October 2014

Halloween Critical Mass bike ride reportback

Submitted by Luke on Fri, 10/31/2014 - 23:37

On the 31st of October, DC Critical Mass took to the streets for Halloween with more riders than usual for this time of year, several of them in costume.

Video: DC Critical Mass for Halloween

Environment/Food/Health

Ferguson, USA: An Episode in the Class War

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 10/31/2014 - 10:37

On August 9 in Ferguson, a small suburb of St. Louis, a cop killed Michael Brown firing 6 bullets into him: this young black man, unarmed, with his arms raised in the air, had made the mistake of not responding to his order to walk on the sidewalk. Michael Brown was left like a dog in the street for several hours without even his parents allowed to come close to his body.There was generalized outrage at this crime among the population and successive violent protests for ten days.

Commentary/Op-ed
Labor/Economics/Business
Military/Weapons
Police/Legal/Prisons
Poverty
Race/Racism

DC Goverment helping Wal-Mart drive Ga Ave stores out of business

Submitted by Luke on Thu, 10/30/2014 - 16:34

Respect DC is reporting that DC's decision to support Wal-Mart by relocating a bus stop to directly in front of the store and installing pay parking meters on Peabody Street has devastated nearby small businesses. One business owner was quoted as saying "I have customers that tell me, ‘I want to come to your store, but the bus drops me at Walmart.’"

Local News/Neighborhoods

SodaStream to close factory in illegal West Bank settlement

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 10/30/2014 - 15:59

On the 30th of October, Bloomberg.com reported that Sodastream has decided to shut down their factory in the illegal West Bank settlement industrial zone of Mishor Adumim, Occupied Palestine. This is a stunning victory for the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions campaign modeled on the sucessful overthrow of Apartheid in South Africa.

World Uprisings

We Act Radio posts video of council candidate debate on racism, gentrification, and displacement

Submitted by Luke on Wed, 10/29/2014 - 15:53

We Act Radio has posted this Youtube video video of the at-large City Council candidate's debate on racism, gentrification, and displacement. Video about 2 hours, 11 min, sound low first couple minutes

Local News/Neighborhoods
Poverty
Race/Racism

High Heel Race draws huge crowd to 17th st

Submitted by Luke on Wed, 10/29/2014 - 03:04

On the 28th of October, the annual High Heel Race drew a huge crowd to 17th st. This event is normally on the last Tuesday before Halloween. Until a 1991 police attack on the event it was an underground high heel race between some of the gay bars on Halloween itself. This provoked a massive occupation of 17th st by the GLBT community on Halloween 1992, and ever since it has been an officially supported event on the last Tuesday BEFORE Halloween

Video of the Race

Gender/Sexuality/Identity

One of the race leaders-hard to see in the crowd

INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE IN CLIMATE-ACTION

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/28/2014 - 17:49

DEAR  FOLKs:  warm greetings + many blessings !!the GREAT CLIMATE MARCH started in LOS ANGELES on 1-MARCH-2014  and will arrive in WASHINGTON, DC on SATURDAY-1-NOVEMBER-2014 ...our main focus is on the problems related to GLOBAL-WARMING + CLIMATE-CHANGE ... below is a copy of our schedule for SATURDAY-1-NOVEMBER:  un-fortunate-ly, it was changed, due to the fact that our PERMIT from the city allows us to walk only from BETHESDA to the WHITE HOUSE, with no stops along the way ...

Environment/Food/Health

Only two DC Councilmembers attend Stop and Frisk hearing

Submitted by Luke on Mon, 10/27/2014 - 14:07

On the 27th of October, DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier appeared before the city countil to testify about the use of "stop and frisk" tactics by DC Police. This is an admission that Stop and Frisk exists in this town. Unfortunately, only two DC City Councilmembers bothered to attend, leading one witness to remark when a white witness was testifying that this amounted only to "three white people having a conversation."

Police/Legal/Prisons

Park Police attempt to order Pax Christi "Drone" away from Air and Space

Submitted by Luke on Sat, 10/25/2014 - 13:51

On the 25th of October, Pax Christi showed up in front of the national Air and Space museum with one of the large crank-up "drones" often seen at anti-drone protests. US Park Police demanded they crank it back down or move it. They moved it-back and forth in front of the museum, making it more visible because it was moving and causing mindless Park Police repression to backfire.

Anti-War/Peace
Foreign Policy/Imperialism
Police/Legal/Prisons

John Zangas photo

Police brutality protesters march on 7D police station in Anacostia

Submitted by Luke on Thu, 10/23/2014 - 00:48

On the evening of Oct 22, a national day of action against police brutality, local activists marched from the Anacostia Metro station to the 7th district police station. They demanded that all killer cops, not just Darren Wilson in Ferguson, be prosecuted and jailed. Before setting out, one activist read out a list of people killed by police right here in DC.

Video of the march on 7D

Video compilation of speakers before the march

Police/Legal/Prisons
Race/Racism

Marching on 7d-shadowed by many police cars

Wikileaks captures updated TPP "intellectual property" chapter, GMO's explicitly included

Submitted by Luke on Sun, 10/19/2014 - 13:44

On the 16th of October, Wikileaks published the updated "Intellectual property" chapter of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, current as of May 16th, 2014 after the so-called Ho Chi Minh round of TPP negotiations. The 20th "secret" TPP meeting was held in Ho Chi Minh City.
Download the entire May 16th Intellectual Property chapter of the proposed TPP here

Environment/Food/Health
Globalization/Anti-globalization

DC cops caught using "stingray" cell phone tracking devices

Submitted by Luke on Fri, 10/17/2014 - 14:34

A few weeks ago someone found that fake cellphone towers known as "stingrays" were very common in Washington DC, especially near government buildings. Now, vice.com has published a report that the Metropolitan Police Department is using them. The report states that in 2008, MPD began using the briefcase-size cell tower simulators they had originally obtained from an "anti-terror" grant years ago in ordinary "criminal" investigations. I strongly suspect that includes their illegal investigations of animal rights groups such as DARTT and of other activist groups such as Occupy DC.

Police/Legal/Prisons
Science/Technology

Pages

Newswire

more