Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, October 24, 2007 -- While corporate media provides real time images of fires from helicopters and speeches from elected officials eager not to miss a photo opportunity, independent media is showing another side to the fire disaster. The clear links to global warming, oil wars and over development go unreported and instead the fixation with apocalyptic images is broadcast and rebroadcast. Bush is scheduled to visit the area tomorrow and there are calls for protests against his visit.

Clearly even the mass media with all its wealth and resources is unable to convey the full scope and meaning of the disaster unfolding before us. Independent news and viewpoints are however finding outlets through this site and others. Collected here are some recent postings from our readership:

Malibu fires show class divide as rich evacuees get massages, yoga by WSQT Guerrilla Radio 87.9 FM in DC
Breaking News on local fires by FYI
What is the Border Patrol doing in an evacuation zone? by Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo
Let Malibu Burn: A political history of the Fire Coast by Mike Davis
Worse than Katrina: Burned-up Residents Fault Officials for SD's Devastating Fires by Miriam Raftery
Unnatural Disaster Part II: FEMA, HLS and Bush to invade Southern California by IMPEACH NOW
Images of a City Surrounded by Fire by A
Money for Firefighting & Prevention; Not for War by repost
¡ FUEGO!... ¿ARDE CALIFORNIA? (Nota de PUMHA) by Ramon Godoy

Also see San Diego IMC for breaking news

Environmental Education Center nature trail foot bridge restoration was completed successfully. Photographs and a video are available at the link provided. Story: Update on Crystal Lake, Angeles National Forest by Frederic L. Rice

Related: Spring Break Vacation / Volunteering by Frederic L. Rice

Strykers are basically large, relatively fast-moving, armored, 19-ton vehicles that look like tanks. Each Stryker vehicle has a cannon - a great big gun - that can fire Depleted Uranium, explosives, and titanium. A total of 4,000 soldiers (and their families) are hoping to be positioned permanently inside Hawaii to perform military training that reportedly prepares them for urban warfare inside cities in Iraq. And for obvious reasons, it is apparently easier to get soldiers and their families to commit to staying for long deployments in Hawaiian paradise than it is to get them to move to Colorado or Alaska!
Full story: EASY Ways to Stop the Military Radioactive Contamination of Hawaii by Cathy Garger

We, the undersigned, members of an international coalition of many NGOs, biologists and activists concerned for the welfare of wild animals, are writing to express our grave concerns on behalf of Venezuelan decision in Margarita Island (Nueva Esparta State) to authorize and support the operation of a zoo and aquarium inside the facilities of the amusement complex made up by the Dolphinarium Waterland Mundo Submarino -- Marino and Diverland Park. For the last 15 years, Water Land 's show has generated controversy around the world. In Argentina they took Cheryl (a Russian dolphin) away from Mr. Ric O'Barry, against the decision of a court order that gave him the permit to transport and release that dolphin. The company ran away with Cheryl and then in 1997 the dolphin died because of stress in Margarita Island, inside their facilities.
Full text here: COALITION FOR ANIMAL FREEDOM by angela expósito

This upcoming 10/16/07 will be an International Day of Action against the McDonalds corporation, an entity responsible for factory farming cruelty and pollution, rainforest clearcutting, worker abuse and increasing heart disease by serving cholesterol saturated burgers to the consumers and calling it nutritious food! Show your resistance to this fast food megacorporation at a McDonalds store near you!

Complete announcement: 10/16; Global Day of Action Against McDonalds! by !NO MAS Factory Farming Cruelty!