The Pu bl ic i,a proj ect of the Urb a n a - Ch a m-p a i gn In depen dent Media Cen ter, is ani n depen den t , co ll ectively - ru n ,com mu n i ty -ori en ted publ i c a ti on that provi des a foru mfor topics underreported and voi ces under-repre s en ted in the dominant med i a . Al lcon tri butors to the paper are vo lu n teers .Everyone is wel come and en co u ra ged to su b-mit arti cles or story ideas to the ed i torial co l-l ective . We prefer, but do not nece s s a ri l yre s tri ct ours elves to,a rti cles on issues of l oc a li m p act wri t ten by aut h ors with local ti e s .The opinions are those of the authors and don ot ref l e ct the vi ews of the IMC as a wh ol e .

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“Four hostile newspapersare more to be feared thana thousand bayonets.”

(Napoleon)

“ We are not afraid toentrust the American peo-ple with unpleasant facts,

foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and com-petitive values. For a nation that is afraid tolet its people judge the truth and falsehoodin an open market is a nation that is afraidof its people.”(JFK)

, it’sbeen a very busy news month. The mostpressing untold story, however, has been aseemingly relentless series of attacks onpress and independent expression across theinternational system. If it were a slow newscycle, though, I doubt we’d hear muchabout these developments anyhow. So inkeeping with the Public i’s goal of reportingthe often unacknowledged, here it goes:

Countries in the media activist “news”over the past few months, in no particularorder:

U.S. military sets precedent ofshutting down newspapers and banningbroadcast media in a time of crisis; less thanprincipled example to set for the leaders ofthe newest “ democracy” in the region.

The Nigerian government hasbeen heavily criticized by NGO’s anddemocracy advocates recently for its patternof repression and intolerance to political dis-sent. On September 6th, the Nigerian Intelli-gence Agency raided the independent maga-zine, Insider We e k l y, in Lagos with sledge-hammers, arrested staff, and banned furtherproduction. The reason? “…disparaging andhumiliating the person and office of Presi-dent and Commander- i n - C h i e f . ”

The current Prime Ministerfounded the country’s largest telecommuni-cation conglomerate. Late August of thisyear, this media giant filed libel chargesagainst a Thai media reform activist fromthe Campaign for Popular Media Reform,as well as editors of the Thai Post whoresearched and documented that the con-glomerate was a major beneficiary of thegovernment’s policies. Media activists inthe country have documented over 20recent cases of journalists and editors beingdismissed, or having their stories altered inorder to appease the government. The Thaicourt agreed to hear the case, which couldresult in imprisonment.

Outside of Luanda, there is noindependent media in this country, which isstruggling to rebuild civic life after decadesof war. In the capital, independent media isconstrained by strong libel laws, and

severely restrictive dissemination rules.As of September, the Brazilian

government had not backed away from aproposal to require licensing of journalistsin the country—a measure being pushed bythe state-journalists union. President Luizda Silva’s chief policy strategist, inresponse to questions about the proposal,quipped “nothing is absolute, not even free-dom of the press.”

Early July, the Israeli militaryattacked and destroyed a Palestinian mediaoffice in Gaza city with missiles, with IDFjustification being that it was “a communi-cations center which maintained constantcontact with terrorists.” The owner andmanager admit contact with various Pales-tinian elements as a function of journalisticwork. This was the third attack on Palestin-ian media in less than two months.

Journalists critical of the gov-ernment have been subject to harassmentand imprisonment. Notably, Nguyen VuBinh was sentenced to 7 years imprison-ment for releasing an article over the inter-net; an apparent violation of the Internation-al Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, towhich Vietnam is a state party. The govern-ment has been unresponsive to recent callsfor his release and increased tolerance ofjournalism.

Physical attacks on inde-pendent journalists in the country are com-monplace. In a number of cases editors andjournalists critical of the government facethreat to their families, the most recent doc-umented case in May when the son of ajournalist critical of the Interior Ministrywas beaten nearly to death.

Ertireans have been forced torely on state press for information, and thegovernment has refused recent pleas byParis-based Reporters Without Borders torelease 14 journalists held without charge

for at least 3 years. As of August, nearly allforeign journalists have been expelled fromEritrea.

: The Cypriot governmentdemonstrates its commitment to free speechby following “encouragements” from theCIA to investigate Petros Evdokas as apotential “threat to US interests”. Evdokasis a founding member of Cyprus Indymedia.

The KGB successor, the FSB,has been accused of intimidating journalistsattempting to cover sensitive stories. Mostr e c e n t l y, during coverage of the Beslanschool tragedy, less government-friendlyjournalists have found themselves beingdetained for unknown reasons, or groggyand confused after prolonged unconscious-ness following coffee or tea.

The hopelessly morally cor-rupt Zimbabwean government underMugabe has for years repressed indepen-dent media in the country. As the country isbecoming further isolated from the interna-tional community, even greater restrictionson speech critical of the government’s poli-cies are being implemented. The govern-ment has ejected foreign media (mostnotably the BBC) for coverage of the use offood by the government as an instrument ofcoercion. In June of this year, the govern-ment required that ISPs enter into a contractthat requires them to prevent or report to theauthorities any “anti-national” activities andcorrespondence through their telephonelines (or face punishment).

Other countries that fit the press-repres-sion/incident time-frame criteria above:

(If you are interested in these cases, con-tact the author. Space considerations are atwork.)

This is the short, very non-exhaustivelist, limited to stories I’ ve come across the

last 3 months or so. A more temporallyexpansive search of disturbing restrictionson press and other expression would read asa who’s who list of troubled societies anddangerous political environments. Coinci-d e n c e ?

It is in times of crisis that an independentpress is most important to a functionalsocial and political community. It is also atthese times that the press faces the gravestthreats. We in the U.S. are accustomed tocorporate self-censorship at home (e.g., Iraqwar, and all things “un-patriotic”), but wemust not forget the active role some stateleaders take in using the coercive apparatus-es of government against independentmedia. And we certainly must not limitmedia activism to those cases of need aris-ing from corporate strangleholds.

What will these societies look like in 10years? The global community is currentlyand appropriately concerned with countlesspolitical and humanitarian crises. What isthe root of these crises? There are, of course,a thousand answers, and no single answer.H e r e ’s a proposition, though: free press,unfettered from political control, profiteer-ing interests, and factional intimidation, willfoster a healthier civic life for those societieswith such press than those without.

Healthy civil society is what allowshuman beings to air grievances withoutresort to violence. In looking at the list ofcountries above, it is obvious that thesestates are already in danger of continuedchronic unrest, deprivation, and violence.By actively supporting independent mediarights in these places, as well as here athome, speech and media activists will beplaying a bigger role than they may realizein making the world a better place, for thisand future generations.

Nearly all of the countries listed aboveare being targeted by campaigns thataddress, either directly or circumstantially,limits on press and political expression. Forinformation on how to get involved in a par-ticular country, email the author at sed-ward1@uiuc.edu.

The last day to register to vote beforethe November 2, 2004 election is October5, 2004. Voters can register at any numberof places, including libraries, the DMV, andthe county clerk’s office.

More details can be found ath t t p : / / w w w. c h a m p a i g n c o u n t y c l e r k . c o m .Even if you think you are already regis-tered, make sure by checking your statusonline on the county clerk’s website. Youcan also find your polling place, see if youneed to present ID at the polling place, andsee a sample of your ballot.

The following is excerpted from JohnG u e g u e n ’s full letter due to space con -straints. The full letter may be view ath t t p : / / w w w. u c i m c . o rg / n e w s w i r e / d i s-play/20660/index.php.

Hi, Wendy.In reading [your article], several things

occurred to me, which I hope you don’t mindmy sharing with you. One is the tendency bymost writers to treat Opus Dei as an external“ thing,” a movement or organization (somestrange new hybrid hard to classify) ratherthan as an internal reality in the lives of peo-ple God has called. One reason it is so diff i-cult to “pin down” what Opus Dei is in tryingto write an objective article (as you did) is thatin reality what Opus Dei “ is” continues toevolve and develop in the lives of each mem-ber from day to day, in the struggle to put intopractice the impulses of grace (which comesfrom the Holy Spirit, as it does to all Chris-tians to enable them to fulfil l their call ing).

This leads into my second observation:The people you cite throughout the articlegive the kind of skewed understanding ofOpus Dei that would occur in reporting onany topic by confining the research to such an

infinitesimal number of “experts” on the sub-ject. You can imagine what a variety ofanswers you would get to a question like“how do you live Opus Dei day by day?” Inmy case, for example, I’ve started more than15,000 new days since I asked for admissionto Opus Dei in April, 1959, and as I look backon them I find that no two of them were everthe same. I can tell you that the renewal eachmorning of my dedication to practice the spir-it of Opus Dei has led to marvelous insightsinto myself, into others, into the nature of myteaching and writing responsibil ities.

I suppose most people aren’t that muchaware of what “spirit” they are dedicated to.In the best instances, it is a spirit of profes-sional service, or of serving one’s family,one’s children and spouse, or for students, aspirit of achievement. For so many Ameri-cans, it is a spirit of maximizing one’s ownpleasure, or profit, or influence – the infa-mous materialistic, hedonistic, individualis-tic, consumeristic “spirit.” When I used toteach, one of my aims was to help my stu-dents realize and then come to terms with the“spirit” that was driving or inspiring theirlives. The “great books” we read were meantto help them do that. Many realized that their“spirit” was not very admirable, and they setabout reforming their lives, l ifting their

sights, etc. That’s why I love to teach thosegreat books; they are such powerful stimula-tions to get young people in their 20s toexamine themselves and their society.

[In email to me, you noted]: “As I’ve got-ten older, many things have seemed lessblack and white, and I have a certain distrustof any organization that offers to makethings too simple. At this point, I’m just tooold to jump on anyone’s bandwagon. So Iguess my goal is to muddle through and dothe best I can. Not too inspiring, but I’m sortof a realist.”

T h a t ’s not “ realism” in my book, but Ilived on a different planet from the one youand your contemporaries live on. I call it the“post-revolutionary” planet (referring back tothe disaster of 1968-70, which cut loose fromall the moorings of reality as it truly is, and iswandering all over the universe, outside anyorbit). Nevertheless, it is a fitting epitaph forthe age that is currently unraveling and send-ing our civilization to its graveyard. It is pre-cisely that worldview which you have PER-F E C T LY expressed which motivates virtual-ly your entire generation and is responsiblefor that generation’s inability to make a per-manent commitment of any kind, and whyvirtually all “marriages” that take place todayare invalid and break up after a short time

(since by definition, marriage is the union ofa man and a woman until death do us part forthe purpose of bearing progeny and educatingthem to be mature men and women). It iswhy monasteries and convents have emptied.It is why vocations to the priesthood keepdeclining, and why so many have left andkeep leaving. It is why you can go aroundcampus and find almost NO genuine friend-ships, because friendship too requires a per-manent commitment, a letting-go of oneself.The dorms are jammed with people strug-gling desperately not to compromise theiri n d i v i d u a l i t y, their precious ego. A t e r r i b l eloneliness and isolation results, and with itthe unhappiness which if not successfullydrowned in weekly binges can lead to suicide(note the increasing rate among young peoplein the prime of l ife).

