Protestors at the Smithsonian knelt in front of the Enola Gay (the plane that dropped the Hiroshima bomb) demanding that the exhibit speak to the horrors of nuclear warfare.

About 20 members of a Smithsonian tour stood listening to a guide describing the technological abilities of the B-29 in front of them. Kneeling below the plane were another 20 people--gathered to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. This shiny B-29, named the Enola Gay after the pilot's mother, dropped the first war-time nuclear bomb on the icty of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing 140,000 people.

The protestors, from DC, Northern and Central Virginia, came to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum outside Dulles Airport to remember the vicitms of Hiroshima, and of all wars, and to ask the museum, as they have every year since the Enola Gay has been on display, to include in the exhibit information about the destruction wrought by the nuclear bomb.

"What's shown here is the technological magnificance, not the historical signifigance," said Brian Buckley of Little Flower Catholic Worker, Louisa, VA. (Buckley served two months in jail last year after pouring ashes at the exhibit on August 6, 2004.)....

On August 5th, a handful of cyclists gathered in downtown Fredericksburg to celebrate cycling in solidarity with each other. Though we were few in number, our presence was bold, as we chanted slogans like “Bike more! Drive less!�? and “Cars kill cities!�? We got positive reactions from cheering pedestrians and a few smiling motorists, as we rode through the First Friday celebrations that regularly occur downtown. We ended our route after about an hour outside of the Board of Visitors Office—the site of many living wage rallies for the classified workers of the University of Mary Washington—where we continued to cheer.

Sixty years ago, the US military dropped the first atomic bomb to be used in combat on Hiroshima, Japan. The plane that dropped the first nuclear bomb, the Enola Gay, is on exhibit at the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy National Air and Space Museum (near Dulles Airport).

Sadako Sazaki was a child who contracted leukemia from exposure to the bomb's radiation. Practicing the tradition of folding 1,000 cranes to be granted a wish she sought to be cured of her illness but died before completing the task.

Her friends and thousands of sympathizers continued folding cranes as a wish to stop the production and use of nuclear weapons. The peace crane has become an international symbol of peace and resistance to warmaking.

On Saturday, August 6, 10:30-11:30 am, join us at the Enola Gay in presenting peace cranes to NASM as a sign of hope that we will learn from our past and demand an end to nuclear weapons. We will gather inside the museum at the exhibit at 10:30 for an hour of remembrance. We act in solidarity with the people gathered at nuclear weapons research, production and testing sites all over the world.

Fredericksburg's FIRST EVER Critical Mass is scheduled for August 5th at 5:30 PM and will continue every first Friday from then on. We will meet and depart from the corner of William St. and Sofia St. in Downtown, Fredericksburg in a celebration of cycling and an assertion of our right to the street. Bring your bicycle, and participate in a solidarity ride to show Fredericksburg motorists that the road is ours to share.

"[Thomas] Friedman laid THIS EGG of an op-ed last week. If there were to be a list of 'excuse makers,' he'd be one of the top candidates for it... These folks [corporate media, conservative pundits, and dubious sources] are just talking to themselves, and demand that the rest of us just shut up and consume their vitriol without so much as a defensive cough." Click through to read more of this commentary by a Virginian Arab-American.

Here are some photos from the last day of the 3 day march in Whitesville, WV against the policies of coal baron Massey Energy.

On day 2, protesters marched through the town of Whitesville, WV. At the far end of town, a red car swerved off the road and came inches from Bo Webb, in an obvious attempt to hit him. After the attempt, a lady jumped out of the car and turned her license plate up, making it impossible to read....

“Even though Massey Energy is from Richmond, Virginia, they would be welcome to do business in this valley,�? Julia Bonds stated, adding, “so long as they mine coal responsibly. Massey needs to stop hiring outside miners from Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Kentucky, and hire our boys from right here in the valley to mine this coal underground.�? According to the West Virginia Coal Association there were more than 100,000 miners employed in 1952 a little over a half century later there are fewer than 15,000.

Day 1 of a 3-day march on Coal River valley, site of Massey Energy's neo-colonial MTR sites. Appalachian Uprising!

"Protesters marched past Marsh Fork Elementary, an elementary school less than three-hundred feet from a coal-loading silo and in the shadow of a 2.8 billion gallon Toxic Sludge impoundment. They also marched past the old UMW headquarters, a hotbed of radical unionism and militant strikes in the late seventies, which now sits abandoned after Massey energy successfully drove unions from the area in the eighties."

