Molly Pettit a Northeast Portland musician, sound consultant and long time volunteer for the Last Thursday street fair on Alberta Street in Northeast Portland chronicles how the City has repeatedly and purposefully stifled any attempt to use space creatively for entertainment purposes combining art and politics. Portland, Oregon, 25/08/2010.

In February 2010 a vacant lot at 20th and Alberta Street was eyed up as a location for festivities on Last Thursday - a street fair which occurs on the final Thursday of each month where vendors and performers from the local community transform an already funky street into a festival like atmosphere during the space of an evening. Miss Pettit secured permission to borrow the land and proposed a solid plan that would involve music combined with the distribution of political literature from local and national groups such as the Beehive Art Collective, Climate Ground Zero, Indymedia and the Jericho Movement. She would also organise a stage and beer garden whilst following strict codes imposed by the City.


Copyright for the story and pictures remain with the creator © Alex Milan Tracy 2010. All Rights Reserved. Story and pictures not for use without direct permission. Contact  Alexmilantracy@gmail.com

Demonstrators swarmed the Googleplex in Mountain View on August 13th. They converged on Google headquarters to protest the giant search engine company's proposal to the Federal Communications Commission that would exempt wireless communication from most government regulation.

Protesters on the Google campus said that without federal rules net providers could give priority to certain online traffic, a situation that would lead to a tiered "pay-to play" internet. Read More & Pics | FreePress.net | Color of Change | Raging Grannies Action League

Related: Minneapolis FCC Hearing; Google & Verizon Plan Would End Free, Public Internet as We Now Know It

Interview with Craig Aaron, managing director of Free Press, conducted by Scott Harris

After years of debate between giant telecommunication companies and public advocates on the need to protect free, public access to the Internet -- qualities which make this communications platform such a hot house for innovation and vibrant democratic discourse -- the issue seems to be coming to a head. While the Federal Communications Commission dithered in taking steps to safeguard an open Internet, often referred to as Net Neutrality, Google and Verizon were in negotiations to develop their own vision of how the Internet will function in the future.

In an Aug. 9 announcement, Google and Verizon put forward a joint policy proposal that envisions two "Internets," one public and one private. The private Internet would provide a fast lane to content for those who could afford it, with lots of bells and whistles if you pay to play. Everyone else would be relegated to a slower and lower quality of service on the wired public Internet. The Google-Verizon proposal would eliminate the concept of Net Neutrality on wireless networks, the destination most observers believe the Internet as a whole is rapidly moving toward, and at the same time weaken the FCC's ability to effectively regulate the Internet.

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Two weeks before the blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, the huge, trouble-plagued BP refinery in Texas City, Texas spewed tens of thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals into the skies. The release from the BP facility here began on April 6 and lasted 40 days.

A 2005 explosion at the same refinery killed 15 workers and four more workers have died in accidents since then. Last year, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company $87 million for failing to address safety problems that caused the 2005 blast.

In the July 23, 2010 issue of the Texas Observer, an editorial takes the stance that "since the Supreme Court considers corporations to have personhood, maybe it's time we see BP for what it is: an unreformed criminal."

[photo by Lance Rosenfield, used without permission from ProPublica]

Last week, the group Jewish Voice For Peace kicked off a campaign to divest from Israel's Occupation of the Palestinian territories. Their goal is to convince TIAA-CREF to stop investing in companies that profit from the Occupation, such as Motorola and Caterpillar. Like the South African anti-apartheid divestment campaign on the 1980s, supporters of this recent movement believe that public pressure is an effective way to stop the human rights abuses and bring peace to the Mideast. Read More | Originally published in BlackCommentator.com.

Related: Labor and Community Picket Israeli Zim Line Ship (pictured) | Chicagoan gives chilling eyewitness account of Israeli assault on Gaza aid flotilla

Millions of people all over the world are working on the tragic Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Since our strongest power comes from joining our heart-centered intentions with two or more people, let those of us who wish to act to solve this problem find others of a like mind.

Graphic: "Emotion Wall" Copyright 2005 by Cassendre Xavier. Ink on paper.

Striking Shaw's workers descended on State Street Bank to pressure executives to take a stand against Shaw's parent company's refusal to end the nearly 14 week strike. State Street is the third largest shareholder in Supervalu.