This isn’t meant to be a criticism and ithas not the least touch of irony about it. Youare interested in reporting “facts” and thereyou have one of the most appalling facts ofrecent American cultural history. It is bestenshrined in the kind of music young peoplelike to listen to and imitate today – very likethe brainwashing cults engage in.

Best wishes in your studies and writing!You’re in our prayers.

Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condi-tion of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peaceis not merely the absence of war. It is also a state ofmind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.

Jawaharlal Nehru

If more of us valued food and cheer and song abovehoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

J. R. R. Tolkien

to the Public i, theaudio of the first Presidential debate is playing in thebackground. To absorb it critically is an exercise in cyn-icism. I listen as the incumbent speaks of his profoundrespect for human life and desire to help those in need.I juxtapose his words with his actions, and both with theweekly actions of a group of community members Ihave come to work with.

Champaign-Urbana Food Not Bombs began operat-ing earlier this year. Every Sunday, volunteers meet at alocal park (after a few hours of preparation) to share ameal with community members with varying means.Each week, volunteers collect food that would other-wise go to waste from various sources in the area. TheFood Not Bombs (FNB) activities rely on a network ofvolunteers, food and financial donors, and a seeminglyendless number of hungry people.

There are hundreds of independent FNB organiza-tions across the world, all of which, with varying mix-tures of the two activities, serve vegetarian meals intheir communities and campaign for causes of peaceand justice. Different local groups operate differentlybased on the needs of the community, and the activistinterests of their members. A common understanding ofthe uniting FNB principle is summarized nicely by theSan Francisco organization, however:

“We believe that society and government shouldvalue human life over material wealth. Many of theproblems in the world stem from this simple crisis invalues. By giving away free food to people in need inpublic spaces we directly dramatize the level of hungerin this country and the surplus of food being wasted. Wealso call attention to the failures of the society to sup-port those within it while funding the forces of war andviolence.”

There are a number of regular volunteers that make

Champaign-Urbana FNB happen everyweek, with varying backgrounds: someolder community members, some uni-versity students, and even a contingentof dedicated high schoolers.

I look forward to it every week.Apart from the wholly rewarding workof feeding hungry people, the fellow-ship of being surrounded by peoplewho share the simple conjecture thatenergies are better spent helping fellowcommunity members rather than seek-ing the accumulation of wealth or wag-ing of war is a perfect anecdote for thecynicism that events like Presidentialdebates tend to breed. To be in thepresence of people for whom the sim-ple act of preparing and sharing food isa powerful political statement is notsimply elevating, but inspiring. Ibel ieve quite strongly that i f thew o r l d ’s poli tical leaders shared thesame dedication to fellow human beings as some of thehigh school students I ’ve met through Food NotBombs, the world would be a far better place.

But FNB isn’t a simple symbolic exercise. I firstbecame aware of the group at a local community action,of which the organization was a participant. The volun-teers that make FNB run each week represent a cross-section of the wide array of community organizationsmobilized for purposes of peace, justice, and equality.As such, the organization itself represents the very bestthe community has to offer in the way of dedication tothese principles, and activism to achieve these ends.

Additionally, the meals themselves allow for dia-logue between segments of the community that wouldotherwise not have them. Not only are “we using whatwould go to waste in this town, but we are bridging(societal) boundaries between the homeless, the poor,and the people with money. Where else can you go tosee a homeless person off of the street striking up a con-versation with a college student or businessman?” SaysMaggie, a CUFNB volunteer.

Food Not Bombs as a new organization is not with-out problems. Most pressingly, many of the people whoeat with the group on Sundays are indeed homeless.

Communication between the group and the people whovalue its activity the most is, understandably, difficult.With no phones, internet access, or even fixed avenuesfor announcements, it is often difficult for FNB orga-nizers to judge the needs of this particular segment ofthe community. “There’s no way for us to know reliablywhat’s happening on the street,” remarks one volunteer.“Something could happen that effects this whole por-tion of the community, and it’s nearly impossible tokeep track, because, after all, who is paying attention?”

Regardless of the difficulties, FNB continues with itswork, and looks forward to expanding its activities andcommunity interaction. This expansion will be greatlyimpacted by the participation of new community mem-bers, whether they simply wish to eat, or additionallywish to serve or volunteer in some capacity.

Food Not Bombs serves every Sunday at 4:30pm atScott Park (corner of 3rd and Springfield). I stronglyencourage you to visit to eat and socialize with thegroup, all of whom are remarkably warm and open peo-ple. Also, if you are interested in volunteering, donatingfood or money, or have questions, email foodnot-bombs@ucimc.org, or visit the CUFNB website atwww.readysubjects.org/fnb.

, Urbana voters wi ll f acethis question on the bal lot: “Shall the City ofUrbana restrict the number of aldermen to atotal of nine, with one alderman representingeach of seven wards, plus an additional twoaldermen to be elected at- large?” Currently,the Urbana City Council consists of 7 alder-persons, each one representing a discrete

area of the ci ty, cal led a “ward.” The proposal on the ballot isasking whether two more representatives should be added tothe counci l. The “at-large” part means that those two represen-tatives would be elected by a majori ty vote of all voters withinthe ci ty boundaries (l ike the mayor or city-clerk).

More is better, right? Wouldn’t two more representativesgive everybody more voice in local government? PerhapsUrbana is behind the times, and needs to sign on with this hipnew form of choosing their elected officials?

Or perhaps not. If you look across the country, you’ll findthat over 250 cities across the United States have recentlyremoved at-large seats from their city councils. Removingthem has been so popular that “the second most commonlyconsidered change [in municipal government structuresnationwide] was to eliminate at-large seats on the council andreplace them with ward or district elections.” In fact, thechange being proposed in Urbana is so uncommon that thestandard sources used to track trends in local governmentdon’t even bother to report it. As a result, political and socialscientists who study the effects of at-large elections now tendto focus their attention on school boards, as there just aren’tenough city counci l examples lef t to support research.

But even school boards with at-large elections are gettingharder to find. Right here in the city of Urbana, the votersoverwhelmingly chose to eliminate at-large from the schoolboard in favor of district elections in 1998.

Those pushing to resurrect at-large as an improvement forthe council point to the f act that more voters turnout in someareas of the ci ty than others. Although this is a common occur-rence al l over the United States, they feel that voters who l ivein wards with higher turnout deserve a greater voice in gov-ernment. But imagine i f we applied their reversal of consti tu-tional phi losophy to the state legislature. The 100th Represen-tative District, which surrounds Springfield, had 48,000 votersturnout in the last election—almost twice the number of peo-ple who voted in our 103rd District! Does this mean Cham-paign-Urbana voters deserve less representation than Spring-field does in the Ill inois House of Representatives?

Not according to the U.S. Constitution (see Article I, Sec-tion II, and the 14th amendment). The constitutional principleof “one person, one vote” is that representation in govern-ment must be based on population, not on voter turnout. Inother words, everyone has the same rights to equal represen-tation, whether they choose to vote or not.

A t - l a rge systems have long been supported by those whothink they deserve more representation than others. Used inlocal governments for at least the last 100 years, it gainedrenewed populari ty around 1965, when congress passed oneof the most important pieces of civi l rights legislation, the Vo t-ing Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act enacted a number ofchanges that were meant to empower minori ties to vote andgain equal representation. A common method used to negatethe minori ty vote in the wake of the Voting Rights Act (as wellas before i t), was to use at- large seats for local government.

At-large seats are effective in diluting the minority votebecause they require candidates to run city-wide as opposedto district-wide. Minority neighborhood districts are morelikely to elect minority candidates. But at-large seats, withvoters taken from anywhere in the city, typically elect major-ity candidates. This has been proven time in study after study,making it one of the most verified findings in the field ofpolitical science.

As convincing as it is, one need not solely rely on empiri-cal evidence in the scientific literature for examples of howat-large affects minority representation. Right here in centralIllinois we have plenty of examples:

In 1987, a group of African-Americans filed a minorityvote dilution lawsuit against the city of Springfield, seekingthe city’s compliance with the Voting Rights Act. As a result,the city eliminated its at-large system in favor of a ward sys-tem—like we have here in Urbana. The first African-Ameri-can was then elected to that body since 1911.

Also in 1987, a similar lawsuit was brought against thecity of Danville. At that time in the city’s history, every elect-ed council member since the city was founded in 1867 wereall white men. The city settled the lawsuit by eliminating at-large and adopting a ward system—again, like we have inUrbana. And since they removed at-large? The city has elect-ed 5 African-Americans, 8 women, a Latino, and a person ofNative-American descent. Danvil le, with an over 20%African-American population, has since had two African-Americans on the council at all times.

In 1998, the citizens of Urbana voted to eliminate at-largeseats from the school board in favor of district elections. Sub-sequently, the first African-American was elected to that bodyin 20 years.

While Springfield and Danville’s electoral systems wereful ly at-large, the system being proposed in Urbana isreferred to as a “mixed” system—one made up of both dis-tricts and at-large. Proponents of the proposed change suggestthis is an important distinction, one which makes all of thescientific evidence “irrelevant.” But the leading scholars inpolitical science have studied mixed systems as well. SusanWelch, a leading researcher on the effects of at-large electionson minority representation, and Dean and Professor of Politi-cal Science at Penn State University states it clearly: “While

blacks are equitably represented in the district portions ofmixed systems, they are abysmally underrepresented in theat-large portions.”

Given the overwhelming national and local evidence, wecan easily predict some of the effects of adding at-large toUrbana’s city council. Currently, the council is 1/7th African-American, just as 1/7th of Urbana’s population is African-American. Since at-large seats almost never elect minoritycandidates, we can be assured that at-large would diluteminority representation in Urbana’s city government, withAfrican-American representation immediately shif ting to1/9th of the council. This disparity would grow over time, asAfrican-Americans are on track to make up 1/5th of Urbana’spopulation within the next 10 years.

One of the fundamental reasons at-large dilutes minorityrepresentation is the high cost of running a city-wide cam-paign. Minority candidates are less likely to receive the big-money backing typically supplied by majority supporters. Butminorities aren’t the only ones discouraged by the at-largesystem; the average majority citizen doesn’t have the funds tocompete with special interest f unded candidates ei ther.

While a candidate for a ward seat can knock on every doorin their ward, i t would be impossible for an at-large candidateto knock on every door in the ci ty. This forces at-large candi-dates to replace personal contact with media saturation. A ssuch, they engage in one-way communication, broadcastingtheir ideas out to the people, hoping voters find their soundbites more appeal ing than the other candidates’ sound bites. Incontrast, a ward candidate continuously engages in two-waycommunication with the voters. Every time they knock on adoor they hear the concerns of their neighbors, and it is in theirbest interests as a candidate to remember and respond to thoseconcerns. The concept of local government is that local deci-sions are made by normal people that understand the concernsof people like them. I n comparison, at-large elections producecounci l representatives that are out of touch with those theyrepresent, and obl igated to special interests.