Update from Jen Lawhorne, Richmond IMCista in Mexico:

After putting the world on its toes, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) announced on July 11 that it was going to lift its red alert on indigenous Zapatista communities and later explained how the Zapatista movement would carry out its initiative of forging a new grassroots political left in Mexico.

“And so the EZLN has resisted 12 years of war, of military, political, ideological and economic attacks, of siege, of harassment, of persecution, and they have not vanquished us. We have not sold out nor surrendered, and we have made progress. More compañeros from many places have entered into the struggle so that, instead of making us weaker after so many years, we have become stronger,�? reads the first part of the Sixth Declaration of the Lacandona Jungle.

The second section, issued a day later on June 30, is a strong indictment on capitalism and the Mexican government’s involvement in neoliberal politics. “…Capitalism means that there a few who have great wealth, but they did not win a prize, or find a treasure, or inherited from a parent. They obtained that wealth, rather, by exploiting the work of the many,�? it says. “And neoliberalism is the idea that capitalism is free to dominate the entire world, and so tough, you have to resign yourself and conform and not make a fuss, in other words, not rebel.�?

“And then what happens is that, with the people’s economy being totally screwed in the countryside as well as in the city, then many Mexican men and women have to leave their Patria, Mexican lands, and go to seek work in another country, the United States. And they do not treat them well there, instead they exploit them, persecute them and treat them with contempt and even kill them,�? it continues.

The third part of the declaration puts forth a proposal to the Mexican people “to go about building, along with those people who, like us, are humble and simple, a national program of struggle, but a program which will be clearly of the left, or anti-capitalist, or anti-neoliberal, or for justice, democracy and liberty for the Mexican people.�?

The EZLN hopes to bring together all different sectors of Mexican struggle to construct a new Mexican left free of corrupt party politics. They are making themselves open to different peoples’ movements’ suggestions and proposals by sending EZLN delegations to where they are invited. The EZLN also plans to hold an international encuentro in Chiapas during some time in December or January.

“We are inviting all indigenous workers, campesinos, teachers, students, housewives, neighbors, small businesspersons, small shop owners, micro-business persons, pensioners, handicapped persons, religious men and women, scientists, artists, intellectuals, young persons, women, old persons, homosexuals and lesbians, boys and girls- to participate, whether individually or collectively, directly with the Zapatistas in the national campaign for building another way of doing politics, for a program of national struggle of the left, and for a new Constitution,�? the declaration says.

Julio Cèsar Ortega from the Center for Political Analysis and Social and Economic Investigations (CAPISE) in San Cristobal said, “The proposal offers us an exit to this difficult situation we are living in Mexico. Everything depends on the reaction of civil society.�?

The Virginia Public Service Workers, UE Local 160 held an outstanding rally to demand world class service for our clients and oppose Atlantic Shores from privatizing the Eastern State hospital in Williamsburg VA. Approximately 25 members, supporters and guests came out in the sweltering 95 degree heat. The Union prepared signs which said "Our clients deserve better than GEO", "We need more staff" and "Just say no to privatization". Some signs focused on Local Delegate Rapp and Senator Thomas Norment which also said "no to privatization". A bullhorn was available and some young male supporters had a field day chanting "Just say no to G E O."

On July 20, 2005 UE Local 160 will be holding a demonstration to oppose the privatization of Eastern State hospital. The rally will be held in Williamsburg VA on Ironbound Road. This will be in front of the main entrance to Eastern State Hospital. The event will begin at 2:30 PM and last until 4PM. A multinational corporation which now owns Wackenhut Security is manuevering to privatize this historic institution. The Company is known as Atlantic Shores and is owned by the GEO group. This organization has predicted it will cut jobs by 50%. We call on all Labor minded and Mental Health, Mental Retardation activist to support our demonstration by attending. For more information contact UE Local 160 at 888.868.6466.

On July 18th at 8pm, Jeff Ott, formerly of Bay Area punk bands Crimpshrine and Fifteen, will be reading from his new book "Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Real War on Terror" at the Flying Brick Library, 506 S. Pine St. in Oregon Hill.

Richmond Indymedia will have quotes from the evening on its WRIR 97.3 FM weekly radio show, every Tuesday at 12:30pm.