Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

Tesla management and the Google major stake holders Larry Page and Sergey Brin along with former owner of Paypal Elon Musk are moving ahead with plans to build a “green” auto assembly plant at the toxic downey dump site in southern California where hundreds of workers have been sickened. They have also received a $465 million loan from the Obama Department of Energy DOE to build the non-union assembly auto plant. Why would these billionaire owners need a US government loan to build a green electric car plant if they believe in this product?

. . . The California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day and the Peninsula Raging Grannies will be having a press/education/musical event in conjunction with the Detroit Auto Show which opens in Detroit on January 8, 2009.

Story: Google/Paypal Owners Building "Green" Electric Car On Downey Toxic Dump Site?1/9 by California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day

RELATED: Is Tesla Nuts? by by California Coalition For Workers Memorial Day | | IATSE Local 44 Movie Propmaker Steve Basile At Tesla Motors To Report On Downey Toxic Dump by Labor Video Project

This was the sixth consecutive year (a conservative count) that the Northeast LA Radical Neighbors have held vigils on December 25. The last several vigils have been a joint collaboration with the weekly Montrose Peace Vigil.

Locations of our December 25 vigil have changed over the years. Yesterday, we had it in Eagle Rock. Six of us turned out. While many passersby were non-committal, many others gave us peace signs (and we exchanged waves with a police car). A few even thanked us for being there.

Many of ours signs addressed the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but support for same-sex marriage was also prominent.

Story and photos"Peace on Earth" vigil 2009 by R of the Northeast LA Radical Neighbors

ECHO PARK - En la iglesia metodista de Echo Park, el sub-comité teatral del Comité Pro-Democracia en México realizó la actuación de una obra de teatro popular para conmemorar la masacre de Acteal de 1997. La obra fue desempeñada en conjunto con presentaciones musicales y poéticas. Informe: Obra teatral en homenaje a los víctimas de la masacre de Acteal, Chiapas por Rockero

RELATED: Immigration advocates advise against holiday travel on bus and rail due to constant raids by Inland Empire Rapid Response Network | | The Eighth Annual AntiMall by RP

In advance of his appearance this week at an L.A. screening of "Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier," Ben Carnes of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee discussed that film, Leonard Peltier, and a variety of other Native American issues.

The free showing of "Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier" will take place on December 17 at the National Center for Preservation of Democracy in Little Tokyo at 7pm. Carnes, who will present the film, believes it is one of a few documentaries that explains and clarifies the circumstances surrounding Peltier's imprisonment. (Another film he mentioned was Incident at Oglala by Michael Apted.)

At the time of Peltier's alleged shooting of an FBI agent (June of 1975), Carnes said that "they just wanted to arrest a group of AIM (American Indian Movement) people and have a big media riff because there was such a propaganda campaign that was going on against the American Indian Movement—that they were being trained by communists in Cuba, all kinds of derogatory things to help discredit them. But on the day of that shootout there were just strange things that happening that day that screwed their plans up. When the agents went in, there was another agent."

Interview: Ben Carnes on the film "Warrior: The Life of Leonard Peltier" by RP

Practically unknown in the United States, International Human Rights Day commemorates the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is recognized worldwide as an important step toward respect for humanity. Here in Los Angeles, the activist community has played an important role in restoring the Declaration, and human rights in general, to the public view, making use of the occasion to highlight human rights abuses in the US, Mexico, the Philippines, and Honduras.

From the newswire: Update on Imprisoned People's Lawyer Lynne Stewart | | Vigiling in the Rain by R of the Northeast LA Radical Neighbors | | Solidaridad con Atenco: Cita en Consulado de Mexico por debbieX, Protestas en solidaridad con Atenco en Santa Ana y San Bernardino por Siete Filos | | Nationwide Protests Demanding Justice for Maguindanao Massacre Victims by Alliance-Philippines (AJLPP) | | Women Leaders of the Honduran Resistance Speak in L.A. by Sidney Ross-Risden and Ross Plesset