Via Kenyon Farrow. Shout out to Bob Jensen, a former professor of mine, who’s in this video.

This could and should be done with newspapers around the country! Raucous pro-Gaza demonstrators in Washington D.C. expressed their outrage with media coverage of the conflict by shredding up the Washington Post’s “defective merchandise” – newspapers with an overwhelming pro-Israel bias and shoddy coverage of local protests – and dumping wheelbarrow-fuls of the confetti and paper scrap right on the Post’s doorstep. Video and audio reports at DC Indymedia.

Author Benjamin Dangl talks to Mark Meinster, a labor organizer with UE 110 about the inspiration for his union’s successful occupation of a shuttered Chicago factory in December to protest their abrupt termination and unpaid wages.

I had read about the land occupations carried out by the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra in an interview with Joao Pedro Stedile in 2002. I was struck by the MST’s focus on popular education and leadership development, and especially the way they placed the occupation tactic within the context of the right to unused land enshrined in the Brazilian constitution. The occupation, although technically an illegal tactic, was used to enforce a legal right. This gives workers confidence and places the struggle on a moral plane, allowing for more significant community and political support. We drew on this concept in planning the Republic occupation…

Read the whole interview at Upside Down World.

Just want to pass on an excellent Free Speech Radio News story on the grassroots ‘Take Back the Land‘ movement in Miami to house poor families in empty, foreclosed homes. Listen here.

Image from sweejack on Flickr

Hundreds of Austinites, young and old, students and workers, gathered in front of the Capitol on Monday evening to demonstrate against the Israeli bombings in the Gaza strip. Here’s my report:

(Working on improving the audio quality, folks. Next time it’ll be better. Produced using a Zoom H2 and Audacity.)

Update: Here’s the transcript of the report, with links, below the jump. Read More…

“Canadian government plays divide and conquer with Algonquin indigenous people over logging” – the Real News

Woot!

The sit-in and plant occupation at Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors ended in victory late Wednesday night, when the union announced that more than 200 workers and members of UE Local 1110 voted unanimously to accept a $1.75 million settlement that includes eight weeks of back pay, two months of continued health coverage, and compensation for unused vacation time.

Looks like the workers are planning on taking over the factory too:

The settlement also laid the basis for future initiatives — including the creation of a new foundation dedicated to reopening the plant. That effort will be initiated with seed money from the UE national union and the thousands of dollars in donations to the Solidarity Fund that have poured in from around the world in recent days. Workers chose the name themselves: the Window of Opportunity Fund.

From Chicago Indymedia.