Numerous demonstrations rocked the region, and the downtown LA event pulled together a lot of people from a lot of different places, including the suburbs. People all the way from Pomona, and even Alhambra and the Garvey districts (which to westsiders is as far as Pomona, but, you and I know better). LAUSD teachers were in the house, educating the educators about marching, because they're old hands at it, from fighting the huge bureaucracy for years.

I'm more of a "break up the district" kind of guy. Maybe the UTLA would hate me for that - but the UTLA should not be such a company union. They should organize outside of the district too. These photos are from the end of the march. The video runs around 3 blocks.

The first picture, above, sums up my thinking. We should be paying for education out of our taxes, not through usage fees. Nobody, even a tradesperson or laborer or poor person should be deprived of learning.

March 4 Education March and Rally, Downtown Los Angeles
by wg2k1

Stewart A. Alexander For California Governor Peace and Freedom Party 2010 http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/ December 14, 2009 Last Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council postponed voting on an ordinance that would limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city and would impose stiffer regulations. Stewart Alexander, a Candidate for California Governor says the proposed ordinance is far too restrictive and would be a quasi ban on medical marijuana dispensaries. Presently, there is an estimated 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries operating in Los Angeles and the number of dispensaries opening has increased significantly since 2007 when the Los Angeles City Council established a moratorium on new outlets. The proposed ordinance would limit the number of dispensaries to 137 and eventually reduce the total number of dispensaries citywide to half that number. Alexander notes that there are too many problems with this proposed ordinance to include the limited number of future operating dispensaries. Alexander says, “The 1,000 feet from homes would shut down over 90 percent of all the dispensaries that are presently operating.” Alexander also rejects having the LAPD being responsible for inspecting, auditing and overseeing dispensaries; he believes a citizens group should be commissioned to discharge these duties, appointed by the mayor and individuals that live in the community. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, also known as the Compassionate Use Act of 1996; it was a California ballot proposition regarding the medical use of marijuana. The proposition passed with 56 percent of California voters in favor and 44 percent against. The law allows patients with a valid doctor’s recommendation, and the patient’s designated Primary Caregiver, to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use, and has since been expanded to protect a growing system of collective and cooperative distribution. As governor, Alexander says he would support statewide legislation that will require all cities to have minimum requirements on the number of medical marijuana dispensaries that will be permitted to operate based upon population, demographics and the human needs within the city. Stewart Alexander, a one time candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles in 1989, and the 2006 PFP candidate for California Lieutenant Governor, says Peace and Freedom Party supports the legalization of marijuana, decriminalizing drug use, and making substance abuse treatment freely available. For more information search the Web for: Stewart A. Alexander http://www.stewartalexandercares.com/ Stewart Alexander YouTube Interview on Medical Marijuana http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUXY721M0j8 Jerry Brown Creating Public Phobia Regarding Marijuana http://www.banderasnews.com/0908/edat-stewartalexander17.htm Billionaire Meg Whitman to Challenge Same-Sex Marriage Rights http://www.gayagenda.com/2009/10/billionaire-meg-whitman-to-challenge-same-sex-marriage-rights/comment-page-1/ Peace and Freedom Party Home Page http://www.peaceandfreedom.org/home/