After five Massachusetts labor leaders with union accounts at the bank wrote to its Chairman, Jay Hooley -- and with a noon-time rally planned for Thursday, June 10 -- State Street executives agreed to an 11th hour meeting. Union and community leaders were willing to stop the protest in exchange for a substantive meeting with Shawn Johnson, the head of State Street Global Advisors and Chairman of its Investment Committee.

Army announcement made shortly before June 19 protest. Sustained demonstrations, vigils, and boycott contributed to its demise.

At lunchtime on the 4th of June, protesters stormed the doors of BP's corporate office on NY Ave. DC Direct Action News | Video of rally and taking of BP's lobby | Read More, Pics & Audio

By Karla Aguilar from Free Press Houston: Between 1964 and 1990, using obsolete technology and substandard environmental controls, iconic Texas brand Texaco (which Chevron acquired in 2001) drilled for oil in a remote northern region of Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest. They deliberately dumped 18.5 billion gallons of highly toxic waste sludge into the streams and rivers on which local people depend on for drinking, bathing, and fishing. Over 900 open air and unlined waste pits remain that continue to seep toxins into the ground, in the rainforest.

On May 26, representatives from communities harmed by—and fighting back against—Chevron will descend on Houston to confront the oil giant at its annual shareholder meeting. People from Ecuador, Nigeria, Colombia, Indonesia, Angola, Burma, Australia, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Canada, Texas, California, Alaska, Wyoming and beyond will be in attendance. Organizations like Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, Global Exchange and T.E.J.A.S. are working to change Chevron. But to really move one of the world’s largest and most dangerous corporations, we need an even bigger, more powerful, and more global movement.

May 26 at 7 am in front of Chevron’s Houston office at the former Enron building, concerned Houstonians will demand real change and justice for those most affected by Chevron’s toxic legacy. [Read full article] From the Newswire: Built to Spill-Chevron Key findings Built to Spill by Region: USA | Nigeria | Iraq | Kazakhstan | Ecuador | Chad/Cameroon | Canada | Burma | Angola

On Wednesday, May 12th, Seize BP held a protest in front of the BP offices on New Montgomery Street in San Francisco, to demand that the U.S. government seize BP and all of its assets. BP is involved in a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is still leaking 5 to 25 thousand barrels of oil daily into surrounding waters. Other corporations involved include Transocean and Halliburton. On Friday, May 14th, Act Against Oil will demonstrate in Berkeley at the site of a new BP building under construction next to the UCB campus. Read More | Related: Protesters march on White House against offshore oil drilling | Latest updates on BP oil blow-out

While the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were holding a $1,000 a plate fundraiser at the ritzy Waldorf Astoria hotel in Manhattan, hundreds of Palestine solidarity activists from a wide array of organizations took to the streets to protest Israeli war crimes, the blockade of Gaza, and the occupation of Palestine. READ MORE | PHOTO: Ellen Davidson

RELATED: The Sixth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week 2010 | Israeli Aparthied Week at UH March 8th to 12th

The Oregon Supreme Court announced this Friday, March 5, 2010 that it has placed on its calendar a hearing of Case SO 58025: Wendy Siporen, Ivend Holen and Medford Citizens for Responsible Development v. City of Medford and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. to be held at North Medford High School on May 18, 2010 at 9 AM.

From April 23rd through 25th, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) will hold their annual spring meetings in Washington, DC. The IMF/WB are responsible for saddling struggling economies with unmanageable debt, driving billions into deeper poverty through the imposition of (badly misnamed) “poverty reduction” programs, and threatening countries who refuse to follow their austerity programs with economic blacklisting and isolation.

Animal Teeth Swallow Up Bank Cards at Bank of America and Wells Fargo

Four of the nation's biggest banks — Bank of America, Citibank, Chase and Wells Fargo — are ruining the American economy, say activists who are taking to the streets this month to urge bank customers to "break up that affair with your big bank." In the San Francisco Bay Area members of the Raging Grannies launched a culture jamming action at banks in three cities to give the message some "real teeth". READ MORE | RELATED: Janitors Protest Wells Fargo, Deluge Bankers with Monopoly Money and Toy Houses