June 20th, 2009 strongwindsahead
Protests and blockades have erupted in Peru’s amazon region in response to Peruvian president Alan Garcia’s passing ten presidential decrees which would open up vast tracts of indigenous land to mining, logging and dams. The government claimed that these laws must be passed in order to comply with the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement.
Supporters have taken action worldwide to express solidarity with the Amazonians fighting to protect their land. On Monday, June 15, supporters vandalized the Peru Consulate in Denver with spraypainted slogans decrying the destruction of rainforests, murder of indigenous people and for the liberation of the Amazon.
The protests, blockades and international support have successfully lead to the temporary suspension of two of the decrees, but the Amazonian protesters vow to continue with blockades and protests until all such decrees are dropped.
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May 28th, 2009 strongwindsahead
High Country EarthFirst! kicked off its campaign to stop the Interstate 70 expansion in Denver. A banner over the Colorado Blvd overpass, “Stop I-70 Expansion”, was dropped by EF!ers on 5/26/09 during afternoon rush hour traffic. HCEF! is calling for an immediate cancelling of all plans by the Colorado Department of Transportation to expand capacity or build a permanent detour of I-70 through north Denver.
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has decided to expand Interstate 70, the main east/west freeway through Denver, from its intersection with I-25 to Quebec street. There are two main proposals being considered by CDOT. The first would expand the current viaduct from six to ten lanes and keep I-70 in its current location. The second proposal, and the one favored by the power brokers in Denver, is to reroute (detour) I-70 north from its intersection with I-25 along the Platte river/Brighton boulevard area, and then connect up with highway 270 to where in reconnects with the current I-70 path at Quebec street. This expansion/detour would be eight lanes and add roughly 2 miles to the length of I-70 through this section. The cost for these proposals ranges from 1.25 to 2 billion dollars. Either expansion would gut the neighborhoods of Globeville, Elyria, and Swansea, and increase air pollution in other North Denver neighborhoods. These plans are discussed in detail in the Environmental Impact Statement which can be found at http://www.i-70east.com/reports.html
It is no accident that when I-70 was built it was routed through low-income neighborhoods of color; the expansion is no different. CDOT’s main proposal would demolish over 50 homes, displace more than 50 employers (including the Denver Coliseum and the National Stock Show which employ many local residents, and one of two grocers in the area), and bring increased air pollution (a minimum additional 440,000 vehicle miles a day) to an area already plagued by dozens of major polluters, including the Xcel Cherokee Coal Power Plant and the SunCor Oil Refinery. The expansion would also destroy over 300 acres of habitat to mule deer, white tail deer, bald eagle wintering grounds, prairie dog homes, and destroy much of the remaining green space in the area. The I-70 permanent detour will drastically increase gasoline consumption by 6 million gallons per year in a time of dwindiling supplies and the global climate crisis, as well as worsening air quality for all denver residents.
CDOT hopes that the expansion of I-70 would not just reduce traffic congestion along the immediate route but also increase cross-country trucking through the area (and thereby increasing congestion). Currently, truckers avoid traveling through Denver because of the frequent delays along this stretch of highway causing millions in extra costs annually; expansion would supposedly alleviate congestion and increase the speed for through-truckers. This would bring even more air pollution and risk as hazardous waste is shipped through Denver, getting on and off the Interstate to stop at truck stops and diners. Expansion would also fuel the growth of the suburbs east of Denver, completely unsustainable development that does ecological and economic damage.
The I-70 expansion is part of the greater picture, one where poor people and communities of color are systemically oppressed by the state for the continued privilege of white people and the wealthy. Infrastructure expansion doesn’t meet the needs of underserved communities and only furthers their destruction. The I-70 expansion is no different; a low income community of color would be disrupted and displaced to serve the needs of a capitalist white supremacy. EF! is committed to bio-centracism and deep ecology, beliefs grounded in the fact that no life and no ecosystem is more important than another. We believe that this applies not just to ecosystems and animals, but should apply to all humans and communities. HCEF!D stands in solidarity with all people struggling for self-determination, and we work to abolish these oppressive systems to achieve universal liberation.