There has been extensive research into alternative elec-toral systems. Various versions of a system called proportion-al representation (such as that used in Peoria, IL) are oftencited in research on election reform. Unfortunately, thosepushing for at-large elections never researched the problemsinherent in this system that cities across the country havebeen abandoning for years. Urbana needs effective city gov-ernment—it has serious problems and i t needs seriousanswers. But at-large is not the answer.

Ben Grosser is an Urbana resident, and is one of the lead-ers of “Vote No At-Large,” a local grassroots organizationopposed to the addition of at-large seats in Urbana. Furtherinformation, including a detailed review of the scientific liter-ature on this topic, is available on the organization’s website,at http://www.noatlarge.org .

’ discusses the largerimplications of introducing at-large seats inUrbana’s city council elections. It raisesserious issues. However, there is also a sub-text to this story, the intriguing circum-stances leading to this proposal so ardentlysupported by Tod Satterthwaite, the mayorof Urbana. Until 2001, Satterthwaite virtual-ly controlled the council. He could usuallymuster a majority vote for his own proposalsand veto the others that he didn’t like. Car-olyn Kearns was his strongest ally on thecouncil. He did not care much for the otherwomen on the council, namely Esther Patt,Ruth Wyman, and Laura Huth. He hasreferred to them as “ultra-liberals” in radiointerviews. However, there was a silver lin-ing for the mayor: Patt, Wyman, and Huthcould be outvoted on the seven-person coun-cil, even when joined by the only African-American alderman, Jim Hayes.

The status quo was upset in 2001.Daniel le Chynoweth successfully chal lengedKearns in the February Democratic primary.

What was the mayor to do? Satterthwaitewaxed strategic. If he had to endureChynoweth on the counci l, maybe he couldel iminate one of the other troublesomewomen. Wyman and Patt were both stronglyentrenched in their wards, which were liberaland had lots of students. He targeted Huth,possibly hoping that she would be more vul-nerable because she represented a ward inEast Urbana where most of the consti tuentsare not affi liated with the universi ty. Howev-e r, there was one thing needed to get rid ofHuth, an opponent. Since the Republicansw e r e n ’t running a candidate, the Democraticmayor chose to recruit an independent,Chuck McCaff r e y, to run against DemocratHuth. As Satterthwaite’s good buddy, howcould McCaffrey refuse? And how could helose with the mayor on his side?

There was one thing that McCaffrey andSatterthwaite didn’t anticipate. Huth’s con-stituents were actually impressed by herrecord. She’d stood up for them on manyoccasions, including the fight against Illinois

Power’s abuse of our trees. Also, unionmembers appreciated her strong support forthe Urbana firefighters when the mayor wasgiving them a rough time. Huth won, andSatterthwaite then had to contend withChynoweth, Huth, Patt, and Wyman. More-over, he can never take Hayes for granted.Satterthwaite still gets along very well withMilton Otto, and doesn’t get much troublefrom the sole Republican on the council, JoeWhelan. However, they are only two whitecouncilmen who are left to contend with thefour out-of-favor females and Jim Hayeswho is too close to them on too many votes.

Michael Moore notwithstanding, not allwhite men, even white men in politics, arestupid. Some are imaginative and whenpushed too far, can even display strokes ofgenius. Satterthwaite’s last straw was theredistricting map drawn up by the women onthe council. The mayor proposed his ownmap, but the women would not accept his inplace of theirs. To veto their map, Satterth-waite needed Jim Hayes’s vote. He thought

he had it, but when it was time to vote,Hayes voted with the women. This madetheir map veto proof.

Satterthwaite and Otto continued to exer-cise their imaginations. If you cannot winelections and policy changes according to therules, then simply change the rules. Changethe form of governance! Introduce at-larg eseats so that the mayor can try to recruit l ike-minded people to run in ci tywide electionsalong with him. If the “ul tra-liberals” thinkthat they can play with radical ideas, themayor wi ll show them a thing or two aboutrevolutionary ideas and practices. LikeCharles de Gaulle introducing the Fif thFrench Republ ic, he wi ll “appeal to the peo-ple.” With their support he wil l transform theform of representative government in Urbana.Voters of Urbana Arise! You have nothing tolose but the door-to-door relationship with allcounci l candidates and affordable electionsfor al l counci l seats. What you have to gain isa more powerful mayor, perhaps who wi llonce again be able to control the council . Insubsequent elections, maybe we could pro-pose a referendum to change the name of themayor to Lord Mayor.

in AfricanAmerican communities is nothing new in the post-Rod-ney King era, what is new is the nation-wide organizingagainst it. From Los Angeles to New York, Chicago toChampaign—grassroots organizations have cometogether to fight the widespread criminalization ofblack youth. Caught in a dragnet cast by the criminaljustice system, today 2 million prisoners sit in jail andanother 5 million are currently on parole, probation, orhouse arrest, by far the highest incarceration rate of anynation in the world. The problem is deep-rooted andracism is rampant. Whether endemic racial profiling(according to Amnesty International there were 32 mil-lion victims last year) or America’s continued practiceof the death penalty, the intent is to both discipline andpunish. The trumped-up charges of eavesdroppingagainst Martell Miller and Patrick Thompson, Foundersof VEYA, Visionaries Educating Youth and Adults—filed and quickly dropped by Champaign police afterstrong public support—expose the need for policereform at home. While the issue of criminal justiceremains off the political radar in the upcoming nationalelection, Urbana-Champaign residents have a uniqueopportunity to send a message to public officials onNovember 2 and come together to do the work neededfor the day after election day.

I recently moved to Champaignfrom Los Angeles, where the LAPDis known as an occupying army byblack and Chicano communities. Inthe Rodney King beating or the morerecent 2002 incident in Inglewoodwhere 16-year old Donovan Jack-son-Chavis was thrown against apolice car and punched in the face byan off i c e r, videotaping has givencredibility to black urban legends ofpervasive police brutality. Yet the many “stolen lives”that have come at the hands of police are less knownbecause they have been off camera. One of these wasIrvin Landrum Jr., a 19 year-old black youth, who inJanuary 1999 was shot and killed by white police in theseemingly “enlightened” college community of Clare-mont, where my wife and I were living.

According to the police report, Landrum was pulledshortly after midnight on a routine traffic stop. After hewas asked to step out of his car, police claim that Lan-drum drew a gun on them and fired. The two policemenpulled their guns and returned fire, fatally shootingLandrum. Family members, members of the communi-ty, students, and a few radical professors organized toquestion the account. The local police chief promptlyreleased the criminal record of an organizer to the localpress and the city council later gave thousand-dollarcity employee awards to the two police off i c e r sinvolved, due to the harsh public scrutiny they endured.As details of the incident unfurled, it was discoveredthat Landrum’s alleged weapon had no fingerprints, hadnot been fired, and was formerly owned by the policechief of a nearby city.

This was where I, a young white college student, gotmy first taste of grassroots protest—attending weeklypublic events, marching in solidarity, and standing infront of offices at the local newspaper chanting “no yel-low journalism.” I and other members of the communi-ty picked up skills to later mobilize for migrant work-ers, fight for the right of campus employees to unionize,and stand up against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.In standing side-by-side with other students, blacks,Chicanos, women, gays, lesbians, and people of many

ages, I have gained my best role models. In raising myown voice, I have found precise language for criticizingAmerica’s hypocritical “war on terror,” a war of massdistraction from a more real threat of police terror thatpatrols our city streets.

Across the nation, similar incidents have provokedpublic outrage. In a hail of 41 bullets, Amadou Diallo, a22 year-old West African immigrant, was gunned downoutside his Bronx apartment by four police officersunder Mayor Rudolph Guilliani’s indiscriminate crimesweeps. In Brooklyn, a white off-duty police officerwent on a day-long drinking binge and drove his carthrough an intersection, mowing down a Latino family,and then was promptly released by a judge without bail.Reports from death row by America’s most famouspolitical prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal, an independentjournalist from Philadelphia, have received attentionthe world over. A growing national movement hasemerged to call for a moratorium on prison constructionand a repair to the broken relationship between policeand communities of color. October 22, coming up thismonth, has been set aside as a day to wear black inprotest of “police brutality, repression, and the crimi-nalization of a generation.”

Yet it is the Midwest that provides a weathervane forthe future of America, this region of the country thatrarely makes national news, but where the sense offrustration among black youth has become most acute.One way points to Cincinnati and Benton Harbor,where riots in 2001 and 2003 erupted after repeatedpolice abuses. Another way points to Chicago, whereFred Hampton Jr., the son of Fred Hampton, leader ofthe Black Panther Party who was killed in the infamous

1969 FBI raid on his house, is againorganizing on the South Side andhas vowed, “You can kill a revolu-tionary, but you can’t kill a revolu-tion!” As Chairman of the Prisonersof Conscience Committee, HamptonJ r. has been working with gangmembers, parolees, prisoners, andindividuals on death row. Presentedwith these two options, founders ofVEYA are working to address prob-lems in education and community

relations with police before they reach a boiling point.Although Irvin Landrum Jr.’s death remains a closed

case, public disgust led to the voting out of two citycouncil members. In Los Angeles, police districts arenow installing videocameras in squad cars to monitortraffic stops, a positive step in answering the demandsof citizens. The absurdity of Champaign police, whohave targeted two men for doing what police depart-ments across the country are now doing of their ownaccord, could only be a product of America’s racistlogic. More than just a public relations blunder, thesecharges were an attempt to suppress the irrefutableimages contained in the VEYA video, Citizen’s Watch,such as those of Sgt. David Griffet who is capturedholding a can of mace to control a black crowd outsidea club in downtown Champaign. We can be sure that ifpolice are carrying these chemical weapons, they areusing them on black youth. This is why there was pub-lic outcry over the proposal to arm Champaign policewith tasers. This is why voters must send another signalto city officials this November.

Also shown in Citizen’sWatch are images of youngwhite males terrorizing the streets of campus town andvandalizing public property, with no police in sight.Police say that they simply do not receive the samenumber of calls from this side of town. This videosharply contrasts assumptions of black criminality withimages of white male students whose binge drinkingand lewd behavior is tolerated, as if it were a part oftheir college experience. Members of this “enlight-ened” community must find more sufficient answersand demand equal enforcement of the law on both sidesof the tracks.

Brian Dolinar is a recent addition tothe Urbana-Champaign community.He is completing a Ph.D. in Cultur-al Studies from Claremont GraduateUniversity in California, and origi-nally hails from Kansas.

for our community,Martell Miller and Patrick Thompson, founders of VisionariesEducating Youth and Adults (VEYA), have courageously takenthe necessary steps toward change. Using a very popular pieceof technology, a video camcorder, these two dedicated gentle-men began videotaping our law enforcement officials as theyengaged African-American youth on the streets of Champaign-Urbana during routine traffic stops.

