Many activists intend to travel from the Bay Area in the coming week to protest the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado. Indybay will be featuring reports by people who will be at the DNC, on the ground, protesting the Democrats. We encourage all people who are going to the DNC to publish photos, videos, and reports from the streets.

Groups that are organizing protest at the DNC include Recreate 68, Alliance for Real Democracy, Unconventional Denver, DNC Disruption 08, Unconventional Action, World Can't Wait, and others.

Last week a U.S. District Court ruled that protesters’ free speech rights must give way to “national security,” allowing the government to force march permits to end 3 hours before the convention begins. Protesters will be kept away from the convention center and allowed only into chain link fenced cages 700 feet from the center's door. These "freedom cages" will be ringed by police and concrete barriers. Huge media tents are being erected between the cages and the convention. In respond to the the ruling, Mark Cohen, co-founder and organizer of Recreate 68 said: "We plan to go in that zone once only to protest its existence. When the media presents images of demonstrators in the demonstration zones in relationship to the Pepsi Center, the public will see what could look like prisoners."

From the Indybay Newswire: DNC disruption logistics | DNC Protest, Split, and the Principled Stand of Cynthia McKinney | Rally and demonstration against suppression of protest at Democratic Nat'l Convention | Fresno DNC Disruption meeting | We're Expecting You in Denver August 24-28 | Colorado "Fusion Center" to Step Up Intelligence Gathering During DNC | Anarchists Offer to Call Off All Protest Plans | Results of the July 20th Consulta in Denver | Indymedia Access for the DNC in Denver | SDS Call to Action: Disrupt the DNC! | Humboldt Against the DNC | ACLU Sues Denver for Security Equipment Details Ahead of DNC
More: Who's Paying for the Conventions? Corporate Sponsors | Thinking Beyond The Conventions: What Comes Next? | Regional organizing against the 2008 political conventions grows

As part of a week of international conference of Anti-Zionist Jews organized by the International Jewish Solidarity Network (IJSN), Reuven Abergel, a Mizrahi Anti-Zionist Jew, visited the Bay-Area. Reuven is one of the founders of the Israeli Black Panthers, an anti-Zionist, and a social activist. Abergel participated in several meetings and panels and spoke about Zionism, racism, and colonialism and ways to resist them. Abergel also discussed the oppression of Mizrahim in Israel and his vision of a united struggle against Zionism and Colonialism composed of Mizrahim and Palestinians and the need to educate the next generation of youth in Israel to become active in global solidarity work.

Abergel was also interviewed on local radio programs. In a response to a question on Flashpoints about the claim by Zionists that critics of Israel are Anti-Semitic, Abergel replied “it is just a way for them to sell lies, to try to protect themselves from the horrific crimes that they commit”. Abergel also added “I’m asking people in the world, how can you accept this occupation? If this was to happen in your country, your homes, you would not sleep. Wake up and stop it, or it will get to your homes”. Reuven Abergel also spoke about his personal experience as one of the Ringworm Children, a group of thousands of kids from Jewish-Arab background that the state of Israel did radioactive experiments on without their knowledge or family consent. The experiences were done under the supervision of the division of social medicine, a department in the Israeli ministry of health that implemented Eugenic ideas and philosophy.

Abergel immigrated with his family to Israel from Morocco in the fifties, and became politically active after a popular uprising by Moroccan Jews in Wadi-Salib Haifa in 1959. In 1971 Abergel founded the Israeli Black Panthers. Inspired by the Black Panthers in the U.S. and determined to stop the racist and discriminatory way in which the state of Israel treated its Arab-Jews, the Israeli Panthers led and organized many demonstrations and uprisings against the establishment. Abergel’s home became the headquarters for the Panthers, and Abergel’s Israeli citizenship was taken away making him a refugee in the state of Israel.

Since the death of the Israeli Black Panthers due to internal conflicts, Abergel has been a Mizrahi anti-Zionist activist and has organized many visits to Palestinian refugee camps and demonstrations against the apartheid wall. In 2002 Abergel met with Arafat when the latter was under an Israeli siege. Abergel also organizes regular food and water deployments to Bedouin villages that the states of Israel has yet to officially recognize, as a consequence these villages lack basic infrastructure such as roads electricity and water transportation.

