[Sfbay-news] SF Bay Area IMC: News for October 7, 2004

Thu Oct 7 20:37:51 PDT 2004

WEEKLY INDYMEDIA UPDATE, OCTOBER 7, 2004
http://www.indybay.org/

Current featured news for the week of Thursday, October 7:

FBI SEIZES INDYMEDIA SERVER IN LONDON
A secret investigation has taken the FBI all the way to London to seize hard drives from an Indymedia server, named "ahimsa," which hosted around twenty local IMC sites including Italy and a number of other European IMCs, as well as Western Massachusetts and Ambazonia.  Rackspace.com, the US and UK-based ISP hosting the server, has not commented other than to report that it received a "federal order" requesting information from the server, and the company complied by handing over the hardware; Rackspace may have received a gag order preventing it from further discussing the seizure.  The FBI had recently requested, as a "courtesy," that photographs and "identifying information" of some Swiss police officers be removed from a post on the Nantes Indymedia site; it remains unclear why the FBI would have jurisdiction over a French website with photographs of Swiss police officers hosted in the UK.  The Nantes site has been relocated, UK Indymedia has been redirected to a backup,!
  and other affected IMC sites are redirecting to www.indymedia.org.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2505&category_id=32
Press Release: http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/10/1698249.php

MEDIA EMERGENC AND N.A.B. SHOWDOWN IN SAN DIEGO
The National Association of Broadcasters (N.A.B.), corporate pirates of the airwaves and perhaps the most powerful lobby in the country, and Media EmergenC, a grassroots independent media conference, have each pitched their tents in San Diego, where Clear Channel owns an astonishing 14 radio stations, Oct. 6th–9th.  While the media monopolists of the N.A.B. are "charting radio's future" and schmoozing with the FCC, media activists have come together to confront the corporate media through protest and workshops on independent journalism and creating democratic media networks and organizations.  Highlights of Media EmergenC will include the bay area's Davey D, KPFK's Sonali Kolhatkar, Prometheus Radio Project, Guerrilla News Network, and the Gadabout film festival.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2502&category_id=32

UNITE HERE LOCAL 2 HOTEL WORKERS ON STRIKE; LOCKED OUT
The Multi Employer Group, representing the 14 hotels on strike and locked out, has announced that they are locking their workers out past the two-week deadline of the strike, which begain on 9/29.  Negotiations will resume on Friday October 8th at 10am with a Federal Mediator at the War Memorial Opera House.  After working for six weeks without a contract, hotel workers are battling with management to save pensions and comprehensive health care for their families.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2494&category_id=12

GAY SHAME PROTESTS BODY FASCISM AT CASTRO STREET FAIR
Gay Shame disrupted the "Cutest of the Castro" beauty contest at the Castro Street Fair on 10/3 in protest of body fascism's "cosmetic assault" on the queer community.  The contest was originally marketed as benefitting the Maitri AIDS hospice, but Maitri later backed out of accepting money raised by a corporate-sponsored contest celebrating a "fantasy fetish" of youth and ability.  Gay Shame, which has been quietly operating under the radar for most of the year, aside from publishing its acclaimed newspaper CRAP (Community's Reactionary Asshole Publication), promises "further and grander forms of insurgence soon."
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2496&category_id=29

NATIONAL MARRIAGE EQUALITY EXPRESS HEADS FOR WASHINGTON, DC
After kicking off in the Bay Area, Marriage Equality California is on a cross-country tour to Washington D.C. to promote marriage equality, with stops in 10 cities.  The riders in the tour include same-sex couples whose marriage licenses have been voided.  These couples have issued a national call to action in support of marriage equality.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2446&category_id=29

DIEBOLD LOSES COPYRIGHT CASE AGAINST INDYBAY ISP
On 9/30, electronic voting machine maker Diebold, Inc., became the first company to be held liable for violating section 512(f) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which makes it unlawful to falsely threaten ISPs for copyright violation when the copyright holder knows that infringement hasn't occurred.  U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled [PDF] that Diebold had misused the DMCA and ordered the company to pay damages and fees to Indybay's internet service provider, OPG, as well as students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania:  "...Finally, Plaintiff's and IndyMedia's use was transformative: they used the email archive to support criticism that is in the public interest..."
In other news, Deborah Seiler, a Diebold sales rep who sold thousands of illegal voting machines to California, recently became the elections manager for Solano County, Calif.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2483&category_id=32

