Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

California Safe Schools is recognized for spearheading the most stringent pesticide policy in the nation at Los Angeles Unified School District (2nd largest in the nation) The policy called Integrated Pest Management (IPM), uses low risk methods to eliminate pest and weeds. The policy was the first in the United States to embrace the Precautionary Principle and Right to Know about pesticides used on school campuses. Today it has become the model for school districts internationally. Full announcement: Join Robina Suwol at Western U.S. Pollution Prevention Conference by California Safe Schools

LOS ANGELES 14 June 2007--Two hundred people came to the South Central Farm tonight to watch the corn grow. The familiar train whistle, the one that warned us each night of the encampment of the devastation to come, echoed in the night air. Fresh tractor treads scored the fallow land where Ralph Horowitz, developer, had plowed under the shoots of the ancient heirloom maiz seeds that determinedly sprout in this land, as they have sprouted for millennia, a developer's response to the people's vigil. But there was still no warehouse, not even the touted soccer field. A year after dozens of people risked arrest to preserve a way of life, the Farm is in limbo, neither converted into another concrete-block monolith for human labor nor allowed to offer up food to the three hundred and fifty people who relied on it for fourteen years. The economics of declining property values and the determination of the people have kept the Farm alive, but just barely. The California black walnuts are dying and still living, their roots cut to fit in wooden boxes, guy wires holding them aloft as they fight for life.

The two hundred people neither mourned nor celebrated: they got to work. The energy that has been gathering for the past year broke out at last Sunday's tianguis, when people hopped, skipped, and danced around a ceremonial drum to a reggae rendition of "La polic ía, la migra, la misma poquer ía" on the southern boundary of the Farm, amid tables awash in the harvest of the new farm. Tonight more joined on the north side in music and speeches and two vigil walks, an old Farm ritual. The banners joined the Farmers' battle cry "¡Aqui estamos y no nos vamos!" with their new call to the community: "Desplazados pero no derrotados" Displaced, but not defeated.

Reports from the newswire: The South Central Farmers: No derrotados! by Leslie Radford | | The South Central Farm: The Struggle Continues by RP | | South Central Farm: Encampment Reunion 2007 | | Photos from South Central Farm re-union

VIDEO: Video from South Central Farm Reunion Party by A

AUDIO: MP3 Audio: John Quigley & the Farm 1 year later | | MP3 Audio: Dele Aileman speaks at the Farm Reunion | | En Espanol: AUDIO: Campesina de South Central Farm

. . . In addition to today being National Trails Day, an Eagle Scout candidate would be organizing a rock bridge effort along Golden Cup Nature Trail. The amount of work that needed to be done certainly required the large number of Scouts and others that gathered since Golden Cup has two fairly badly flood-damaged sections. The section that was going to get a new bridge would fill in the missing section of the loop that had been washed away. Full story: LA: Crystal Lake update by Frederic L. Rice

This month marks the one year anniversary of the brutal and violent eviction of the South Central Farmers. Today, they gather for a special monthly gatheringi at their Tianguis to reflect and celebrate moving forward.

Reflection and photos: South Central Farmers: Displaced, NOT Defeated by a friend

UPDATE: South Central Farmers' Encampment Re-Union and Vigil this Wednesday

Planning a vacation to the American West this summer? How about boycotting the State of Montana in protest of their intended slaughter of 300 wild bison, including many small nursing calves, in the next few days.

The Montana Department of Livestock (DOL) has set up a bison trap near the West Yellowstone airport, on state land and they intend to begin capturing approximately 300 wild buffalo, including tiny newborns and their whole families, beginning Thursday, May 31. Call to Action: Boycott State of Montana this summer... by D. Grant