If you are interested in getting involved with HCEF!D, please email highcountryearthfirst@riseup.net to find out ways for you to participate.
Stop I-70 Expansion!
High Country EarthFirst!
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May 28th, 2009 strongwindsahead
Denver, CO– Two Earth First! activists were arrested at a Home Depot this morning in Glendale. The arrests followed a banner being hung off the roof of a Home Depot store reading “Dam Home Depot, NOT Patagonia!” Supporters of the arrested activists demand that Home Depot cut all ties and voice their opposition to this project at tomorrows corporate shareholders meeting tomorrow in Atlanta, Georgia.
The banner-drop action was intended to remind both the public and the company: “We’ve fought The Home Depot before and won.” Almost ten years ago, Earth First! groups around the country joined with
Rainforest Action Network and others forced Home Depot to adopt wood product policies that removed old growth from their shelves. But their involvement in the HidroAysen project in Patagonia, Chile shows their commitments to ‘green business’ practices looking a lot like empty Public Relations.
International Rivers, an organization working to protect rivers and defend the rights of communities that depend on them, explains that: The HidroAysen project involves 3 dams on the Pascua River and 2 dams
on the Baker River that would flood globally rare forest ecosystems and some of the most productive agricultural land in the Aysen region. Electricity from these dams would be sent thousands of kilometers
north to serve Chile’s biggest cities and its mammoth copper industry. More than 1,500 miles of transmission lines would require one of the world’s longest clearcuts–much of it through untouched temperate rainforests found nowhere else on the planet. US retailer The Home Depot is the largest buyer of timber products from the main Chilean interest promoting the dams. The Home Depot has been asked by thousands of people, including socially responsible investors, to stop buying timber from suppliers that plan to destroy the rivers and forests of Patagonia.
According to Ron DeFeo of Home Depot (from a blog post this morning): “we don’t think it’s our place to weigh in on an issue that we have no expertise or influence over.” While DeFeo denies the company’s
involvement and refuses to accept the research of International Rivers, his blog post admits that “the president of our supplier’s parent company owns shares, along with his family, in one of the
companies that would work on the project.”
Earth First!, which is more of a movement than an organization, has autonomous groups around the world who target corporations that are responsible for devastating the planet. The movement currently has a national Roadshow crossing the country to mobilize people to take action against companies like Home Depot, which is currently featured on their website www.earthfirstroadshow.wordpress.com
More information about this campaign at:
http://internationalrivers.org/patagonia
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April 26th, 2009 strongwindsahead
Break Up Banks, Not Families!
A Call for an Anti-Capitalist Presence on May 2
by Unconventional Denver
Join us at 1pm, Saturday May 2nd
at Island Grove Park, Greeley
under the “Break Up Banks, Not Families” banner.
In celebration of International Workers’ Day and in support of Immigrant Rights we call on anarchists, socialists, and other anti-capitalists from below to join the Unity March called by immigrants in Greeley and beyond. As the economy continues to tumble further into crisis, workers workers are paying the price of the crisis in retrenchment, mass unemployment, lost pensions, foreclosures, and death.
We know that the most precarious of workers are the first and hardest hit in these times and that with increased exploitation comes increased xenophobic rhetoric against immigrants by the elite in hopes of diverting the justified rage and blame placed upon them. In Greeley we will join the chorus of voices declaring unity in the face of state and economic ruptures, calling on all workers, regardless of race and national origin to organize not against our fellow workers, but the financial profiteers promoting policies destroying and displacing our communities both at home and across the world.
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April 16th, 2009 strongwindsahead
***Please FWD! Join Us & Spread the Word!***
Reconstructing Our Communities, Uniting Our Families, Unity March!
Saturday, May 2nd, 2009
Starts at the Island Grove Park ? 514 N. 14th Ave, Greeley, Colorado
Respect for Human Rights!
Just & Humane Immigration Reform!
For a better Greeley, in a better world!
