuclear industry, at the US Social Forum in Detroit. Indigenous Peoples are consulting and strategizing on energy and climate change, immigration, poverty, treaty rights, sacred sites, cultural preservation, and de-militarization.

Broadcast live on Earthcycles, Navajo Leona Morgan describes how new uranium mining targets Navajos living in Church Rock, N.M., where the nation's deadliest radioactive spill occurred in 1979. In June of 2010, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Hydro Resources Inc. of Texas, which if it proceeds, will poison the water supply of Navajos with new in-situ uranium mining, by drilling on land alongside Navajo land.

The Tewa Women United, on Earthcycles live, describe how the nuclear industry and Los Alamos National Laboratories have exposed Pueblos to generations of death and disease in northern New Mexico. Open air burning, burial of nuclear waste and detonations have poisoned the land, air and water for today's Pueblos and future generations.

Beata Tsosie Pena of Santa Clara Pueblo said, "We live in the desert and our water supply is very precious to us. Water is our life. I'm scared for my children. I'm scared for my grandchildren. I'm sacred for my elders."

Indigenous Peoples opened the US Social Forum on Tuesday with a march through Detroit. The local Native American community welcomed Indigenous Peoples with a water ceremony and feast of buffalo. During this week's Social Forum, there was a powwow and concert with John Trudell and Anne Humphrey, while workshops focused on environmental justice and ecology. The Native Peoples Assembly developed strategies to protect Mother Earth from corporate greed and destruction.

Casey Camp, Ponca Nation of Oklahoma, interviews Native Americans from across North America on Earthcycles, describing the fight to halt the destruction. Casey Camp interviews American Indians who describe broken treaties and the destruction of their homelands. Camp describes the Poncas fight for their land and sovereignty and the longterm devastating pollution from Continental Carbon Black, the huge Conoco Phillips Refinery.

The Indigenous Environmental Network said the US Social Forum provides a platform to produce solutions.

"A multi-generational delegation of Indigenous Peoples from North America have arrived in Detroit, Michigan this week to join other social justice movements at the United States Social Forum, a large gathering of diverse leaders developing powerful solutions to the economic and ecological crises we face," IEN said.

"The delegation is comprised of Native American, Alaskan Native, and First Nation activists and leaders from the communities most affected by climate change and fossil fuel development in North America. They represent many Nations including Cree, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Ojibwe, Kachiquel Mayan, Pasqua, Dakota, Navajo, Yup'ik, Swinomish, Mohawk, Oneida, Spokane, Colville, Couer d'Alene, Zuni, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation."

The delegation, co-coordinated by the Indigenous Peoples' Working Group of the USSF, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Black Mesa Water Coalition, Alaska Big Village Network, and others, is attending the United States Social Forum to network and strengthen the various U.S. movements working on energy and climate change, immigration, poverty, treaty rights, sacred sites, cultural preservation, and de-militarization issues.

Meanwhile, thousands of Indigenous Peoples converged four hours away in Toronto, Canada to protest the G20 summit, a gathering of the world's industrial powers.

"The USSF movement provides an alternative vision for the people, one that is counter to the destructive neo-liberal agenda being discussed by the world's so-called leaders at the G20 summit in Toronto, who are talking about the destruction and commodification of every aspect of life. But another world is possible, one that is about the proliferation and health of this land we call Mother Earth, and we are manifesting that here, in the birthplace of the automobile. Detroit, US." says Clayton Thomas-Muller, Tar Sands Campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network.

Photos and videos at Censored News:
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Earthcycles live:
http://www.earthcycles.net/
Free Speech TV: Live coverage USSF:
http://www.freespeech.org/
Indigenous Environmental Network
http://www.ienearth.org/
Navajos Oppose New Uranium Mining in New Mexico
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7887536
Tewa Women United from Santa Clara Pueblo, N.M., at the US Social Forum: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7887096

US Social Forum Saturday:

DETROIT HEALING WALK, 9:30-4:00, Saturday. Meet at Cobo Hall lower level. Rides provided to Fort Wayne, a burial site of Indigenous Peoples. Ceremony and 5-mile walk for healing and sharing. Refreshments provided along walk. Closing ceremony back at Fort Wayne at 4pm. Transportation provided back to Cobo Hall.

