Flashpoints: SF Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy Tour : Indybay

KPFA Flashpoints News Radio

J U L Y * F I F T H * 2 0 0 2
"Rolling

F L A S H P O I N T S * S P E C I A L

Friday, July 5, 2002 - Start Audio

Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy Tour
(broadcast LIVE from the SomArts Cultural Center in SF)-00:00 music break Michael Franti, Spearhead
-00:40 Dennis Bernstein: we're here celebrating the arts

and offering an alternative to the traditional July 4th celebration..

now w 'Dineh' (Navaho) elder, Elvira Horseherder who was arrested on her own ancestral lands.. Elvira: me, my mother, and other three women arrested.. they trick us.. we leave in the morning to get the tree.. when we come back about 6:30, enter the Sundance Room, a lot of police parked around Big Mountain.. they said, you can't go in here and make a ceremony.. we said, No, we have to pray for healing, we need healing.. we have land dispute (with Hopi).. we can't leave there, we born there, we live there.. "Big

-07:00 Dennis: now w attorney

Larry Hildes (sp?).. they arrested the women on land.. the Sundance Ceremony brought by the Lakota to the Dineh.. the women were acquitted by the judge.. you can't sue the Hopi tribe in federal court, they have immunity, so we are suing the rangers, and BIA agents.. and we will sue the Hopi tribe in tribal court.. now w Weaving for Freedom's Christie Lubin: the Navaho and Hopi tribes have lived in this area for hundreds "Weavings"

of years.. (website).. these Dineh (Navaho subtribe) people's ancestral land is in a Hopi controlled area.. the police sealed off the area for four days, no food, no water, no medicine.. Larry: a military occupation, formed a blockade.. to prevent traditional people from engaging in a ceremony.. a month later, the Hopi came in and bulldozed the religious structures.. Christie: we have traditional weavings here til midnight, tomorrow from noon to midnight.. benefits the Dineh weavers info 707-479-5470.. SoMarts Cultural Center, 934 Brannon between 8th and 9th, SF, 415-647-4894
-14:44 music break
-17:50 Dennis: now w Rene, the curator

of Galaria De La Raza.. Rene: we have brought to SomArts Center a exhibit of Labor Fest photography..

of Barbara Lubin's photos from the West Bank.. of posters by Josh, the artist with Middle East Children's Alliance.. all puts a face to the tragedy that is happening.. Dennis: the military budget sucking up all the money for the arts.. now w Marie Acosta of Latino Arts Network.. about the Gray Davis 50% budget cut for the California Arts Council.. CAC supports SomArts Center, KPFA, many other organizations.. Rene: anymore you have to have a powerful lobbyist to get funding.. the Democrats are very bad for the arts.. I tried to get ahold of Bustamante, the Lt Governor.. Marie: we can't give up this fight.. this place (SomArts Center) is where people come.. where else could we have a Rolling Thunder Peace Party.. Rene: during the 60's, the alternative culture was developing, I saw the impact of the arts.. but they are cutting out the arts in the schools.. the only culture these kids have are video games.. they need to be allowed to develop other ways of expressing themselves.. Marie: email me at lanca@sbcglobal.net.. to organize a march on Sacramento next year.. that's our taxpayer money.. Rene: get the word out, do constituency building.
-28:55 music break
-31:30 Dennis:

about the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and their conference, Strategies for Peace in an Age of Globalization.. now w Carl Kramer: we are inviting activists to come together.. the conference at SF State July 25-28.. two pre-events: July 9 Tuesday 7-9PM at 522 Valencia at 16th Str; and July 11th Thursday 7PM at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley.. more info 415-863-6637 or email staff@ncacofc.org
-35:45 music break Michael Franti: this is one is dedicated to all the freaky people out there.
-39:20 Dennis:

a lot has changed outside the building here in the last 24 hours.. now w Miguel Molina: we have the Weaving for Resistance rug show in the main gallery, also the photos of the Middle East Childrens Alliance.. outside an ambiance for dance.. celebration.. to bring Mother Earth back into balance.. tonight on KPFA, music, dance, social movement art, around the Big Mountain resistance.. about Steffen G, top sound mixer, a powerful beat, the heartbeat of the new vision.. outside on the street, with Roots and Branches.. now w Steffen: I'm from England, had been doing big installations in nightclubs.. now performance multimedia.. I'll be DJ-ing tonight.. what you do with words, Dennis, we'll be doing with rythym.. Dennis: while journalism is an important service, it is the arts, poetry that works its way back.. "excellent