After accumulating hours of footage, the two men decided tobring the public face-to-face with the reality that exists on ourstreets. They made a 40-minute documentary, Citizen’s Watch,with the intent of creating a dialogue between struggling youthand frustrated police officers. Instead, it was misunderstood andresulted in the two men being charged with a class one felonyfor eavesdropping. The eavesdropping charges were broughtagainst the two men after they turned the videotape over toUPTV (Urbana Public Television) for public access. At thistime, it is unclear exactly how the tape found its way into thehands of the Urbana Police Department for use as evidence. Theonly logical conclusion is that someone from UPTVallowedthe tape to be confiscated by law enforcement. According to anex-president of UPTV, the number one “no-no” in public televi-sion is to give someone’s property away. It is the understandingof the members of VEYA that if the tape was deemed inappro-priate by the staff of UPTV, then it was their responsibility toeither destroy the tape or return it to its rightful owner. Further-more, UPTVmay have violated Martell’s and Patrick’s Fifth-Amendment rights. The Bill of Rights clearly states that noone’s belongings shall be searched, or seized, without dueprocess.

Martell Miller and Patrick Thompson are African-Americanmen from Champaign who spoke up against taser electroshockstun guns when the police department wanted to purchase themearlier this spring. Part of their argument in opposition to taserswas the disparate treatment of African Americans by localpolice departments. They did not want police to have anotherweapon to use against black residents. Thanks to the collectiveefforts of people like Martell and Patrick, the request for pur-chase of tasers was defeated.

Soon thereafter, based upon the fact that police seemeddetermined to purchase tasers at a later date, Martell and Patrickinformed the Champaign mayor and city manager that theywere going to start monitoring Champaign police stops of“black folks.” They explained that this cop watch was a way todocument any further abuse of power. There was no responsefrom either city official.

On August 7, 2004, around midnight, Martell was on northBradley Street with his video camera. He filmed a police officerpulling over a black man on a bicycle—simply for not having alight on the front of his bike! From across the street, Martellfilmed this “traffic stop.” The police officer left the scene. Thebiker then crossed the street and Martell asked him for an inter-view. The man agreed and the interview began. The cop whopulled the suspect over then returned while the interview was inprogress. As Martell was interviewing the biker, the officerasked Martell if he was taping him (the officer). Martell’s pri-

Aaron Ammons, A.K.A. “Brotha A-Dub,” isan author, poet, inspirational speaker/spokenword artist, Peace and Justice activist, andthe best husband and father in the world.

in protest of “police brutality, repression, and the criminal-ization of a generation.” See www.october22.org

(continued next page)

Oct. 23 10am-12noon. March will begin at two points,Scott Park and Douglass Park, converge at the Champaignpolice station, and end at Westside Park. This march isorganized by Visionaries Education Youth and Adults(VEYA) and C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice.

You know, in my neighborhood wed o n ’t really see the police that much. Ithink that there may be some class issuesat work there.... [I]n an area that’s predom-

inantly populated byprofessors and gradstudents..., even ifwe have a party orsomething thepolice don’ t reallycome by and hassleus or anything likethat. But I hear sto-

ries all the time from folks that live inareas where folks are maybe a little morep o o r, the property values may be a littlel o w e r, and there’s just police harrassment.T h e r e ’s police pulling people over for stuff[unnecessarily] and there’s just a lot of dis-trust of the police.

I think if they would welcome peoplevideotaping them – in fact if they werevideotaping themselves so that all of theirstops were [recorded] – especially ifsomething unexpected happens to them,to record that the suspect drew a gun

which was com-pletely unexpected –[that would help]. Ithink they shouldwelcome that....They should beopen about whatthey do with peopleand I think that

obviously the people who beat RodneyKing didn’ t think they were beingwatched and ... if they had known thatthere was this possibility [that it wasrecorded] they might not have beat him(they might have still beat him whoknows) but I think that people will behave

more genuinely toward the citizens of thiscountry – all of them – if they expect thathow they are treating people is alwaysbeing watched. And if they’ re doingthings right, ... then they shouldn’t worry.They should welcome it because it pro-tects them from lawsuits and so forthwhen somebody winds up with a brokennose or limb and blames it on the policeand it really wasn’t their fault.

They racially profile everyone and Iam a white, 40-year-old woman that ismarried to a black man and so therefore Iget pulled over just as much as a blackman or woman would…. Before I wasarrested in this town, I was pulled over forthe simple fact of having a black man inthe car. And once they realized that they

knew my husband,then everytime thatthey see me, theythink they have tospeak to me – ‘HiMrs. Henderson.How are you? How’syour husband?’andalways ‘What’re you

doing? Where’ re you going?’ and it’snone of their business. I’m not doing any-thing i llegal….Treat everybody fairly.Whether you’re black, white, red, purple,w h a t e v e r. I mean have consistency. . . .Don’t just earmark anybody…. So as faras the community I don’t have a clue rightnow. All I know is that I’m angry, I’mangry at the system and ChampaignCounty is very bad. ... I’ve never lived inChicago but everybody that has that livesdown here now says Champaign policedepartment – Champaign County period –is worse than Cook County.

Well, maybe get out in the community

t h a t ’s the badneighborhood andtalk to them more.See what they coulddo to help somepeople cause somepeople may not beas bad as [thepolice] think they

are. Just because they’re hanging out onthe street or whatever doesn’t mean thatthey’ re bad people. Take some time.

The neighborhood [I lived in] before Iwould say no, because it was mostly stu-dents and everybody was always com-

plaining about par-ties and the policecoming and givingthem a hard time.Every person thatwe’ ve ever seenpulled over it usual-ly happens to besomeone of a

minority status... . Not necessarily that Isee maybe a lot of blacks or anything, butI do see a lot of people of Asian descentpulled over.

I don’t think there is a good relation-ship at all with thepeople in our com-m u n i t y. Justbecause I mean,one, you barelyeven see copsaround unless it’s 2AM in the morningand they’re trying to

raid bars, but I personally think that theChampaign police department kind of for-gets about the safety of campus and thepeople on campus and are a little more

worried about just ticketing them for alco-hol and other problems.

A c t u a l l y, I just got pulled over a fewdays ago and they seemed really nice.Cause we made a wrong turn into a oneway street and we were a little tipsy but

they were like, ‘Ohyeah, this is okay.I t ’s okay, don’ tworry about it, it’s aw a r n i n g , ’you know.And we were allAsian, so... So far Id i d n ’t have anyencounters, but I

w o u l d n ’t generalize that…. If the policedrive by don’ t just be like ‘fuck the police’or whatever. Cause they are here to helpyou. ... [T]hey don’ t really like wanna justcatch anyone I guess. I don’ t know, bemore cooperative, not you know, cause ifyou’re nice to them I’m pretty sure they’ regonna be nice to you.

Depends on the neighborhood. In ruralareas, the sheriff ’s department probablyhave a good relationship. The businesscommunity probably have a good relation-ship. The police are often from rural areasand the business community appreciatesprotection from burglaries. In white neigh-borhoods, they are accepted, with the whiteyouth probably liking them less because oftheir type of carousing. The black commu-nity can obviously speak for themselves. Abetter measurement of how the relationshipis going with the police is to ask ourselvesa question: When a police squad carappears in your area, do you feel like thegood guys are here, or do you feel scaredthey will try to find out if they can arrestyou or write you some kind of ticket?

mary objective was to record video and audio of the allegedsuspect, however, based upon the proximity of the officer ashe approached Martell, the officer’s voice was also pickedup by the built-in microphone. Consequently, Martell’sresponse was, “No, you’re putting yourself on my tape.”There was a brief exchange about citizen rights and Martellasked to talk to a superior officer. The supervisor was calledand upon his arrival informed Martell that he had recordedthe cop without his permission. The officers “seized” thecamera and the tape, yet they did not arrest Martell.

Martell was later summoned to court and charged witheavesdropping. Judge Heidi Ladd refused to allow the StateAttorney to arrest Martell over the charge and released himon his own recognizance. Meanwhile, the News-Gazettereported on the story, and also editorialized against StateAttorney John Piland bringing charges against Martell for a“crime” that thousands of people commit daily.

The Illinois State law on eavesdropping has been inter-preted by many attorneys, supporters and critics, but no onehas been able to shed light on the subject. Champaign PoliceChief R.T. Finney explained the charges quite clearly andagreed that the two men technically broke the law, however,he added that such legal actions could have been preventedby simply having a meeting with Mr. Thompson and Mr.Miller. The confusion that ensued undermined the progressthat police and members of the community have made thusfar. Supporters said the law is the law, no matter how trivialit is and the men should be prosecuted. Critics said if the lawis to be strictly interpreted, it would make felons of thou-

sands of American citizens. Considering the vagueness ofthe law and the sensitive relationship between black citizensof Champaign County and its police departments, other con-cerned citizens asked the State Attorney to exercise somediscretion and oversee a meeting between the two parties inattempt to resolve this matter in a manner beneficial to thecommunity.

Amidst intense pressure from organizations, such as C-UCitizens for Peace and Justice, AWARE, NAACP, and hun-dreds of concerned citizens, on September 23, the Cham-paign Police Department publicly requested that the StateAttorney drop the eavesdropping charges. Under the micro-scope of public scrutiny and a mounting political campaignto remove him from office, State Attorney John Pilandcalled a press conference to explain that he had done as hehad been instructed. Mr. Piland revealed that he was askedby officers on the Champaign police force to press chargesagainst the two men. Just days later, Mr. Piland dropped allthe charges against Mr. Miller. However, as of publicationdate, the charges against Mr. Thompson still stand. Mr.Piland certainly has the jurisdiction to dismiss the eaves-dropping charges against Mr. Thompson, especially sincethe two men were charged for the exact same crime. Fur-thermore, even with the dismissal of Mr. Miller’s charges,neither the camcorder nor the tape seized by the officers hasbeen returned. These tactics are typical examples of theabuse of power that the concerned citizens of ChampaignCounty are no longer going to tolerate.

Champaign County citizens of all political affiliations

are opposed to actions that disenfranchise viable segmentsof our population. Everyone realizes that we are at our bestwhen the community functions as one united body. Hence-forth, it is imperative that the good people of our growingcities sacrifice personal desires and humbly submit to thegreater good of all people. With the help of VEYA, theentire community can be properly informed and burstingwith self-esteem. This “dream” can be realized by practicingforgiveness, empathy and compassion for those in ourhuman family who show symptoms of pain and suffering,while simultaneously holding each other accountable forour words and actions. The integrity and respect that pre-vails from such an understanding will allow us to serve thehealth, rights, interests, and needs of all people.

This aforementioned information has lead to mass com-munity education in the form of classes, seminars, andworkshops to begin this mandatory process of dismantlingignorance. Meanwhile, each of us must search our souls anddiscipline ourselves to do what is right—forgive our fellowman, yet resist the perpetuation of exploitation and igno-rance that is represented by some of our citizens and publicofficials. To get involved in the many upcoming events thathave been sparked by Mr. Thompson and Mr. Miller, such asthe tremendous voter registration drive being held through-out the community, or the Unity March that will take placeon October 23 from 9:00-10:30 a.m. beginning at Scott andDouglass Parks and converging at the Champaign policestation, please contact C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice atlifestratinst@sbcglobal.net. BE Peace, BE Just!

, five members of the Urbana-Champaign IndependentMedia Center were arrested in a mass round-up of peaceful demonstrators just one blockfrom the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City. The arrest led to a twoand a half day ordeal for the demonstrators and their loved ones as the New York PoliceDepartment and the Department of Corrections attempted to clear the streets of demon-strators during the Republican National Convention (RNC).

