All the Right Enemies: Farewell to the Utterly Unique John Ross
Frank Bardacke

John’s gone. John Ross. I doubt that we will ever see anyone remotely
like him again.

The bare bones, as he would say, are remarkable enough. Born to show
business Communists in New York City in 1938, he had minded Billie
Holliday’s dog, sold dope to Dizzy Gillespie, and vigiled at the hour
of the Rosenberg execution, all before he was sixteen years old. An
aspiring beat poet, driven by D.H. Lawrence’s images of Mexico, he
arrived at the Tarascan highlands of Michoacan at the age of twenty,
returning to the U.S. six years later in 1964, there to be thrown in
the Federal Penitentiary at San Pedro, for refusing induction into the
army.

Yippie Activist Dana Beal Arrested in Wisconsin Pot Bust
Todd Finkelmeyer

Irvin Dana Beal, a blast from Madison's counter-culture past, is sitting in the Iowa County jail because police say the car he was riding in on Jan. 6 was pulled over with more than 180 pounds of marijuana in it.

And although few details are available, the Barneveld police chief is hinting that those involved could be linked to a national drug operation.

Ben Ali Trembles! From Blogs to Trade Unions Bureaus, the Tunisian Revolt Explodes
Fulvio Massarelli

Dictator Ben Ali trembled! And he is still trembling if is it true that he parked a jet plane close to the presidential residence of Chartage, which should be ready for an evacuation plan. The revolt stretches its lenght, spreads itself through all the cities and bears down on the regime after 23 years from its institution. Even in Tunisia, as well as on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, the struggling education sector is the one which is starting a process of refusal and social conflict,emerging from the crisis as social vanguard and convergence point for the many workers' struggles that have been coming one after the other - as fragmented as radical and brave - for decades now.

After december 17th when Mohamed Bouazizi, a graduate and unemployed man, set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid in protest against the seizure of his grocery stand, Tunisia mobilized and the revolt started off. First localized in the Sidi Bouzid zone, it later did spread to all the productive hubs of the Maghrebi country, and then reached even the most peripherals towns and zones, in a weaving of solidarity and struggle that sees side by side upper-school and university students, upper-school professors, workers, unemployed, lawyers and rank-and-file trade unions' activists, unwilling to yield to the extremely violent repression carried out by the regime.

Riots Break Out in Rome as Berlusconi Wins Vote of Confidence

The center of Rome is under siege. As the House was voting the confidence to a moribund Berlusconi government (which he won with a 2 votes margin, which means that his agony is just extended) thousands of demonstrators of the "Movements United Against the Crises" tried to reach the Parliament. As a result riots broke out in the most central streets of the city (Via del Corso, Via del Babbuino, Piazza del Popolo, etc.) which are usually one of the favorite mainlands of the global tourist industry.

Members of Russian Art Group Voina Arrested Members of the Russian conceptual art group Voina ("War") have recently been arrested in Moscow for one of their performances. The are facing a possible sentence of up to 7 years in prison for "aggravated hooliganism" resulting from one of their recent actions. Members of the famous elusive protest art group Voina were hunted down and arrested in Moscow on November 15. Voina refuses to cooperate with any official state or commercial art institutions and is known for its funny anti-state and anti-police actions. Members of the group played an important role in the defense of the Khimki forest and against the recent persecutions of Russian Khimki activists. On September 16, Voina overturned a police car in Saint-Petersburg, near the historical St Michael's Castle, where the Russian emperor Paul I was killed during a royal overthrow in the year 1801. During the action, which they called "Royal Overthrow", the artists locked the cops inside the castle, by putting a bike chain on the gate. The group explained that they wanted to bring public attention to the corruption within the Russian Interior Ministry and the police authorities, as well as to show, how the corrupt practices of the police can be resisted by people's direct actions.

Saharawi Protest Camp Attacked; Several Killed, Hundreds Injured Free Western Sahara Network In the early hours of Monday morning the Moroccan security forces razed the Sahararwi protest camp containing 20,000 people to the ground. Several were killed and hundreds injured. Riots are erupting in El Auoun and could spread.

Massive Chevron Ad Campaign Derailed, Media Slapstick Follows Yes Men News outlets, citizens duped by web of deceit - but whose? A day-long comedy of errors began Monday morning when the Yes Men, supported by Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch, pre-empted Chevron's enormous new “We Agree” ad campaign with a satirical version of their own. The activists' version highlights Chevron's environmental and social abuses - the same abuses they say Chevron is attempting to “greenwash.”

Chevron Deplores Subterfuge, Investigates Options Chevron has added a news release to its Investor Relations website SAN RAMON, Calif., Oct. 18, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Earlier today, a group of environmentalists cyber-posing as Chevron officials illegally spoofed Chevron's just-launched “We Agree” advertising campaign, confusing reporters (link). While such a campaign does exist, its official URL is Chevron.com/weagree. The advertisements released earlier today, at Chevron-weagree.com, were an elaborate subterfuge and must not be mistaken as real. “Chevron does not take this attack lightly,” said Hewitt Pate, General Counsel for Chevron. “We invest extremely heavily in our campaigns, and we take them extremely seriously. Such actions can never be tolerated.” Though the exact cost of “We Agree” must remain confidential, Chevron routinely spends $90 million per year on US advertising alone.

Chevron's New Ad Campaign Is a Slick Yes Men Hoax David Zax, Fast Company Part of the genius of the Yes Men is that they really know when to pull the trigger on a good prank. To wit: They fired off a press release, which we were initially fooled by, to us in the wee hours, before anyone from Chevron could actually respond to real questions for verification (this is an edited version of our original post). And of course, in the wake of the BP disaster, lots of oil-related stories that once seemed unbelievable are now much more plausible.

Hundreds of UK Climate Activists Blockade Oil Refineries Today hundreds of climate activists taking part in the Crude Awakening day of action have successfully blockaded the Coryton and Shell Haven oil refineries in Essex, including the UK's busiest oil refinery and distribution centre.