Briefing by Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon 'Cochabamba to Cancun'
WHAT: Briefing by Ambassador Solon "From Cochabamba to Cancun"
WHEN: Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 12:00pm
WHERE: Detroit, MI Cobo Hall

Friday, June 25, 2010

Art Manuel: Indigenous First Impacted by Resource Extraction


DEMOCRACY NOW! Indigenous Leader Art Manuel: "Indigenous People Are the First Ones Impacted" by Western-Driven Resource Extraction
Indigenous leader Art Manuel, former Chief of the Neskonlith Band in British Columbia and spokesperson for the Indigenous Network on Economies and Trade, joins us to talk about the struggle for indigenous rights and sovereignty in the context of the G20 summit.

Indigenous Groups Lead Struggle Against Canada's Tar Sands


DEMOCRACY NOW! Indigenous Groups Lead Struggle Against Canada’s Tar Sands
A group of lawmakers are calling on the Obama administration to take a closer look at the significant environmental impacts of a proposed massive pipeline that would carry Canadian tar sands oil 2,000 miles from northern Alberta all the way down to refineries in Texas and tankers off the Gulf Coast. Tar sands mining emits three times more greenhouse gas pollution than traditional oil and has come under heavy criticism from environmental and indigenous groups. Democracy Now!’s Mike Burke speaks to Clayton Thomas-Müller, a Canadian indigenous activist with the Indigenous Environmental Network.
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/25/tar_sands




PHOTO: Canadian indigenous activist Clayton Thomas-Muller (right) leads the tar sands protest through London’s Trafalgar Square with a traditional song. Lionel Lepine (left) carries the banner. Photo by Mike Russell/New Internationalist

VIDEO: Tewa Women United at US Social Forum


Tewa Women United speak out against the nuclear industry and the contamination of sacred Jemez Mountains by Los Alamos National Laboratories. Interviewed live at the US Social Forum in Detroit on Friday, June 25, 2010, by Earthcycles, Pueblo women describe the contamination from Los Alamos in northern New Mexico. Open air burning and the burial of radioactive substances exposes generations of Pueblos to risks. Beata Tsosie Pena said, "We live in the desert and our water supply is very precious to us. Water is our life. I'm scared for my children. I'm scared for my grandchildren. I'm scared for my elders." Tewa Women United http://www.tewawomenunited.org/

WATCH VIDEO: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7887096

VIDEO: Navajos Oppose Uranium Mining: US Social Forum


Broadcast live by Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/ from the US Social Forum Detroit.
Navajos Oppose New Uranium Mining in New Mexico
The uranium industry continues to target Navajos in the Church Rock, N.M., area, where one of the nation's deadliest uranium spills has already poisoned the land and water. Navajo Leona Morgan describes how Navajos are impacted by death and disease from uranium mining. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7887536
Also watch: Tewa Women United from Santa Clara Pueblo, N.M., at the US Social Forum. Los Alamos National Laboratories endangers the traditional homelands and sacred mountains, air and water supplies of Pueblos in New Mexico: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7887096

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Photos: Toronto Indigenous Day of Action




Photos copyright by Ben Powless, Mohawk. Toronto: Indigenous Day of Action, Thursday, June 24, 2010.
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DEMOCRACY NOW! Indigenous Activists Protest G8/G20 in Toronto

TORONTO SUN: Peaceful March Raises Native Rights Issues
: Chanting that no G20 meeting should be held on stolen native land, about 2,500 Aboriginal Peoples and their supporters peacefully marched Thursday from Queens Park to Allan Gardens in protest of world leaders who, they say, ignore native rights. Signs such as “Shame third world conditions on reserves” and “G8 G20 countries never ask permission” were everywhere. “I am marching for my children, for clean water, for the rights all people regardless of race,” said Liz Nootchtai of the White Fish Lake Reserve in northern Ontario. Read article ...
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Indigenous Day of Action
By Defenders of the Land
This June, Canada will play host to the G8 and G20 summits, which bring together the world's largest economies and colonizers. The G8 summit will take place in Huntsville, Ontario, in traditional Anishinaabe territory, and in Toronto, on unceded traditional Mississauga territory. Social movements and non-governmental organizations from around the world, including representatives of Indigenous Peoples, will also gather to hold a people's summit and engage in action to hold G8 and G20 governments accountable.

