Organization Calls on McCain and Obama to repudiate use of "Arab" as a "Slur"

"I can't trust Obama. I have read about him and he's not, he's not uh… he's an Arab. He's not…," before McCain retook the microphone and replied, "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]."

On July 15, after a three-year trial, verdicts were handed down by the Italian court. Fifteen officials were given sentences ranging from five months to five years. Thirty others were cleared of charges. Defendants will each receive 10,000 Euros and upwards in damages. The decision is considered an embarrassment to Silvio Berlusconi's right wing government, in power both then and now. In 2005, 29 officers were indicted for grievous bodily harm, planting evidence and wrongful arrest for the raid on the on the Diaz School. By 2003, all of the activists arrested that night had been cleared of all charges including resisting arrest.

At about 1:30 AM on the morning of Oct 12, delegates to the IMF and World Bank meetings got a noisy, pots and pans wakeup call from protesters!

dc.indymedia.org/usermedia/audio/3/hotel_march_oct_11-12_08.mp3

On Oct 11, ACLU attorney David Rocah appeared at a Washington Peace Center sponsored panel discussion on the MD State Police (MSP) spy scandal and the letters. He advised people who received the letters NOT to accept the MSP's offer to appear in person to "review" files but receive no copies.

Community groups oppose a private corporation's plans to build a 1,000 bed immigrant prison in Farmville, VA.

Immigration Centers of America - Farmville (ICA) plans to break ground on October 15th and be operational by June of 2009, in a partnership between ICE and the city of Farmville, VA, a small, southside Virginia town.

Information about ICA and their qualifications to run a detention facility has been withheld from the public. The company is owned by two real estate developers and the CEO of a company that sells industrial mixers to bakeries.

On the night of October 9th, 2008, several homeless men including myself witnessed police brutality at the 801 East (MLK, Jr.) Homeless Shelter.

In the noontime hours of Friday, Oct 10, protesters from Oil Change International showed up in front of the World Bank. Empty oil drums were set up, along with buckets of coal. As the press watched, "bankers" painted the fossil fuels green.

Youtube video

Audio

The MD State Police spy scandal has exploded onto the front page of the Washington Post. The scandal has mushroomed, with 54 activsts, many NOT connected with the groups the MD State Police admitted to spying on receiving the attached letters.

(click on the image to enlarge and read)

Dear friends and allies of NCOR,

The current organizing collective of the National Conference on Organized Resistance, together with ex-collective members, have decided to close the conference indefinitely, following the unavoidable reality that no AU students have volunteered to be part of the next organizing collective.

There will be no NCOR 2009. Our strong hope is that other nonsectarian spaces emerge to support the intellectual development of the organized US Left. It is in the spirit of that desire that we write this statement, to communicate to the thousands of activists who have supported the conference since its inception to explain the reasons for its closing, remind ourselves of why it was important, and support efforts to create new radical intellectual conference spaces. But first…