Arizona: Global Justice Teach-in

8th Annual Local to Global Justice Teach-in is coming!
RECLAIM THE COMMONS
Inauguration Parade: Friday February 27, 2009
Teach-in Saturday February 28 - Sunday March 1, 2009
Farmer Building ASU Tempe
Highlights of the event:
Gustavo Esteva, a Mexican activist and "de-professionalized intellectual." He is the founder of the Universidad de la Tierra in the Mexican city of Oaxaca. He currently works at the Centre for Intercultural Dialogues and Exchanges (CEDI) in the city of Oaxaca, and is a former advisor with the Zapatista Army for National Liberation (EZLN) in Chiapas for the negotiations with the government. He works with several indigenous groups and NGO's from all over the world. Gustavo will speak on Saturday Feb. 28 from 1:30-3:30pm
Luis Fernandez, author of Policing Dissent: Social Control and the Anti-Globalization Movement (2008, Rutgers University Press). His research interests include protest policing, social movements, globalization, and issues in the social control of late modernity.He is Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northern Arizona University. Fernandez is one of the founders of Local to Global Justice. Luis's panel discussion is scheduled Sunday March 1st, from 3:30-4:30pm
Krysten Sinema, elected to the Arizona State Legislature in 2004 and re-elected in 2006 to continue serving central Phoenix in District 15. She holds a Juris Doctorate and a Master's degree in Social Work from Arizona State University. Sinema is an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University and practices criminal defense law in the Phoenix community. Krysten will be part of panel scheduled Sunday March 1st from 3:30-4:30pm
Sang-hea Kil, her research focuses on the nexus between immigration and crime, media and discourse analysis, and whiteness and nationalism within a critique of racism and the social construction of USA-Mexico border. She is also interested inc oalition work within a scholar-activist perspective that stems from her political work around issues of human rights, anti-globalization, women of color, and anti-war efforts. Sang-hea will be part of panel scheduled Sunday March 1st from 3:30 -4:30pm.
There will be lots of activities for kids and teens! Youth ages 3-17 are invited to participate in workshops, art projects, and skill shares on both days.
Dozens of local grassroots and student groups will lead workshops on a wide variety of topics, from sustainability to immigrant rights to bike healthy food. You're sure to find topics that will engage you and inspire you to act!
Music will be provided by the People's Party, Cultura Libertaria and the Black River Bandit.
Delicious free food will be provided all weekend, with the help of Green Vegetarian Restaurant and Tempe Food Not Bombs.
The Teach-in runs from 8:30 am - 7 pm Saturday and 8:30 am - 5 pm Sunday, so feel free to stop in at any time on either day. For a full schedule of events, plus parking info and directions, visit www.localtoglobal.org.
We rely on volunteers to bring you this completely free event. Please consider offering a couple hours of your time on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. Send us an email at L2GVolunteers@gmail.com if you can help!
The Teach-in is funded entirely by donations and university funding. If you can spare a small donation, it will help us make this the best Teach-in ever! Just click the "Donate" button at www.localtoglobal.org
, or bring a few extra dollars to the event itself.
If you have any general questions about the Teach-in, send an email to localtoglobaljustice@yahoo.com.
See you at the Local to Global Justice Teach-In!
Fri, Feb 27 - Sun, March 1, 2009
Arizona State University - Tempe Campus
www.localtoglobal.org

Mohawk Nation News: 'Fake Obasms Abound'