This year, Canada has made climate change and poverty among women and children the priorities of the summit. Yet the Harper government has only worked to obstruct action on climate change; it has continued to develop the tar sands, the world's single most destructive fossil fuels project; and Canada has done nothing to address the poverty and racism underlying the murder and disappearance of hundreds of Aboriginal women, or the desperate poverty among Indigenous women and children caused by Canada's theft of Indigenous economic resources.

July 11th of this year also marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Oka crisis. Since that time, there has been the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the murder of Dudley George and the Ipperwash inquiry, numerous Supreme Court cases affirming Aboriginal and treaty rights, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Despite all the words, Canada's fundamental policies towards Indigenous Peoples still have not changed.

Who are the G8/G20?
This June, leaders of the world’s biggest economies (and biggest colonizers, and biggest polluters) will be coming to Canada for the G8 and G20 meetings. The G8 meeting will be held June 25 in Huntsville, Ontario, traditional Anishinaabe territory, while the G20 summit will be held June 26-27 in Toronto, on traditional unceded Mississauga territory.

The G8 brings together Canada, the US, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Japan, and Germany. The G20 includes these countries, as well as Brazil, India, Indonesia, Australia, China, Mexico, and South Africa, among others. The G20 meetings also bring in the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and finance ministers for the countries named.

The governments of the G8/G20 have been responsible for the exploitation and devastation of Indigenous Peoples the world over. These meetings are meant to coordinate the continued economic, ecological and cultural domination of poor, powerless and Indigenous communities
Read more:
http://www.defendersoftheland.org/dayofaction
UPDATE:
Journalists, Artist, Code Pink Denied Entry into Canada
Canada Becomes Police State during G8/G20
Independent Journalists denied entry into Canada
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/91343/index.php
Arizona artist, 79, denied entry into Canada:
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1188789.html
Code Pink denied entry into Canada, activists detained 48 hours:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/25/medea

Native Peoples Assembly: US Social Forum Detroit


Watch Native Peoples Assembly at the US Social Forum http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7877863
Broadcast by Earthcycles at the US Social Forum Detroit on Thursday, June 24, 2010

Also Watch: Tar Sands Movement at US Social Forum, video by Earthcycles http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7878955

Saturday Events:

DETROIT HEALING WALK, 9:30-4:00, Saturday. Meet at Cobo Hall lower level. Rides provided to Fort Wayne, a burial site of Indigenous Peoples. Ceremony and 5-mile walk for healing and sharing. Refreshments provided along walk. Closing ceremony back at Fort Wayne at 4pm. Transportation provided back to Cobo Hall. Briefing by Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon 'Cochabamba to Cancun'
WHAT: Briefing by Ambassador Solon "From Cochabamba to Cancun"
WHEN: Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 12:00pm
WHERE: Detroit, MI Cobo Hall

Native Peoples Reporting: US Social Forum

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Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network reports from Detroit on Earthcycles
Watch on the street report from Detroit about the events at the Social Forum:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7875243
.

