In the early morning of August 25th, three windows were broken and a surveillance camera knocked off the roof of the Ocean Street McDonald's in Santa Cruz.

In a post on Santa Cruz Indymedia, not lovin' it writes, "The Beijing Olympics have ended, but the repressive apparatus set up for the Games remains in place: some 300,000 surveillance cameras, 400,000 informants, and a general tightening of government control. This is always the result of these multinational spectacles. McDonald's, one of the major sponsors of the Olympics, also remains omnipresent and continues to reap its profits with four new restaurants and a large share of the advertising spectacle.

"People the world over hate McDonald's as a foremost symbol of American capitalism, and its franchises are targeted in almost every uprising and riot that erupts these days. Here in California too, we revolt against everything McDonald's is and represents. We know that the crap that they pass off as "food" is "cheap" in dollars, but is the direct result of worker exploitation, rainforest deforestation, etc. We're sick of the bullshit that is McDonald's, just as we are disgusted with the spectacle of the Olympics and enraged by the constant presence of surveillance cameras everywhere." Read More

On August 27th at around 10:30am, 5-6 police officers from three agencies made their way into the Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley, broke down every door, and confiscated all computers on the property. Computers taken included those used by the Slingshot Collective and East Bay Prisoner Support. Police also broke into cabinets, cut locks, and went through mail.

People arrived after being informed of the situation, and demanded that the police show a warrant. The police said they would show one once they were done, and they did. Both CopWatch and The Berkeley Daily Planet were there to cover the incident. The raid was conducted by the UC Berkeley Police, Alameda County Sheriff, and the FBI. The police stated that the computer equipment "may have been used to commit a felony." This is the first time there has been a raid since the infoshop opened 15 years ago.

Photos and Video | EFF Report With PDF Of Warrant | Initial Report | Media Release | Aug. 28: Benefit at Long Haul | FSRN coverage

Long Haul Website

The 2008 Democratic National Convention was held in Denver, Colorado, August 25th through August 28th.

Thursday, 8/28/08: More than 800 people gathered at Rude Park in Denver for an immigrant rights march that descended on the Pepsi Center. Demonstrators held signs that read "Immigrant Rights are Human Rights."

Wednesday, 8/27/08: More than 10,000 demonstrators lined up behind a contingent of 70 Iraq Veterans Against the War as they marched nearly four miles from the Denver Coliseum. The anti-war march started after Rage Against the Machine, The Coup and Flobots gave a free show in support of the veterans. Shortly before the show the anti-DNC convergence space raided by police and two people were arrested. At noon, before the march and the raid, Unconventional Denver held a "No Warming! No Green Capitalism!" re-education rally that brought nearly 400 people outside the doors of Denver's most notorious polluters and DNC supporters. The day ended with a stalemate between the Iraq vets and police in front of the Pepsi Center, followed by a 400-bike strong Critical Mass.
Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Tuesday, 8/26/08: The Iraq Veterans Against the War orchestrated guerrilla theater in downtown Denver to show the brutality of the U.S. Occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. The war veterans, dressed in full military gear, staged realistic portrayals of actual interactions between U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians.
Audio: 1 | 2 · Photos: 1

Monday, 8/25/08: Activists goal for the day was to crash lavish fund raising parties throughout downtown Denver. Five community organizers from Kansas and Missouri were arrested this morning by the FBI and Denver PD. Late in the day, a police "kettle" operation (whereby police surround, contain, and arrest large numbers of protesters at once) led to about 100 arrests near a delegate meeting in a Denver hotel.
Video: 1 · Audio: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 · Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 · Reports: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

Sunday, 8/24/08: Two pink tanks blasting raucous music and masked protesters took over the downtown of the Mile High City on Sunday on the eve of the Democratic National Convention. Denver's 16th Street Mall — a 16-block pedestrian and public transit corridor in the center of the city — was overrun by an Unconventional Denver orchestrated action at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The day started off with a Recreate '68 morning action that brought out 2,000 people to the corporate gates of the Pepsi Center in the End the Occupation March to protest of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and other occupations throughout the world. Dead Prez kicked off the march from the Civic Center. World Can't Wait headed the march. Many smaller groups and individuals participated in the Recreate '68 action. Towards the end of the march, a Fox News reporter was surrounded by demonstrators and physically removed from the action. As the day wore on, the Alliance for Real Democracy held a Funk the War march at 2:15 p.m. on the 16th Street Mall in downtown. The event brought out more than 1,000 people, including members of Code Pink and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Video: 1 · Photos: 1 | 2 | 3 · Reports: 1 | 2

More on Indybay: Strategic Lessons of DNC police violence | DNC C.I.R.C.A. Field Report | Schedule: DNC response starts Saturday! | '68 — Then and Now | Misunderstanding causes cancelled DNC Public Enemy concert | Riot Manifesto (IAC)

Other Coverage: Colorado-IMC | Infoshop

Organizers: Recreate 68 | Unconventional Denver | DNC Disruption 08 | Unconventional Action | Alliance for Real Democracy | World Can't Wait

Previous Indybay Coverage of 2008 DNC Protest Planning

Indybay Coverage of 2008 RNC in St Paul

As part of a week of international conference of Anti-Zionist Jews organized by the International Jewish Solidarity Network (IJSN), Reuven Abergel, a Mizrahi Anti-Zionist Jew, visited the Bay-Area. Reuven is one of the founders of the Israeli Black Panthers, an anti-Zionist, and a social activist. Abergel participated in several meetings and panels and spoke about Zionism, racism, and colonialism and ways to resist them. Abergel also discussed the oppression of Mizrahim in Israel and his vision of a united struggle against Zionism and Colonialism composed of Mizrahim and Palestinians and the need to educate the next generation of youth in Israel to become active in global solidarity work.