FAKE “OBASMS” ABOUND WHILE U.S. PRESIDENT TRIES TO STIMULATE THE ECONOMY

Mohawk Nation News
http://www.mohawknationews.com

Feb. 5, 2009. U.S. President Obama says he’s going to stimulate the Americans’ economy to stop its dive to oblivion. They’re looking to him for “obasms” because they don’t know how to save summer’s abundance to get them through the winter. No matter how hard he tries, nothing’s coming up! Like drug addicts hooked on dope, they want another fix. They think they can’t survive without it.
Obama is facing a formidable government bureaucracy that’s controlled by a few “banksters” [bankers and gangsters]. The hierarchical system has jobs for the chosen few arranged in a pyramidal chain of command that is imbedded in every private and public financial, educational, political, economic, trade, military, pharmaceutical and social institution. Far from being “public servants” they’re on the take and basically never do anything useful for anyone. They grab as much money and benefits as possible and do almost no work. In fact, the less they do, the more likely they are to be promoted.
At Indian Affairs offices in Ottawa, their desks are shiny and their feet are sitting on top of them. In the meantime the people they are supposed to serve are living in forced squalor. We’ve seen these bureaucratic bloodsuckers sit and listen to Indigenous people explain their dire situations in some isolated community. They’ve travelled from far away to ask for help. After hearing about the horrific situation, the bureaucratic leech puts his hands behind his head and says, “We can’t help you. You have to go see somebody else”. This is known as “passing the buck” to someone else until they wear them out and they go home with nothing.
Our suggestion to Mr. Obama is to dump this scrounging class system. These freeloading gate keepers’ jobs are to sit behind the desk and take some of the cream as it passes by them. In the end, they’ve done a good job if they’ve made sure that the money meant for the people or program gets almost nothing. Indian Affairs is loaded with non-natives who are trained in that colonial system.
The ground under the feet of emperor Obama is shaking. If he wants to get more money to the people, he should get rid of this meat grinding slaughterhouse. These plunderers who were sent to Turtle Island by the European elite came here to kill us off so they could steal everything that wasn’t nailed down. 115 million of us were killed off. The elite who run these systems have to change or adapt to the new reality, and not just by getting rid of their babysitter, cleaning lady, chauffer or maid. The conditions they have created are critical everywhere. The mobs are getting hysterical. People are resisting and reacting worldwide. Some think the elites are going to run. Where? To outer space? Good riddance!
This is how this pecking order system works. At the top of the triangle sits the boss who got there by hook or by crook. So the meanest scoundrel sits at the top, has long lunches, plays golf and hollers at people sometimes. Below him/her is a huge pyramid of people who “yes” the boss but call him down at the water cooler. The more people he has working under him, the more money he gets. The one with an empire of 100,000 employees is paid millions upon millions. The one with only two under him gets a much lower pay. So it pays to perpetuate the empire with more people in it even if they do nothing. After all, they have a direct line to siphon money out of the taxpayers’ pockets.
Let’s say that the government has budgeted $100,000 to fix a bad water plant problem in an isolated Indigenous community. This plant was designed by the bureaucrats and was meant to cause sicknesses and even death. They want to move these people because there is gold or diamonds underneath them or fresh water nearby to export to the U.S. 70% of Indigenous communities have toxic drinking water not fit for human consumption. This is no accident. Do you really belief the Canadian engineers are that incompetent?
The federal, provincial, municipal and band council hierarchies all take their cuts for “administration” all the way down to the community level. In the end there is almost nothing left to fix the problem. So another proposal goes up the chain, the bureaucrats do the same end run and pocket more money. They make even more by prolonging negotiations, court cases, licensing fees and making sure it doesn’t get resolved, because it wasn’t meant to. The people get warn down and are forced to make a deal that doesn’t benefit them. In the meantime, the band or tribal councilors who work with the banksters live like Middle Eastern sheiks, while crumbs trickle down to the people. If the problem was fixed, the whole hierarchy would fall down like a house of cards. Some bureaucrats might even lose their jobs, we hope. They fight like rats to keep their positions because they’re incompetent. Who else would hire them?
The whole set up of lazy bums depends on this system. It’s never meant to serve the people. In November 2008 the heads of the Wall Street financial hierarchies were the first to pocket $750 billion from the U.S. Treasury. Everyone appeared to oppose this package. The nation might have been threatened with martial law or something else that forced Congress to go along with it.
To save money and stimulate the economy, demolish the hierarchy. Then bring the relationship between the tax dollar and the grassroots closer together. Instead of getting one dollar out of $100, $95 will go where it’s needed.
Let’s b%&@!h slap these parasites in these bureaucracies who sit at desks behind glass walls in big buildings and stare at computers. They are roosting chickens who have jobs, homes, cars, university tuition for their kids and vacations for taking 90% in fees from the people whose resources they are stealing.
Why are the currencies going down in value? Why can’t they trade, ship goods or make contracts like they use to? The U.S. dollar is only paper with some printing on it that needs stolen Indigenous resources to prop it up. The thieves have been putting up our land and resources, without our knowledge or permission, as collateral on another parasite, the stock exchange. We never surrendered our land or resources to anyone. This form of raising money from the public is fraud. This toilet paper system of currency went along until we Indigenous people started to resist. We are the caretakers, trustees, protectors and defenders of the earth. Our responsibility is to help achieve balance within the natural world. Our duty is to stop the depletion of our resources which is killing everything and everybody. We, the stewards of mother earth, have spoken.
Karakwine & Staff, MNN Mohawk Nation News http://www.mohawknationnews.com/
katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com Note: Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at http://www.mohawknationnews.com/, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much. Go to MNN “United States” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStorehttp://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois

