A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING ROCHESTER...
THIS IS THE FIRST COMUNIQUE FROM THE SYNDICALIST DEMON SQUAD (UNDERGROUND).
TONIGHT WE FARTED IN THE MOUTH OF OUR OPRESSORS. The stank breath of the bean counters shall waft above the midtown ruins.
We glued the doors of Chase Bank's main Rochester office shut to give them a whiff of the shit that we have to wade through every day. We have temporarily denied their functionaries access, and we hope it fucks up their day. We've attacked our class enemies, those who decimate our communities and take our homes away, who steal the land and charge us interest on it. The proletariat will have vengeance for the pain of every working mother, for every lifetime spent in a cage, for every homeless kid. This action is to inform the bourgeoisie that their days are numbered. Their coming fate is foretold by the revolutionary violence of the colonized.
Though the machine of capitalist misery grinds forward, those who administer the system that fucks us will know the class hatred we feel by the property we disfigure and the money it costs them to restore the facade of domestic tranquility. They will know that those chained below revile them and have begun to revolt. May they sleep less soundly now, plagued by the fitful dreams of tyrants.
“We must decimate the avenues where the wealthy live.”
Anti-NATO coverage by Rochester Indymedia in Chicago
Check out this awesome fact sheet about why people are protesting. Don't get caught up only in the argument that the reason why people are protesting is to protect their rights--look deeper. NATO is a criminal organization that commits war crimes in the name of Greed and Capitalism.
Check out Chicago Indymedia's YouTube channel NATOINDYMEDIA with lots of video coverage. Chicago Indymedia put together four days of half hour coverage around the anti-NATO protests: 5/17, 5/18, 5/19, 5/20, 5/21, & 5/22.
Bank Protest brings stories from passers-by
A second large, bailed-out bank was the target of protest in one week. On May 9, MoveOn.org held a demonstration in front of the Rochester offices of Bank of America. The event drew only 15-20 protesters. It was just two days after close to 100 turned out to protest a questionable local foreclosure by Wells Fargo in Victor. That action was held by Take Back the Land, Band of Rebels and Occupy Rochester NY.
The most interesting contributions to this protest came not from the demonstrators themselves but from those passing by. Denise Reed stopped to explain why she moved her money from Key Bank to a local Credit Union. While this action was aimed at Bank of America, Key Bank is not blameless in the financial crisis. It too received taxpayer bailout money and has been implicated in trying to collect loan payments from the families of deceased students.
After the protest, another passer-by, a Korean War veteran who declined to be named or filmed, had an even more interesting story. He called attention to two buildings across the street from Bank of America. One, now sitting empty, still has the inscription "Monroe County Savings Bank" above the door. Another, down the street is a historical landmark. It still has "Rochester Savings Bank" above the door, although the building now houses Citizens Bank. At one time as recent as the 1970's, banks were only allowed to operate within the area, usually the county, in which they were chartered. This kept them close and accountable to the local community which they served. In stark contrast, when foreclosed homeowner Leonard Spears tried to personally deliver a letter explaining his mortgage to Wells Fargo, he was told that the person responsible for his loan was located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Bank of America is from Charlotte, North Carolina.
Rochester Indymedia to Host Regional Convergence
On the weekend of June 8th-10th, Rochester Indymedia will be hosting a regional convergence for independent media makers, grassroots activists, and community members. June 2012 completes Rochester Indymedia's first decade as an organization and to mark the occasion the group is inviting those interested in building independent media in our region to this dynamic convergence. The weekend promises to facilitate new directions for peoples’ media as well as facilitate collaborations between media makers and activist groups. Workshop, panels, and informal discussions will deal with questions involving the media landscape, developing practical skills for media creation, and building new relationships to build on.
The convergence will be held at the Flying Squirrel Community Space, a project started in 2009, which has served the activist, art, and music scene in Rochester. The Flying Squirrel is located oat 285 Clarissa Street, a stone’s throw from Downtown Rochester. Rochester has its own undercurrent of radical history. Frederick Douglass, Susan B Anthony, and Emma Goldman all worked and lived in Rochester at points in their lives.
Currently, confirmed presenters and participants include Dee Dee Halleck, co-founder of Deep Dish TV, Mike Burke a senior producer for Democracy Now!, Leslie James Pickering- former press spokesman for ELF and editor of a new book on the RNC 8, Yusef Shakur- Author and Community organizer from Detroit, members of the Santctuary for Indypendent media from Troy, NY, Buffalo's own musical act the Blood Thirsty Vegans, members of regional indymedia collectives, members of Take Back the Land Rochester, and many others. Check more Bios here.
Some Workshops / Talks / Discussions in the works (Those interested in presenting can propose sessions on the website). The full schedule will be posted on the convergence website on or before May 20th.
