[imc-st.louis] Confluence out now!!

[Mark]

Confluence experienced a long delay in publication while fighting local
officials to open CAMP, a community center at Cherokee and Minnesota we
are involved in. We are pround to announce another exciting
no-holds-barred issue on Confluence. Read about this grassroots exciting
victory with CAMP, local efforts to grow organic food in the city and an
update of the Lohr strike. Plus uplifting information on national efforts
to fight the power in the "Bioneers" article as well as a first hand
accound on Palestine, a review of "Class Matters" and more. Read the
introduction below. Look for Confluence on the streets of St. Louis in the
coming weeks or check it out now on the web! www.stlconfluence.org
Mark


FREE THE LAND! TAKE BACK OUR LAND!

By digger
    What is our place?  What is our relationship to the land, to the
physical community?  Isn't our place, our land, our last, most basic
right and refuge?  What if they try to take it from you?  Would you
ride with Crazy Horse, escape with Harriett Tubbman or fight back with
the Zapatistas?  Would you resist non-violently like Jesus, Ghandi or
Martin Luther King?  What if you could no longer live in the ignorant
bliss most white North Americans have lived in for the last sixty
years?
   In this issue, Confluence presents views of people struggling for their
place, for their land. There have been some successes:  A
police/government/business cabal tried to stop the opening of  the
community space at CAMP, but were overcome by local activists who
endured a year-plus long bureaucratic struggle to win an occupancy
permit for the building (see page 1).  The story shows an example of a
radical community facing an "official" power--and winning.
   As in many poor, urban communities, people living in the St. Louis
Place neighborhood in north St. Louis have limited access to fresh,
locally grown produce.  Members of the New Roots Urban Farm collective
did something about it. They acquired some land in the middle of the
neighborhood and showed they could achieve their vision of growing
organic produce available to all. (See page 6)
   Some communities keep struggling against incredible odds to keep their
land and their place.  Will the Israeli military  impose a "solution"
on Palestine by giving them a tiny Bantu Stan in Gaza while they steal
Jerusalem and the West Bank?  Jennifer Presson gives an electrifying,
first-hand account of Israeli atrocities against Palestinians in the
West Bank on page one.
    Official sources tell us that the invasion of Iraq was part of a war
against terrorism.  Leftists say it is all about oil.  Iraqis fight to
defend their land against foreign invaders.  Wolfi Landstreicher's
deep analysis (page 4) gives a stark perspective:  the fight of a
people against the excesses of neoliberal capitalism, local dictators
and fundamentalists.
   Striking Lohr drivers struggle for their rights in the workplace 
against strong-arm tactics by the beer distributor, evasive tactics by
Anheuser-Busch and betrayal by their union.  Their determination to
continue the strike invites a sober evaluation  of the labor movement
in St. Louis--given on page 3.
   Commercial interests continue to threaten Missouri forests.  A Missouri
Forest Alliance report on page 8 reveals the collusion of the US Forest
Service with corporations that clear-cut, mine for lead and sell
off-road vehicles to devastate the Mark Twain National Forest.
    May our readers be inspired to take action, to stand up and defend our
land, our place, that to which we have a right.



-- 
Confluence, POBox 63232, St. Louis, MO 63163
Circulation: 10,000 www.stlconfluence.org
St. Louis Independent Media Center
www.stlimc.org
Community Arts and Media Project
www.stlcamp.org


-- 
Confluence, POBox 63232, St. Louis, MO 63163
Circulation: 10,000 www.stlconfluence.org
St. Louis Independent Media Center
www.stlimc.org
Community Arts and Media Project
www.stlcamp.org