"Today We Have Come Out" Mass Uprising of Tribal People in West Bengal Partho Sarathi Ray The events that have been happening during the last one week in the adivasi (tribal) belt of West Midnapur district in West Bengal are so unprecedented that the authorities do not know how to respond to them, and the media doesn’t understand their significance. Even the political parties and civil society are at a loss trying to come to terms with what is happening. What had started off as protests against police brutalities have turned into a full scale uprising against state oppression and dispossession. Nothing like this has been witnessed in West Bengal in living memory.

Global day of action November 15th 2008 Call Resisting Capitalism and it ' Financial and Ecological ' crises during the G20 richest nations summit. Other worlds are possible - A Grassroots Anti-Capitalist call for action. On November 15, the G20 richest nations will convene in Washington to try to put the financial meltdown behind them and repair the international capitalist system. The factories continue to be closed, jobs cut, pensions destroyed, houses evicted, unemployment rises, uncertaintity, horrible anti-immigrant measures are pushed for by right-wingers, homelessness increase, relationships break down and food and basic housing spiral beyond the reach of the poor the world over while the environment around us collapses. We are living through a profound period of rapid and terrifying change, an intensification of the long crisis that is capitalism and this time the meltdown really is global. Even conservative media and staunch economic-rationalists are saying this could be the worst since the great depression... and they are trying to re-organise a Bretton Woods II project for a new capitalism. World over there is direct action and civil disobedience resistance taking many forms and proposals of many types circulating as always and now with new consideration given the cost we will be asked to pay to bail-out this rotten system - food riots, strikes for wage increases and backpay of stolen wages, price reduction campaigns, radical discussions on the crises, fuel protests,the sharing of radical everyday strategies for living in hard times, looting of supermarkets, as yet sporadic but hopefully growing resistance to evictions, sit-downs, protests at financial institutions and districts are spreading, thousands of the italian universities occupation movements saying " we will not pay for your crisis. " As the money and environmental crises intensify so too hopefully the struggles, with this as the stage we offer a humble proposal for this global day of action against capital, the G20 - hoping to see another thread of struggle emerge.

From the Occupied Faculty of La Sapienza, Rome National Call, Rome, 22.10.2008 To the faculties in mobilization, to the undergraduate and Ph.D. students, and to all the precarious researchers “We won’t pay for your crisis”, this is the slogan with which a few weeks ago we started our protest at the university of La Sapienza, Rome. A simple, yet at the same time immediate, slogan: the global crisis is the crisis of capitalism itself, of the financial and real estate speculation, of a system without rules or rights, of unscrupulous companies and managers. The burden of this crisis can’t fall on the educational system - from the school to the university - on the health system or generally on taxpayers. Our slogan has become famous, spreading by word of mouth, from town to town. From the students to the precarious workers, from the working to the research worlds, nobody wants to pay for the crisis, nobody wants to nationalize the losses, whereas for years the wealth has been distributed among few, very few people. And it is exactly the contagion that has been produced in these weeks, the multiplication of the mobilizations in the schools, in the universities, and in the cities that should have stirred up a lot of fear. It is well known that a fearful dog bites; similarly, the reaction of President Berlusconi was immediate: “police against who occupy universities and schools”, “we will get rid of violence in our Country”. Only yesterday Berlusconi declared that he was willing to increase the financial support to the banks and that the State and the public expense would stand surety for the companies’ loans: in a few words, cutbacks to education, less founds for the students, cutbacks to the health system, but public money for the companies, for the banks and the private sector. We are wondering where is violence: is it a violence to occupy universities and schools or instead that of a government who imposes the Law 133 to cutback the founds for the education system refusing the parliamentary debate? Is it the dissent violent or is it violent who intends to put it down by the police? Who is violent: who mobilizes for the public status of university and schools or who wants to sell them for a few private profits? Violence is on Berlusconi government’s side, while in the occupied schools and universities there is the great joy and indignation of who fights for his own future, or who doesn’t accept to be put in the corner or forced to be silent. We don’t want stay in silence in the corner, of who wants to be free.

Land and Housing
S'bu Zikode

[Text of a speech by S'bu Zikode at the Diakonia Council of Churches Economic Justice Forum - an audio recording of the speech, including the discussion afterwards, is available from Diakonia. Translated from the Sowetan.]

