The No Border Encuentro took place on August 27-28th at the Sherman Heights Community Center in San Diego/Aztlan. Two days of events including a maquiladora tour, a benefit concert and a day of forums, panels and encounters took place with over 100 people from San Diego, Los Angeles, Fresno, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Orange County, Eugene, Portland, Tijuana, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia participating. On the walls hung photos of recent actions to stop the Minutemen, a poster of the PGA Hallmarks, and maps of Calexico, where the No Border Camp will be in September. [Complete Summary, another account]

Radio coverage was done all weekend by Blast Furnace Radio, due to some technical difficultues at radioActive sanDiego.

Audio: Beats Against Borders with Dias Tristes, Boomerang Politick and Entartete Kunst | Encuentro Opening and Border History Panel | History of the Border Part 2 | Closing presentation by Ashanti Alston | Migration and Indigenous Nations 1 | 2

Photos: Maquiladora Tour | More | Beats Against Borders | Encuentro

This is only part of a large movement against the MinuteMen, La Migra and the Border itself. Thursday night before the conference, La Raza Rights Coalition held a community forum to present their demands around these issues to legislators. Next weekend, Sept 2-4, BorderHack 2005 will be taking place in Tijuana. Also that weekend, on the 3rd, is a forum against the Minutemen in Chula Vista.

The Encuentro was planned as a space to strategize about how to create a world without borders, how to effectively challenge racism and how to put an end to the Minuteman Project. These strategies will be put into action from September 16-18th in a series of actions and a No Border Camp in Calexico.

see also: Sep. 16-18: Confront & Shutdown the Minutemen! No Borders, No Racists!

Two activists are still in jail for defending the first amendment in the recent Grand Jury witchhunt. More activists are receiving subpoenas daily. Today the war on Free Speech in San Diego was escalated to a new level.

This morning, July 21st, at approximately 11AM, Pirate 96.9 was raided by the FCC.

Interview on radioActive sanDiego (.mp3) | Interview on Free Radio Santa Cruz | Please replay on your free, community and pirate radio stations.

The broadcast location of Pirate 96.9 was raided by a number of FCC agents with marshalls. No one was present at the location, so the FCC broke the locks on their doors, entered by force, took their equipment and left. They left a warrant behind them.

The antenna was taken as well as a number of other major components of broadcasting equipment.

Pirate 96.9 is currently off the air. More information at www.pirate969.org

Read a blog entry from just after the raid here: steadydietofnothing | more photos at San Diego Indymedia

The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, supporting organizations and the community at large sponsored the WAMM March for Medical Marijuana on Saturday, July 16th, 2005 at 12 noon on the Pacific Garden Mall, in downtown Santa Cruz.

Hundreds of people marched and rolled on Pacific Ave. and over to Santa Cruz City Hall in a demonstration of community solidarity opposing the recent decision of the Supreme Court and of Congress that leaves sick and dying Californians vulnerable to persecution from the federal government.

In a symbolic act of compassionate access, WAMM patient members led the march holding live cannabis plants. This solemn event honored the 154 WAMM members who have died since WAMM's inception in 1993.

Audio: Listen to Valerie's invitation to you to march

Photos: 1 | 2 | 3

Audio: Rockin' the Boat: Prescription Pot Backers Rally in Santa Cruz

September 17, 2002: Santa Cruz Gives the Feds a WAMM

See also: Indybay's Drug War News || Call for Vigils to Honor Steve McWilliams || DEA Raids Several SF Medical Marijuana Dispensary Coops || Vigils and Protests Held Statewide to Protest Overturning of Raich Decision || Supreme Court Overturns 9th Circuit Decison in Favor of Medical Marijuana

[ Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana || Santa Cruz vs. Ashcroft || Medical Marijuana Testimonials || WAMM Guesthouse ]

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 (AFSCME and CUE), Tent U (1 | 2), and the disruption of the Regent's Meeting at UCSF (1 | 2 | 3 | 4). 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

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 (1 | 2 | 3 | 4), 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)

Update: Leonard Peltier Moved to Terre Haute Indiana USP

[ The Case of Leonard Peltier || The Leonard Peltier Defense Committee ]

Last night twelve Papuan suspects in a 2002 murder of Americans were arrested in West Papua--the Indonesian-occupied half of New Guinea. There is evidence of Indonesian military involvement in the 2002 killings, but the Bush administration and Indonesian authorities are attempting to pin the blame on Papuan “terrorists�.

Recent revelations that plainclothes police officers infiltrated planning meetings for a New Year's parade, has citizens in Santa Cruz, CA irate. Nearly one hundred turned out last night to express their outrage at the public comment portion of the Santa Cruz City Council meeting. FSRN's Vinny Lombardo reports.

01/10/06 - Around 100 Santa Cruzans showed up at the City Council today to demand a denouncement and investigation into the Santa Cruz Police Department's infiltration of a local group's organizing meetings.

Far from being limited to the individuals that were spied on, protesters included former mayors, the ACLU, artists, peaceniks, high school students, UCSC Students Against War members that were recently spied on by the Pentagon, and a local man who fled fascist Czechoslovakia.

From the "Just Us" Campaign and Rally announcement:

santacruz.indymedia.org/newswire/display/19286/index.php

"The Santa Cruz Police Department was discovered infiltrating and conducting undercover surveillance of two of the meetings of the organizers of the Last Night DIY Parade, which was a totally peaceful, positive, and creative event in downtown Santa Cruz on New Years Eve!!...

"This event was organized by 'just us' - 'just us' the people who live here, work here, and try to create positive and peaceful change - if this group can be spied on, so can any of the rest of our groups."

"Although it was perfectly appropriate for representatives of the police department to attend that meeting, there have been legitimite questions raised about certain aspects of what took place, and I want to let the public know that the chief of police has opened an internal affairs investigation into these issues. At the conclusion of that process a report will be made to the city council's public safety commitee, which will report to the city council as a whole, and because the investigation is underway, we are not going to comment further."

California is speeding up executions. Clarence Ray Allen is next.