Reuven Abarjel, discusses Zionism, Racism, and Colonialism-visits the Bay-area l Who’s against who? Between the conflict and the social, Reuven Abergel | Another Act in the Mizrahi-Palestinian Tragedy, Reuven Abarjel and Smadar Lavie I Reuven Abergel, Founder of Israel's Black Panthers, in support of the Academic Boycott of Israel l A small segment from The “Ringworm-Children” documentary, YouTube | Israel compensates for ringworm treatment | The Ringworm Children a collection of articles | Reuven Abergel’s web-page (Hebrew) | Israeli Denial of Right to Water as Means for Pushing Bedouins off their Land | Bedouin citizens of Israel denied water as means of transfer

The RNC Welcoming Committee created a "Swarm, Seize, Stay" strategy which involves dividing St. Paul, Minnesota into sectors to facilitate coordination of blockades and other creative resistance to the RNC. Northern California radicals have banded together as "Unconventional Action (UA) in the Bay" and collectively chosen to adopt SECTOR 4 in downtown St. Paul. Sector 4 is one of seven sectors that surround the Xcel Center, home of the 2008 Republican National Convention. Organizers from coast to coast representing a variety of different communities are adopting other sectors.

UA in the Bay recently announced a Barricade Building Contest with categories that include Biggest-Baddest, Best Use of Found Materials, Best Use of Vehicle(s), Best Strategic Location, Most Creative, and Most Difficult to Remove. In addition, three street intersections in Sector 4 have been named as convergence points for the morning of September 1st before demonstrations are expected to become mobile.

A pre-RNC UA in the Bay meeting will be held in St. Paul on August 30th.

Read More · St. Paul Maps: 1 | 2 · NoRNC.org · Unconventional Action

From the Indybay Newswire: UA in the Bay show at Albany Bulb cancelled by police | UA in the Bay Benefit Show in Albany | UA in the Bay Benefit Show in SF | CRASH THE RNC: Sector 4 Barricade Building Contest | Tactics and Prognosis for Successful RNC Protest | UA in the Bay Final Organizing Meeting | More mapage of St. Paul area | Coldsnap Legal Collective to provide legal services related to 2008 RNC | UA in the Bay RideShare | Indymedia at the RNC: Callout and Update from TC-IMC | CRASH THE RNC: a call to action for activists and radicals of all stripes | St. Paul to provide stage for RNC protesters near Xcel Center | Trans/Queer/Womyn Housing @ RNC | Santa Cruz RNC Strategy Session, Aug. 2nd | UA in the Bay to Join the Resistance Against the RNC in St. Paul | UA in the Bay to Join the Resistance Against the RNC in St. Paul | RNC Strategy: Swarm, Seize, Stay / Sectors / Three-Tier Strategy / St. Paul Principles | Spokescouncil Against the Conventions (RNC/DNC), July 27th | RNC Welcoming Committee July Update | RNC/DNC Consulta for Bay Area Radicals | Be Prepared for Police Violence at the RNC Protest | Shut Down the Republication National Convention | RNC Welcomming Committee Comes to The East Bay | Unconventional Action: Call for Endorsements of RNC Strategy
More: Who's Paying for the Conventions? Corporate Sponsors | Thinking Beyond The Conventions: What Comes Next? | Regional organizing against the 2008 political conventions grows

anonymous writes, "On July 21st all four ATMs were smashed at the River St Wells Fargo in Santa Cruz California.

"This minor act of sabotage was committed in solidarity with all those kidnapped, detained, and deported in the United States.

"Wells Fargo is one of the top five shareholders in the GEO Group, a private prison corporation that runs the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma Washington, where nearly 1000 people are imprisoned every day for the crime of being undocumented.

"ICE is the foremost domestic terrorist organization in North America—this is not an exaggeration, the terror and panic sown by ICE raids in immigrant communities is unparalleled. ICE are the henchmen of Capital: a work force that can be constantly threatened with deportation and therefore brutally exploited is a major triumph for capitalism." Read More

On July 7th through 9th, the G-8 countries held their annual meeting high above Lake Toyoaka in Hokkaido Japan at an exclusive spa resort. This is part of the usual pattern of the annual G-8 meetings to hold them in the most remote areas possible. Hokkaido, a land of beautiful lakes and volcanos is the most rural and least populated of the four major islands that make up Japan. The Japanese government spent $250 million in security measures and deployed 22,000 national police to Hokkaido and another 20,000 were on reserve in Tokyo.

All the G-8 countries; Germany, France, Russia, Italy, England, Japan and of course the U.S. make up less then 35% per cent of the world's population but control the great majority of the wealth. The emerging economies of Brazil, China, India, were not included, but they along with Mexico and South Africa got to have meetings on the side. (The little G-5)

The one agreement that was reached at the summit was that the G-8 countries would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by the year 2050, 42 years from now. Fidel Castro commented in his reflections of July 15, that this "is about the time that hell freezes over".