The march, organized by the War Resisters League and the School of the America’sWatch, had assembled at the World Trade Center to march to Madison Square Garden in aneffort to bring the sober legacy of September 11 home to the RNC, which was widely reviledin New York City for capitalizing on the attacks for political gain. An estimated 400 peoplewere arrested shortly after police had announced that the march, which did not have a permit

to close the street, must remain on the sidewalk and obey New York State traffic laws. Thedemonstrators were moving along the sidewalk, leaving about 2 1/2 feet of space for otherpedestrian traffic and attempting to organize themselves to walk two abreast, when the policesuddenly blew a whistle and announced that everyone was under arrest. The police gave noorder to disperse prior to surrounding the march with net and beginning the process of hand-cuffing everyone on the block, including a German tourist, a New Yorker who wanted towatch the demonstration, and a 17 year old woman from Delaware visiting New York for thefirst time.

These are the first-hand accounts of our UC-IMC members who were held in detentionduring the RNC protests in New York City.

Zoe Ginsburg, a 16 year old Urbana resident and student at UniversityHigh School, was held for 37 hours before being released at 5:30 AM onThursday morning. When she asked an officer what she was beingcharged with, the officer replied that she did not know. Zoe and other UC-IMC members Zach Miller of Urbana, Colleen Cook of Champaign, ArunBhalla of Champaign, and Sarah Kanouse of Chicago were never formal-ly informed of their arrest charges but were assured by their arresting offi -cers that they would be released before the next morning. None of thegroup was set free before Wednesday afternoon, and Sarah Kanouse, thelast of the group to be released, left the New York Criminal Court at 6:45pm on Thursday, after being in custody for over 50 hours.

On August 31, over 1000 people were swept up in massive arrests,h a n d c u ffed, fingerprinted, photographed, and held in custody—over-whelming a system that usual ly handles 200-300 arrests per day and tr ig-gering a massive backlog that caused delays in the arraignment process.The demonstrators were initially taken by the busload to Pier 57, amakeshift holding pen in a warehouse quickly dubbed “Guantanamo on theHudson” by prisoners and the media al ike. As many as 90 prisoners at atime were held in 20 by 40 foot pens made with 15 foot chain-link fencingcapped with razor wire. The three benches in the pens were far too small toseat all the prisoners, who were forced to sit or sleep on the bare floor. Tw oport-a-potties serviced each cel l, which f il led quickly during the lengthyholding period, which for many prisoners exceeded 18 hours. Most of thepens were not supplied with trash disposal, and the cel ls fi lled quickly withstale, half-eaten sandwiches, crushed paper cups and empty milk cartons.

When the media received word of the conditions at Pier 57 andarranged a photo opportunity after the prisoners were transferred, thepolice department attempted to conceal the conditions by thoroughlymopping the floor and laying new carpet. While a few demonstratorsreceived plastic sheeting to lie down, the vast majority were offered noth-ing and emerged from Pier 57 covered in fine, black grit. A large numberof arrestees received rashes and blisters, and still more reported severeheadaches, sore throats and hacking coughs in the hours and days follow-ing their transfer. Medics who treated demonstrators upon their releaserecommended that they first take cold showers to avoid absorbing the sub-stances from the Pier 57 floor and were taking clothing samples to analyzethe composition of the greasy grit.

Excruciating delays in arraignment not only wore down the prisoners’health and energy but also kept many demonstrators off the street for morethan two days. Lawyers and protesters believe that the delays weredesigned to prevent people from exercising their free speech rights duringthe convention and voicing their opposition during Bush’s acceptancespeech on Thursday. Norman Siegel of the National Lawyer’s Guild,which represented thousands of arrestees, alleged, “The city of New Yorkattempted to ‘lose’the people currently held in central booking until afterBush gave his speech tonight, after which they would miraculously be‘found.’” Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union issueda statement regarding police tactics. “The pre-emptive arrests; preventivedetentions and dangerous conditions at Pier 57 and massive surveillanceof lawful protest activity undermined the right to dissent. The depart-ment’s practices were inconsistent and its standards were unclear fromday-to-day. As a result, perfectly lawful actions could result in an arrest onany given day and time. That stifles dissent and political debate.”

A common refrain of both the police and the New York media was thatif someone attends a demonstration, she or he should expect to get arrest-ed. One of the corrections officers who expressed sympathy with the pro-testers’cause added, “Of course if you’re going to protest, you’ve got toexpect that this will happen.” But to the demonstrators, this seems like abackwards way to look at the detention. If free speech and free assemblyare among our most important constitutionally guaranteed rights, peopleshould not be expected to spend two days behind bars as a price exactedfor voicing their conscience.

Sometime into my 43rd hour in the custody of theNew York Police Department, I started to cry. “I justdon’t see how we can stop this,” I pleaded with mycellmates through my tears. “I feel this country andmyself just sinking and sinking. At what point doesthis kind of repression stop being proto-fascist andbecome just plain old fascism?” My cellmates gaveme toilet paper to wipe my tears and hugged meuntil I stopped crying. They had no words of com-fort to offer. We all felt the same way.

An hour later, we were banging on the bars andshaking the floor with our chant, “This is illegal! Letus go!” Within minutes, several floors of demonstra-tors joined in the chanting, and those on vigil belowsent their voices up to meet ours. After twenty min-utes, the guards promised we’d be next to get ourphotos taken, another step on the excruciatingprocess of being arraigned and released. A f t e ranother hour, we were waiting still, seven women inan eight by nine foot cell, taking turns sitting on thebench and stepping over our comrades sleeping fit-fully on the cold, concrete floor.

After almost no one was processed or released onTuesday night, somewhere I knew the delay waspart of a deliberate strategy to keep the streets clearof demonstrators until Bush could give an expertlydirected, perfectly choreographed acceptancespeech on Thursday.And, while that knowledge did-n’t prevent me from hanging onto every false esti-mate of my release time given to me by my wardens(which ranged from “I don’t know” to “six morehours” to “we can keep you up to three days”), Iplaced more stock in the combination of rumor andinformation circulating among the cells abouthabeas corpus and threats of contempt charges andfines levied against the NYPD. I left the courtroomat 6:45 pm on Thursday, a bit disoriented that I woreno chain on my right wrist and that no one wasyelling at me to keep my shoulder to the wall. But Iknew Bush’s speech would start soon and I wouldmiss it because I needed a medical exam, legaladvice, and the first nutritious food I’d eaten sincebreakfast two days before. The Republican plan, if Imight call it that without hard evidence, had workedon me and hundreds of others. We were too busytaking care of ourselves and each other to protestwhat had hurt us. For some of us, it felt like a slap inthe face. We weren’t used to being immobilized likethis. We were going to miss the big event, and it wasgoing to go on with or without us.

There is an unacknowledged myth about radical-ism among white people that allows us to feel likewe’re supposed to be at the forefront of socialchange movements. It goes something like this:white, middle-class people are well-positioned tobecome vanguard activists because our privilegegives us the economic and social capital to use inour work and shields us from the worst oppressionsof the state. At times there is an element of truth tothis myth, as there are to many. But if it sounds likea variant on white guilt, or an apologia for whywhite people can’t stay in the background, it proba-

bly is. But it might help explain why even in NewYork City and against the Republican Party, thecounter-convention events were still overwhelming-ly white. Our radical Valhalla is too full of whitepeople: my friends are more likely to argue aboutthe spirit of Paris in 1968 than Kinshasa in 1960.I’m no exception—I needed to Google to find thedate for Kinshasa but not Paris.

As self-centeredly myopic as our unspoken van-guardism has been, it has also never been so wrong.The comfortable padding of privi lege is being worn alittle thinner by the Bush administration, and the pre-emptive arrests at the RNC are only the most recentand visible examples. (The prosecution of artist andprofessor Steve Kurz on counter-terrorism charges isanother). We could, of course, try to shore up ourracial and economic position (as Log Cabin Republi-cans seem masochistically desperate to do), or, worseyet, claim our time in jail as an ‘ authentic’ e x p e r i e n c eof oppression that is on par with the experiences ofothers. But I don’t think that we wil l do that. In NewYork, the bystanders swept up in the mass arrestswere as supportive of the protesters and outraged atthe guards as the demonstrators, and no one (least ofall the police) was keeping track of who ‘should’have been arrested and who ‘shouldn’t ’ have been.I’ d l ike to see that happen on the outside, and Ibelieve it can. We, who find our white skin and mid-dle-class backgrounds not buying us as much as theyused to, must develop more complex forms of soli-darity and collaboration with those who have beentoo busy taking care of themselves and each other tocome to ‘our’ p r o t e s t s .

I’ ve returned again and again to that 43rd hourcrying spell and gotten angry at myself for having nobetter inking about how to stop the spread of fascismthan I did then. I ’ve cried about it al l over again, andthen laughed at myself f or the arrogance of wantingto have all the answers. I’m sti ll sorting through thecontradictory emotions, observations, and conversa-tions that came out of being in jail for two and a halfdays. I’m vigilant not to allow the peculiar combina-tion of weariness and bravado that accompaniesbeing a political prisoner (for however short a termand minor an of fense) to obscure the fact that I stil lknow nothing about l iving in prison for years on end.“Why does my story matter?” I ask myself as I tel l i tto anyone who wil l l isten. There is no way to imposeartificial coherence on my experience because whatthis story will matter has more to do with what we alldo now than with what has already happened. Wehave a collective responsibili ty to gather the threadsof these experiences, observations, emotions, andconversations and weave them into a new narrative.We need to take charge of what stories are told aboutus and what stories we tell ourselves. Being a reflec-tive activist, I can’t help but make this sound like aconsciousness-raising session where everyone sitsaround in a room and talks. But i t isn’t. I t’s a collec-tive working out of error, experience, and coexis-tence through action, and the action had better startright now.

Author’s Note: I wrote this on the day after my release from NYC jail, while sitting on a benchin an airport in Denmark and waiting for the rest of the CU Wireless crew to fly in from Chicago.We are attending a weeklong conference about international applications of community wirelesstechnology and implementing community wireless networks in the developing world.

On Tu e s d a y, August 31st and We d n e s d a y, September 1st, I spent an unexpected 23 hours in jailwithout access to lawyers and l imited access to a telephone; I rode on 2 prison buses, was transferredbetween 9 different cells, put in handcuffs 4 times, and fed nothing but 3 stale white bread sandwich-es (2 with cheese and 1 with some foul green and purple splotchy bologna-like meat product).

The charges against us, parading without a permit and disorderly conduct (impeding the flow ofpedestrian and vehicular traffic), were ordinance violations, not crimes. The sorts of things that onany regular day a cop would write you a ticket for and send you on your way. But in this case theNYC police department decided to use these laws as a pretext for rounding up hundreds of protest-ers and getting us off the street before some theoretical subset of us did some actual crimes. T h eanticipated crimes were things l ike the 20 or so folks who planned to lay down in the street nearMadison Square Garden, staging a “die-in” to draw attention to the global deaths caused by the Bushadministration. The police marked possessions like bandannas to use as evidence that some protest-ers were “anarchists”, which of course means they are more dangerous and probably should gethigher bail.