I have been asked to speak on the burning issues of land and housing. I only get these invitations because of the strength of the movement of which I am part and so, on behalf of Abahlali baseMjondolo, I thank Diakonia for this platform.

The churches have rallied to our struggle in difficult times – after fires, after arrests, after beatings. We know about the role that the churches have played in Brazil and in Haiti and we believe that the churches can play the same role here if they take a clear decision, as some church leaders bravely have already, to be with the people, to clearly take the side of the people instead of being just another 'stakeholder'. Bishop Rubin Philip has stood strong in the politics of the poor and tonight I want to say that we wish him a quick and full recovery from his illness.

I-Witness Video From DNC/RNC Protests Emily Forman Emily Forman here, writing from Chicago, finally having escaped from the police-state vortex of the Denver and St Paul presidential conventions. I traveled to Denver and St Paul to work as a member of the amazing I-Witness video collective: http://www.iwitnessvideo.info/news/index.html In both cities I-Witness was met with intense surveillance and police intimidation. Our work was almost completely derailed in St. Paul by a series of raids and false arrests. We were forced to leave our homes and office multiple times due to these police intimidation tactics. Below follows video footage and a short account of some the context of the St Paul RNC convention, a Patriot Act-enabled environment of preemptive arrests of activists, journalists, medics, and legal observers. People were not only kept from exercising their first amendment rights here, but they were additionally charged with various kinds of thought crimes such as felony 'conspiracy to riot'. A federal hand has guided operations in both cities, with homeland security, national guard, and police details having been shipped in from states as far away as Arizona. I will update you all after I catch my breath for a moment. Please be in touch, as these stories need to be getting out! Violence and cruel treatment directed at protesters by police; Journalists targeted for arrest, harassment, intimidation and surveillance Police Violence in the Streets The members of I-Witness Video have been appalled to see a high level of violence directed against peaceful demonstrators, medics, legal observers and journalists at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. Concussion grenades, smoke bombs, CS gas (tear gas), rubber bullets and pepper spray were used to attack and herd demonstrators.

Gathering Storms: A Team Colors Statement on the Upcoming 2008 Convention Protests Conor Cash, Craig Hughes, Stevie Peace & Kevin Van Meter | Team Colors Collective On the eve of this year’s Democratic National Convention in Denver, and mere days before the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, we have borne witness to a number of narratives unfolding in the political landscape. We see an election year play out before us; we see an astonishing upsurge of activism and participation, much of it connected to the campaign of Senator Obama; we see organizations and individuals planning a wide array of protests, mobilizations, and direct actions. Many of these intertwining strands will converge into massive storms of activity and interaction at the upcoming conventions. We at Team Colors sought to examine narratives such as these, and over the past several months, have collected articles, interviews, discussions, essays - any and all evidence we could dredge up, recording the ways and means of today’s movements. We uncovered a lot - some problematic, some confusing, some even deplorable - but thankfully, enough whirlwinds of promise and potential emerged before our eyes to lend credence to a feeling of change, of gathering storms. Yet despite these discoveries – or rather, primarily because of them - we feel compelled to state that the storms that intrigue us the most will not show themselves at the convention protests. We don’t disallow the potential for new wrinkles and exciting surprises as the actions unfold - indeed, we’d welcome them - but we also can’t ignore the honest circumstances of where we are at: these protests, overwhelmingly, do not come out of substantial movements, and will not generate substantial movements. This deficiency necessarily clouds over any ‘successes’ and ‘gains’ from the protests, a gloomy yet heartening prospect; after all, we may see ourselves better without the dazzling sun that inadvertently blinds us. And we know those sunlit moments all too well: skill-sharing, long-term institutions, creating spaces, increasing morale among radicals, tapping into larger networks, diversity of tactics frameworks, solidarity between causes, better planning, better communication - the list of ‘betters’ is seemingly endless when it comes to these protests. As a collective, we have heard even more pronounced claims than these - that this will be “one of the largest actions at a convention in history,” that this won’t be “the same old ritualized protest,” that “we’ll be a stronger movement afterwards” by “bringing the struggles home.” Behind these rejuvenating words lies a vacuum, an inability to understand or discuss movements; specifically, where (if anywhere) are the convention protests situated in the flow of movements, and how do all the ‘betters’ contribute to movements, if at all. The notion of “bringing the struggles home” as a key to movement, while comforting, is especially dangerous when unquestioned; for we may define ‘home’ as a very small ‘radical community’ marked by regression and fear, rather than a larger field of growth, openness and genuine encounter - the basic ingredients of movements.