Live Earthcycles Thursday US Social Forum

US Social Forum Live Detroit, Free Speech TV:




Watch Earthcycles Live Coverage at:
http://www.earthcycles.net/

North American Indigenous Peoples Developing Solutions at US Social Forum

Contact: IEN NPR (Native People Reporting) Media Team Cell: (507) 210-4679 indigenous.environmental.network@gmail.com
By Indigenous Environmental Network
DETROIT – A multi-generational delegation of Indigenous Peoples from North America have arrived in Detroit, Michigan this week to join other social justice movements at the United States Social Forum (USSF), a large gathering of diverse leaders developing powerful solutions to the economic and ecological crises we face. The delegation is comprised of Native American, Alaskan Native, and First Nation activists and leaders from the communities most affected by climate change and fossil fuel development in North America. They represent many Nations including Cree, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Ojibwe, Kachiquel Mayan, Pasqua, Dakota, Navajo, Yup’ik, Swinomish, Mohawk, Oneida, Spokane, Colville, Couer d’Alene, Zuni, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Read more: http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2010/06/north-american-indigenous-peoples.html

Detroit, Rising from the Ashes By Jeff Conant
If Detroit has come to represent post-industrial devastation and the efforts of grassroots communities to build and rebuild with hope and dignity, then Detroit’s waste incinerator, one of the largest in the world, is profoundly symbolic of the city’s plight, and serves as a crucible for the climate justice movement. This is why its been chosen as a target for action on Saturday, the last day of the U.S. Social Forum. Read article: http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/detroit-rising-from-the-ashes

Detroit's Social Forum: Hope in a Crisis
Ben Ehrenreich The Nation
"Welcome to the D," said Kwamena Mensah in a resounding baritone on Tuesday morning. It was the first day of the 2010 US Social Forum and Mensah, president of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, was standing before a circle of about 65 activists to open a workshop on the thriving local urban agriculture movement. Mensa's group and Earthworks, a predominantly white urban farming group, combined what had originally been scheduled as two separate workshops in order to discuss their efforts to navigate complex and often painful racial dynamics in order to work together. Read article: http://www.thenation.com/article/36615/detroits-social-forum-hope-crisis

video

Slide show photos by Brita Brookes, Jerry Fisher and Orin Langelle

Earthcycles Live at Social Forum



VIDEO: Casey Camp, Ponca, interviews Bineshi of IEN, at the US Social Forum Detroit

Watch video:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2010/06/video-casey-camp-interviews-bineshi-at.html
Photo of Casey Camp at Social Forum March by Brita Brookes
Broadcast live from Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/

Bineshi Albert (Euchee and Ojibwe) is from Oklahoma and now makes her home in Albuquerque. The mother of three children is a founding member of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) Youth Program. She currently serves as an organizer for Center for Community Change, which aims to establish and develop community organizations across the country, bring attention to major national issues related to poverty, and help insure that government programs are responsive to community needs.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Photos Native American Welcome Dinner: US Social Forum Detroit






Photos by Brita Brookes, published with permission.
Brita: "American Indian Health and Family Services served a delicious dinner to some tired and hungry US Social Forum participants tonight. Among the group was the Indigenous Environmental Action Network and many more. Tony Davis was fire keeper and a spirit plate was made. Evening welcomes from Jerilyn Church, Hope Johnson, George Martin and many others. A great night with nourishment for mind, body and spirit."
Thanks to Brita for bringing everyone along with her with her photos from the US Social Forum in Detroit.

North American Indigenous Peoples Developing Solutions at US Social Forum



Contact: IEN NPR (Native People Reporting) Media Team Cell: (507) 210-4679 indigenous.environmental.network@gmail.com

North American Indigenous Peoples Developing Solutions at USSF

By Indigenous Environmental Network
Photo by Orin Langelle

DETROIT – A multi-generational delegation of Indigenous Peoples from North America have arrived in Detroit, Michigan this week to join other social justice movements at the United States Social Forum (USSF), a large gathering of diverse leaders developing powerful solutions to the economic and ecological crises we face. The delegation is comprised of Native American, Alaskan Native, and First Nation activists and leaders from the communities most affected by climate change and fossil fuel development in North America. They represent many Nations including Cree, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Ojibwe, Kachiquel Mayan, Pasqua, Dakota, Navajo, Yup’ik, Swinomish, Mohawk, Oneida, Spokane, Colville, Couer d’Alene, Zuni, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

The delegation, co-coordinated by the Indigenous Peoples’ Working Group of the USSF, Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN), Black Mesa Water Coalition, Alaska Big Village Network, and others, is attending the United States Social Forum to network and strengthen the various U.S. movements working on energy and climate change, immigration, poverty, treaty rights, sacred sites, cultural preservation, and de-militarization issues.