For More Information: alfrentedelucha@gmail.com, 970.388.0834 or 303.887.2795
Denver! Meet at one of these points to Caravan or take a Bus to Greeley at 9:30 AM, Saturday, May 2nd, 2009!
Aurora:16th & Dallas or Denver: 12th & Mariposa (Lincoln Park)
You are welcome to bring Food or Donations for Greeley families affected by ongoing immigration Raids!
Denver Contacts: Homero 303.437.7805 & Nacho 720.621.7468
Puntos de reunion para la caravana a Greeley! Iremos en autos y buses a las 9:30 AM, El Sabado 2 de Mayo, 2009!
Aurora: Calle 16 y Dallas o Denver: Calle 12 y Mariposa (Lincoln Park)
Interesados traer donaciones de alimentos u otras para las familias afectadas por las redadas.
Contactos en Denver: Homero 303.437.7805 y Nacho 720.621.7468
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March 31st, 2009 strongwindsahead
Hey Folks!
Did you know that Unconventional Denver is a distributor of Left Turn Magazine? It’s true! You can get each issue from us.
For the latest issue, highlight queer radicalism, an awesome group of
activists have organized a party to celebrate and we’ll be there. We hope you can make it too. Here’s the info and make sure to tell all of your friends.
Love and Revolt,
Unconventional Denver
*Stonewall Was a Riot!*
Silk Screening Cupcake Share for the NEW Queer Left Turn
Magazine!
*”Igniting The Kindred: Visions of Queer Radicalism!”
*at Solar Café & Community Space, 2615 Welton St. Denver 80205
*Thursday, April 16th, 2009 7:00 pm*
BYO-Tshirt, Beverage & Cupcakes
*FREE, but bring your wallet anyway!
*
We’ll have 50 copies of the NEW Queer Left Turn Magazine, sliding scale!
We’ll invite for folks to grab an issue of left turn and talk about
intersections of work, hope, and sustaining our movement!
And we’ll see if anyone wants to help pull together a stonewall reenactment
for pride!
We’ll have some t-shirts for peeps to buy & some silk screens made and some
stencils you can make & we’ll make posters for pride, too! We may even show
some short films, like *Young & Evil*
* *& some chill music from dj Crystal Middlestadt! And we’ll bring a few
dozen vegan cupcakes & invite Faatma to talk about Solar!
In just a few weeks, the new issue of Left Turn is coming out!
This issue’s theme is “Igniting The Kindred: Visions of Queer
Radicalism,” highlighting a special section on Queer organizing edited
by Sendolo Diaminah. The issue includes exciting sections (or
articles) on: Memphis’ Duanna Johnson case as a challenge to Gay and
Civil rights movements; Nonprofits and the economic collapse; Take
Back the Land (Miami); Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; The Meaning of
Gaza; Media in Crisis; Greece/European Left; Zapatistas; and much much
more…
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March 27th, 2009 strongwindsahead
Unconventional Denver Meeting
Tuesday, March 31st 7pm
Hooked On Colfax- 3215 E Colfax Ave
People have been asking if we’re still around and how to get involved. We
are indeed around still and have been working on a campaign with ACORN and
other groups to help people resist the foreclosure process. There is also
an anti-coal bike ride coming up that we’re helping plan. It has been
awhile since we’ve had a public meeting, so this will be a good one to
attend for people who are new or haven’t been involved in awhile. We’ll
also try and set up regular meeting dates so the group is more open and
accessible to people.
Hope to see you there,
Unconventional Denver Collective
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February 8th, 2009 strongwindsahead
On January 30, 2009, queers and transfolks of Bash Back! Denver led a queer revolt against Wells Fargo to decry the bank’s institutionally racist and classist banking practices.
The action coincided with NGLTF’s Creating Change Conference, the largest LGBT organizing gathering in the country. Wells Fargo donates $50,000+ annually to NGLTF. In Denver and elsewhere, Wells Fargo has worked to institutionalize white supremacy and reinforce poverty by offering predatory loans specifically through branches located in poor communities and neighborhoods of color. Wells Fargo has also actively withheld millions of dollars in back wages owed to Chican@ workers for more than 50 years and funds the construction of ICE detention centers through GEO group.
