Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

LOS ANGELES - Wednesday, August 17, 2005 – Peace vigils were held throughout the Los Angeles County area in support of Cindy Sheehan and her efforts to speak with Bush in Crawford, Texas. Moveon.org the organization that coordinated vigils around the nation lists 4,124 people that registered for vigils in Los Angeles County. Widespread coverage by local TV news and reports of over 200 people at some sites indicate that these vigils were well attended.

Report from a vigil site in West Los Angeles: Photos from peace vigils in support of Cindy Sheehan || Video from Cindy Sheehan Vigil

SANTA BARBARA February 15, 2007 - Nearly 1,500 UCSB students, staff, faculty members, and local residents participated in a powerful and transformative strike against war on February 15th. The day culminated with a mass sit-in on Highway 217, the main freeway leading to campus, that blocked traffic for roughly two hours and a lock-down of the campus administration building, Cheadle Hall. From the Newswire: UCSB Students Rise Up, Strike Against War & Block Freeway by Will | | UCSB Anti-War protest by JS | | Video: UCSB Students Block Freeway

On August 6th 1945 the United States government deliberately used nuclear weapons against innocent civilians. It is thought that close to 70,000 people perished instantly in the nuclear explosion over the city of Hiroshima, with that number approaching 200,000 in the following days and weeks from radiation poisoning. Three days later another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki resulting in an estimated 120,000 deaths. All totaled the United States government had killed close to 320,000 people in the space of three days.

This coming weekend, people around the world are coming together to remember the atrocity of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to call attention to the dangerous hypocrisy of the current US policy on nuclear weapons.

Here are some links for information about some local events: Seal Beach Anti-Nuke Rally: A National Day of Action! 8/6/05 | Bearing Witness: 60th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing | Physicians for Social Responsibility- Los Angeles | 60th Anniversary of the Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki / Symbolic Bombs, Authentic Deaths

Around 300 people in Santa Monica participated on November 9th at the International Day Against the Israeli Apartheid Wall to protest the construction of a 400 mile long wall that would enclose the Palestinian areas of the West Bank behind a 25 foot tall wall. The demonstration educated people about the largely unknown wall. Reports from the event are: a photo essay by a, and a photo set from Marcus.

After decades when people witnessed the end of South African apartheid, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Israel has embarked on a project to build a wall around Palestinian areas, in a kind of reverse-gated-community. It's eerily reminiscent of Jewish ghettos enclosed by walls, like Terezin and Warsaw. Within these ghettos, Jews lived oppressed lives apart from the rest of society, under a curfew, and with limited political clout.

A short history of the 'ghetto' as a tool of segregation and oppression.

IMC Palestine has complete details on the construction of the wall.

LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM, What were first reported to be tanks and now identified as Marine APCs showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood.

The APCs circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered.

Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the APCs, but police quickly cleared the street. The people continued to protest the presence of the Marines, but after about ten minutes they drove off. It is still unclear as to why they were deployed to this location.

Video by . and Photos by Ich Bin Ein Fallujan

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