All Charges Dropped Against the Pemary 13, But Someone Needs to Answer for Police Attacks Abahlali basePemary Ridge Press Statement 16 November, 20:42 Abahlali basePemary Ridge is happy that all charges were dropped against 13 of our members, who were arrested in a brutal attack last Friday by the Sydenham police. Abahlali has said, since 2005, “My lawyer is my neighbour.” In court today, the Pemary 13 were not represented by a lawyer, but by the Chairperson of Abahlali baseMotala Heights , Shamita Naidoo, who learned about justice through years of experience working in her community, and about the law seeing case after political case brought by police against shack-dwellers. Shamita spoke powerfully and with a lot of anger against the police violence so common in Abahlali communities, and in all shack settlements.

US Chamber Shuts off TheYesMen.org and Websites of Hundreds of Other Activist Groups Hundreds of activist organizations had their internet service turned off last night after the US Chamber of Commerce strong-armed an upstream provider, Hurricane Electric, to pull the plug on The Yes Men and May First / People Link, a 400-member-strong organization with a strong commitment to protecting free speech. "This is a blow against free speech, and it demostrates in gory detail the full hypocrisy of the Chamber," said Andy Bichlbaum of The Yes Men. "The only freedom they care about is the economic freedom of large corporations to operate free of the hassles of science, reality, and democracy." After suffering embarrassment at the hands of the Yes Men on Monday, the Chamber immediately threatened legal action, then followed through Thursday by sending a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice to Hurricane Electric Internet Services. In the DMCA notice, the Chamber claimed that the parody Chamber website operated by The Yes Men constituted copyright infringement, and demanded that the site be shut down immediately and that the creator's service be canceled. But the Yes Men are not served directly by Hurricane Electric, but by May First / People Link. And when Hurricane Electric shut down the fake Chamber of Commerce site (now relocated), they also took down the websites of 400 other organizations. May First / People Link fought back. They immediately "mirrored" the site, and then quickly negotiated with Hurricane Electric to restore service to their other members.

British Police in £9m Scheme to Log 'Domestic Extremists Thousands of activists monitored on network of overlapping databases Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases. The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor “domestic extremists”, the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime. Senior officers say domestic extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of minor public order offences such as peaceful direct action and civil disobedience.

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Occupied On Tuesday, October 20 2009 the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was squatted, here is the statement and the demands of the occupants: The Bologna process aims at an extensive convergence of european Universities with the Anglo-American education system. The aim is to enter competition in the global education market in order to strengthen universitie's economic position and increase their research dependent revenues. The establishment of regulative norms and the harmonization of standards are the basis and at the same time the precondition of this process: without standardization there can be no measurability, without measurability no comparability, without comparability no competition. Economization and the logic of competition are imposed at every level of knowledge production.

All Charges Dropped Against Tent City Ten in New York City Picture the Homeless At 100 Centre Street this morning, all charges were dropped against the Tent City Ten -- homeless/community activists arrested in Picture the Homeless's July action liberating land & fighting for housing for all. It seems like neither the public sector nor the private sector entities concerned wanted to push it with PTH and the movement we are part of -- from July through October, thanks to all of you for supporting the ten arrestees, and participating in the housing justice movement. The Tent City Ten and everyone at PTH say: Onward! Stay tuned, be in touch... Love, PTH

"Anarchist Bombing Wave Hits Mexico" John Ross MEXICO CITY (Oct 6th) - An unprecedented wave of anarchist bombings here and in provincial capitals has Mexican security forces on red alert. Beginning September 1st, bombs have gone off once or twice a week regularly as clockwork, taking out windows and ATMs at five banks, torching two auto showrooms and several U.S. fast-food franchises plus an upscale boutique in the chic Polanco district of this conflictive capital. In each case, the Anarchist "A" has been spray-painted on nearby walls along with slogans supporting animal liberation demands to stop prison construction, and calls for the demise of capitalism.

New York Anarchist Accused of Using Twitter to Direct G-20 Protesters Elliott Madison was arrested by FBI and charged with using social networking site to help demonstrators evade Pittsburgh police http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/04/man-arrested-twitter-g20- us/print A New York-based anarchist has been arrested by the FBI and charged with hindering prosecution after he allegedly used the social networking site Twitter to help protesters at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh evade the police. Elliot Madison, 41, from Queens, had his home raided and was put on $30,000 (£19,000) bail after he and Michael Wallschlaeger, 46, were tracked to the Carefree Inn motel in Pittsburgh during the summit on 24 and 25 September. The pair were found sitting in front of a bank of laptops and emergency frequency radio scanners. They were wearing headphones and microphones and had many maps and contact numbers in the room.

Jeff Luers Back in Custody After Mistaken Release PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Self-proclaimed anarchist Jeff Luers was released Friday after years in prison for setting trucks ablaze in an environmental protest — but he was back in custody within hours. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Jennifer Black said a mistake was made in calculating the amount to time off Luers could get for good behavior.

ANC Atrocity in South African Shack Settlement On Saturday 26 September, Abahlali baseMjondolo, the shack dwellers movement, was attacked in the Kennedy Road settlement, Durban, by an armed mob chanting ethnic slogans and backed, fully, by the ANC. [The following is based on a report from an Abahlali member in Durban] Kennedy Road is one of the poorest shack settlements in Durban. Local police appear to be entirely complicit in these attacks, as do local members of the African National Congress.

19 Arrested at Aetna's NYC Office Single-Payer Sit-In Nineteen people have been arrested at Aetna office in New York City during a sit-in to end insurance abuse and to win health care for all! Video of the event is available here: http://bit.ly/XRg6j