On the day of the action, bank security agents stood outside the door while multiple motorcycle cops were stationed across the street and two plainclothes police watched from unmarked cars.
With a low turnout from conference-goers and the high police presence, the action failed to meet its goals of disruption. It did, however, meet and surpass its goals of awareness by distributing hundreds of fliers around the conference, drawing attention from the police and the bank, and talking directly to the director of NGLTF, who approached Bash Back! operatives about the action.
Wells Fargo’s efforts to maintain a “gay-friendly” image by sponsoring NGLTF have been undermined by queer muckraking by Gay Shame and others. In response, NGLTF has made efforts to cover it up by removing the bank’s logo from its website and hiding the bank deep in its list of donors.
Another funder of this year’s Creating Change Conference was CH2M Hill. Headquartered here in Denver, CH2M Hill Corporation is in the business of war and disaster-profiteering. They have received cushy no-bid contracts from the US government in Iraq, New Orleans, and tsunami reconstruction. As the US government’s war on black people around Katrina has shown, disaster and war go hand in hand with privatization and profit.
In related news, inmates in a West Texas detention center have staged two uprisings in the past six weeks to demand proper medical care. The detention center is privately owned and run by the GEO Group, of which Wells Fargo Bank is one of the largest single stockholders (more info at nnirr.blogspot.com). And in July 2007, the inmate of a similar ICE detention center, an immigrant transwoman named Victoria Aurellano, died of AIDS, shackled to her bed after being denied medical treatment.
We do not practice single-issue politics, because there is no single-issue oppression.
In resistance to the non-profit industrial complex and the prison industrial complex alike,
Bash Back! Denver
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January 29th, 2009 strongwindsahead
Unrest has spread across the globe as people are losing their jobs, watching their savings vanish before their eyes while banks and other multi-billion dollar institutions are bailed our by their governments. Iceland, a typically tranquil country, has been turned upside down with social unrest, and recently gained the notoriety of being the first government toppled by its people through street protests.
The country had the world’s fifth highest per capita income in 2007, but is now experiencing growing unemployment. Once at zero, unemployment is expected to soar after Iceland sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
A small island country of just 305,000 people is generally laid back with little conflict but after Iceland’s currency, the krona, collapsed and the banking crisis left many Icelanders with unpayable debts, the country fell into almost daily protests. Eggs and toilet paper were thrown, youth scuffled with riot police and for the first time since 1949 the government retaliated with tear gas on demonstrators.
When parliament reconvened after Christmas Break, the politicians were barricaded inside for hours as thousands of protesters smashed windows, set off smoke bombs, banged pots and honked horns demanding the resignation of the ruling conservative party. Many of the other protests took on similarly confrontational tones- including protesters pelting the car of the prime minister (who has now resigned) with eggs and paint.
On January 26, after denying the possibility of holding early elections, Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced the resignation of his cabinet and the collapse of the current coalition government. Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir is expected to fill the vacancy, becoming the first openly gay head of state. Still, despite new leadership and promises to also dispense of the now loathed Central Bank of Iceland, this will unlikely satisfy the protesters, who have widely reached the point of losing faith in all politicians, echoing the sentiments of the Argentinian protests of 2001 that were so well encapsulated in the popular chant “Que Se Vayan Todos- They All Must Go.”
The future of this small island nation is unsure, though it is certain that popular resistance has already forced large concessions to the people of Iceland, sending shockwaves to the leaders of neighboring countries, who have anxiously watched the first government fall to the monumental failures of capitalism.
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December 30th, 2008 strongwindsahead
Unconventional Denver Meeting
Tuesday January 6th 7pm
Gypsy House Cafe (basement)
1279 Marion St., Denver
Come out to the first meeting of the year! We'll have an update from the
Foreclosure Working Group, begin work on upcoming anti-coal actions and
whatever else we can fit in.
Love and Solidarity!
Unconventional Denver
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