Yesterday, Indigenous leaders led the opening march and ceremony for the USSF, which had over ten thousand people in attendance. Hosted by the local Detroit native community, the Indigenous delegation has already established a strong presence at the forum. Sharon George, Onieda, local leader said, “The Detroit Indian community is proud to host the United States Social Forum and also the visiting Native representatives from throughout Indian Country. This event provides us the opportunity to get our issues as Indigenous people heard on a much larger national level. As an urban Indian community, our local issues are often swept underneath the table, and with the increasing pollution of our great lakes region, now is the time to make ourselves heard.”

Throughout these five days Indigenous Peoples will host a variety of workshops, participate in a series of assemblies geared towards developing resolutions for action, and ensuring an Indigenous voice is included in the USSF’s concluding vision of a just and sustainable United States. And later this week, while the USSF is developing solutions to address the destructive policies of the US political system, thousands including an indigenous delegation will be converging four hours away in Toronto, Canada to protest the G20 summit, a gathering of the worlds industrial powers.

“The USSF movement provides an alternative vision for the people, one that is counter to the destructive neo-liberal agenda being discussed by the world’s so-called leaders at the G20 summit in Toronto, who are talking about the destruction and commodification of every aspect of life. But another world is possible, one that is about the proliferation and health of this land we call Mother Earth, and we are manifesting that here, in the birthplace of the automobile. Detroit, US.” says Clayton Thomas-Muller, Tar Sands Campaigner for the Indigenous Environmental Network.

INDIGENOUS EVENTS: Wednesday through Saturday:

DETRIOT NATIVE COMMUNITY MEETS INDIGENOUS PARTICIPANTS
Dinner at the American Indian Health & Family Services (AIHFS) 6-9pm: Wednesday at 4880 Lawndale St in Detroit.
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ASSEMBLY
Thursday, June 24, 2010; 1:00 – 5:30 p.m. at Cobo Hall: DO-03C.
INDIGENOUS NATIONS POW-WOW – Public Invited, 6-9 pm, Thursday – Children’s Art Village (next to Cobo Center, outdoors.)
E-BLAST DANCE PARTY – FUN-draiser Indigenous Environmental Network/East Michigan Environmental Action Council – E-Blast Party Celebrate IEN’s 20th Year Anniversary – Hip Hop, DJ’s, Live Performances: John Trudell, Bill Riley, Anna Humphrey and Detroit’s own Monica Blair, Jessica Care Moore, DJ Pirana Head, & MORE! 9 pm – 2 am, Thursday at 4120-4140 Woodward Ave in Detroit
DETROIT HEALING WALK, 9:30-4:00, Saturday. Meet at Cobo Hall lower level. Rides provided to Fort Wayne, a burial site of Indigenous Peoples. Ceremony and 5-mile walk for healing and sharing. Refreshments provided along walk. Closing ceremony back at Fort Wayne at 4pm. Transportation provided back to Cobo Hall.

Jerry Fisher's Photos: US Social Forum Detroit

Special thanks to Jerry Fisher of the Native community in Michigan for sharing these photos with Censored News. Photos of opening ceremony and march at the US Social Forum in Detroit on Tuesday.

VIDEO: Native American Dancers Open US Social Forum
Video by Free Speech TV
Watch live streaming video from freespeechtv at livestream.com

Video Link: http://www.livestream.com/freespeechtv/video?clipId=flv_f6a084df-e641-40d4-8a0d-f38edd00db78

Earthcycles Live: Tom Goldtooth, IEN, at US Social Forum


WATCH VIDEO INTERVIEW: Tom Goldtooth, IEN, at US Social Forum
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7846819

Photo by Jerry Fisher

Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, describes the gathering of Indigenous Peoples at the US Social Forum in Detroit.

