ECR Enemy Combatant Radio

The scene is as common as sunlight: cops beating Black men in the streets. This time, captured on videotape from a hovering helicopter, a malevolent swarm of cops pull occupants from a car, and then proceed to beat the paste out of the men, kicking, punching, and slamming with a club. At least 15 cops are seen in the broadcast beatdown; an average of 5 to 1.... If ever there was irony, the three car occupants were charged with aggravated assault, and criminal conspiracy. How much do you wanna bet that the cops, who were caught on film in the midst of aggravated assault, and as they committed the crime in common, criminal conspiracy, are never charged with these crimes -- and probably will never be arrested?

Dirceu Travesso spoke in San Francisco on April 17. Travesso is a leader of the Unified Socialist Workers Party (PTSU) and opposition trade unionist in the banking sector. He begins with an overview of current labor struggles with General Motors US-Brazil. He then goes into depth on the broader social and political fights that have unfolded in the Lula government, including the need for international workers' solidarity and an alternative to capitalist government to meet these goals. Travesso served in the leadership of the Central Union of Workers until 2004 when he and thousands of unionists broke to form CONLUTAS, the National Coordination of Struggle. He discusses plans for the July 2008 Latin American and Carribean Encounter of Workers to be held in Betim, Minas Gerais, Brazil, sponsored by workers organizations in Brazil, Bolivia, Haiti, and Uruguay. (58 minutes)

Rubble interviews Chicano activist Yolanda Alaniz, visiting from LA for a talk promoting her recently published book, "Viva La Raza: A History of Chicano Identity and Resistence";. She first describes the LA May Day immigrant march, then goes in depth into Chicano coalition-buidling and organizing, including challenges and necessity for leftist, anti-capitalist strategies and countering sexism in the Chicano movements. (23 minutes)

This news show airs weekly on Freak Radio, Friday mornings 10-12 noon, broadcasting news and opinion from independent media worldwide, focused on indymedia sites but also drawing from other websites.

When GI Bryan Currie was seriously wounded in Afghanistan, we was treated in-country and sent back to combat. Five months later, he returned with his unit to the U.S., where he sought help from the Army for PTSD. He was classified as undeployable, but the only help the Army offered was to push pills at him. His chain of command had him re-classified as deployable, and two days before his unit was sent to Iraq, he went AWOL. He talked with Courage to Resist from South Carolina. 17:47

The defense utilized the "bad company" argument: that Bell was shot and killed because he was among "the wrong crowd." That such an argument swayed Supreme Court justice Arthur Cooperman (in New York state, unlike most other states, the trial court is termed the Supreme Court, and the state's highest court is their Court of Appeals.) is a measure of how devalued Black life is, and how easy Black men are to demonize and disparage.

Mixteca Region Coordinator and Legal Advocacy Program Director

On April 24th and 25th, Centolia Maldonado Vasquez and Bernardo Ramirez Bautista, Oaxaca-based members of the Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations, gave presentations in Greenfield and at UC Santa Cruz on indigenous Mexican migration to the U.S. and its impact in the communities of origin, the current political situation in Oaxaca, the role of women in the movement for social justice in Oaxaca, and current challenges of indigenous governing community institutions in Oaxaca. Audio recordings of the presentations by Centolia and Bernardo are available for download at the links below. Each recording is approximately 40 minutes (81 minutes total) and the language is Spanish.

Radio Venezuela En Vivo: We are coming back on Sunday 4th May for a special "Bolivia" broadcast. Nous revenons pour une émission spéciale "Bolivie" le dimanche 4 mai prochain.

Here's another for the annals of vote suppression. Calls have gone out to an untold number of North Carolina voters telling them that they need to fill out a registration form before they vote. Democracy North Carolina, a government watchdog that has posted audio (wav) of the call, says that the calls went out to "black neighborhoods." It seems not to be a scheme limited to North Carolina. As Facing South reports, the same call evidently went out to some voters in Columbus, Ohio two days before municipal elections there last November, and also in Virginia the week before the Democratic primary there this February.

55:15 minute Audio of Democracy Now Amy Goodman booksigning at Changing Hands Book Store in Tempe Arizona

AUDIO RECORDING: Palestinian Sami Awad of Holy Land Trust and Jewish American Bekah Wolf of Palestine Solidarity Project discuss their personal stories and nonviolent resistance in Palestine.

This news show airs weekly on Freak Radio, Friday mornings 10-12 noon, broadcasting news and opinion from independent media worldwide, focused on indymedia sites but also drawing from other websites.

23:30 minute of Speeches in front of State Capitol Phoenix Az sponsored by local Move On chapter explaining the "Iraq and Recession Report"

Audio mixes about Net Neutrality featuring samples from FCC Hearing on Internet Practices 04-17-08 Stanford Ca. music and media on the subject. Expect more to follow.

George Cadman of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM interviews Jeffrey Smedberg, one of the organizers of the 7th Annual ReelWork 2008 May Day Labor Film Festival.

On April 15, 2008, George Cadman interviewed Rebecca Aldworth, the Director of Canadian Wildlife Issues for the Humane Society International-Canada about the 2008 Canadian Seal "Hunt". For the past nine years, she has been a firsthand observer of Canada's commercial seal hunt, escorting over one hundred scientists, parliamentarians and journalists to the ice floes to witness the slaughter.

Audio of Lawrence Lessig presentation to the FCC on the future of the open Internet in America. "Preserve what has worked in driving this economy -- and what has worked is a neutral network."

The recent assassination of two community radio reporters in Oaxaca's Triqui region has triggered widespread international condemnation. Mexico has ranked as the deadliest country for journalists in this hemisphere for years. The two young reporters were from a self-declared "autonomous municipality" in an area characterized by decades of bitter violence. Community activists and the Mexican government's National Human Rights Commission visited the area earlier this week on a fact-finding mission. Vladimir Flores has the Latest from Oaxaca.