Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

Raul's project is inspired by both the more "western" punk/anarchist traditions and an indigenista blend revealed through TierraViva's utilization of Zapatista style direct democracy. One thing that it reminded me of was the ideas of Social Ecology that adds a lot of energy to the globalization movement. Raul and the collective have a long-term plan to build TierraViva, an autonomous agricultural community in the heart of Mexico City.

Al Renner's project at the Solano Canyon Community Garden complements existing institution. His project within the garden employs the residents of Dome Village. With the city, NGOs and Federal organizations the garden moves towards the idea of an equitable and sustainable food distribution network. Along these idealogical lines, he highlighted the work of the Venice based Community Food Security Coalition which helped write LA's progressive-leaning hunger policy statements. Al suggested that through the direct help of theLos Angeles Community Gardens Council and assistance from government grants and groups like Clean and Green/ LA Conservation Corp there could be a rebirth in the LA Community Garden movement.
While at the Solano Canyon Garden, I bumped into an associate of The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute who is begining a project on bringing healthy localy grown foods to the LA Unified School District.

In addition to this green news; the LA-IMC newswire contained a story on a Federal Judge's ruling that Overturns 'Critical Habitat' designation for land that is the home of two SoCal species, possibly leading to more poorly planed development and more extinctions. Other posts include were from the LA office of the Citizens Campaign for Old Growth's ballot measure.

[ Scary Image of Cars along the freeway after a judge rules against two California species ] The Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel proposed a set of rates last week for radio and internet broadcasters. The rates would be set at .07 cents per song for AM and FM broadcasters, but .14 cents per song for internet broadcasters. One netradio CEO predicted that the only companies that would be able to afford these rates areYahoo, AOL Time Warner, and Microsoft. The proposal is similar to the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) passed in 1998 which, among many things, forced web broadcasters but not radio broadcasters to pay royalties to artists and record labels directly.

[ Anti-DMCA.org | Microsoft Media Player logs its broadcasts ] With the state in a budget crunch and the political economy of education up in the air, CalState Faculty are feeling the pinch and see the quality of education slipping. They claim that with a decreasing budget and an increasing student load, the Chancellor has been building up the system's bureaucracy while maintaining the same number of full-time faculty. Part time lecturers without benefits and guidance responsibilities are asked to fill in the gap they contractually can't fill. Protests have been dogging Chancellor Reed throughout the state- most recently at CalState Dominguez Hills.

[ California Faculty Association | Irate Alumni Demands Action ] An independent arbitrator ruled that former Riverside Police Department officers Michael Alaga and Wayne Stewart must be allowed to return to work by April 30, to the disgust of many members of the African-American community.

[ Read Full Story | Unrelated Riverside: Support new Riverside Art Space ] Newsbytes reported that the FBI dropped the charges against Sherman Austin. No reason was given. "He still has the sword of Damocles hanging over him. The government arrested him out of the blue and then reversed themselves out of the blue," Austin's lawyer Susan Tipograph said. "Who knows what they're going to do next?"

Cryptome.org published the transcript of the detainment hearing to the web.

YellowTimes.org has posted an interview.

Older resources: arguments, primer.

On a related cyber-tip, hotmail cans local activist account for questionable reasons.