Abergel was also interviewed on local radio programs. In a response to a question on Flashpoints about the claim by Zionists that critics of Israel are Anti-Semitic, Abergel replied “it is just a way for them to sell lies, to try to protect themselves from the horrific crimes that they commit”. Abergel also added “I’m asking people in the world, how can you accept this occupation? If this was to happen in your country, your homes, you would not sleep. Wake up and stop it, or it will get to your homes”. Reuven Abergel also spoke about his personal experience as one of the Ringworm Children, a group of thousands of kids from Jewish-Arab background that the state of Israel did radioactive experiments on without their knowledge or family consent. The experiences were done under the supervision of the division of social medicine, a department in the Israeli ministry of health that implemented Eugenic ideas and philosophy.

Abergel immigrated with his family to Israel from Morocco in the fifties, and became politically active after a popular uprising by Moroccan Jews in Wadi-Salib Haifa in 1959. In 1971 Abergel founded the Israeli Black Panthers. Inspired by the Black Panthers in the U.S. and determined to stop the racist and discriminatory way in which the state of Israel treated its Arab-Jews, the Israeli Panthers led and organized many demonstrations and uprisings against the establishment. Abergel’s home became the headquarters for the Panthers, and Abergel’s Israeli citizenship was taken away making him a refugee in the state of Israel.

Since the death of the Israeli Black Panthers due to internal conflicts, Abergel has been a Mizrahi anti-Zionist activist and has organized many visits to Palestinian refugee camps and demonstrations against the apartheid wall. In 2002 Abergel met with Arafat when the latter was under an Israeli siege. Abergel also organizes regular food and water deployments to Bedouin villages that the states of Israel has yet to officially recognize, as a consequence these villages lack basic infrastructure such as roads electricity and water transportation.

Reuven Abarjel, discusses Zionism, Racism, and Colonialism-visits the Bay-area l Who’s against who? Between the conflict and the social, Reuven Abergel | Another Act in the Mizrahi-Palestinian Tragedy, Reuven Abarjel and Smadar Lavie I Reuven Abergel, Founder of Israel's Black Panthers, in support of the Academic Boycott of Israel l A small segment from The “Ringworm-Children” documentary, YouTube | Israel compensates for ringworm treatment | The Ringworm Children a collection of articles | Reuven Abergel’s web-page (Hebrew) | Israeli Denial of Right to Water as Means for Pushing Bedouins off their Land | Bedouin citizens of Israel denied water as means of transfer

anonymous writes, "On July 21st all four ATMs were smashed at the River St Wells Fargo in Santa Cruz California.

"This minor act of sabotage was committed in solidarity with all those kidnapped, detained, and deported in the United States.

"Wells Fargo is one of the top five shareholders in the GEO Group, a private prison corporation that runs the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma Washington, where nearly 1000 people are imprisoned every day for the crime of being undocumented.

"ICE is the foremost domestic terrorist organization in North America—this is not an exaggeration, the terror and panic sown by ICE raids in immigrant communities is unparalleled. ICE are the henchmen of Capital: a work force that can be constantly threatened with deportation and therefore brutally exploited is a major triumph for capitalism." Read More

On July 7th through 9th, the G-8 countries held their annual meeting high above Lake Toyoaka in Hokkaido Japan at an exclusive spa resort. This is part of the usual pattern of the annual G-8 meetings to hold them in the most remote areas possible. Hokkaido, a land of beautiful lakes and volcanos is the most rural and least populated of the four major islands that make up Japan. The Japanese government spent $250 million in security measures and deployed 22,000 national police to Hokkaido and another 20,000 were on reserve in Tokyo.

All the G-8 countries; Germany, France, Russia, Italy, England, Japan and of course the U.S. make up less then 35% per cent of the world's population but control the great majority of the wealth. The emerging economies of Brazil, China, India, were not included, but they along with Mexico and South Africa got to have meetings on the side. (The little G-5)

The one agreement that was reached at the summit was that the G-8 countries would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by the year 2050, 42 years from now. Fidel Castro commented in his reflections of July 15, that this "is about the time that hell freezes over".

Photos & Report | Resistance and Repression in Japan continue: Inside the Anti-G8 | G8: Summits and summits

Previous Indybay Coverage of the G8 Summit And Protests

In the past year the price of food has risen sharply. Wheat has gone up by 130%, rice by 217%, corn by 125%, soybeans by 107%. Vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy have become too expensive for most of the population of the world to buy. This has led to food riots in Haiti, followed by riots in Egypt, Mexico, Zimbabwe Bangladesh, Kenya as well as throughout Africa. The armed forces of the state were mobilized in many countries to shut down demonstrations and to guard food.

While it’s hard to isolate a singular cause that led to the food crisis, research shows that the problem is systematic and not a mere fluke, as the Bush administration and other policy makers would have us believe. Although droughts, and the rising demand of the new middle class in China and India contribute to the shortage, they do not explain the exponential rise in food prices that hurts primarily the global poor.

The problem is more fundamental: stemming from three decades of neoliberalism and free trade agreements, government subsidized agribusiness and low price dumping, the World Bank with its structural adjustment policies, economic speculations on food and oil prices, and the diversion of arable land to biofuel production.

Mainly the so-called "food crisis" | How Far is the US From Food Shortages and Food Riots? | The Global Food Crisis: How the Market Has Driven up Prices and Hunger | Stuffed and Starved, Democracy Now | Making a killing from hunger | Financial speculators reap profits from global hunger | Food Crisis: "The greatest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model" | Manufacturing a Food Crisis, The Nation |