Feature Archives

On June 15th, one day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement in Calgary at Canada's largest oil conference that ExxonMobil plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men's upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com, the Yes Men's spoof website, and cut off the Yes Men's email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. The provider, Broadview Networks, also made the Yes Men remove all mention of Exxon from TheYesMen.org before they'd restore the Yes Men's email service.

The first ever United States Social Forum opened on Wednesday, June 27 with a march of thousands through downtown Atlanta protesting a proposal to privatize Atlanta's only public hospital. Trade unionists, peace activists, community organizers, students and others are converging on Atlanta this week to march, rally and develop strategies in their fight against the ultra-right. An Indymedia Caucus is scheduled for Saturday at 5pm.

On Friday June 8, 2007, there was a critical mass-style bicycle ride with an anti-G8 theme which initially gathered at Justin Herman plaza, and then proceeded along the Embarcadero, Columbus Avenue, Market Street, Valencia St., and ended at Dolores Park. Everything proceeded peacefully, but there was a large police presence the entire time.

The G8 summit will be held in northern Germany this year from June 6th through June 8th and massive direct action as well as mainstream marches are planned.
June 6th: The first day of the blockades has seen most of the roads that lead to Heiligendamm blocked. Throughout the day different groups set out to shut off access points to the G8 venue. Many groups used a variety of tactics during the day, from sit-down road occupations to building barricades to breaking through police lines to reach their blockade locations. Despite police use of water cannon, mounted police, and helicopters to ferry in reinforcements, many more than expected made it through the no-protest zone to blockade right up to the G8 security fences. Indybay has on-going coverage of events from Bay Area reporters.

On May 9th, German police raided at least 40 locations, including social centers and private homes in Berlin and Hamburg as well as an alternative web provider. Police forces searched the Rote Flora in Hamburg and parts of the Bethanien in Berlin, both planned convergence spaces for the G8 protests next month. Protests against the raids were held in cities across Germany and solidarity protests at German consulates have taken place where the embassies in Edinburgh and Amsterdam were attacked.

Root Force swept through Watsonville on April 26th for the first stop of their tour through the greater Bay Area. Root Force gave a presentation on the direct action campaign in solidarity with communities in Guerrero, Mexico and San Salvador, the capital city of El Salvador. These communities are resisting massive infrastructure expansion projects which are causing ecological devastation, massive dislocation and cultural disruption. The evening included live music, puppets, an excerpt from a film, and a slideshow.
Root Force will continue on to Berkeley (4/29), San Francisco (4/30), San Jose (5/01) and Santa Rosa (5/02).

While the passage of the Central American Free Trade Area (CAFTA in English, TLC in Spanish) is a distant memory in the public political debate, implementation of the treaty continues to meet organized, spirited opposition in Costa Rica. In the US, activists are standing in solidarity with continued opposition and resistance.