FEDS RAID FREE RADIO SANTA CRUZ
"Freak" Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM was raided on 9/29 by some 2 dozen armed federal agents with automatic weapons and riot gear.  Sleeping residents were roused out of bed and forced outside by Federal Marshals; 5 FCC agents later arrived to locate the transmitter and seize all broadcast equipment, including the antenna.  50-100 residents showed up to protest the raid and one SC-IMC photographer was roughed up by Mashals.  FRSC had never been raided after almost 10 years of broadcasting, and despite its frequent criticism of the city's anti-poor policies, had recently won a resolution of support by the Santa Cruz City Council.  Someone slashed the tires of the FCC & Marshals vehicles, stranding them on the premises for a little longer than they'd planned...
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2473&category_id=12

HISTORY & ANALYSIS OF THE SO. CAL. GROCERY WORKERS' STRIKE
The 70,000 southern California grocery workers' strike last winter was the largest action in the U.S. labor movement in almost a decade.  Grocery workers were on strike and locked out for nearly five months over demands for huge cuts in pay and benefits from their employers.  Despite the workers' determination, they returned to work with a concessionary contract that gave grocery mega-chains Safeway, Kroger, and Albertsons much of what they wanted.  Grocery executives claimed the cuts were needed to compete with non-union Wal-Mart.  As grocery workers in northern California enter a similar round of contract negotiations, Indybay's labor page takes a look at the union's strategy and workers' experiences during the southern California strike and lockout:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/09/1696831.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/09/1696996.php

GYPSY MOUNTAIN TREESITS RAIDED
9/26: Old-growth redwood Aradia was felled after being cordoned off by Pacific Lumber security.  One forest activist reported being tackled by PL security dressed in camouflage and hiding in the bushes.  Aradia, an old-growth redwood, stood above Grizzly Creek, near the death site of David "Gypsy" Chain, who was killed six years ago when a Pacific Lumber logger fell a tree in his direction.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2465&category_id=14

EDDY'S MEDICINAL GARDENS RAIDED BY DEA
Just days after Americans for Safe Access released a report about law enforcement violations of the rights of medical marijuana patients in California, the DEA raided Eddy's Medicinal Gardens, in Lake County.  On August 18th, 2004, federal agents uprooted more than 32,500 medicinal cannabis plants.  The patients whom Eddy Lepp's ministry serves have valid medical conditions and legal recommendations from their physicians to use Medicinal Cannabis.  The ministry is seen as part of a fight for patients’ rights to safe and affordable medicine.
Upcoming Events: Eddy had a court date on October 4th, in Federal Court in San Francisco.  His next court date will be on October 18th.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2419&category_id=27

MISTRIAL IN PEPPER SPRAY BY Q-TIP CASE
The eight jurors in the Pepper Spray by Q-tip trial informed the judge on 9/22 that they were "hopelessly deadlocked" and could not find resolution through further deliberation.  After encouraging them to rethink their opinions and meeting privately with the jury foreman, Judge Susan Illston declared a mistrial.  It was then that plaintiffs and defendants learned there were six jurors in favor of plaintiffs and only two against.
The lawsuit stems from three Headwaters Forest protests in 1997, at the height of the campaign to save ancient redwoods.  Activists had locked themselves to each other in a circle at sit-in protests in rural northern California.  As Sheriffs' deputies tried to remove them, the officers used the unprecedented tactic of application of pepper spray by Q-tip, as well as direct spray into the face from inches away.
http://www.indybay.org/archives/archive_by_id.php?id=2373&category_id=14

FAULT LINES #4 HITS THE STREETS
Indybay's newspaper, Fault Lines, has once again hit the streets!  Grab a hard copy at friendly locations throughout the Bay Area:
http://www.indybay.org/faultlines/

"UNEMBEDDED" FILM FESTIVAL COMING UP AT SF'S VICTORIA THEATRE
Details will be available soon at http://www.indybay.org/

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