The Dentrimental Downer of the Digital Camera by bhhapa On my way home up an undisclosed street in Boyle Heights at 11pm on a Monday night, I saw a news van parked in front of a food stand.* The food stand were run by a familiar Breed Street family. Since I had my digital point-and-shoot handy, I stopped and took a few photos (without the flash). I was immediately approached by one of the individuals with the food team and her male sidekick. They asked me in Spanish what I was taking the photos for. I responded in my poor Spanish that the photos were just for me, that I lived in the neighborhood and that I was also a regular customer. They proceeded to explain that they’ve been getting harassed by the cops and that all the Breed Street vendors were kicked out because of all the media hype. Then the news reporter for the [undisclosed] news station approached me and explained that they were there doing the story to publicize the negative repercussions the Councilman’s office has had on the livelihoods of the Breed Street family businesses. For a moment, I felt like a criminal for carrying a handheld camera. Granted, from where I was standing and my lack of professionalism not having approached anyone for their consent, I did look like a suspicious onlooker with a possible ulterior motive. But I’m just an ordinary girl living in an ordinary world with an affordable digital camera made for the consumer. Why was I looked at as a threat? Continued at: http://laeastside.com/2009/11/the-dentrimental-downer-of-the-digital-camera/ Day and Night Once the sun starts to set food vendors set up shop and transform this little spot into a bustling corner of commerce and taco consumption. In just a few short weeks, they have built up a steady clientele and even some lines. This might be an example of Latino Urbanism but it’s also a very rational way to make ends meet, though I imagine this kind of impromptu street kitchen might not go over very well in non-Latino neighborhoods. I’ve been noticing many more of these sidewalk and frontyard food stalls around the neighborhood, maybe they’re a hint that La Crisis is going to be a much more significant storm than we were expecting. Continued at: http://laeastside.com/2008/10/day-and-night/

Caller from the scene reports seven people sat down in the building lobby and refused to leave. Police arrested 7 people including one doctor. About 50 demonstrators chanted and sang in support of the sit-in.

The action is part of a nationwide day of action organized by the group Mobilize For Healthcare

The Los Angeles/South Pasadena Chapter of the Holistic Mom’s Network is turning five years old November 4 and is celebrating with an evening Open House. The event will be held Wednesday, November 4, from 6:30pm - 9pm at the South Pasadena Library’s Community Room, 1115 El Centro Street in South Pasadena. The event is designed to facilitate a chance for non-member parents who are curious about health and parenting perspectives outside the mainstream to ask questions and meet each other. Headlining the event, which is open to the public, is nationally known author and lecturer Dr. Lauren Feder (“Natural Baby and Childcare” and “The Parents’ Concise Guide to Childhood Vaccinations”). Guests can speak directly with representatives from a variety of natural living professions including homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropractics, midwifery, lactation consultation and hypnotherapy. Also attending will be representatives from the Arroyo Food Co-Op, Waldorf School, home schooling, cloth diapering, VBAC Facts (vaginal birth after a C-section), La Leche League, and the Center for Nonviolent Education and Parenting. Dr. Haushka Skin Care and Boiron (homeopathic medicine) will have tables as well. “We are very pleased about both the number and diversity of participants expected,” said Micaela Darr, one of the group’s current co-leaders. There will be light refreshments--including fair trade coffee and tea--activities for children, free samples, and product drawings. “We work hard to give members a variety of chances to meet to share ideas and experiences.” said Nicole Hanson, the group’s other current co-leader. “We have monthly meetings to discuss natural living and parenting topics, as well as our weekly playgroup, monthly Mama’s Brunches, and a Frontier wholesale buying co-op. And of course there are both local and national email loops for sharing questions with and soliciting support from the community.” The Los Angeles/South Pasadena chapter was the first of the now 12 chapters in California--including one starting this month in the San Fernando Valley--bringing the national total to over a hundred in six years. Holistic Moms Network is a national non-profit support and discussion network for parents with an interest in natural, holistic and alternative health and parenting. Their goal is to develop a thriving local community of holistic parents with a wide range of interests. The Los Angeles/South Pasadena chapter meets the first Wednesday of every month to discuss a variety of natural health and parenting topics at the same time and location as the event. For more information please visit www.holisticmoms.org, or contact Nicole Hanson or Micaela Darr: hmnla@yahoo.com.