California: Native Americans face violence over mascot removal

Contact:
Mark Anquoe
American Indian Movement - West
(415) 566-5788
gazelbe@yahoo.com
http://www.aimwest.info


Corine Fairbanks
American Indian Movement – Santa Barbara
(805) 212-4947
corine68@yahoo.com
http://www.myspace.com/aimsantabarbara

Native Americans Face Violence and Intimidation Over Mascot Removal in Carpinteria

CARPINTERIA, California - The small town of Carpinteria, California is the latest battleground in Native Americans’ fight against racism. The controversy over a supposedly “harmless” high school sports mascot has alienated the Native American population of Carpinteria, who have come to fear violent reprisals from the non-Native community.

The Carpinteria “Warriors” mascot is the standard Indian chief stereotype, complete with generic plains-style war bonnet and stoic gaze. The school logo consists of a spear with dangling feathers; a visual symbol also associated with plains Indian cultures. Last spring, 15 year old Chumash youth Eli Cordero voiced his objections to the use of this stereotypical imagery by Carpinteria High School. On April 22nd, 2008, he brought his concerns before the school board which then voted to retire the use of all Native American imagery.

Since the April 2008 decision, many citizens of Carpinteria have waged a campaign of terror against those who supported the school board’s decision, as well as the school board itself. A local businessman placed a quarter-page ad in the local newspaper explicitly naming and targeting Eli Cordero, the young student who originally brought the issue to the school board. Since that time, the 15 year old has received death threats and his family has been harassed. Death threats were also made against the child of a school board member who voted to remove the imagery. Local police began escorting school board members to and from school board meetings. Some citizens of Carpinteria shouted racial epithets at John Orendorff, a Native American Army Reserve colonel who spoke at a school board meeting in favor of removing the racist imagery.

Some Native American people have moved out of Carpinteria due to the climate of fear and anti-Indian sentiment. Ashleigh Brown, until recently a resident of Carpinteria, spoke of her decision to move away, “There is a community member who refused to do our printing for our cultural awareness event. Her son…started telling my roommate to keep my nose out of Carpinteria issues, or else I might regret it…So after other townspeople found out where I lived I decided to move out of Carpinteria.”

An organization called “Recall CUSD - Warrior Spirit Never Dies” (http://www.recallcusd.org), has waged a largely successful campaign to discredit and oust the school board members who supported the anti-mascot measure. Having successfully installed pro-mascot sympathizers on the school board, there is now a petition to rescind the earlier decision and keep the racist imagery at the public high school. On January 27th, local Native American people organized a protest to voice their objection to the measure, and were met with verbal abuse by drivers and passers-by. One protestor was hit with a rock thrown by an adult man shouting obscenities. This occurred despite the presence of a representative of the federal justice department, who was sent from Los Angeles to ensure proper police conduct and the safety of the demonstrators. Many local Native Americans, while supporting the anti-mascot effort, refused to join the protest, fearing violent reprisals by the townspeople.

The next school board meeting in Carpinteria is scheduled for February 10th. At this meeting the board will hear from a committee which was formed to assess each specific Native American image on display at Carpinteria High School. The school board is then expected to adjourn until February 24th, when the vote to rescind the previous ruling will be held. Protests and counter-protests are expected at both board meetings.

Pyramid Lake Paiute Gathering

Pyramid Lake Paiute COMMUNITY FEED
Pyramid Lake Paiutes and friends are invited to attend a community feed this Saturday February 7, 2009 @ 6:00pm, located at the Parish Hall in Nixon.
Antelope meat will be provided. Any assistance with side dishes would be greatly appreciated.
Any questions call Wayne Burke #232-1764.
Please checkout protest pictures at web site: http://www.holymenwarriorsdancers.com/

Photo: Protest of abuse of cultural items by Pyramid Lake Marina operator by Wayne Burke/ http://www.holymenwarriorsdancers.com/