Santa Cruz Indymedia Newsletter July 4, 2005

contact: dAnces with kittens - for artwork information

SANTA CRUZ INDYMEDIA UPDATE, JULY 4, 2005
http://santacruz.indymedia.org

News and events currently featured as of Monday, July 4:


UPCOMING EVENTS

Wednesday 7:30pm Presentation on: Human Genetic Engineering
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/18095/index.php

Wednesday - Friday: West Coast Anti-G8 Mobilization in SF
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/17927/index.php

Thursday 6pm Post Carbon Santa Cruz meeting
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/18096/index.php

Thursday 7:30pm Amy Goodman in Monterey
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/18046/index.php


Please visit this link for more event listings!
http://www.radicalendar.org/group/SC-IMC

PUBLISH UPCOMING EVENTS on the SC-IMC Calendar!
http://www.radicalendar.org/calendar/SC-IMC/all/new/index.php


DANCES FOR KITTENS: CONSCIENCE CONSUMERISM, YOUTH ACTIVISM AND DIY LIFESTYLE

A group of youth activists associated with YCSC and troubled with growing authority by adult "allies" (although we do have good ones like sandino!) and city linked laws and regulations are forming a group that will devote itself to the ideas of protesting corporate monsters in santa cruz (we already hit urban outfitters) DIY stuff, independant lifesyle stuff and for the summer counter military highschool and college recruitment stuff.

We think we will call ourselves dAnces with kittens for the summer. YCSC regulations will not be on us so the meetings for this group will be 5-630 on tuesdays upstairs at resource center for nonviolence all ages welcome but youth Under 26 especially highschool age will be very welcome since thats what all of us so far are (also its imporatant for us cause we never saw this city before the dot come boom and earthquake. after the summer ends the date will move as ycsc will take this time please all members welcome it would be nice to have some college connections also so please attend our meetings. So if you are interested in the future of corporations coming to santa cruz, building a more independant lifestyle and helping block military recruiters, join santa cruz's youth activists and build our future!!!!!!!
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17153/index.php


WATSONVILLE "EMERGENCY CARD" OPT-OUT A WINNER

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted in favor (4 to 3) of a proposal to increase student and family awareness of the OPT-OUT choice parents have to deny military recruiters access to private student information.

As a result of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, a requirement of federal education funding is that high school administrations release student contact, and other information to military recruiters. Students and parents may “Opt-Out” of the information release list, but notification of this option is careless-to-nonexistent.

In the predominantly Latino district, where recruiters “descend on students like vultures on road kill,” (as one counter recruitment worker stated) how is family and student notification of Opt-Out best assured?

That the “opt-out choice be included on the [mandatory] emergency card for all high school students including those at alternative high schools” was the motion eventually approved.

A coalition of trustees, parents, students and community organizations wanted greater assurance of opt-out choice notification. Board chair Rhea DeHart bluntly stated, “I have talked to too many people where this important information gets lost in the shuffle.”
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17152/index.php


THE PROJECT: SPRING INSURRECTION

The Project Collective strives to document and inspire radical actions that are relevant to local, regional, and global socioeconomic justice. We believe independent media plays a crucial role in facilitating dialogue, organizing mass mobilizations, and encouraging daily acts of resistance.

In our latest issue, titled "Spring Insurrection," we focus on the string of radical actions that hit the UC system during Spring quarter. From those who participated we receive accounts and critiques of the counter-military recruitment action at the career fair, the various strikes, Tent U, and the disruption of the Regent's Meeting at UCSF. In addition are articles on the Bush Administration's policies of torture, Bush's favorite Jesus-loving rapist, an interview with Barrios Unidos founder Daniel Alejandrez, an interview with Mayor Mike Rotkin, and other tidbits to fuel the insurrection!

Enjoy and keep fighting! - The Project Collective
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17150/index.php


30 YEARS SINCE PINE RIDGE SHOOTOUT

Leonard Peltier is still imprisoned thirty years after the shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in which two FBI Agents and an AIM member were shot dead.

On June 26th, 1975, two unmarked cars sped onto the Jumping Bull Ranch on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Two plain clothes FBI agents came onto the land ostensibly to serve a warrant for the theft of a pair of used cowboy boots. During these years, the "Reign of Terror," firebombing, beatings, intimidation, disappearences, and other COINTELPRO tactics were more than commonplace, they were the rule of law.

Download the mp3 to hear more about the case of Leonard Peltier, still caged in Leavenworth Penitentiary as you read these words, more than thirty years after the shootout. He's been inside longer than he was ever out.

Produced for Freak Radio Santa Cruz, featuring Ward Churchill, Peltier Attorney Barry Bachrach, John Trudell, and other AIM leaders. (18:25 minutes / 16.9 MB)
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17151/index.php


GOVERNMENT MANIPULATION OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM TO SUPPRESS DISSENT

From racist attacks targeting Lodi, California’s Muslim community, to attempts to silence and imprison political activists in San Francisco and San Diego, dissent and freedom of speech are under attack. As government repression in general increases, so does the use of the federal grand jury to intimidate, incarcerate and render impotent activists across social movements. In recent years, pressure on the animal rights, environmental justice, anti-war and anarchist movements has increased exponentially. Government officials seem anxious to pin the label “terrorist” on anyone that is effectively campaigning against injustice. At a recent hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, John E. Lewis, Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division of the FBI, testified that, “Investigating and preventing animal rights extremism and eco-terrorism is one of the FBI’s highest domestic terrorism priorities.”

