Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

In New York City, demonstrations against the World Economic Forum are heating up on Saturday afternoon. In Munich, there are demonstrations against NATO. In Porto Alegre, Brazil, thousands are meeting at the World Social Forum to discuss their visions of “Another World is Possible.”

Solidarity actions are taking place from Los Angeles to London.

In Porto Alegre, Jubilee South will put the IMF, World Bank and transnational corporations on trial in its International People’s Tribunal on the Debt. Public Eye on Davos keeps up the pressure on the fat cats meeting in New York this week.

If you're in LA and want to learn more about globalization and Indymedia, join us for a special benefit screening of "Life and Debt". The screening will be followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Robert Hill of UCLA and Hanna Petros of Ustawi.

[ Up-to-the-minute reports from New York City | Terraviva, the daily journal of the World Social Forum | Updates on anti-NATO actions in Munich ] On Tuesday night, alleged American president George Bush gave his first ever State of the Union address. In the spirit of “Another World is Possible” as offered in Porto Alegre, Brazil and New York City this week, several groups present their alternatives to his address:

Democracy Now! convened a "shadow congress" with Howard Zinn, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Adolph Reed, Sonali Kolhathar and Ralph Nader to respond to the Bush address.

On C-Span, watch Rep. Barbara Lee and her fellow Congressional Progressive Caucus members give their Alternative State of the Union Address.

Contract with the Planet offers an address that might have been.

What do you think the State of the Union address should have included? A remorseful confession that corporate interests dominate Bush administration policies? An announcement that the U.S. will stop the bombing and return the prisoners home? Information about where Dick Cheney is hiding and why? Tell us what you think the true state of the union is today.

[ Bush's view | What do you think? | State of the Bunion ] NEW (as of 1/30/02): RTF Statements on LA-IMC. Sherman, the editor of Raise the Fist was interviewed by San Francisco IndyMedia's Mark Burdett this Sunday.

His house was raided by the FBI, Secret Service and LAPD on the 24th. San Francisco Indymedia contacted the FBI and confirmed the incident. Now, local activists are mobilizing support. The target of the raid is an direct action activist who was caught in the May Day round up in Long Beach.

Because that first link to Raisethefist doesnt actually get you anywhere, you can see a mirrored website with the still extant content of RTF .

And being as being web-able seems to be an ever more important task, here is a link to a how to mirror website.

[ read the article | further info | confirmation ]

INDYMEDIA'S STEVEN STARR TO LEAD KPFK - LOS ANGELES PUBLIC RADIO

With two big games; The First- in City of the Yankees (whose bankroll gets a lot of complaints from the rest of the league) at the World Economic Forum. Several different games are being played. Players who make up their own rules and games include (but are not limmited to) the Anti-Capitalist Convergence which seems to be NY-DAN heavy, the INTERNATIONAL A.N.S.W.E.R./ IAC , New York Reclaim the Steets (whose post S11 motto was rumored to be "How fucked are we?!"), the big-tent Another World is Possible (AWIP), the AFL-CIO's Working Families Economic Forum, the New York City Social Forum which is links AWIP with Brasil's World Social Forum.
Also expected to attend are the vast media consumers of the greater North American continent. Of special note then is this note from the ACC webset regarding "who are the provocateurs"- a comment that inately questions the strategy of wearing black.

The second game- the Vision, is the World Social Forum, occurring concurrently on home turf in Brasil's left-leaning state of Porto Alegre, will be a different game all-together. The rules and principles were set up by a home team of sorts. The Players at Porto Alegre pitch around a battery of conferences and workshops that attempt to create something between a Democratic Papal Bull and a snap-shot of the huge ideological, cultural and perspectival diferences within civil society.
Acting directly in critique of the first world hegemonic order, one aspect of feild is to create a panoramic view on how neo-liberalism affects communities from "first" to "third" world with pre-summits gathering up and ensuring that particularly silent voices will be heard . From these third-world perspectives, organizers hope to reveal multiple plans to address the problems and create solutions.

Hyping up for both games, the "Globalization Movement" is cheering “Another World Is Possible.”

[ World Social Forum Website | NY Indymedia World ECONOMIC Forum Protest Coverage | Brasil Indymedia World SOCIAL Forum coverage ]