Story and photography by Caine Rose

On July 8th, 43 people will be persecuted in federal court in Columbus, Georgia for entering Fort Benning Air Force Base to demand the closing of the School of the Americas, a US military training school where Latin American soldiers are taught to kill and torture their own people, to protect corrupt governments and corporate interests.

On a muggy, sweltering, albeit overcast Tuesday afternoon, just as the corporate set descended from downtown Richmond�s skyscrapers into the streets to reclaim their SUV�s for the long rides home, a dedicated gathering assembled in front of the federal building to state their case. The Reverend Charles Booker-Hirsch, pastor of Northside Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor, Michigan joined four other native Richmonders, who were indicted in April for trespassing onto government property in Georgia the previous November, to call attention to the seldom publicized �SOA�, a training base for military operations conducted in Latin America. The �SOA� has produced such infamous strongmen as Manuel Noriega and Bolivian dictator Hugo Banzer, the assassins of an archbishop, a bishop, six Jesuit priests and four American churchwomen as well as hoards of other less well known killers who are responsible for thousands and thousands of innocent�s deaths.

Established in Panama in 1946 by the U.S. Army as a training center for Latin American military officers, the School of the Americas found its way onto the United States� soil in 1984 at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Ga. Since its inauguration as a camouflaged �terror cell� for the elitist U.S. government�s private wars in Central and South America, 60,000 have graduated.

I spoke at length with Rev. Charles Booker-Hirsch, who has been opposing the �school� for the past 13 years, about his views concerning the military operations taking place in Georgia. He was flabbergasted by the height of hypocrisy from the U.S. government�s stand on �terrorism� since September 11, 2001 and their continued endorsement of these death squads right here in our own country. The Reverend also shared the events surrounding his and 43 other�s arrest when assembling a nonviolent solemn protest at the base in Columbus last November. �We made our way around the edge of the fence into the woods wearing black cloaks with white painted faces and carrying a black casket. We had to climb a hill with that coffin and all along the way our clothes were ripping from the limbs and brush as we made our way around the other side of the base. I felt like Robert De Niro from The Mission a little�. He also expressed shock when after their apprehension upon reaching the other side of the fenced perimeter and let go with relatively little fuss, it was five months before receiving a call which informed him of the indictment. �I�m not surprised anymore with Ashcroft cracking the whip what happens in this country�, the Reverend shared. He did humbly and gratefully express gratitude for the support his congregation has given him back in Michigan since the ordeal began.

The �SOA43� trial date set for July 8 at the U.S. District court in Columbus, Ga. For more information please contact Richmond Activists at a16rva@hotmail.com or on the web at www.soaw.org.

This Monday April 8th at 6pm, there will be a showing of the documentary, "Palestine: The People and the Land" in Captial Ballroom A, upstairs in the VCU Commons. This video, directed by Tom Hayes, examines the situation of Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

This documentary is highly recommended, especially considering the current crisis. It gives important insight and background into the conflict that you won't ever see on the news as well as the US role in relation to Israel. This event is co-sponsored by the Progressive Student Community Alliance, Richmonders Against War and Racism, and Free Palestine Now.
[ To follow events as they happen in the Occupied Territories, connect to the Palestine IMC ]

The Richmond Independent Media Center (RIMC) would like to call attention to some rather interesting events brought to you by our partner in acronyms, the Richmond Moving Image Co-op (RMIC). During their week-long James River Film Festival, two events stand out as of particular interest to our readers.

Investigative Poetry with Ed Sanders

Thursday, April 4th, 1:00 p.m. VCU Cabell Library, Special Collections and Archives, 4th floor.

Ed Sanders achieved fame in the �60s as a poet, editor, activist and leading force of The Fugs, a satirical folk-rock band. In commemoration of the 34th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King�s assassination, Sanders will focus on the counterculture and its links to the civil rights movement by reading selections from 1968: A History in Verse, a book-length poem mixing memoir, anecdote and research about that fateful year.

Ed Sanders on The Poetry of Allen Ginsberg

Friday, April 5th,1:00 p.m. VCU Commons Theatre.

The life and work of poet Allen Ginsberg is celebrated by guest Ed Sanders, one of the Beat movement�s favorite sons. Sanders will read from his book The Poetry and Life of Allen Ginsberg, a history-in-verse memorial for the late, great poet and discuss Ginsberg�s enduring commitment to social activism. As an activist, Ginsberg helped bring the Vietnam fisaco to an end. He also helped coordinate the famous Pentegon protest in 1967 with Abbie Hoffman, where 100,000 people surrounded the Pentegon. Excerpts from guest filmmaker Jonas Mekas� Allen�s Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit (1997) and Guns of the Trees (1960-61) will follow.

For more information on these events, as well as all events during the James River Film Festival, please visit the RMIC website.
[ Richmond Moving Image Co-op ]

On Monday, September 24th, the Richmond Peace Education Center is hosting another installment of its "Interracial Dialogues." This event will be a prime occassion to discuss the growing prejudice in America against Arabs and Muslims (or people who just happen to look like either of these groups) due to the September 11th attacks in NY and DC. RPEC extends a warm welcome to everyone, noting that: "Especially if you are a person of color, your voice is needed." The dialogues will begin at 7:30 pm, at the Pace Center, 700 W. Franklin.
[ read article ]

This Thursday, September 20, the Little Flower Catholic Worker Farm is hosting a "Hoedown For Global Justice." The event will feature the revolutionary bluegrass band, The Hackensaw Boys. You are invited to bring to the gathering either a dish or a donation. For more details, please read the full article.
[ read article ]

On Friday, September 21, Williamsburg will officially "Rock Out For Peace." Starting at 9:00 pm, the concert will immediately follow the "Ending Global Apartheid" teach-in on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The event will feature the Oranges Band, My Parents Birthday, and the Translucents, and is sponsored by the Ecohouse and WCWM, the William and Mary campus radio station. For more details, please read the full article.
[ read article ]

At a time like this, there is not much the Richmond IMC is capable right now of helping you with. We can offer support by keeping our site up and running so that Virginians can continue to share their thoughts and feelings, as well as post information about events, such as vigils, that they may be planning. Unfortunately we're having technical problems that make it impossible for people to post comments to stories. We very much regret that that makes our IMC a difficult place to engage in needed dialogue, and we are working on the problem.