Photos & Report | Resistance and Repression in Japan continue: Inside the Anti-G8 | G8: Summits and summits

Previous Indybay Coverage of the G8 Summit And Protests

In the past year the price of food has risen sharply. Wheat has gone up by 130%, rice by 217%, corn by 125%, soybeans by 107%. Vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy have become too expensive for most of the population of the world to buy. This has led to food riots in Haiti, followed by riots in Egypt, Mexico, Zimbabwe Bangladesh, Kenya as well as throughout Africa. The armed forces of the state were mobilized in many countries to shut down demonstrations and to guard food.

While it’s hard to isolate a singular cause that led to the food crisis, research shows that the problem is systematic and not a mere fluke, as the Bush administration and other policy makers would have us believe. Although droughts, and the rising demand of the new middle class in China and India contribute to the shortage, they do not explain the exponential rise in food prices that hurts primarily the global poor.

The problem is more fundamental: stemming from three decades of neoliberalism and free trade agreements, government subsidized agribusiness and low price dumping, the World Bank with its structural adjustment policies, economic speculations on food and oil prices, and the diversion of arable land to biofuel production.

Mainly the so-called "food crisis" | How Far is the US From Food Shortages and Food Riots? | The Global Food Crisis: How the Market Has Driven up Prices and Hunger | Stuffed and Starved, Democracy Now | Making a killing from hunger | Financial speculators reap profits from global hunger | Food Crisis: "The greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model" | Manufacturing a Food Crisis, The Nation |

Japanese police continue to escalate repression against protesters of the Group of 8 Summit, part of a growing trend of human rights suppression in Japan. Police in full riot gear are supported by the Japanese Army, called the Self Defense Forces (SDF). Air and sea missions near the Summit are being carried out in a joint deployment of the SDF and the US military.

Although demonstrations have been non-violent, one mainstream media reporter and 3 other Japanese citizens were arrested over the weekend preceding the Summit. Photos of one driver's arrest shows police yanking him out of the truck though his foot is stuck in the steering wheel. Japanese law permits police to hold and interrogate suspects in the police station for 23 days without formal charges and interrogate suspects for up to 12 hours at a time. Activists are calling on supporters to apply international pressure by contacting a Japanese consulate and voicing complaint.

SF Call for Solidarity with Counter-G8 Protesters in Japan | Japanese MSM ignores demos, focuses on Bush Reassurances | Leaders gather for Japan G8 summit | Anti-G8 protesters are on their way to the G8 Hotel | Demonstrators Sleep in Fields While G8 Leaders Feast | Hundreds Stopped 4 Kilometers away from G8 Summit | G8 Protesters Take to Sapporo Streets in Anticipation of Toyako Summit | G8 in Japan

Earlier Indybay G8 Coverage

On July 12th global demonstrations against the Church of Scientology were held. In San Francisco, the demonstration took place at 701 Montgomery St. In San Diego, demonstrators meet in front of Horton Plaza. The theme of this demonstration was to inform the public about the Office of Special Affairs (OSA), the 'Church' of Scientology's section involved with the suppression and harrassment of critics.
SF Protest Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 | London Protest Photos

Anonymous, the group behind the global demonstrations, is charging the Scientology Church for corruption, brainwashing, racism, practices that cause death, abuse of their followers, and harassment of their critics.

Anonymous calls itself a collective of individuals who has no leaders and is united by ideas. They have also been involved in closing the white-supremacist radio show produced by Hal Turner, and the criminal prosecution of Canadian pedophile Chris Forcand.

Scientology and Me, a documentary about the Scientology Church, BBC || Scientologists in Action: The True Nature of Scientology's "Vulture Ministers" || Enturbulation.org || Scientology luxury cruise ship remains locked down; Cult put thousands at high cancer risk || Deceptive tactics reveal a darker menace - Scientology front group PR move backfires || Scientology cult uses dozens of front groups to make money and recruit followers || Are you ready to become Anonymous? || Stop Scientology Abuses || Scientology’s Anti-Gay Push Thwarted At Toronto Pride

In the lead up to the G8 Summit in Japan from July 7th through 9th, Japanese authorities have arrested domestic activists and have detained numerous foreign independent media journalists and anti-G8 protesters. At least six independent journalists and ten academics have been detained by Japanese immigration officials in the past weeks, including Andrej Grubacic, professor of sociology at the University of San Francisco.

Police arrested eight protesters on June 29, as 1,500 people marched against the G8 Summit in Tokyo's fashionable fashionable Shibuya and Shinjuku districts. Earlier this month, workers in Kamagasaki clashed with police and security in the face of violent repression and brutality against at least one worker.