Steffen: we have the Navaho rugs.. speech, music, goldilox, an eclectic mix of world music.. Miguel: our broadcast begins at 8Pm with a song for Leonard Peltier.. Steffen: South and Central American music.. on the half hour, a panel.. persons working for human rights, activists.. involved with indigenous affairs.. women and resistance.. forever war, a world in crisis.. *slabor*, the new face of unionism.. art resistance and brown profiling..
-50:00 Dennis: I'm about

take a little time to finish a book about the kids I taught in the South Bronx.. in a country that acts like they hate their kids.. difficult pieces about the violence that comes out of poverty.. we'd make masks.. really tough kids touching each other.. I wrote a little piece, Masking for Touch.. Dennis: [rough excerpts].." they are shaping masks.. around each others faces.. gently they trace highways.. to the sharp slope of the nose.. it is the river of their own history.. flowing freely.. a fragile new face lifted and born, lightning is breaking across the eyes of its creator.."
-51:42 Dennis: now w Mike Dingle

of SomArts Center.. Mike: we open noon tomorrow.. we're co-sponsoring this event with Media Alliance and Global Exchange.. Guerrilla News Network will be here tomorrow, Indymedia will be here tomorrow.. a day full of music and a short film festival too.. I feel in love with this building the first time I saw it.. let's help each other.. SoMarts Cultural Center, at 934 Brannon between 8th and 9th, SF.. under the freeway, next to Trader Joe's..

-54:20 (driving and Bart directions)
-54:50 music break
-56:20 Dennis: wrapup
-57:00 End today's show. today's review by john lionheart

J U L Y * F O U R T H * 2 0 0 2
"Rolling

F L A S H P O I N T S * S P E C I A L

Thursday, July 4, 2002 - Start Audio

Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy Tour
(broadcast LIVE from the SomArts Cultural Center in SF)-00:00 KPFA News Summary
-03:10 Dennis Bernstein: now w Miguel Molina: we're here

celebrating our survival, the survival of every working person.. we're not celebrating bombing.. what we need here is peace.. Miguel: my native name is Hawk Out of the Night.. we see struggle around the world, and in this country.. the Apache, others.. Dennis: what does the Fourth of July mean to Native Americans?.. Miguel: we call it the Fourth of You-Lie.. we sure don't celebrate it with fireworks, representing bombs, gunpowder, killing people.
-08:15 Dennis: now w Medea

Benjamin of Global Exchange..

Medea: I think it is time for the American people to say "Stop Bombing Afghanistan".. we bombed another wedding party months ago.. killing 54.. Medea talks about Global Exchange's group tours of Afghanistan.. Medea: we are not bombing to get Osama bin Laden.. we're protecting our personnel, protecting our aircraft.. time to help the survivors of this last attack, set up a fund to help all of the victims of the 9/11 including the innocent civilians in Afghanistan.. Medea talks about the photos she took in Afghanistan.. "wounded

Medea: four villages bombed to smithereens.. photo of a small boy in a hospital hit by a American weapon, but the US embassy says "we're not responsible".. cluster bombs.. photo of a young boy, picked up a bright yellow thing, a cluster bomblette blew off his legs.. we asked the US embassy for help with rehabilitation.. the embassy said "we're not responsible".. photo of a woman who lost her home to a US bomb, lost her husband and 3 of her 4 children.. she went to the US embassy to ask for help, the US called her a *begger*, turned her away.. we ask why does the world respond to the victims of 9/11, but the US fails to help the innocent people they themselves bomb??. TIME TO RAISE OUR VOICES, HELP THE VICIMS OF AFGHANISTAN.. TIME FOR US TO SAY NO TO WAR, NO TO VIOLENCE.. WE ARE ORGANIZING FOR THIS 9/11.. WE NEED YOUR HELP.. call Global Exchange at (415)255-7296, or email kristi@globalexchange.org
-17:50 music break

the San Francisco Rocking Solidarity Labor Chorus sings Woody Guthrie's If You Ain't Got the Do Re Mi
-20:50 Dennis: now w Mike Dolan, and the

Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy Tour.. Mike: the tour the brainchild of populist Jim Hightower.. to get progressive groups talking to each other.. "Jim

about the *new* Chitakwa (sp?) movement.. people are turning out by the thousands.. Michael Moore, Jesse Jackson, Jr.. folks from all over the country coming to these events.. to build new networks, take the power back!
-24:42 Dennis: now w Josh Cornbluth,

who has co-written a piece for the SF Mime Troupe called Mr. Smith goes to Obscuristan.. Josh: about the play, the Bush administration wants to prove they can export democracy to a place without oil resources.. but the election is fixed and.. there is oil.. Mr. Smith is a firefighter hero.. they send him as an election observer.. now w Bruce, the songwriter for the San Francisco Mime Troupe.. Bruce: Mr. Smith can't "Mime

understand why the election is fixed, how his country could stoop so low.. the US ambassador, about to go into private life working for ScandalBurton Oil.. many funny complicated plot twists.. Josh: what the Fourth of July means to me.. a huge crowd today at Delores Park.. relief and joy.. we believe in democracy before making a profit..
-34:45 music break from the San Francisco Mime Troupe CD, White House Press Conference
-38:21 Dennis: now w Steve Zeltzer, labor

organizer, and Joe Bloom, retired boilermaker / labor photographer.. Joe: the giant cranes made in Communist China, I went to the plant in Shanghai and photographed them.. I was impressed they were doing the same boilermaker work I did in SF 15 years ago.. because of the global econcomy, the wages there nothing compared to here.. I had been photographing workers here, the Port of Oakland let me photograph.. I wrote to China, they let me go there and shoot.. 1934 Brannan, a marvelous party throughout the night.. SoMarts Cultural Center.. now w Steve Seltzer: about the Labor Fest.. we have a culture, a history of working class and struggle.. on 1934 a general strike in SF supporting the longshorman, and we honor that date.. www.LaborFest.net.. Joe: the Bush government the most corrupt in US history.. Dennis: if you or I stole a thousand dollars we'd be in jail, these guys steal billions.. Steve: the army has been used against workers.. Joe: the exhibit of my photographs is iron workers from Shanghai to USA.. the commonality between them.. Steve: more info: 415-642-8066 leave a message or www.LaborFest.net.. tomorrow see Joe's pictures and more events here.. [more info on labor issues at www.labornet.org]
-46:28 music break

the *San Francisco Rocking Solidarity Labor Chorus* sings No Sweat
-50:40 Dennis: we're broadcasting tomorrow from the SoMarts Center..

now w Christie of Weaving for Freedom.. we're missing Arlene

Hamilton who died in a car accident, and elder spokeswoman, Roberta Blackgoat (statement) (UN statement).. Roberta taught about the Big Mountain coal mining.. about Arlene.. about Weaving for Freedom, a 'loose knit' organization of women, Hopi, living in Arizona, resisting forced removal from traditional land.. their whole existence based on the land.. "Weavers

Peabody Coal has a giant stripmine on Big Mountain.. the biggest coal seam in the world.. "weaving"

pumping millions of gallons of water.. the women are saying 'leave the coal in the ground, protect mother earth'.. the women herd sheep and weave the wool.. the BIA restricting their sheep herds, originally in the 1000's, now they're only allowed 10 sheep apiece.. the women make their own natural dies.. Dennis: info 707-479-5470 weaveforfreedom@aol.com SoMarts Cultural Center, 934 Brannon between 8th and 9th, SF, info: 415-647-4894
-58:00 music break

the *San Francisco Rocking Solidarity Labor Chorus* sings Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land
-xx:xx End today's show. today's review by john lionheart

Event: Fight the Patriot Act: come hear attorneys Lynne Stewart, Tony Serra and others, Thursday July 11, First Congregational Church at Channing and Dana in Berkeley, more info call Barbara Lubin, 510-548-0542

Flashpoints: SF Rolling Thunder Downhome Democracy Tour

Donate

Get Involved

Publish