ANTIWAR ACTIVISTS WIN $2 MILLION SETTLEMENT FROM NEW YORK CITY A group of 52 local activists today announced a $2 million settlement in their lawsuit against the City of New York. The activists were illegally arrested on April 7, 2003 while protesting against the Iraq war in front of a military contractor's offices in midtown. The settlement in Kunstler et al v. New York City follows the dismissal in 2003 of all criminal charges brought against these individuals and four costly years of delays by the City in negotiating an end to the civil lawsuit. “The New York Police Department violated core constitutional rights when it arrested a group of peaceful demonstrators who were lawfully protesting against the commencement of the Iraq war and those who stood to profit from it,” notes Sarah Netburn, attorney with Emery Celli Brinkerhoff Abady LLP, which handled the civil rights case along with the Center for Constitutional Rights. “We are gratified by the City’s decision to compensate these individuals whose targeted arrests were without probable cause and intended to quell future protest in New York City. This lawsuit, and this settlement, vindicates our clients’ rights to assemble and speak their mind free from the fear that they will be punished for their views.” Attorneys and plaintiffs noted, however, that the City's decision to drag the case out is part of a long and disturbing pattern by which it attempts to “wear down” plaintiffs to avoid political damage, even at huge expense of tax dollars and City resources. “My question is, why did the NYPD send over 100 police in riot gear, along with vehicles to block the street and disrupt the flow of morning rush hour traffic, all to stop a legal, peaceful protest, when there are far more important matters they could be pursuing? And, why did they fight us in court so doggedly when they knew the evidence proved that we were arrested without any police orders to leave?” asked Ahmad Shirazi, a film editor and grandfather and one of the plaintiffs in the case.

Among all the buzz surrounding the upcoming convention protests in the United States has been a palpable silence surrounding the question we will inevitably face: after the delegates are blockaded from the conventions, after the tear gas, the arrests, the media spectacle, trauma and recovery, what will happen next? I am writing this essay with the hope that we begin trying to answer this question now and through discussion over the coming months, rather than wait for the day after expecting that momentum will carry us forward.

"Resistance from the Other South Africa" Neha Nimmagudda "Leaders are meant to lead and to be led [by those who elected them]" — Lindela Figlan, Abahlali baseMjondolo movement Fourteen years since the transition to democracy, leadership in South Africa is in a state of flux—and South Africans know a thing or two about leaders. For every Mandela, after all, there is an Mbeki. In his seven years of presidency, Mbeki has mistaken denialism for leadership and appeasement for diplomacy. The liberation victors in the ANC have tied up the ruling party in its own historical mythologizing, determined to hold its grasp on the state. Now, for every Mbeki, there is the possibility of a Zuma.

*Private Equity Sucks!* *Take action against KKR - Thursday July 17* *1pm, Trafalgar Square, under the lions* http://www.privateequitysucks.com *Join the Global Day of Action against one of the oldest and largest private equity firms in the world: KKR (Kohlberg, Kravitz and Roberts)* Private equity companies have gained massive influence, power and obscene wealth because they’ve stayed invisible to public attention and scrutiny. It is time for that to change! On Thursday 17 July 2008, thousands of trade unions, community organisations, environmentalists, workers and activists will be taking part in a global day of action against KKR - actions are planned in 100 cities in 25 countries. These actions will send a loud and clear message to private equity firms like KKR that we are sick and tired of a few people getting even richer and ruining our lives and the planet in the process. In London on July 17, the Private Equity Creative Action Network (PECAN) will be bringing a creative and strong message to the executives of KKR, including the delivery a giant invoice that makes it clear that KKR has a long overdue debt to our community and world. To help make this action a success and to kick off a summer of actions against private equity, we are inviting people to participate and to get involved on the day (in particular we are looking for: video artists, anti-capitalist cheerleaders, independent media makers, musicians, DJ's, clowns and of course - activists).