“The US Social Forum is a vehicle for movement building,” Goldtooth said, during an interview with Dallas Goldtooth, live on Earthcycles http://www.earthcycles.net/ , following a Water Ceremony held by local Indian Nations on Wednesday morning. Goldtooth describes the struggle to remove the boundaries that prevent coalitions from uniting and succeeding.

Working in the “belly of the beast,” in the US, Goldtooth said IEN is involved in building sustainable communities. “Change is not for the light hearted,” Goldtooth said, referring to the tragedy in the Gulf.

In Bolivia, Goldtooth said IEN merged with movements around the world at the World Climate Conference and examined the causes of the global social and economic problems. The result was the Peoples Accord and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“We are looking for systematic change,” Goldtooth said.

At the Social Forum, Indigenous youths and elders are calling for justice, from the Tar Sands in Canada, to protecting Treaty rights and protecting Indigenous territories from mining around the world.

Disturbing Obama's Universe

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/
Photo: US Social Forum March Detroit by Brita Brookes

Today, we celebrate truth telling, from the villages of Afghanistan to the streets of Detroit.
With the arrest of a soldier and the US hunt for the Wikileaks founder, a new reality surfaced in the United States: Obama's new problem is honesty in the military. For all of us, the new problem is the crackdown on US whistleblowers. After Wikileaks exposed the US military's murder of Iraqi civilians and journalists, more recently, the top commander in Afghanistan embarrassed Obama with his honesty.
So this is the challenge. Rather than US soldiers committing suicide, let's embrace a new era of truth telling. Rather than ignoring the US military's recruitment of people of color, to water the economy and the agenda of politicians with their blood, let's expose all the facts.
Let the US military whistleblowers come forward and tell of the rape of US women soldiers by US soldiers, the rape of Afghan children and the real story of the US involvement in drug running. Let US soldiers tell about the US torture that continues in Afghanistan prisons and Blackwater's new contract for Afghan Border Patrol.
In Detroit, another war is being exposed at the US Social Forum. It is the war on the poor, the disenfranchised and people of color. It is the war on Indigenous Peoples, with the elected governments working in collusion with corporations to rip out and exploit the natural resources of Mother Earth.
US federal courts are far more interested in protecting the rights of US corporations than the right to life of Navajos opposing uranium mining. By drilling in checkerboard land areas, alongside Indian land, corporations can poison the water supply of Navajos in New Mexico.
Barrick Gold, among the mining and killing corporations based in Canada, ignores federal and international law and continues to violate the rights of the Western Shoshone and their struggle to protect sacred Mount Tenabo.
Around the world, Indigenous Peoples are being assassinated by mining companies, and imprisoned by their governments, for refusing to allow mining, dams, coal mining, power plants, oil and gas wells, toxic dumping and uranium mining on their lands.
In Bolivia, Indigenous Peoples produced the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among the declarations of 17 working groups which ultimately produced the Peoples Agreement at the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth.
The world tried to ignore the admonitions of Indigenous Peoples in Bolivia to protect Mother Earth and uphold the harmony and balance of the world. As the world turned away, the Gulf erupted in a dark oil plume of greed, proof that ignoring these warnings would result in total destruction.
Arizona erupted with a dark stain of racism, exposing a festering pool of darkness in the underbelly of the Arizona's Capitol, where the governor and legislators came together with private prison profiteers, corporate interests and hate groups, all targeting people of color on the US/Mexico border. It was another signal that the world can not ignore the right to justice and the right to life of all humanity.
So today, celebrate truth telling, from the villages of Afghanistan to the streets of Detroit, from the red rocks of Church Rock, N.M., to the clear view from the top of Mount Tenabo.
Because truth is inevitable.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

US Social Forum: More photos by Brita Brookes







US Social Forum Detroit 2010: Indigenous Peoples at the opening ceremony and march today, Tuesday, June 22. Photos by Brita Brookes published with permission.
More photos on Censored News Homepage, scroll down the webpage:

US Social Forum Detroit Photos by Brita Brookes






Photos by Brita Brookes. US Social Forum Detroit Opening March 2010. Photos published with permission: Britabrookes@gmail.com