MEDIA ADVISORY: Sit-in at CIGNA insurance, 10am Wednesday, 10/28 Contact: Laura Flanagan, (305) 542-3570, leflanagan@hotmail.com Lacy MacAuley, (202) 445-4692, lacy@massey-media.com Follow us on Twitter @mob4healthcare Citizens and health care providers participate in Sit-in, risk arrest at the CIGNA health insurance office in Glendale Sit-in is part of a national mobilization to end insurance abuse and win health care for all; Matt Hendrickson, MD MPH, will risk arrest for health care for all What: Los Angeles joins in national day of sit-ins at health insurance companies to demand single-payer health care. When: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 10am Where: CIGNA insurance, 400 N. Brand Blvd., Glendale, CA 91203 Who: Citizens and health care providers who are fed up with insurance company greed and are calling for real reform, Medicare for All, a single payer plan [View a VIDEO of Los Angeles sit-in on 10/15, with introduction by Sam Pullen who was jailed for five days for health care for all. Video by Lyn Goldfarb/RamblinManFilms.] Glendale, CA – On Wednesday, October 28, a variety of groups with the message “patients not profits,” and “insurance companies are the real death panels” will hold a sit-in with civil disobedience, street theater, music, and a rally at an insurance company in Glendale. The events will express the American people’s outrage at the crimes of the health insurance industry, including: • Murder: A new Harvard study found that 45,000 Americans a year die because they don’t have health insurance. For the insured, denial of care and delays in approving care cause an uncounted number of deaths. • Causing sickness and suffering for millions of people with treatable health conditions who can’t get the care they need. • Breach of contract: Insurance companies routinely cancel the policies of many thousands of people after they became sick. • Theft and waste of 30% of the U.S. health care dollar—money that could provide comprehensive care to all. While they were charging unaffordable premiums, denying treatment, and canceling policies, the profits of the top 10 health insurance companies went up 428% from 2000 to 2007. "The insurance industry is the main cause of the collapse of the American health care system. It should not be part of the solution," said Matt Hendrickson, MD MPH, a doctor who will be risking arrest on Wednesday at the CIGNA health insurance office in Glendale, CA. "I'm putting myself on the line because I can no longer stand to see my patients struggle to afford the care they need while one out of every three health care dollars in our country goes to pay for administration and insurance company profits." The sit-in is part of the Patients Not Profit campaign of the Mobilization for Health Care for All. The mobilization was launched by the organizations Prosperity Agenda, Healthcare-NOW!, and the Center for the Working Poor. The upcoming LA action has been organized by the Center for the Working Poor. Participants in Wednesday’s act of civil disobedience think that the health care bill fails to address the real cause of our health care crisis, the insurance companies. They will point out that health insurance companies that deny people the care they need are the real death panels. The organizers have the following statements: We support SB 810 (California Sen. Mark Leno’s legislation for a single payer system in California) and HR 676 (U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ bill to improve Medicare and expand it to cover everyone in the U.S.) We demand that any federal health reform include a provision to allow states to adopt single payer systems (the Kucinich amendment in the House). We need one system of publicly funded, privately delivered health care that includes everyone. For more information: Mobilization for Health Care www.MobilizeForHealthCare.org Healthcare-NOW!, www.healthcare-now.org Prosperity Agenda, www.prosperityagenda.us Center for Working Poor, http://centerfortheworkingpoor.org ###

A man was attempting to make a right hand turn May 6th 2010, during a civil disobedience action against SB1070 and was pulled out of his truck at gun point. Different law enforcement agencies attack him and hog tie him basically into arrest.

May 5, 2010 Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, presidential candidate of the Rwandan FDU-Inkingi Party, is going on trial in Rwanda. Ingabire is charged with “genocide ideology,” a statutory speech crime unique to Rwanda, and of an “association crime,” associating with terrorists. Eight days after Ingabire’s arrest on April 21 in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, a team of U.S. lawyers filed a civil lawsuit against Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Oklahoma City alleging Kagame ordered the political assassinations that triggered the Rwanda Genocide, costing one million Rwandan lives, and that he engaged in racketeering to control the vast natural resources of eastern Congo across Rwanda’s western border at a cost of six-million Congolese lives. The international legal strategies and geostrategic implications of these parallel, competing courtroom dramas, are huge and historic. Like any trials of such import, they will become trials in the court of pubic opinion. Read full story at Fog City Journal, http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2010/05/reverend-rick-warren-on-trial-in-the-court-of-public-opinion/. http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/20...

