Mike Rotkin has opened the possibility that a proposal to modify the sleeping/camping ban will be presented to the City Council.

The entire city of New Orleans is under evacuation orders. I just spoke to my friend Daniel in the Bywater (9th ward). He reports that unmarked police vehicles (cadillacs) are driving through the neighborhood with SWAT team police armed with 'big black machine guns' telling people through bullhorns they are under orders to evacuate and must leave the city now.

Santa Cruz's ONLY Hemp and Music Festival
Join us Sept. 9th. for the legendary Paul Krassner
and Sept. 10th for WAMMFest III.

LEST WE FORGET How you can go about reading the secret Indonesian government report that investigated gross human rights violations occurring in East Timor during 1999.

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.