DETROIT FREE PRESS: Thousands of people connected to social, political and labor groups from around the country walked down Woodward Avenue in Detroit on Tuesday in the opening march of the US Social Forum convention. The convention, which runs through Saturday at Cobo Center, was expected to draw 11,000 people. The marchers carried banners and signs dealing with the environment, unemployment, immigration and labor issues. "We want to make a stand for all conditions for all people to be better," said Joan Jacobs of Port Huron, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Nation, based in Harbor Springs. She was marching dressed in a traditional buckskin dress with beadwork. Accompanying her was her daughter Marcy McDonald, 30, of Shelby Township and two granddaughters Julie McDonald, 4, and Aubrie, 9. Read article ...
http://www.freep.com/article/20100623/NEWS01/6230345/Social-Forum-kicks-off-with-Woodward-walk

RAW VIDEO: Indigenous lead opening march at US Social Forum
Watch raw video from Earthcycles: March include Indigenous Environmental Network, Navajos with banner, 'Respect Navajo Ban on Uranium Mining,' and AIM song;
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/7833025
.

Photos US Social Forum Detroit by Orin Langelle



Photos US Social Forum Detroit by Orin Langelle. Published with permission:  orinl@globaljusticeecology.org


USSF Opening March Photo Essay


http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/ussf-opening-march-photo-essay
Global Justice Ecology Project is attending and presenting at the US

Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan this week. All of the photos are by Orin Langelle unless otherwise noted.
Stay tuned to this blog for more updates, photos and reports from the US Social Forum throughout the week on GJEP's blog Climate Connections. http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/
On Saturday, we will have another photo essay from a direct action at the Detroit incinerator, which is the largest in the U.S.
Orin Langelle
Co-director/Strategist
Global Justice Ecology Project
http://www.globaljusticeecology.org/
http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/

Earthcycles Live at US Social Forum Detroit


Indigenous Environmental Network at US Social Forum Detroit, Tuesday evening.
http://www.earthcycles.net/

Webcam chat at Ustream

US Social Forum Live/Free Speech TV

LIVE COVERAGE FROM FREE SPEECH TV             Photo by Orin Langelle

First Nations Dancers, Navajo 'Longest Walk' song and George Martin, Ojibwe, opened US Social Forum in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon.
Watch live coverage above from Free Speech TV.
http://www.freespeech.org/

UPDATE: Freedom Caravan Arrives in Detroit
http://peoplesworld.org/freedom-caravan-arrives-in-detroit/
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UPDATE: Indigenous Alliance Without Borders at US Social Forum
By Jose Matus, Yaqui, director
The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) invited the Alainza Indigena Sin Fronteras to participate in the United States Social Forum in Detroit, June 22 - 26, 2010. There is an estimated 20,000 people from all over the country and internationally that have come together to share their work, information and build networks and coalitions of solidarity in promoting human rights, economic justice and environmental justice.
The Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras will be networking with other indigenous and non-indigenous organiztions in promoting the work of Alianza Indigena. The Alianza Indigena is scheduled to conduct workshops on Southern Indigenous Border Justice & Anti-Immigrant Legislation and impact on Indigenous Peoples. Will participate in the US Social Forum March of Solidarity in Downtown Detroit - Indigenous Peoples will lead the March
INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE WORLDS INDIGENOUS PEOPLES -AUGUST 9 : Alianza Indigena Sin Fronteras and Nuestra Voz will co-sponsor a Community Event on Monday, August 9, 2010 for The International Day of the World Indigenous Peoples! Mark Your Calendar - Save the Date - Details Soon to Follow.