Press Release Oaxaca January 30, 2010 On Thursday January 28, at around 9 p.m. Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez, James Wells and Jennifer Lawhorne were eating ice cream in the zocalo of Oaxaca. At that time, one of us recognized the face of the governor of Oaxaca who was about nine feet away from us. As a friend of Brad Will, a U.S. journalist who was killed in Oaxaca in 2006, one of us took advantage of the governor's presence to ask him about the case of Mr. Will, which to this day remains unresolved. We didn't receive a response from the governor who continued walking and we continued strolling in the zocalo with our ice creams. Five minutes later, between six and eight police agents, some in official uniform and others dressed in plainclothes, surrounded us, demanding to see our identifications and made us walk with them to a municipal police truck. While the police forced us to get into the back of the truck, we asked them why they were taking us away and to where they were going to take us. The police refused to give us any information. We were actually very afraid and worried for our safety. After traveling for half an hour, we arrived at the police headquarters of Santa Maria Coyotepec, located outside of the Oaxaca city limits.. Once we entered, the police took photographs of us and asked us questions. We demanded the presence of an attorney, which was denied by the police officials. We spent an hour there surrounded by police, faces covered with ski masks, who humiliated and threatened us. Later, the police put us once again in the police truck and without telling us to where we were going, we left the headquarters. The truck stopped about half a block away from the state General Procuradaria of Justice (PGJO in its letters in Spanish), the police ordered us to leave our belongings in the darkness of the street and when we refused to do that, they insisted by threatening us for half an hour while recording us with video. After entering the offices of the PGJO, the police ordered us to leave our belongings with them and that we make a declaration one by one without the presence of an attorney. We remained firm that we weren't going to do anything until our attorney arrived. After waiting for more than an hour, we were taken to a room where we supposedly were going to make a call to our lawyer. While in the room, a police officer read to us a document explaining our charges and to our surprise we were accused of scuffling and causing harm to two police agents. In that document, our arrest was ordered and without making the call to our lawyer, we were pushed and dragged out of the room, while twisting the wrist of one of us. That's how we were taken to the jail cells at 12:30 in the morning. At 1:30, we were allowed to see a lawyer, Jesus Alfredo Lopez Garcia, who we agreed to be our legal representative. From then on we knew that were going to spend the night in jail. Throughout the night, the police continued to intimidate us, asking us why we were there. We continued to state that we didn't do anything to cause our incarceration because we never committed any crime. Confused, we did our best to sleep on the cold jail floor. The next day, Friday January 29, we learned that the gravity of charges that had been filed against us had increased. One of us was taken to make a statement when she learned that we were being accused of assaulting two police officers and damaging a police radio valued at about $3000 (USD). We continued to demand our right to not make a statement. At around 4 p.m., our attorney informed us that for a lack of evidence, we were going to be set free without charges and without having to pay bail, under the provision of passing through a review with officials from National Immigration Institute. Upon arrival at the federal immigration offices located in the center of the city, we presented our passports and visas and shortly we were allowed to walk free. After learning about the situation, the U.S. consul, Mark Leyes, invited us to visit him at his office the same evening and told us that he was sorry for what had happened to us. We would like to thank the attorney Jesus Alfredo Lopez Garcia from the Mexican Protectorate for Human Rights, our friends and family members for all of their support and care. Andrea Caraballo, Guadalupe Rodriguez Lopez Jennifer Lawhorne and Jimmy Wells

El primero de enero del 1994, el mismo día que entraba en vigor el TLC conocido como NAFTA por sus siglas en inglés, el Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional declaró su presencia, anteriormente clandestina, y se levantó en armas en contra del "Nuevo Orden Mundial" neoliberal. La insurección fue seguida de un contra-asalto de parte del ejército mexicano en el que fallecieron numerosos soldados zapatistas. Posteriormente, el gobierno priista fomentó el incremento de grupos paramilitares anti-zapatistas en la región chiapaneca, así como en otras partes de la república.

