Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

The film is set sometime in the future and concerns Memo Cruz (Luis Fernando Pena), whose Oaxacan village is strangled by water privatization and U.S. military intervention vis-a-vis drone airplanes. Memo must find work in the north, but physically entering the U.S. is no longer possible: the border has finally become impenetrable. Instead, he is hooked up to a virtual reality system in Tijuana, where he controls a robot at an American construction site. (Mexican workers manipulate robots at other distant locations, too, including slaughterhouses.)

At a recent preview, director Alex Rivera remarked: "It's amazing to me how things that five years ago would seem surreal, or would seem like it should be in a movie and be bizarre or disgusting, or things that were in a movie called Terminator--this idea of robot warfare--that used to be science fiction, and now there it is in the news, not even on the front page anymore. We become so accustomed to it, but I'm hoping this movie makes some of those things ugly and bizarre again and that we can talk about it." Full story: Alex Rivera Discusses His Film Sleep Dealer by RP

They have taken over a restaurant and bar called “Señor Fish”, on the corner of First and Alameda. The place is packed. DJs are spinning in two different rooms. It’s dark inside, with the requisite flashing colored lights and smell of many people dancing.

But there’s one difference between this party and others in Los Angeles at this very moment. Out back there are a series of tables set up with information about different non-profits and independent merchants. People are swarmed around them. Full report, with audio and photos: La Reina; A Party for Los Angeles by Brian Elerding

12 abril 2009 LOS ÁNGELES-- La marcha anual en conmemoración del martirio del General Emiliano Zapata atrajo a centenares de participantes. Esta manifestación, única en Los Ángeles por su independencia y su militancia, crece cada año. Informe con fotos: ¡Zapata Vive! ¡La Lucha Sigue! por Rockero

CLAREMONT, California - Bill Ayers, professor of education and co-founder of the radical antiwar organization the Weather Underground--labeled "domestic terrorists" by the FBI--spoke to a crowd of about 300 this evening about activism, Obama, and education. Ayers' association with Obama was a point of controversy during the recent presidential campaign, and it was a topic he did not shy away from. A recurring theme of his talk was the importance of movements (in contrast with the common emphasis on leadership) in bringing about social change, and his exhortation was that we in the audience participate in those movements.
Full report: Radical Educator Bill Ayers speaks at Claremont Colleges by Rockero || Audio: The State of Democracy in America: A lecture on the election of President Obama and the importance of civil activism and education

Teachers held a one hour strike at Santee Educational Complex in South-Central Los Angeles on Friday, March 27, 2009 in protest of budget cuts and a disproportionate number of pink slips received by faculty (55 at Santee alone!). Santee is a Mayor Villaraigosa Partnership School. Teachers called upon the Mayor to provide leadership and funds in the way Mayor Newsom has done recently for San Francisco schools. Full Report: Santee Teachers Strike March 27, 2009 [South-Central Los Angeles] by Jason Edwards | VIDEO