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Poor Skin/No Face- Media Blackout on Poverty One of the many important issues that have been beaten off the front pages
by the drums of war is welfare reauthorization. On Monday, September 30,
welfare reform expired. With much of Congress busy figuring out how to
sit on the fence about Iraq, they didn‚t take action on the
really vicious House bill, or a less bad Senate version. So they've
passed a three
month extension, with Republicans hoping to sneak in something awful by
Christmas. Many people who are on welfare right now will
reach their
welfare time limits by then, and the folks with the least ability to make
it on their own will be without any support at all. Why aren't the
mainstream and alternative media paying attention?
The upcoming Break the Media Blackout
Conference in Philadelphia declares "The increasing concentration of
corporate ownership of our media not only threatens democracy, it also
threatens the very survival of poor people in the US and globally. The
media isolation of the poor has virtually disappeared large segments of the
population." This conference, supported by the kick-ass
Kensington Welfare Rights Union aims to think about
new strategies to address and reveal poverty through media.
Other advocacy groups, from the grassroots Every Mother is a Working Mother, ACORN, to the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support are organizing poor people to stand up for their rights. They are supported by a network of policy-oriented groups, from the Oakland-based National Economic Development and Law Center to DC-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. There's not a lack of information out there, it's a lack of interest.
From the newswire, local activist and writer c.j. macq addresses the abilty for poor people to get representation in "The Left". He evaluates in essays 1, and 2 the ways poor and non-PHD'd class are disenfranchised through unspoken elitisms of most institutions, alternative and mainstream. His ideas, in line with the McLuhan statement that the medium is the message, goes deep to critique local leftist media
relationships to the hopefully more than passive audience. He asks
ontological questions to media and policy makers about how they can know
poverty if they don't trust and deal with poor and uneducated's cogent
voices. He calls for a revival with poor and left activists nailing
non-profits, corporations and government on constitutionally given equal
access laws to both courts and media.
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is playing at a special benefit show, Friday 10/4 at 7:30pm at Arts in Action, 1919 W. 7th St. at Alvarado. The Ultimate Song is a groundbreaking new film exploring the role of musicians in the struggle to end poverty. Directed by LA IMC member Lisa Scott. Live music too! For more info go to: www.rockrap.com.
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In a memo to Village Voice Media staff, VVM CEO David Schneiderman announced that, under a deal reached with New Times, that New Times will cease to publish New Times LA. Under the terms of the deal, VVM will cease publishing the Cleveland Free Times (giving NT control of the Cleveland market with its paper, the Cleveland Scene), in exchange for NT's withdrawal from the Los Angeles market.
CEO Schniederman called the deal "too attractive to pass up" and said "this transaction is consistent with the strategic direction of the company. We feel strongly about the markets we are in and will continue to grow the company, both internally and through acquisitions."
The deal gives VVM effective hegemony over the Los Angeles alt-weekly market. Five years ago New Times LA displaced two revered local weeklies, the LA reader and the Village View. Now, with New Times exit, Angelenos with an appetite for a local weekly "alternative" will have nowhere to turn but to a bottom-line oriented, union-busting paper owned by a media company based in New York.
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From trade unionists
battling armed policeman to the organizing efforts of disabled workers,
come watch films by the Labor News Production collective offer a provocative and eye-opening introduction to the vibrant
South Korean labor movement. Tonight at 7PM at KIWA. More Info
Also, we are trying to organize a meeting with the filmmaker Myoungjoon Kim for local media activists. If you're interested, email johnk.
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Thousands of demonstrators flooded the streets of Washington D.C. on Friday morning to protest the disasterous, neo-imperialist policies of the International Monetray Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which are holding meetings in D.C. this weekend. Rather than protect the demonstrators right to free speech, the D.C. Police have responded with overt, violent repression. By midday, already 600 demonstrators were arrested.
On Saturday many thousands more (Rueters estimated the crowd at 20,000) joined in a rally and march to protest IMF/World Bank policy. That same day Hundreds-of-Thousands marched in London against Bush and Blair's War on Iraq (the largest anti-war march in london since the early seventies), while an estimated 150,000 marched in Rome aginst the war. Hundreds rallied in St Louis, MO for peace; and up in San Francisco, 20,000 more demonstrators protested against the U.S. War Machine and its role in Palestinian oppression.
On Sunday thousands filled the streets on D.C. again, this time in an anti-war march. While tens-of-thousands filled the streets of Madrid, Spain, marching for the same cause.
For in depth coverage of the D.C. events go to dc.indymedia.org; and for feature stories on all the weekend's actions check out www.indymedia.org.
PMA closes ports, blames ILWU and orders them to their rooms to "Cool Off" The ILWU website announced on Friday that the Pacific Maritime Associationhad closed all west coast ports until Sunday in retaliation for the Union's stances. Check out the Port Solidarity Commitee's website for suggestions on ways to support the dockworkers
The LA based Friends of Labor is all over the issue. They are calling for a meeting of friends of labor, casuals,and concerned membersof the community at the Harry Bridges Community Labor Center on Teusday October 1st at 5:00 PM. The Center is at 350 W. 5th Street, in San Pedro
Here's a writen description and photographs of the view to the port from the crow's nest of a CalState Long Beach student. Here is a short analysis of the cause of the conflict by an editor of the waterfront community newspaper, Random Lengths.
SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE: The docks did re-open on Sunday morning, but a mere 12 hours later the PMA shut them down and, once again, locked out the ILWU workers. Read More.
Ports from San Diego to Seattle are locked out. San Diego IMC/San Francisco IMC/Portland IMC/Seattle IMC.
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