Fue uno de estos grupos paramilitares, Máscara Roja, que llevó a cabo la masacre de Acteal. Un total de 45 personas fueron asesinadas mientras rezaban en una iglesia. Los sucesos fueron ocultados por los agresores y sus protectores dentro del partido reinante, y en un juicio de 2007, 26 indígenas tzotziles fueron sentenciados por ser los autores materiales del crimen, pero ningún funcionario del gobierno fue responsabilizado y hasta la fecha, siguen impunes los autores intelectuales.

La impunidad es el motor de recurrir al arte dramático para preservar la memoria histórica de esta saña cruenta. Los actores esperan que con la realización anual de esta obra, los víctimas y su causa, tanto la justicia por los asesinos como la autonomía que siguen anhelando los zapatistas, sigan vivos.

La presentación inició con una bendición tradicional por parte de la Danza Mexica Cuauhtémoc.

El poeta Oxc Lebrán siguió con la declamación de un poema titulado "Tijuana," que abordó el tema de la miseria en aquella ciudad fronteriza.

El poema fue seguido de una presentación musical de Héctor Márquez de los Xochisoneros, quien interpretó varios temas de la trova cubana y mexicana.

Otro poeta, Nery González, ofreció un poema lírico que relató la historia de una familia migrante.

Prosiguió la muestra del documental Acteal: Estrategia de muerte. Mientras pasaba la película, los partícipes gozaron de una cena de pozole que dobló de recaudación de fondos para los proyectos del Comité.

Después de la cena llegó el momento esperado. Combinando las mejores cualidades del teatro popular--escenarios y accesorios simples--con una ejecución fina y bien elaborada, los actores superaron las expectativas del público, evocando una empatía profunda hacia los víctimas de las injusticias sociales, tanto las de hace más de diez años en México como las cotidianas de aquí de Los Ángeles. La presentación contó con la colaboración musical de Héctor Márquez, cuya aportación musical fue inolvidable y complementó perfectamente la obra. Terminó con el canto en general del "Himno Zapatista" y la lectura de los nombres de los asesinados, con el eco del reclamo "Presente" después de cada nombre.

Después de la obra, los jarochos de Son Real tocaron varias canciones de su región, incluyendo su versión inmensamente popular del "Colás del Jornalero." También advertenciaron a los que piensan viajar en estas navidades que evitaran usar los servicios de la compañía Greyhound por su colaboración con agencias anti-migrantes. Y los rockeros Rabia al Sistema terminaron la noche con un concierto con ciertos de sus temas contraculturales.

Al final del programa, uno de los actores proclamó, "El pasado 10 de diciembre se cumplió un aniversario más de la Declaración Universal de Derechos Humanos, y muchos lo celebraron. Pero las comunidades indígenas de Chiapas no tienen nada que festejar en absoluto porque los autores materiales y los autores intelectuales de esta masacre siguen libres y en completa impunidad."

Honduran elections held by the coup government November 29th have been called a fraud by the Honduran people. Estimates from 52% to 65-70% of Honduran voters boycotted the election. Latin American governments have called the elections, in which the candidate of the coup forces Porfirio Lobo became president-elect, illegal – the US however has recognized the result. Two days after the election, the Honduran Congress voted not to allow democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya to return to office and serve out his term which ends in January. But the people of Honduras have been resisting the coup for over 5 months and finding ways around the coup-controlled media to get their voices heard.

A multi-racial group of four Honduran women labor and grassroots leaders who are part of the resistance called the elections illegitimate when they joined the LA vigil Haiti and Honduras: End Military Coups and Occupations November 12th outside the Los Angeles Downtown Federal Building. Part of the Honduran Justice Tour, they were speaking in LA about the massive resistance to the coup in Honduras and human rights abuses by the coup forces.