UPDATE: Briefing by Bolivian Ambassador Pablo Solon 'Cochabamba to Cancun'
Dear friends,
As some of you will be attending the US Social Forum in Detroit, MI, we will like to invite you at a briefing where Ambassador Pablo Solon will do an update on the negotiations on climate change.
It will also be a great opportunity to gather people who went to the People's World Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba and those who couldn't go but are interest in the subject.
The information for the event is as follows:
WHAT: Briefing by Ambassador Solon "From Cochabamba to Cancun"
WHEN: Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 12:00pm
WHERE: Detroit, MI Cobo Hall, room TBD (email will follow with the room number)
Please share this information with others! Hope to see you all there!
Mariana Grundy
Embassy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia

Monday, June 21, 2010

Imprisoning People of Color Linked to Racist Arizona Governor Brewer

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Private prison profiteers in Arizona linked to Arizona Gov. Brewer by way of Highground Consulting

Imprisoning migrants and other people of color means jobs for Arizona and profits for private prison profiteers CCA and GEO (formerly Wackenhut)

This article is permanently archived at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/main/article/6085
(Go to link to view a graphic showing all the connections)

Ties That Bind: Arizona Politicians and the Private Prison Industry

A revolving cast of lobbyists and legislators blur the line between public service and corporate profis.

By Beau Hodai June 21, 2010

Over the past several years private-prison companies Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the Geo Group, through their work as members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and through their ties to the Arizona Legislature and the office of Gov. Jan Brewer, have had ample opportunity--and obvious intent--to ensure the passage of S.B. 1070.

According to Sen. Russell Pearce and Brewer's spokesman Paul Senseman, the S.B. 1070 went through a lengthy edit and review process that took place predominantly within the Arizona Legislature and the offices of the Maricopa County Attorney and Gov. Brewer.

A little over a week after Pearce introduced S.B. 1070 on the floor of the Arizona Senate, CCA enlisted Highground Consulting, one of the most influential lobbying firms in Phoenix, to represent its interests in the state. Lobby disclosure forms filed with the Arizona Secretary of State indicate that Maricopa County also employed Highground during the time of the bill's formation. Highground's owner and principal, Charles "Chuck" Coughlin, is a top advisor and the current campaign manager of Gov. Brewer.

State lobby reports show that Brewer's current spokesman, Senseman, previously worked as CCA's chief lobbyist in Arizona as an employee of Policy Development Group, another influential Phoenix consulting firm. His wife, Kathryn Senseman, is still employed by Policy Development Group and still lobbies the legislature on behalf of CCA.

In other words, in 2005 and 2006, as Arizona legislators--many of them ALEC members--were drafting provisions of what would eventually become the "Breathing While Brown" law, Brewer's director of communications, Senseman, was lobbying them on behalf of CCA.

Brewer's "chief policy advisor," Richard Bark--a man Senseman and Pearce both say was directly involved in the drafting of S.B. 1070--remains listed with the Office of the Secretary of State as an active lobbyist for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). CCA is a "board level" member of the ACCI and is the top employer in Pinal County, located just south of Maricopa County, where it operates five detention facilities for both state prisoners and immigrant detainees.

Geo Group employs consulting firm Public Policy Partners, which, like Highground, also provides consultation and lobbying services to Maricopa County.

While Public Policy Partners (PPP), an Arizona-based firm, has more than 30 Arizona clients, it only has two clients at the federal level: Geo Group (based in Florida) and Ron Sachs Communications, a Florida-based public-relations firm that, promotes prison privatization. PPP, as a firm, also appears to be an advocate for expanded use of private prisons. Federal lobbying records show PPP owner, John Kaites, lobbying on behalf of the firm on issues of "private correctional detention management."

CCA has also shown special interest in Arizona through recent hiring decisions. In 2007, CCA hired on Brad Regens as "Vice President of State Partnership Relations" for the purpose of cultivating new contracts in Arizona and California. In the two years immediately prior to his employment at CCA, Regens had worked in the Arizona House as director of fiscal policy. Before his appointment as director of fiscal policy, Regens had spent nine years working in the state legislature in various roles, including assistant director of the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

Following its hiring of Regens, CCA elected former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) to its board of directors.

ALSO SEE: Phoenix New Times: Arizona Racist Legislator Russell Pearce, sponsor of SB 1070, linked to Neo-Nazis:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/related/to/Russell+Pearce



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