Activists and people of color are not the only people being persecuted, lawyers are feeling the heat as well. On Febuary 10, 2005, New York civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart was convicted of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and defrauding the US government. Yet, Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry or any other concrete aid for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions. Lynne and her supporters argue that all she did was represent her client effectively as a good attorney should.

audio: New York Human Rights attorney Lynne Stewart interview

updates:
San Diego: Judge to Hear First Amendment Objections
San Francisco: Reprieve for Activists
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17149/index.php


NO PARTY ORDINANCE APPROVED!

Santa Cruz City Council voted to approve the "no party" ordinance tonight [6/28/05]. It will go into effect in 30 days from today.

The vote was five to two in favor of the broad sweeping ordinance, which with its current language, disproportionately punishes renters and students who hold two or less parties within a 12-month timeframe, sends letters to the parents of 18-21 year olds, and letters upon the first warning to landlords, does not create an appeals process, nor did it create measurable criteria for what constitutes a violation of the "quiet enjoyment of public property."

Opponents of this ordinance will be meeting to organize soon to campaign for the repeal of this draconian ordinance unfairly targeting students and young people.

previous report: City Council Unanimously Passes First Reading of “NO PARTY” Ordinance
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17148/index.php


JUNE 25: MARCH AGAINT WAY, EMPIRE, & CAPITALISM IN DOWNTOWN PALO ALTO

There's a war on - a war between the United States government and the vast majority of the world's population. This war has many faces - the struggles over globalization, corporate empire, and the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan - but everywhere the same lines are drawn. Everywhere the US government is acting in the interests of corporations, and everywhere people are being slaughtered, are starving to death, and are watching their lives be torn apart and sold for profit.

This war has to stop. The occupation must end, neoliberalism must be buried, and any attempt to invade Iran must be prevented. The prediction that the US may not have the military or political capacity to wage another war must be fulfilled. Already well over five thousand soldiers have deserted and recruitment is falling far short of the military's goals. It's up to us to ensure that the US government does not maintain a political or social capacity to continue its war on the world's population.
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17144/index.php


HYDROELECTRIC PLANT PROPOSED ON THE SOUTH FORK OF THE PIT RIVER

Local land developer, Barry Swenson, is a controlling stakeholder in the organization that regularly drains this Modoc County river which is habitat to endangered and threatened species.

Modoc County, CA - Under Federal Energy Regulation Commission Application P-12053, Nicholas Josten of Idaho filed an application to construct a hydroelectric plant upon the South Fork of the Pit River, located in rural Modoc County. This project proposes to generate electrical power for a maximum of 2,200 households.

As partners, the South Fork Irrigation District of Likely, California and Barry Swenson of Alturas Ranches who is financing the studies and arranging for the financing of the million plus dollar project, propose to divert 100 cubic feet from a river that hardly runs 45 cubic per second during average years along a three mile stretch of scenic roadway that runs alongside Jess Valley Road. The river is home to the endangered red band trout and the project site is proposed to sit on a 31 acre piece of BLM property, situated between two private residences and in the midst of a small residential area.

Swenson, a multimillionaire Silicon Valley Builder and Land Developer, dba Green Valley Corporation, and a sixty percent stakeholder in the South Fork Irrigation District, owns much property in Santa Clara, Monterey, Marin, Alameda, Fresno, Contra Costa, San Joaquin, Yuba, Sutter, Sonoma and Modoc Counties and builds major hotels and commercial buildings. He started acquiring property in Modoc County in 1997. Read More

Two fiery and heated scoping sessions were held Wednesday, June 15th in Likely, California, with FERC officials and representatives of the National Forest Service and BLM on a proposed small hydropower project on the South Fork of the Pit River in Modoc County. Swenson's representative threatened landowners and opponents, "You people will find yourselves living in a community that hates you if you continue this!" (meaning opposing the project)
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17147/index.php


RADIO FREE BRATTLEBORO SHUT DOWN BY FEDS

Brattleboro, Vermont - At 6:58 a.m., June 22, 2005, armed with a warrant issued by a Burlington magistrate, United States Marshals entered the studios of Radio Free Brattleboro and seized its broadcasting equipment. The seizure of equipment and shutdown of rfb's local broadcasts under authority of a warrant issued in Burlington comes while an action is still pending before Judge J. Garvan Murtha in the federal court in Brattleboro.

Rfb does not operate in defiance of government but rather from the belief of its members and listeners that community radio is essential to good government and democratic process. Radio free brattleboro has always stressed to the public and to the FCC that it will adhere to FCC guidelines and will serve the public whether licensed or not.
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17146/index.php


HISTORY OF UNDERGROUND MUSIC IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY

WikiSCUM is a project to develop a Web-based encyclopedia of historic and contemporary underground music in Santa Cruz County, California.

Santa Cruz County has 28 years of punk history to its name. i've been doing my best to compile that history - but there's no way i can do it alone. so i've created a site that allows anyone to add information they know. It is called WikiSCUM. Wiki is the name of the software; SCUM stand for Santa Cruz Underground Music. check it out: http://scum.wikicities.com
http://santacruz.indymedia.org/feature/display/17140/index.php


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Santa Cruz Indymedia is an autonomous member of the Independent Media Center network with a focus on local issues and the direct impact of larger issues on our community. Santa Cruz Indymedia is not a membership organization; it is a tactic, a concept, and a movement that can be effectively utilized in many different ways.

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