President Zelaya was removed from Honduras at gunpoint by the military on June 28, 2009. He secretly returned September 21st, taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the capital; the coup government has threatened that he will be arrested if he steps outside. The people of Honduras, with women playing a central role, have for 5 months demanded the return of their elected president and a new constitution -- through daily marches, pots and pans demonstrations, general strikes and more. They have faced escalating repression by the military - as many as 130 people murdered, hundreds arrested, beaten, burned with cigarettes and sodomized with batons, and women gang-raped. But the people of Honduras have not given up. Their resistance and international pressure forced the coup government to agree to reinstate President Zelaya. But his reinstatement was never allowed, and Honduras remains under military occupation.

Members of the delegation who took part in the Vigil on November 12th were:
Ø      Iris Munguia: labor organizer and spokeswoman for banana workers in Honduras and across Latin America.
Ø      Indyra Mendoza: Feministas en Resistencia and representative of the LGBT community in Honduras, which has suffered a wave of "social cleansing" murders since the coup.
Ø    Miriam Miranda: Director of the Fraternal Black Honduran Organization, a group dedicated to promoting the rights of the Garifuna Community in Honduras.
Ø      Sarah Janeth Aguilar: Leading attorney with Coordination of the Movement for Dignity and Justice (MADJ). Legal team member of the ERIC-SJM and member of the Lawyers in Resistance.

The women from Honduras carried with them the energy and commitment of the resistance movement in Honduras and were glad to join with the Los Angeles regular weekly vigilers. Also taking part were representatives of the Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras, the Frente de Resistencia Hondurena de Los Angeles, and the International Action Center.

Indyra Mendoza led several chants from the protest marches in Honduras including one that said we are not afraid, and a Spanish version of We Shall Not Be Moved. Speaking as a lesbian woman, she opened saying that under the coup regime, women are treated as playthings by the military. “[T]hey are utilizing the bodies of women like a war prize—and lesbian women, transgender women also,” she said.

Iris Munguia spoke as an organizer of women who work on the banana plantations. “The union movement in Honduras is part of the national people's resistance,” she said. “We are here to share with you because we want to break the wall of the mass media that we have in our country. This mass media belongs to the oligarchy, and they do not publish all the repression that is happening in my country. “ She spoke about “illegal arrests, sexual harassment, raping [of] women, and brutal oppression carried out by the military against the peaceful demonstrations.” She added that “your support and the work you guys are doing here in Los Angeles is excellent.” Women in the banana workers union have formed a women’s organization which is working with other women who not only pick bananas but also pineapples and melons from Mexico throughout Central America and down into Colombia and Peru.

Miriam Miranda spoke about the illegality of the coup and it’s impact on poor Hondurans including the Garifuna communities, communities of Black and Indigenous people along the Atlantic coast of Honduras. She said, “To unleash the army on Honduras [is a danger] not only in Honduras but throughout the world because militarism is a danger to the world. The coup has shown that the military and the oligarchy of the extreme right have given themselves the right to remove any president at any time. And of course, they're always working against the poor people taking away [their] rights. Therefore, the coup d'etat is an insult against the poor people of Latin America.” She continued, “The coup has unified the extreme right and the oligarchies throughout Latin America. They are seeing the example of Honduras throughout Latin America. Therefore we have to condemn every military coup--not only in Honduras but all over the world. The big oligarchies, the big corporations try to exploit the natural resources of countries all over the world,” she added. “The natural resources are being depleted all the time. The [will] of the big corporations is to control all the natural resources of the world. We have to educate our Latin American people of what's happening in Honduras.”

The speakers called the upcoming elections illegitimate and said the people of Honduras would boycott them. They condemned the US for saying it would recognize the election results. “We don't [want] any governments to recognize the election on November 29,” said Sarah Aguilar. “That would be to bury democracy once and for all, all over Latin America. If a president is elected, they should not be recognized. That would not be a president for the people of Honduras because he will always be afraid for himself that he will also be overthrown.”