-The battle between mainstream and underground, socially conscious, hip-hop
- Regional Indymedia Caucus
- Media Strategies to Build Organizations
-Classified Government Documents versus Wikileaks
-The intersectionality between sports and radical politics
- Poverty and Media
- Radical Community Spaces and Face-to-Face media
-Livestream, Occupy Viral Media, Egypt, and Facebook
-Attacks on the Rights of Journalists and what to do about it
Skill Shares:
-Radio/ Podcast production
- Livestreaming
-Video production
-Conducting and Giving Great Interviews
The Final Stages of the Convergence are being planned now and we need you! What do you want to see happen during the weekend? Do you want to lead a session. Head over to the convergence website and register now.
Facing Foreclosure, Leonard Spears Pledges to Stay in His Home
Leonard is fighting to stay in his home. Wells Fargo fraudulently foreclosed on him and sold his house to Freddie Mac for $500. On March 30, a got a 90 day notice to vacate despite obviously fraudulent paperwork and numerous requests at modification. As the foreclosure crisis decimates his neighborhood, Leonard is taking a stand for his house he remodeled and returned from disrepair. Listen to Leonard's story, what his home has meant to him, and how why he has pledged to stay in his home.
Leonard Spears and Take Back the Land Rochester are calling on the community to protest Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac's move displace Leonard from his home at 26 Ries St., Rochester, NY 14611. Despite 10-12 attempts at a mortgage modification, Wells Fargo refused to negotiate with Leonard and instead asked him to continually resubmit the same paperwork. In order to take his home as quickly as possible Wells Fargo never served Leonard the Summons and Complaint for the foreclosure action, denying him proper recourse to defend his home in court. Instead Wells Fargo fabricated the paperwork saying they served Leonard and claiming he was up to 6 feet tall with black, brown, and blond hair! Unfortunately for Wells Fargo, Leonard is about 5'6'', bald and has never had blond or brown hair. In a further stroke of fraud, lawyers for Wells Fargo reveal that their client didn't own the mortgage or note when they foreclosed on Leonard Spears giving them zero legal standing to foreclose in the first place. To add insult to injury, when Wells Fargo foreclosed on Mr. Spears, they sold his house to Freddie Mac for $500. Now Freddie Mac is trying to evict Leonard and gave him 90 days to vacate on March 30, 2012. We demand that Freddie Mac withdraw the eviction and that Wells Fargo withdraw the foreclosure and work out a reasonable settlement with Leonard.
When Wells Fargo was in desperate financial trouble they received a massive bailout of over $36 billion which they used to buy up other banks in order to become Much "Too Big to Fail." Now Wells Fargo is trying to railroad more people out of their homes in order to turn a profit. After the bailout Wells Fargo was for forced to pay a $85 million fine for pushing borrowers into subprime loans. Despite the bailouts and fines the government hasn't prevented a single foreclosure. It’s up to us to bring justice to our community. It's time we came to together as a community to stop all foreclosures and to elevate housing to a human right.
We demand that Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac withdraw the foreclosure and eviction of Leonard Spears and negotiate a reasonable settlement so he can stay in his home.
We demand that Wells Fargo, Freddie Mac and all other bailed out banks transfer their foreclosed homes to local community land trusts, so that communities can secure local control over housing and land. We've paid for the houses. Now they should be turned back to the public.
For more information contact Take Back the Land Rochester at takebackroc@riseup.net or (585) 653-8362.
For updates see http://TakeBacktheLandRochester.org, http://facebook.com/takebackroc,http://twitter.com/takebackroc
Links: D&C: Group Protests Foreclosure of Rochester Home | The Daily Record: Area Groups Protest Foreclosure Case | Sign the Petition: Wells Fargo and Freddie Mac: Withdraw the Foreclosure and Eviction of Leonard Spears in Rochester, NY | Alternet: 7 Foreclosure Horror Stories (And One Possible Win)
FBI Seizes European Counter Network Web Server from NYC Colocation Facility
On April 18th, U.S. Federal authorities removed a server from a colocation facility shared by Riseup Networks and May First/People Link (MFPL) in New York City. The seized server was operated by the European Counter Network (ECN), the oldest independent internet service provider in Europe, who, among many other things, provided an anonymous remailer service, Mixmaster, that was the target of an FBI investigation into a series of bomb threats against the University of Pittsburgh.
Tech staff have assured users that no riseup user or MFPL member data or security codes were compromised in the seizure. The server itself was fully encrypted.
Hundreds of ECN users, email lists and websites were disrupted in this seizure, including academics, artists, historians, feminist groups, gay rights groups, community centers, documentation and software archives and free speech groups. None are alleged to be involved in the anonymous bomb threats. ECN is the oldest independent service provider in Europe. Before sites like Youtube and Vimeo existed, ECN created a platform called NGV where people could upload and share independent video of human rights violations. Nowadays ECN works primarily with anti-fascist and anti-Nazi movements in all of Europe, providing space and resources to political and social centers.
