On 30 July in Moscow without being presented any charges the activists of anti-facist movement Maxim Solopov and Alexei Gascarov got arrested.  Maxim and Alexei were known as public figures of the growing youth movement against the Nazis’ violence, which in recent years has done much to reveal the ties of state structures police and the ultra-rights in Russia.

Their arrest followed a series of dramatic events which took place in July, around the destruction of forest in Himki near Moscow.  Big business and state bureaucrats having interest in cutting down the forest for realization of the multimillion dollar Moscow-Saint Petersburg highway project, launched an all-out terror campaign against the initiative group consisting of local residents and ecologists.  On 23 July the peaceful camp of protesters was violently assaulted by thugs of private security firms and ultra-right football fans hired by the construction corporation.  The police would not get involved.  During the next week since 26 July the assaults on the protesters continued, while the cutting down of the forest – one of the biggest green zones in the nearest vicinity of Moscow - went on every day too.

Check out this great video from Pittsburgh activist and YouTube commentator Jasiri X:

A few months ago, Tim Wise wrote a widely circulated article called, "Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black " which challenged America to take a close look at the hypocrisy of the Right Wing. Now, a Pittsburgh rapper is accepting his challenge in true Hip Hop form. Jasiri X has released a video called "What if the Tea Party was Black." The Hip Hop artist says that he got the idea when Paradise,a member of the pro-black rap group X-Clan, forwarded him a copy of Wise's article. "I saw the article and I liked the concept," says the rapper. So Jasiri hit the studio with producer Cynik Lethal while Paradise grabbed his video camera and they went on their mission to defeat the Right Wing propaganda machine.

Incidentally, I'm in the middle of re-reading Robert Allen's classic book Black Awakening in Capitalist America which deals in depth with some of the questions raised rhetorically in this song. I also discovered audio files of a symposium last year celebrating the 40th anniversary of the book's publication -- including a reflection by Robert Allen: http://www.voxunion.com/?p=1089 courtesy of Vox Union.

I came across this video today, narrated by an environmental investigator in Alabama named John Wathen:

At mile 87, ground zero. My first view of the sight was one of tremendous impact. I'll never forget the scene. These are not small boats. While standing at a dock looking at them, they look like large ships. They're dwarfed in comparison to what I see on the horizon. Nothing but a red mass of floating goo - that could have been prevented, and should have been prevented...

We counted thirty boats in the pictures, floating around while this stuff makes it way toward shore. Nobody seems to be able to do anything about it. For the first time in my environmental career, I find myself using the word "Hopeless." We can't stop this. There is no way to prevent this from hitting our shorelines...

Due to huge debts, the Greek government (led by social democratic coalition PASOK) has fallen under supervision the International Monetary Fund and the European Union - and seeks to impose historically severe austerity measures on the working class. In response, Greek workers mounted a huge general strike on May 5. Savas Michael-Matsas of the EEK (Revolutionary Workers Party) sent in this photo and report:

As the Greek Parliament prepares to vote for the IMF/EU program of draconian measures, hoping to save capitalism in its bankruptcy, the Greek working class and popular masses are mobilized to fight back. The General Strike of May the 5th was a great success- and just a beginning.

More than 300 thousand people demonstrated in Athens on the day of the General Strike. This was one of the biggest demonstrations ever seen in the Greek capital, comparable only with the mobilizations immediately after the collapse of the military dictatorship in 1974.

Whew, what a week. Last Tuesday, April 27, I intended to rush home from an exhilarating 12-hour protest at the Broadview Detention Center and write about it here. After a vigil of more than 150 people, 75 of us had spent the night talking, dancing, and picketing before an unassuming brick building in suburban Chicago. This is a place used to process captive, undocumented workers - the five vanfulls that night are just a handful from more than one thousand immigrants who are deported each day. In the morning (just after I had to leave to give someone a ride to work) 24 participants were arrested blocking a bus of deportees.

Today, a similar action took place at ICE headquarters in Los Angeles.

Here's a video I made from last week:

A just released video from the internet news agency WikiLeaks shows gun-sight footage of Iraqi civilians being mowed down from a US Apache helicopter during the summer of 2007. Those killed included two Reuters reporters, Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh. Reuters' attempts to probe the military were met with responses that the reporters were part of a “hostile force."

WikiLeaks' footage, titled “Collateral Murder,” clearly shows a group armed only with cameras. As one of the victims crawls to a rescue van, he (and other civilians, including two children, inside the vehicle) are fired on again (warning, this is obviously chilling and disturbing footage):

Order these eye-catching buttons to spread the demand for social and economic justice. If you don't have paypal, email us!

Brown and black buttons demand: "Bring all the Troops Home Now!" Wear one everywhere to start a conversation about why US occupation can never be a force for liberation, and people's needs should come before the massive military budget.

Quantity

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Around 200,000 immigrants, workers, and family members packed the National Mall on Sunday, March 21 to demand immigration reform. At least doubling organizers' goal, the mass of people, which recalled huge rallies and marches across the country in 2006, was one of the largest demonstrations since Obama's inauguration. We held signs and chanted: Obama, no dejes la reforma pa' mañana - Obama, don't put off reform until tomorrow.

Out of the Shadows and Into the Streets!