Everyone at the Pier that night would start cheering and singing and chanting as each group of20, 50, or 100 protesters was brought in, growing louder as the population rose. It was pretty beau-tiful. When we weren’t cheering we were having spirited political discussions about the pros andcons of direct action and civil disobedience, how to adapt to the changing police tactics, and aboutthe differences and motivations for our different political orientations. This protest drew Deaniacs,Naderites, Greens, Anarchists, and regular every day rank and file Kerry/Democratic Party sup-porters. Most of those arrested were “non-radicals”. Most were in jail for their first time. Many hadno intention of engaging in civil disobedience.

I found this to be a great environment for education. These folks were all poised on the edge ofradicalism. They were all intrigued to learn that I was an anarchist. I don’t fi t the profile. I hadn’ tbeen advocating for violence. How could I be a Green Politician, the picture of non-violent hippi-eness, arrested for my first time, and call myself an anarchist? And where in these cells full ofpriests and businesspeople and workers and hippies and bicyclists and journalists were all thepink haired freaks? Where in the peaceful march along the sidewalk were the Molotov throwing,paint-wielding, havoc wreaking anarchists? Oh, do you mean that they’ve been lying to us? T h a tthe police don’t always play by the rules? That anarchists do have legitimate political ideas? T h a thordes of pink haired bandanna masked youths weren’t coming to burn down the town? Oh, andgetting arrested isn’t an end in and of itself for these civil ly disobedient rebels, that the civil law-suits afterwards are part of the strategy to deepen and enhance first amendment freedoms throughprecedent? That the press exposure during and after our arrest is part of the strategy? Oh huh...andI’d never really thought of the whole system as working in the interests of profit and the powerfulpeople who control it, or that Democrats have also done an awful lot of bad things on the worldstage. If hundreds of new radical activists were not born that night, at least I hope that I had a partin spurring their thinking.

After 12 hours at the Pier, some of us were transferred to Central Booking, known to locals asThe Tombs. We saw nearly every one of the 25 or so floors of this building during our stay. We weresearched, put in cells, transferred to other cells, searched again, fingerprinted, digitally pho-tographed, handcuffed, interviewed by EMS workers about our medical state. We didn’t actually seethe doctors until we’d been in the tombs for about 8 hours, about 16 hours too late for the 60 year oldman who suffered from chronic pain and didn’t have enough meds, the heroin addict who was goingthrough withdrawal and needed methadone, or countless others who were suffering without anyhelp from their captors). We had access to phones in some cells but not others—where the phoneswere simply broken and we were not given the option of using working phones in other cells. Wehad to pay to use the phones in all but one of the cells that we passed through. All calls were moni-tored by nearby guards and on the free call the name and number of the person called was recorded.

We were interviewed by social workers from some unidentified government organization whoasked about where we lived, where we worked, how much money we made, and who could con-firm all of this. Supposedly, this information would be used to determine whether we could bereleased with or without bail but in the end bail was irrelevant because most of us didn’t end upwith court dates. Supposedly, the fingerprints that were taken were an inquiry against the finger-print system and would not create a “record” for us. However upon further questioning of the offi -cers in charge, we learned that the fingerprinting would create an ID entry in the FBI’s fingerprintdatabase system. No criminal record would be attached to it but for now and forever our finger-prints would be associated with our names, birthdays, and current addresses.

After a day or so of sleep deprivation it is pretty hard to remember what you want to ask yourlawyer and get it all said and figured out before you go before a judge a few minutes later. Luckily,the National Lawyers Guild rocked the courthouse and most of us were released ACD (AdjournedContemplating Dismissal) which means that the case was set aside, and if we didn’t get arrested inthe next 6 months it would be as if the case never even existed. If we did get arrested again in thenext 6 months the case would simply come to trial and because we did nothing wrong we wouldalmost certainly be found not guilty anyway. So there is no need to return to NYC for a trial—theycertainly weren’t going to be able to try 1500 people that same day so if we hadn’t gotten ACDwe’d have gotten a notice to appear just so we could come back and win our innocence.

My stuff is still all in New York City. My digital video camera, my digital camera, my cellphone, my MP3 recorder, my backpack, and numerous other small stuff. All told there’s probablyaround $1000 worth of stuff in a plastic bag in a police trailer in Manhattan that belongs to me. I’llhave to send a notarized letter to a friend in New York City in the next 120 days authorizing themto pick up my stuff. If I wanted to get my stuff directly I’d have had to sit in line for three to fourhours and then I would have missed my plane to Denmark.

, thousands ofactivists converged in Miami, Florida toprotest the Free Trade Area of the A m e r i-cas (FTAA), a trade agreement whichwould enlarge the scope (and, somewould say, the disastrous effects) ofN A F TA to the entire Western hemisphere.Among the crowd in the streets were sev-eral members of the Urbana-ChampaignIMC, including Dave Powers, who filmedthe demonstrations, which were markedby an intra-state police presence moremassive and well-financed than had yetbeen seen in similar protests (the so-called “Miami model”). Apart from thetear gas and rubber bullets fired by thet r i g g e r-happy men in blue, however, theprotests were largely peaceful, colorfuland creative. It was at a puppet show thatDave met up with Graciela Monteagudo,a human rights activist and artist whoencouraged him to visit her country oforigin, A rgentina, in order to documentthe growing resistance movement of theworkers, who themselves are respondingto globalization with incredible creativityand resourcefulness.

The ensuing winter months passedwithout defini tive travel plans, unti lDave was contacted by the AutonomistaProject, a Vermont-based social justiceo rganization coordinated by Graciela.Arrangements were made, and by the endof June Dave was on his way to BuenosAires, accompanied by fel low IMCmember and videographer Colleen Cook.Their mission was to gather footage for adocumentary about the day-to-day, grass-roots activi ties of A rg e n t i n a ’s MTDs(Movimiento Tr a b a j a d o res Desocu-p a d o s, or Movement of UnemployedWorkers). While much media attentionhas been focused on violent clashes withpolice and on the p i q u e t e ro s, whosedirect action protests include theblockading of streets and highways toobstruct commerce, fewer people arefamiliar with other aspects of the move-ment, which, though perhaps less visible,are no less revolutionary.

At the end of 2001, under PresidentFernando de la Rua, the once-robustA rgentinean economy suffered a collapse.Roughly a week before Christmas, tens ofthousands of disgruntled and joblessworkers took to the streets, banging potsand pans and chanting “Que se vayant o d o s !” (“Everyone must go!”). Much ofthe collective rage was directed towardsformer neoliberal President CarlosMenem and the disastrous “structuraladjustment” policies he implemented,which left A rgentina beholden to foreigncapital and led to the virtual disappearanceof its middle class.

The popular uprising of December ‘01marked the beginning of a major mobi-lization of the A rgentinean poor andworking class. In 2002, it was estimatedthat nearly half of Argentina’s populationwas involved in the MTDs, which havesplintered into twomain factions. Onone hand are themore moderate,h i e r a r c h i c a l l y - o rg a-nized “corporatist”groups that engagein ongoing lobbyingefforts with the gov-ernment for betterunemployment ben-efi ts (the currentmonthly stipend is150 pesos – roughly$50 US – regardlessof the number ofdependents onemight have). On the other hand are themore radical , horizontal ly-org a n i z e d“autonomist” groups that reject capital-ism and refuse government assistance,which in fact is dependent upon one’saffiliation with a corporatist group. Aworker who believes in autonomia islikely to avoid involvement with a hierar-chical organization, with its president andboard of di rectors and their implici tdemands to refrain from radical politicalactivity.

It was amongst the latter, autonomousMTDs that Dave and Colleen spent theirtime in Argentina. “We wanted to get theactual people to tell us what they do. Wedidn’t want to meet with some leader[who] would have just sat down and firedo ff [pre-conceived answers],” Daveexplains.

From their base in downtown Buenos

Aires, with digital AV equipment at theready, the two set out on daily treks togather footage and conduct interviewswith members of various worker collec-tives and neighborhood assembl ies.Many such MTDs are located on thesprawling outskirts of Argentina’s capi-tal, home to some 13 million people, anincredible 40% of the country’s popula-tion. As the city expands into the country-side, many are forced to take up resi-dence on private land, living as squattersin shantytowns of corrugated metal,scrap wood, and homemade bricks. Thecommute from the urban hostel to theoutlying barrios often took hours, and itwas easy to get lost. “Many of thesestreets don’t even have names. On themap, the whole neighborhood would justbe a green area. None of the streets wereon the map,” says Dave with a laugh.

Often accompanied by other delegatesfrom the A u t o n o-mista Project, thereporters managedto visit some of theb e t t e r- k n o w nMTDs in andaround BuenosAires, includingSolano, Lamatanza,and Chipoletti-Allen. Within thesecommunities ofresistance, residentsmeet their ownneeds through thecultivation of com-munity gardens and

the production of a certain commodity,often clothing, which is traded with other,nearby communities or brought to open-air markets. Having little or no money,residents rely heavily on the barter systemor the use of social credits called t ru q u e s(truckays). Some of the more org a n i z e dMTDs have established communitykitchens, schools, and town hal ls toaccommodate regular neighborhoodmeetings and occasional musical or the-atrical performances. The goal of theunemployed workers is to co-create andmaintain sustainable living conditionsoutside of the capitalist system, whichconsiders them useless.

Another highlight of Dave andC o l l e e n ’s stay in A rgentina was a visit toZanon, a ceramic tile factory in theNeuquén province that is being run coop-eratively as an egalitarian, self-sustaining

enterprise in which all of the roughly 300workers receive the same wage and shareequally in the directly-democratic deci-sion-making process. The factory wastaken over (workers use the terms “recu-perated” or “expropriated” ) in March,2002, after the management threatened toclose down in the face of workers’demands for back pay. Under worker con-trol, productivity has increased and thepreviously high rate of on-the-job acci-dents and deaths has dropped to zero. Onseveral occasions, workers armed withslingshots have successfully defendedtheir territory from the police.

While Zanon is perhaps the mostwidely-known example, there are over200 worker-run factories in Argentina.Dave and Colleen also visited BocaNegra, where they conducted a longinterview with a Chilean-born indigenousman from MTD Solano who, thoughlacking formal education, expounded awell-developed philosophy of equalityand sustainability based on communal-ism and self-determination. Dave sum-marizes the worker’s sentiments: “Thismovement needs to be different than anyother previous movement, because whatwe’re facing is different than what wasfaced in the 60s and 70s. We don’t wantto be a part of capitalism. We don’t wanttheir jobs; we want our freedom. Theywant us to disappear, and we refuse todisappear. And the only way we can pre-vent that is by taking care of ourselves.”

The philosophy and practice ofautonomiahas led to an improvement inthe l iving condi tions of mill ions ofArgentineans. Indeed, the movement isgaining popularity in the neighboringcountries of Chile, Paraguay, andBolivia, and is reflected further north inBrazil’s Landless Peoples Movement aswel l as Mexico’s Zapatista uprising.These grassroots movements serve as aninspirational and viable alternative to thefailing model of trickle-down economicsprescribed by free-marketeers.