“The server seizure is not only an attack against us, but an attack against all users of the Internet who depend on anonymous communication," said MFPL director Jamie McClelland. "The pointlessness of this seizure suggests an inclination toward extrajudicial punishment and an attempted crackdown on the very possibility of anonymous speech online." Dispatch from MFPL | Joint Press Release | Server Seizure FAQ | ecn.org
Related: FBI attempts, fails to gain access to May 1st/People's Link servers | Privacy Groups Seek to Stop Cyber Spying Legislation | Stand Strong for Online Privacy
An Open Letter to the Shooter on Dayton St. from Lawrence Richardson
Lawrence Richardson was murdered on Dayton St. in Rochester, NY on April 9, 2012. Here he speaks directly to the young man who shot him and two friends that day, in broad daylight while they walked down the street.
Please post & share & take his video viral to give voice to his message, and so that eventually it gets in front of the shooter and any others who fall back on violence. The issues beneath violence run deep & we must heal and solve them together.
Lawrence worked as a youth organizer with Teen Empowerment in Rochester where he committed himself to change his own life, raise awareness about what is happening to damage young lives, and call on youth to support each other and work for peaceful and just change. These excerpts come from speeches, dramatic monologues, and original plays that Lawrence created with his fellow Teen Empowerment youth organizers in an effort to combat violence.
Lawrence's overall jovial spirit, in combination with his willingness to tell his own story to teach and rejuvenate others, will live on and on and on.
"Memories" @ Lawrence Richardson Vigil
Reality Check: Poverty Is Not A Crime!
On April 2nd, 2012, in downtown Rochester, NY, activists held a rally to call attention to the criminalization of visible poverty. Instead of the city, county, state, and federal governments tackling the root causes of poverty and homelessness in our communities, they would rather rely on the prison industrial complex and punish people for being poor through ordinances that outlaw panhandling, loitering, and, among so many others, sleeping in a public space. Slapping fines on poor and homeless people that they cannot pay leads directly to their imprisonment. It's time to put an end to the injustice.
Occupy Rochester Preparing for Phase III of the Movement
March 28, 2012
The Phase I was the birth of the Occupy movement. Ignited by the fight against the greed and corruption of the 1% and the economic inequality plaguing our communities, the 99% were inspired by occupations all over the country and around the world to take back their power. This phase was marked a by free speech battles over open public squares to engage in public discourse and a People’s direct democracy.
Phase II was characterized by a 139 day (to date) 24/7 occupation of Washington Square Park, possibly the longest of the Occupy encampments in northern cities. During Phase II the Occupy Rochester has held over 50 protests, over 70 teach-ins, and changed the discourse around inequality in the community. In addition, Occupy Rochester has been successful in transforming closed school board sessions into community controlled discussions, halting a foreclosure-related eviction keeping a family in their home, halting the Amtrak encampment eviction, and getting justice for workers at local chain restaurant.
For Phase III Occupy has already developed a network of working groups and allies in the Rochester community that beyond the confines of Washington Square Park. As a movement of the 99%, we aim to deepen these roots in the Rochester community while continuing to utilize our public spaces to broadcast our message. We will continue to hold General Assemblies in Washington Square Park, continue to organize protests, direct actions and advocacy campaigns through our working groups and stick to the core issues that have defined the Occupy Movement around the country: civil liberties, economic justice and the human rights for food, health care, housing, education, and living wage jobs.
You cannot evict an idea whose time has come.
For More Information Contact: OR Media Working Group
585-455-0961 or 585-208-2772
Indybay Journalists Charged with Felony: Conspiracy to Make Media
Viewpoint Discrimination and Selective Prosecution at Work in Charges Against Independent Journalists
Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee has embarked on a full frontal assault against independent media in Santa Cruz by including four regular contributors to the independent news website Indybay.org amongst the eleven people charged with multiple felonies and misdemeanors after the occupation of a vacant bank building on November 30th, 2011. District Attorney Lee apparently believes it is his duty to dictate how events such as the occupation of the vacant bank at 75 River Street should be reported on by the media, and if he does not approve of the coverage, then journalists risk the DA bringing charges against them. Read More | Full Press Release from Indybay | En Español
Pictured: Bradley Stuart Allen and Alex Darocy are Indybay photojournalists and Indybay editors who were reporting on the occupation.
More Coverage: KPFA Evening News Speaks with Bradley Stuart Allen | Day Three of "Conspiracy" Frame-Up Hearing | Bogus Attack on Journalists Around November Protest Goes On and On | Preliminary "Conspiracy" Hearing for Two Reporters in the 75 River St. Persecutions | NPPA & Reporters Committee Seek Dismissal of Charges Against Photojournalist Covering Occupy Protest