AIM-West to Join Palestinian March in San Francisco

AIM-WEST endorses the rally event and action scheduled for Saturday, January 10, 2009 at Civic Center in San Francisco

By Tony Gonzales

Photo: Palestinians on Alcatraz at Sunrise Gathering 2006/Photo Brenda Norrell

The American Indian Movement (AIM)-WEST calls out to all our relations, allies and supporters to join the marches; form a contingent in every city, town or village, with flags, drummers and singers, dancers, banners, Elders and youth, to identify who we are, and that we stand in solidarity with the heroic peoples of Gaza!
AIM-WEST, will have a speaker to express the sentiment of the American Indian community, and call to end the killing and bombing of the people Gaza, in Palestine. We will also have spiritual advisers who can also convey words of healing and strength for both our peoples.
We Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, the living memory of our ancestors, share a common enemy with Palestine; racism, poverty and colonialism. Palestinians are the Indians of Palestine! American Indians are the Palestinians of the Americas! Long live Palestine! Long live American Indians and their homelands!
Call AIM-WEST for additional information at 415-577-1492, and http://www.aimwest.info/
Tony GonzalesAIM-WEST-Director
eltonyg@earthlink.net

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'Activist' informant at GOP/Katrina relief unmasks himself

Activist Unmasks Himself as Federal Informant in G.O.P. Convention Case
by Colin Moynihan

When the scheduled federal trial begins this month for two Texas men who were arrested during the Republican National Convention on charges of making and possessing Molotov cocktails, one of the major witnesses against them will be a community activist who acted as a government informant.
Brandon Darby (PBS Photo) Brandon Darby, an organizer from Austin, Tex., made the news public himself, announcing in an open letter posted on Dec. 30 on Indymedia.org that he had worked as an informant, most recently at last year's Republican convention in St. Paul.
"The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of Investigation," wrote Mr. Darby, who gained prominence as a member of Common Ground Relief, a group that helped victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Read article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/us/05informant.html?ref=us

Sheep Dog Nation Rocks: Hopi speaks out against Navajo relocation

By Bahe Katenay
Navajo from Big Mountain
Sheep Dog Nation Rocks
Published with permission

FLAGSTAFF -- When the Dineh resisters at Big Mountain declared their independence in 1977 they further declared they would submit their conditions beyond and bypass the Navajo Nation or the BIA. They would present their conditions directly to the UN Commission on Human Rights.
What am I talking about? Well, they held this Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission hearing in Flagstaff (in December) and I wonder how can a governmental organization be intent on hearing such conditions?
However, it's kinda kool that a Hopi person eventually reminded everyone about the real situation of human rights violations on Black Mesa. I don't know what this Navajo Nation commission seeks, but at the United Nations level, the Dineh have presented the conditions of violations committed by institutionally-designed policies of racial and genocidal practices.
Excerpt the article, "Human Rights Commission hears testimonies of 'racism,'" by S. J. Wilson in the Navajo-Hopi Observer, December 31, 2008
FLAGSTAFF -- Four of the five members of the Navajo Nation Human Rights Commission recently visited the communities of Winslow and Flagstaff to hear public testimony regarding race relation issues in areas including housing, education and civil rights ...
Bob Lomadafkie, a longtime citizen of Flagstaff and a member of the Hopi Tribe, spoke about the effects of relocation on members of the Navajo and Hopi tribes, and the allegiance held by many traditional Hopis against the relocation of their Navajo neighbors.
"We were opposed to relocation; we feel it was wrongfully imposed on the Dine'," Lomadafkie said. "We also addressed the pow wow in Flagstaff; there was a lot of negative talk that put Native Americans in a bad light."
Lomadafkie is on several boards for Flagstaff organizations and is involved in issues such as homelessness and the recruitment and retention of Native American students at Northern Arizona University (NAU) - where he finds that one of every four students is Native American - predominantly Dine'."
Read article in Navajo Hopi Observer:
http://navajohopiobserver.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=7454
Signed by Sheep Dog Nation Rocks:
That Annoying Sheep Dog
“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducated the person who learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours!”
--Cesar Chavez, (activist & educator)

Party time on the border: Hasta la vista Chertoff!

FROM EL PASO TO BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS BORDER COMMUNITIES CELEBRATE THE RETIREMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY MICHAEL CHERTOFF
By No Border Wall Coalition

BROWNSVILLE & EL PASO, TX — On January 10th communities along the Texas border will be throwing Retirement Parties to celebrate the end of Michael Chertoff’s tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security. During his illustrious career, Secretary Chertoff has driven a wall through the borderlands, condemned the property of hundreds of Texas landowners, waived the laws that protect us, imprisoned immigrant families, and set a new low in the response to Hurricane Katrina. Border residents will gather in Brownsville and El Paso, where Chertoff’s concrete and steel legacy is being erected along the Rio Grande, to remember the man who has done so much to our communities.

“This is not a protest disguised as a party - this is a party. Chertoff has only been Secretary for three years but he has managed to do a tremendous amount of damage. Texas will be glad to see him gone, and it can’t come soon enough,” said Scott Nicol of the No Border Wall Coalition.

In Brownsville Chertoff’s Retirement Party will be held at Galeria 409 starting at 6pm, within spitting distance of the coming border wall. Chertoff’s retirement is like Christmas morning and the day after you get over the flu all wrapped up together. So the party will blend a corporate retirement party and Carnival. Poets and artists will contribute their thoughts on the man who has so profoundly impacted the border; Ensamble la Mision (and possibly other bands) will play; a retirement cake and piñata will bear his likeness; Chertoff’s Wheel of Fortune; a raffle; and still-President Bush may even stop by to give Chertie a send-off.

“We’re having a party for Michael, but he’s not invited,” said Bill Guerra Addington from No Wall – Big Bend.

At the other end of the state, El Paso’s Chertoff Retirement Party will be held at the Chamizal National Memorial starting at 2pm. The memorial commemorates the harmonious settling of a century-long boundary dispute between the U.S. and Mexico, providing a counter-example to the militarization of the border that Chertoff has worked so diligently to put in place. Games and the traditional breaking of the Chertoff piñata will greet the dawning of the post-Chertoff era.

Galeria 409 is located at 409 E. 13th Street in Brownsville, between Levee and Elizabeth, a block from the Gateway Bridge. Call gallery owner Mark Clark at (956) 455-3599, or Scott Nicol at (956) 532-5983, for information, or email No Border Wall at noborderwall@yahoo.com.

To reach the Chamizal National Memorial near El Paso, from I-10 exit at Hwy 54 and follow the brown Chamizal National Memorial directional signs. If traveling south on Hwy 54, take the exit marked Juarez, Mexico, turn right onto Paisano Street, and continue to follow signs towards Chamizal. For more information contact Bill Guerra Addington at (915) 539-4158 or aguavida@valornet.com.
NO BORDER WALL COALITION
http://www.notexasborderwall.com/
http://www.notexasborderwall.blogspot.com/
http://www.borderwallinthenews.blogspot.com/
http://www.noborderwall-take-action.blogspot.com/
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