Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

LOS ANGELES � This weekend anarchists and their allies will be gathering at the second annual Southern California Anarchist Conference and Cultural Fair. The conference opens this Saturday, August 1st, at the Southern California Library for Social Studies & Research and concludes Sunday at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center.

Organizers describe the conference as, �a weekend long conference centered on the political philosophy of Anarchy and Anarchism [that] brings together anarchist ideas and practice, through speakers, panels, workshops, images, music, theater and film to represent everyday struggles for justice, dignity and collective liberation. Throughout history, freedom-loving peoples have found ways to liberate themselves from the grasp of authoritarianism. It is these collective strategies that we as anarchists of the 21st century now seek to re-implement in a more efficient way.� For details see: Southern California Anarchist Conference Announcement & Schedule

SAN DIEGO - In 2003 Jes�s Su�rez del Sol�r became one of the first U.S. victims of the current war in Iraq -- and his father, Fernando, expressed his anger and sadness at the loss of his son by joining the San Diego anti-war movement and becoming one of its most powerful activists. On July 8 the San Diego Public Library showed �A Senseless Death,� a 2006 documentary by a French-Canadian filmmaker that told the story of Jes�s and other so-called �green-card soldiers,� immigrants (both documented and undocumented) lured into the U.S. military and promised citizenship in return for becoming cannon fodder for U.S. imperialism.

�Obama does not have the solution,� said Fernando Su�rez del Sol�r at a July 8 screening of the French-Canadian TV documentary, A Senseless Death, at the San Diego Public Library downtown. �Obama is the representative of the other side of the big power in this country. The big power in this country is green� � meaning the money of large corporations and wealthy individuals who keep the U.S. involved in wars around the world to secure oil and other natural resources, and to maintain control of emerging markets.
Full Story Fernando Su�rez del Sol�r Speaks at �Senseless Death� Screening by Mark Gabrish Conlan

SOUTH EL MONTE � Residents of area communities and supporters of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area strongly criticized and rejected a controversial $30 million regional watershed visitor center proposed for the county Natural Area during a public meeting held Wednesday at South El Monte High School to discuss the project and its recently released draft environmental impact report. No member of the community spoke in favor of the proposal during the meeting.

The project, the San Gabriel River Discovery Center, would dramatically increase the human footprint within the only wildlife sanctuary on the San Gabriel River, located between the Montebello and Puente Hills. It would replace the existing 2,000-square-foot nature center with a building nearly 10 times bigger, and it would destroy important wildlife habitat within a county Significant Ecological Area to build a 150-car parking lot and other manmade features. Full Story: No community support for $30M Discovery Center at EIR meeting by Jim Odling

LOS ANGELES, July 5, 2009 - Hondurans and supporters from other Latin American communities gathered in MacArthur Park at the corner of 7th and Alvarado to show their support for the people of Honduras resisting the military coup. They are demanding that the Obama administration take an official stance against the coup. They plan to continue their actions until President Zelaya is reinstated.
From the Newswire: Community protests against Honduran coup by Anna Kunkin | | Los Angeles Hondurans Demonstrate for Zelaya Return, Condemn Killings by Military.

Like the original Transformers movie of 2007, Transformers 2 is unapologetic about its role as a recruiting tool (as discussed in this commentary from CAMS (Coalition for Alternatives to Militarism in Our Schools) and in this critique from the Newswire:

�This weekend I saw the new Michael Bay film. The only thing that deserves prominence in TRANSFORMERS 2 is the careful valorization of military disobedience. . . . Militarism is a terrible phenomenon which is reinforced in all of the social institutions. Media and culture can turn to create slaves faithful of the military values. Is that not what happened in Nazi Germany?� Full story: TRANSFORMERS 2 by Fabio de Oliveira Ribeiro