While not the main focus, there werealso plenty of demonstrations for Daveand Colleen to document. One was orga-nized by the Madres de Plaza de Mayo,mothers of the estimated 30,000 peoplewho were “disappeared” during Argenti-na’s military dictatorship, which lastedfrom 1976-83. An even larger demonstra-tion occurred on the anniversary of theassassination of two wel l-knownpiquetero organizers, Dario Santillan and

Darrin is a long-timeChampaign residentw h o ’s been intimatelyinvolved with the P u b l i ci since its inception. He’sinspired by the strugglefor freedom, in both itspoli tical and spiritual

aspects. Darrin is the author of the politi-cal cartoon and fronts theband .

“Congress shall make nolaw respecting an estab -lishment of religion, orprohibiting the free exer-cise thereof; or abridgingthe freedom of speech, orof the press; or the right ofthe people peaceably to

assemble, and to petition the government fora redress of grievances.”

the “BBCof the Middle East,” was launched inNovember 1996 and offered the Arab worldan alternative to government-controllednews stations. The network’s attempt tocover multiple viewpoints has drawn criti-cism from a variety of sources. The formerIraqi information minister Muhammad al-Sahaf threatened al-Jazeera with dire conse-quences for its “pro-US reporting,” but USleaders have accused the channel of broad-casting anti-American propaganda. DefenseSecretary Donald Rumsfeld said, “We ’ r edealing with people who are perfectly will-ing to lie to the world to further their case.”On August 7, the interim Iraqi governmentannounced the closure of al-Jazeera’s Bagh-dad bureau, citing the broadcasts of captivesin Iraq. In a press release, Prime MinisterIyad Allawi said, “This is a decision taken bythe national security committee to protect thepeople of Iraq, in the interests of the Iraqipeople.” Ironically, Iraqis claiming to repre-sent the resistance had accused al-Jazeera ofportraying the U.S. too positively and hadthreatened the network days before its clo-sure. Media around the world, including theNew York Ti m e s, the Los Angeles Ti m e s, andt h eG u a rd i a n, spoke out against the closing.The Los Angeles Ti m e ssaid, “Freedom ofexpression, including press freedom, wasdeclared an international human right by theUnited Nations in 1948. If US authoritiesbelieve in the principle of self-determination,they should practice it — starting now —insisting that the interim Iraqi leaders actingunder US auspices do so as well.” In Sep-t e m b e r, the Iraqi government extended theal-Jazeera ban indefinitely.

Jehane Noujaim shot the documentary“Control Room” inside al-Jazeera’s headquar-ters and the US military’s Central Command(CENTCOM), both located in Doha, Qatar.Unlike mainstream American media, al-

Jazeera does not sanitize its coverage of thew a r, and this has infuriated some U.S. leaders.Rumsfeld said, “We know that al-Jazeera hasa pattern of playing propaganda over and overand over again.” Josh Rushing, a US Marineserving as a press off i c e r, expressed disap-pointment at some of al-Jazeera’s coverage,but conceded that Fox News wasn’t impartiale i t h e r. Rushing complains about al-Jazeera’spractice of repeatedly showing images ofAmerican soldiers followed by footage ofwounded Iraqi children and civil ians. SamirK h a d e r, an al-Jazeera senior producer,defends the network’s approach: “We showthat any war has a human cost. We focused onthat there is a human cost because we care forthe Iraqi people. We are not l ike Rumsfeldwho says, ‘We care for the Iraqi people.’ H ed o e s n ’t care at all. Wecare for them. We areArabs like them. We areMuslims l ike them.”

A l - J a z e e r a ’s staffstruggles to balanceempathy for fellowArabs with balancedreporting. However, itsperspective is markedlyd i fferent from that ofmainstream We s t e r nmedia. For example, anal-Jazeera journalist inthe documentary pointedout that although Ameri-cans perceive Iraq andPalestine as separate issues, Arabs see themas closely related. Unsurprisingly, its cover-age of the war has focused heavily on the suf-fering of the Iraqi people. Some people con-strue this as propaganda and even incitement.Others believe that al-Jazeera is presentinguncomfortable but important information.

One of the most wrenching scenes in“Control Room” is the death of Tariq Ayoub,a correspondent who was killed when theU.S. bombed Al-Jazeera’s office in Baghdadon April 8, 2003. In an interview with theIndependent’s Robert Fisk, one of Ayoub’scolleagues described the attack. “It was adirect hit – the missile actually explodedagainst our electrical generator. Tariq diedalmost at once.” Two months earlier, al-Jazeera had provided the Pentagon with thecoordinates for its Baghdad office, and hadbeen promised that the bureau would not beattacked.

This wasn’t the first time that U.S. forceshad bombed al-Jazeera. A missile hit the net-work’s Kabul office during an air raid inNovember 2001. U.S. officials said that themilitary was targeting Al-Qaeda and didn’trealize that al-Jazeera was located there.According to al-Jazeera, the network hadsubmitted its coordinates to the Pentagon viaCNN in Washington.

A few hours after the al-Jazeera bombingon April 8, a U.S. tank fired at the PalestineHotel, where a hundred independentreporters were staying. This bomb explodedin the Reuters bureau on the 15th floor,killing two journalists and seriously wound-ing three others. Spokesmen at U.S. CentralCommand in Qatar stated that the tank hadbeen responding to “significant enemy fire

from the Palestine Hotelin Baghdad.” Fisk dis-putes this: “I was dri-ving on a road betweenthe tanks and the hotel atthe moment the shellwas fired – and heard noshooting. The Frenchvideotape of the attackruns for more than fourminutes and recordsabsolute silence beforethe tank’s armament isfired.” Democracy Now!host Amy Goodmaninterviewed Ta r i qAy o u b ’s widow, Dima

Ayoub, a month after her husband’s death.“Hate breeds hate,” said Ayoub.

“The United States said they were doingthis to rout out terrorism. Who is engaged interrorism now?”

Suhaib Badr al Baz, an al-Jazeera camera-man, was detained for 74 days without beingcharged. He was initially held at the Baghdadairport and then moved to Abu Ghraib prison.In an interview with Salon’s Phillip Robert-son, he described his experiences. “In there Iheard some horrible noises, many peoplescreaming. They told me to sit on the floorand I went numb from the cold. If I movedmy head even a little bit, a soldier would grabmy hood and slam my head into the wall.Sometimes they pretended to kill me bypulling the trigger of their rifles. I found outlater that they were punishing other peoplethere.” Al Baz was also interrogated. “Whenthe tall man was not satisfied with my

answers, he hit me in the face. They askedquestions in a way that showed they were notinterested in the truth.”

In spite of everything, the al-Jazeera jour-nalists in “Control Room” expressed surpris-ingly positive views of the American people.Khader hoped to send his children to the U.S.and admitted that if Fox News offered him ajob, he’d take it. Ibrahim said, “ I haveabsolute confidence in the United StatesConstitution. I have absolute confidence inthe US people. The US people are going tostop the United States.”

Hazem Jaber, a local businessman fromPalestine who watches al-Jazeera, talkedwith me about his impressions of “ControlRoom.” He confirmed one of the documen-tary’s points - although Americans see Iraqand Palestine as separate issues, Middle East-erners consider them closely related. Iraq isperceived as a potential power against Israel,and the pictures from Iraq and Gaza could bealmost indistinguishable. Jaber summarizedit briefly: “Same people, same suffering,same destruction.” He explained that theIraqis had been disgusted with Saddam Hus-sein and had hoped for something better.However, some Iraqis believe that the U.S.occupation is even worse than Hussein’sregime. For example, the abuses of Iraqipolitical prisoners in Abu Ghraib horrifiedthe world, and the U.S. ultimately gainednothing from them. Jaber pointed out thatinjustice led to insecurity. This seems to besupported by the increased suffering and vio-lence. Like the al-Jazeera journalists in “Con-trol Room,” Jaber also had hope for ourc o u n t r y. “The American people have thepower to lead the world toward destruction orprosperity.”

“Al Jazeera Accuses US of Bombing itsKabul Office” Matt Wells. The Guardian11/17/2001

“Does the U.S. Military Want to Kill Jour-nalists?” Robert Fisk. The Independent4/9/2003

“Sometimes They Pretended to Kill Me”Phillip Robertson. Salon 5/8/2004

Los Angeles Times Editorial 8/15/2004“ Iraq Silences Messenger A l j a z e e r a ”

Ahmed Janabi. Al-Jazeera 8/18/2004The Exception to the Rulers. Amy Good-

man with David Goodman. Hyperion 2004

Maximiliano Kosteki. Tensions were understandablyhigh between the police and the protestors, who num-bered around 50,000, but the gathering was peaceful asthe police cautiously and wisely laid low.

The most dramatic event happened on July 23, whenhundreds of angry p i q u e t e ro s surrounded the offices ofthe national legislature, which was scheduled to vote on abill that would make it illegal to engage in disruptivepolitical activity, effectively criminalizing dissent. Inorder to prevent the legislators from walking to the near-by Assembly building for the vote, the protestors sur-rounded their offices, smashing windows and even dri-ving a car through the front doors. The bureaucratsretreated to the upper floors until the end of the six-hoursiege, and the bill was never voted on. The people hads p o k e n .

After six weeks in A rgentina, Dave and Colleenreturned to C-U with nearly 15 hours of footage, outwhich they plan to create one or more documentaries. Itmay take a good deal of time and effort, but it’s a process

with which both are familiar. Colleen has created an as-yet-untitled documentary about the effects of sex traff i c k-ing on women and children in northern Thailand, whileDave has produced “Crashing the V I P Room: Conversa-tions with Vrije Keyser T V, Amsterdam, NL” , which tellsthe story of a pirate T V station that eventually grew into apair of community stations. He has also put together ashorter documentary of his experience at the aforemen-tioned FTA A protests, entitled “The Miami Model.” BothDave and Colleen see their role as filmmakers to be toeducate and inspire rather than to make money; thereforetheir work is open-access and anti-copyright.

Keep your eye out within the next few months for thelocal debut of the Argentina video, or screenings of otherIndependent Media productions. If you’d like to helpwith the scripting and editing process, please considerjoining the IMC video group, which meets every Tues-day at 7pm.

To learn more about the Autonomista Project, visitw w w. a u t o n o m i s t a . o rg. For more information aboutArgentina, visit ZNet (www.zmag.org), which features ane n t i re section dedicated specifical ly to A rg e n t i n a .

Postcards for Peace will be held this year on Sun-d a y, November 14 from 2-5 pm at the Cowboy Mon-k e y. This benefit auction will raise money for the Inde-pendent Media Center and AWARE.

We depend on submissions from local artists tomake this event a success. If you, or someone youk n o w, would like to contribute, the details are as fol-lows:

We are looking for 4x6 in (postcard sized) originalartworks, prints and photographs. They do not need tobe framed or mounted--we will take care of that.