July 5th saw the arrest of mainstream media journalist Masahiro Koike of Reuters Japan. Additionally, police shattered the windows of a van thought to be carrying protesters. All those arrested July 5, in total 4 persons, are reported to be Japanese nationals. Many non-Japanese have been refused entry or detained and questioned as they have tried to enter Japan.

Japan's security budget for the G8 Summit is at least 30 billion yen ($283 million), topping the 113 million euros ($186 million) Germany spent to host the summit of the world's most powerful "democratic" nations.

The G8 Summit will be held in the resort town of Toyako on the northern island of Hokkaido. Japanese activists opposing the summit call it an "arbitrary meeting of governments dominating the global financial market with the World Trade Organization and Free Trade Agreeements". They object to the fact that developing nations are forced to accept agreements like NAFTA in exchange for ODA (Official Developmental Assistance).

At the local level, they are concerned that in recent years Japanese social welfare has been reduced and the working poor have suffered. Agribusiness, a favorite topic of G8 discussion, runs counter to Japanese tradition of respect for individual farmers. At the same time, the US is urging Japan to re-arm despite having a constitution imposed by US Occupation Forces that calls for Japan to forever remain a peaceful nation.

The US led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are also targets of the G8 protests, and caricatures of President Bush with the theme "Wanted for Murder" were seen in internet video of the demonstrations.

On June 30th, the Counter-G8 International Forum opened in Hokkaido and will conclude on July 1st. Media G8way reports that anti-G8 activists from Japan and across the world came together to strategize on how to resist the G8 and construct alternatives to a system in which "financial crises, food crises and ecological destruction are inherent."

Journalist Arrested in Latest G8 Demo | G8 Protesters Take to Sapporo Streets in Anticipation of Toyako Summit | Japanese Police Deputize Household Pets/Soda Machines | G8 Dispatches: Contested Spaces in Tokyo | Resistance Against G8: Arrests and Detentions in Japan | Japan Detains SF Academic Ahead of G8 | Resistance action against police in Kamagasaki | No G8 | G8 Action Network

anarchist writes, "To everyone who read that Greenspace lost a window to "anarchists" and cringed:
This incident is not representative of the greater revolutionary struggle or anarchists in general. One person claiming their inconsequential vandalism with a communique, especially does not represent the tactfulness and potency that most anarchists act with – both in our contribution to existing social conflicts, and even more so, in our autonomous actions.

"I write this not because I feel protective of Greenspace's financial prosperity, but because I believe this 'action' does more damage than it does good. In my opinion, it leaves a damaging misrepresentation of what anarchist intervention looks like on a local level." Read More

by an act of revolutionary solidarity
Evening of June 14. As part of an ongoing local and international momentum of revolutionary solidarity with social prisoners as well as POWs of ecological struggles, the Bank of America and Wells Fargo ATMs on the University of California Santa Cruz campus had their screens smashed by a chunk of granite.

Wells Fargo is a major funder of the GEO Group, which runs Guantanamo Bay, the Northwest ICE Detention Center, and numerous other jails and prisons. Bank of America funds Peabody Coal, which is blasting the tops of mountains in Appalachia and strip-mining indigenous land in Arizona, as well as poisoning the air we breath. Banks fund these industrial atrocities with the money that they suck from your paycheck, your savings, your debts. Read More

see also: Justice Has Its Windows Smashed

Descent into stupidity
by Prom
Dear Santa Cruz vandals,
I started out in full support of your actions. The security cameras, sweet deal. Courtroom, high five. Green Business? What the fuck was the point in that? I get it, green capitalism isn't the answer, but seriously, why target people who actually make an effort to be environmentally friendly? Civilization hasn't come down yet, but while we're waiting, it doesn't hurt to have a minimal impact. Read More

Andrew Flood spent the last several months traveling around the USA on a 45 city speaking tour about anarchism in Ireland. Andrew recorded interviews with anarchists, edited audio on bus rides, and posted articles to indymedia ireland once he accessed a wi-fi signal. Together, all those interviewed give an impression of 'the other America.'

The interviews are a fragment of a picture, a selection of the hundred plus people Andrew had conversations with, the ones where there was enough time and quiet to allow him to flip open a five year old laptop and hit record. He couldn't always do that, so there are many fascinating conversations that are missing, including a visit to one of the more than 100 political prisoners still incarcerated in the US. Read More and Listen to Audio

Speaking tour details | Andrew's audio and photos on indymedia.ie: Tales from the NE Anarchist Movement | Tales from the South, Midwest and West Coast