On behalf of the vigil, Sidney Ross-Risden welcomed everyone and gave a brief history of the vigil which has been held every Thursday for two years, beginning with the demand for the safe return of beloved Haitian human-rights activist Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine who was disappeared in August 2007, and in support of the people of Haiti. A US-backed coup kidnapped Haiti’s elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Ever since, the Haitian people have resisted an occupation enforced by UN military forces. As in Honduras, the Haitian resistance faces mass arrests, rape and murder. And as we stand with the people of Haiti who are calling for a return of their democratically-elected President Aristide and an end to occupation, we also stand with the people of Honduras who are demanding the reinstatement of their President, a new constitution and an end to repression and slaughter. Both removed presidents – Aristide and Zelaya – angered the multinational corporations by raising the minimum wage and increasing funding for food security, health and education. Latin American governments have rightly condemned the coup in Honduras, and the Honduran people’s struggle receives the support it deserves. But some of the same Latin American governments have been collaborating with the occupation of Haiti, and the UN occupying forces are headed by the Brazilian military. We call for and end to this collaboration and for the Haitians who struggle for the return of their deposed president Aristide to also receive Latin America’s support.

The event was opened to others to speak and Hondurans including Carlos Mejia of the Frente de Resistencia Hondurena de Los Angeles gave their views and added what they are doing here as part of the resistance. The event was bilingual and passersby going in and out of the Downtown Federal Building stopped to listen. Fernando Velazquez and Naomi Martinez from KPFK Radio interviewed the women leaders from Honduras; the interviews are being aired on KPFK (90.7FM) Informativo Pacifica.

Sojourner Truth’s host Margaret Prescod has been covering the coup in Honduras and the resistance against it regularly; among those interviewed on the show have been Iris Munguia on November 10th and Miriam Miranda on Nov. 12th, as well as the latest on the Honduran elections on Dec. 1st and 4th. To hear the shows, go to www.KPFK.org, click on Archives, scroll down to Sojourner Truth and click on those dates (available for 90 days after the original broadcast).

The weekly vigil was called by Women of Color/GWS and includes the Global Women's Strike/LA, Northeast LA Radical Neighbors and other supporters. We call for an end to military coups and occupations in Haiti and Honduras. This vigil is part of an international effort which includes vigils also in London, in Guyana, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is coordinated by the Global Women’s Strike.

More information: globalwomenstrike.net

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH ATENCO: a brief video summarizing activities of the day and a formal meeting presenting demands to Mexican Consualte, San Bernardino. Recieved confirmation that the letter with its signatures and demands was sent directly to Mexican government on the same day by the consulate.

The humble and valient people of Atenco continue their struggle for land and liberty. After the Mexican government in conjunction with "FREE TRADE" agreements tried to take away their farm land in 2001 through 2003 with plans to replace their farmland with an international airport. The farmers became known as the "macheteros" who said we will die before you take us away from our indigenous roots to our land. The humble farmers of Atenco, after a 2 year battle, WON and saved their land forcing the corrupt government to lose the billions of dollars they had planned to make from the airport over their farmland. 3 years later, the Mexican government took vengance against these people as the same farmers of Atenco stood in defense of flower vendors who were being forced away from their land and sales due to desires to put in a WAL MART. On the 3 and 4 of May 2006, over 200 people were brutally beaten and arrested including elderly and disabled, young and old, two young men killed, and about 40 women raped. Now, the struggle continues with an international movement growing including Noam Chomsky, Manu Chao, Cafe Tacvba, and many many more signing on to the campaign for the release of the remaining 12 prisoners and two persecuted who have been living in exile for over 3 years now. Join us December 10th in international day of solidarity with Atenco as 10s of thousands will gather in Atenco, including actors, musicians, and people from around the world to demand the Mexican government REVIEW THE CASES of the prisoners of Atenco, and TRANSFER the 3 prisoners currently in a prison recognized as being worse than Guantanamo Bay--Mexico's highest security prison where Ignacio de Valle, Felipe Alvarez, and Hector Galindo remain locked with sentences as high as 112 years with the most violent drug lords and murders of the country. Their only crime? Standing up for their rights and freedom to cultivate their own land. Solidarity Actions will consist of approaching any local Mexican Consulate offices, presenting them with letters demanding the same review of the cases of the prisoners of Atenco, letting Mexican government know that ATENCO IS NOT ALONE! and the whole world is watching!