The submission deadline is October 28th, but thesooner the better. You can send your submissions bymail to Rebecca Plummer Rohloff at 605 Fairlawn,Urbana, IL 61801. Or call us and we will pick it up.Questions or comments? 328-3059 orr o h l o ff@uiuc.edu or rrohloff@uiuc.edu.

On Friday, Oct. 15 through Sunday Oct.17, you are invited to come over to ourhouse – 122 N. Franklin, Urbana forHouse Theater! There will be 5 perfor-mances; Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 5 and9pm, and Sunday at 2 and 6pm. (Toattend, please make reservations as spaceis l imited: 384-0299, or

elizacorps@yahoo.com )

House Theater is a non-university, non-commercialcontext for mixing experimental composition and politi-cal satire in a lived in setting. A House Theater makes useof the doors, windows, stairs, porch, kitchen, bathroomof a rented house in Urbana to create a quasi cabaretatmosphere with small cafe tables, flowers, candles, cof-fee-can-clip-on lights hooked to the frames of windowsand doors, and with food and drinks served at the inter-missions. The atmosphere, program, and performance areso designed that a person might find herself addressed byexperimental attempts in art or discussing politics with astranger at intermission.

If you find a home with space enough for 30 people tosit; build 8 small tables for people to place their drinkson; if already a few friends live in that home and payrent; if you design a program that “mixes neighbor-hoods” by putting political satire next to experimentalcomposition and a rowdy poem next to a highbrowdance; if, inside this semi-nightclub atmosphere youserve wine and cider and good food during the intermis-sion; and if a weekend of five performances is followedup a month later by another program – then, you have aHouse Theater!

The upcoming house theater in October is the result ofan invitation sent out a few months ago, asking local andnot-so-local people to write political satire for these per-formances. A satire is a form of writing that “exercises”the logic of one’s opponents, we thought satire mightenable us to see that though Bush may be stupid, it does-n’t follow that stupidity is powerless or ineffective. Inaddition to satires by Joe Futrelle, Mark Enslin, BethSimpson, this house theater wil l also featuresingers/composers Rick Burkhardt and Andy Gricevichof the Prince Myshkins, who will be presenting a rangeof music and theater compositions.

The idea of House Theater grew out of discussions incomposer/activist Herbert Brun’s class, the Seminar inExperimental Composition, offered at the UIUC MusicSchool (taught by Brun from 1967-2000).

There, in 1985-6, classmate Candace Walworth and Ianalyzed Theaters and Concert Halls: as much as weloved those places, they seemed to prejudice and limitour imaginations. When people enter a typical perfor-

mance space, thei r expectationsbecome obedient, conditioned. A n dthis, not only for the audience – butalso for the creators of that event. Ifyou accept the stage and the imperativeto fill up the seats, then you can accepta lot of other things, too: that the audi-ence needs to “like it”?, that a likedpiece is good for society, that a hugeaudience is better than a small one. Allof these things come from commercialcriteria, not artistic! – but swallowedhook, line, and stinker by most artists.

However, we mused, if we were toinvite people to our house? And thenpresent our theater and music there,along with good food and home-madewine, to the people we had invited?

Sounded good. We decided to make House The-

aters. Since 1986, we’ve made 27 house theaters hosted at

homes of various friends in Urbana (in addition to housetheaters in Chicago, Sarasota Fla, Virginia Beach Va,Germany). Past house theaters have presented the poetryand comedies of poet Michael Holloway; theater andmime works of Jeff Glassman and Lisa Fay; skits andmusic linking pornography with commercial perfor-mance standards written by students of the University ofMichigan; theater and music composed by students ofUni High; a 1993 house theater portraying the “rise of thefree market in Eastern Europe” as Capitulate-ism; exper-imental music by many composers.

House Theater is a context which allows for a largerange of risk-taking, where we can try things consideredinappropriate by commercial standards but which we feelare needed by our society – with the knowledge we can“fail” and nobody gets hurt!

But really, why do things in a house? Doesn’ t that justmean everyone sits cramped in a little space, trying tolook over someone’s head just to see an amateur goofingo ff on stage? Good question. Here are a few answers: Awhile ago, if something was home-made, it was consid-ered inferior to store-bought. Though home has lost itsreputation as a creative center (after all, who sews, orcans, or makes wood-work anymore), store-bought hasmet a worse fate, meaning CHAIN-store-bought. Nowa-days, there’s a kind of hope in, and respect for, somethingmade and presented at home. Home-made can mean morev a r i e t y, or a different kind of variety, than what we find incommercial venues. Who can resist home-made cookies?

Another answer: every home has all the makings of aperformance space so anyone can put on a house theater!Your home (yes, I’m talking about your house or apart-

ment) already has chairs, tap water for dry throats, lights,friendly relationships between you and your guests, and adoor for your guests to arrive in and to be told to leaveout of. That’s all you need – and, oh yes, something tosay or perform or discuss. But, take a look at our currentpolitical scene; don’t you, indeed, have something to sayor perform or discuss?

The Internet activist organization, MOVE-ON, hasbeen encouraging people to hold salons or potluck din-ners in their houses, inviting the neighbors over to dis-cuss our society. The film, OUT-FOXED has been pre-sented in non-commercial venues, with the request to fol-low the showing of the film with discussion.

Maybe “home space” could be added to the publicplaces where we invite strangers in, not keep them out.

Invite us to your house theater!

You’re invited. You walk up the stairs of an unfamiliarhome. A child with a top hat greets you: Welcome tothe House Theater! You see amidst the knick knacks ofa home, a small stage, some 30 chairs arranged aroundsmall wooden tables. You take a seat. You face neigh-bors. From the staircase, someone seems to be arguingwith someone upstairs. At first confused, you realizethe performance has begun. Then follows thirty min-utes of more performance. Political satire makes youlaugh, experimental music leaves you puzzled. Yourneighbor has the opposite reaction: laughs during themusic, is silent and blank during the satires. You makea mental note to talk about it later. Intermission. Youhesitate, but when the “waiter” who brings you yourglass of wine turns out to be the musician who broughtyou your piece of “experimental music”, you can’tresist: a discussion with neighbor and musician keepsyou busy until the lights dim for “Set Two”?

Sponsored by: Champaign-Ford ROE EBD Network andthe Urban League of Champaign County

This year’s conference, as in the past, will bring togeth-er some of this nation’s leading experts, professors, authorsand more importantly, practitioners, known for their qualitywork with African American and Latino youth and families.We will create a safe space for you to observe, learn andreflect upon your work with children and families ofAfrican American and Latino descent. Special guests willalso include family members and youth for lively discus-sions and observations. We wil l talk directly about theimpact of “ race and culture” in the l ives of children andtheir families. You will learn strategies and be given toolsand techniques during each day long workshop to use asyou return to work with children and families. Most impor-tantly we will give you an opportunity to develop a networkof colleagues and friends to provide you with ongoing sup-port and technical assistance after the conference.

For more information, contact Vernessa Gipson or Bar-bara Cornejo at 355-5990.

Those thinking of purchasing a tele-scope for the upcoming holidays mightwant to participate in a free telescopeb u y e r’s clinic on We d n e s d a y, October 27from 7 to 8 p.m. at the William M. StaerkelPlanetarium. No prior knowledge isassumed. The workshop will cover tele-scope basics as well as what to look for in apurchase and what to avoid. Following thes e m i n a r, participants may go outside andview a Total Lunar Eclipse, beginning justafter 8:15 p.m., weather permitting. Formore information, contact Dave Leake at217/351-2567 or dleake@parkland.edu.

The nation will witness a total lunareclipse beginning just after 8:15 p.m. onOctober 27, as the moon passes throughE a r t h ’s shadow. Members of the Cham-paign-Urbana Astronomical Society, ana ffil iate group of the Champaign Park Dis-trict, will be at the William M. StaerkelPlanetarium with telescopes to view theevent, weather permitting. Interestedobservers should park in Parkland’s M1 orC4 lots and walk to just west of the plane-tarium. For more information, contactDavid Leake at the planetarium at 217/351-2567 or email dleake@parkland.edu.

The Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society and the William M. Staerkel Planetariumannounce a new program for all school-aged children called “Junior Stargazers.” Thisastronomy club for kids will have their initial meeting on Thursday, October 14 from 6 to 7p.m. at the Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland. Subsequent meetings will occur on the secondThursday of the month at 6 p.m., just ahead of the 7 p.m. CUAS meetings. The first threemeetings can be attended free of charge, and then there will be a $5 annual fee to cover thecost of materials. All are welcome.

The one-hour meeting will involve the children in astronomy activities such as locatingconstellations, learning about stars and planets, and space exploration. “It is our hope thatwe can entice kids into becoming skywatchers,” says Claudia Paris, CUAS member and JScoordinator. “These kids are our future scientists, so there ought to be a place where theycan meet, have a little fun, and learn something about the sky.” Paris is planning severalactivities for JS over the next few months, such as creating a logbook for recording skyobservations. For more information, contact David Leake at 217/351-2567 ordleake@parkland.edu.

U/C Progressives will meet on Sunday, October 10,3-5 pm, at the Crystal Lake Boathouse in Urbana. T h i smeeting is intended to bring together independents,Greens, Socialists, Democrats and members of pro-gressive social movements and civic organizations inthe C/U area for purposes of sharing information,avoiding scheduling conflicts, and all around mutualaid. There is so much going on in our community now.The more we work together, the more we will accom-plish in making this a more progressive community. A tthis meeting there will be a short dance performanceby African American youth at 3 pm followed by pre-sentations by Sister Carol and Brother Aaron of CUCitizens for Peace and Justice and by Mike Lehmanconcerning an about-to-be -launched progressive lowfrequency FM radio station in the twin cities. Mem-bers of progressive organizations are encouraged toattend and to participate, as well as to share in thehome-made cookies and nonalcoholic drinks.

Featuring artwork done by people with mental illness.We highlight our strengths and our recovery through ourart.

Champaign, IL61820in conjunction with a movie festival at theVirginia Theatre

Friday Night – Benny and Joonwith Johnny DeppSaturday Matinee – Finding NemoSaturday 6 pm – A Beautiful Mindfollowed by a paneldiscussion.

For further information on submitting pieces for the artshow or coming to the events, please call Sue Keller at373-2436 x 103.

Socialist Forum presentsa pre-election warm-up with political folksinger

at a fundraiser to help build Radio Free Urbana, a newlow-power FM community radio station on a t

8pm. The event will be held at the , 1209 West Oregon, Urbana and is sponsored

by Socialist Forum, Channing-Murray, and W R F U .Suggested donation at the door is $5 to $20.

The Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative(PRC) will be hosting a rally on Columbus Day toprotest the continuing legacy of racism on the U of Icampus, in our community and around the world.The ral ly wil l be held Monday, October 11th atnoon on the South Patio of the Student Union.Come speak out against A m e r i c a ’s mili tary imperi-al ism in Iraq and the U of I’s racial discriminationembodied by the “Chief.” For more informationplease contact the PRC at (217) 352-8721 orp r c @ p r a i r i e n e t . o rg .

meets every Monday 7-9pm at Ten Thousand Villages,105 North Walnut St., Champaign, IL. We are seeking aconvener/leader to succeed Robert Herendeen, who isstepping down. 217/352-8938.