The other thing we can do is offer direction by providing links to informative and balanced news coverage. We recommend Common Dreams Newscenter and ZNet, the online home of Z Magazine for their thoughtful and knowledgable articles. We also recommend Mediachannel for their indepth and diverse media analysis. We of course recommend all indymedia sites as way to keep in touch with the thoughts and feelings of all of our brothers and sisters. In particular, we recommend Global Indymedia, DC Indymedia, and New York City Indymedia.

For people concerned about how Tuesday's tragedy will effect the planned protests against the World Bank and IMF at the end of this month in DC, we recommend you frequently check www.globalizethis.org, the online organizing site for the protests, and in particular the "What do you think?" page added to cope with Tuesday's events, where folks are sharing their reactions and suggestions. As soon as it's available, Richmond IMC will be carrying any news on how local organizations that had intended on going may alter their plans.

On Friday, September 21, a diverse coalition of organizations will be hosting a teach-in entitled "Ending Global Apartheid" at the College of William and Mary. The Teach-In has been designed to give you and others from your church, organization, school or union the knowledge necessary to take effective action against the IMF and the World Bank when they hold their their Joint Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC on September 29 and 30.

The Teach-In will feature speakers from organizations in the Third World who will discuss the effects of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank on their respective countries and constituencies. Confirmed speakers include Aggripina Mosha of the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme and Jose Ricardo of the Brazilian Landless Workers� Movement (MST).

The program begins at 6pm and is expected to last approximately three hours, including time for the speakers to answer questions from the audience. For more details about this event, please read the full article.
[ read article ]

On Saturday, September 8, Richmond Food Not Bombs (which now includes the Richmond Anti-Globalitzation Network, or RAGN) is hosting a workshop entitled "Anti-Racism and the Struggle Against Corporate Globalization."

This event is open to all activists, but is designed specifically to discuss and examine racism with white radicals. The workshop is inspired by the conviction that challenging racism is critical to all of our activism, and is necessary in order to create a powerful multi-racial movement for global justice.

The workshop is being held at 120 W. Marshall Street, from 12 noon to 3pm.
[ read article for more details ]

"The economic oppression that we see and feel here in Richmond has the same root causes as the world-wide globalization of corporate greed that RAGN formed to combat in Washington DC during April�s (2000) mobilization against the World Bank and International Monitary Fund. When our city government sells off it�s job opportunities to unscrupulously low-paying contractors and sub-contractors, it is the same race to the bottom of acceptable wages that has sweat-shops and maquiladoras popping up in the �free trade zones� of the global South."

That's a quote from the minutes of the recent Richmond Anti-Globalization Network (RAGN) meeting, and a pretty good way of summing up why you oughta be interested in DC's upcoming goings-on. On September 29 and 30, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank will be attempting to hold meetings in Washington DC. They, however, will be met by thousands of peaceful protestors, there to be the voice of millions around the world who are opposed to the devastating corporate globalization polices the IMF and World Bank support.

Starting on Sept. 23, protestors will counter the closed meetings of the IMF and World Bank with up to 10 days of alternative events, such as rallies, teach-ins, protests, workshops, concerts and abandoned housing takeovers. Demonstration organizers say their demonstrations and events will be nonviolent and peaceful.

RAGN has begun organizing to participate in these protests, as well as continuing to oppose corporate globalization in many other ways. For more information about their plans (plus a slew of useful links about the issues involved), read their recent meeting minutes, posted on our IMC site.

For more details about the upcoming protests in DC, stay tuned to the DC IMC. If you have any information you'd like to share about other local organizing efforts for the DC protests, please don't hesitate to publish a story about them to our Richmond IMC site.
[ RAGN minutes | DC Indymedia | Publish New Story ]

This past Friday the 13th, Charlottesville's downtown mall was witness to a march of "worker devils" and "corporate angels". Costumed living wage activists, accompanied by enormous puppets, made their way through the outside mall and to the Omni hotel. Described as "illustrious, extravagent, poverty-wage payin'", that evening the Omni was hosting a 200-person state treasurer association dinner.

While angels and devils outside the hotel played out a satrical argument, inside four activists chained themselves to the hotel's two elevators after taping signs to the elevator interior that read "living wage now" and "Omni pays poverty wages." Meanwhile, yet another pair of activists gained access to the roof of the hotel and dropped two long "living wage now" banners.

After forty minutes of struggling to remove the chained activists, police arrested all four: Nicholas Graber-Grace, Spot Etal, Abi Miller, and Andrew Holden. Around fifteen activists accompanied the arrested protesters to the magistrate's office, where they protested until the four were released with a tresspass charge several hours later.
[ read the full story ]

Coverage of G8 Protests

Currently there major protests going on in Genoa, Italy. An estimated 50,000 people have shown up to protest the meeting of the G8, the leaders of the world's eight wealthiest nations. Starting yesterday, the protests have escalated and turned violent, with at least one confirmed death--that of a protester. You should be reading Italy IMC for ongoing and up-to-date coverage of the situation.
[ Italy IMC ]