RECLAIM THE STREETS! (6/3)

mas info, por favor

Saturday, from what i hear.

the poster of this should clarify what the plans are

(as much as they can without exposing too much to authorities)

There is going to be a 'Reclaim the Streets' party in downtown Santa
Cruz this Saturday night! People are meeting at 7pm in Pearl Alley
(between Lincoln and Walnut, behind Good Times). Public and communal
spaces are quickly vanishing from our neighborhoods and communities;
it's a ripe time to reclaim some of it. Join us this Saturday night
for an experiment in spontaneous urban uprising and together we can
liberate some space! Bring instruments, food, bikes - whatever you can
think of that would contribute to the space. Hope to see you there ;).

Stop Consuming! - Start Living! - Reclaim the Streets!

"the poster of this should clarify what the plans are (as much as they can without exposing too much to authorities)"

Too late on that one!

I love Indymedia, but it would have been a lot better to keep this announcement off Indymedia.

I got this info in an email yesterday... I would rather have a RTS in Santa Cruz with less people and less pigs.

but like I said... too late for that.

It is on Indymedia, so a few more people will there... and so will a bunch of pigs!

see you and all the pigs... on Pacific!

Shit, didn't really think about that before I posted this. As you said, too late now. Nonetheless, I feel I should apologize. The presence of cops might be a problem, but problems can often be evaded or solved. There've been announcements of "illegal" actions on Indymedia before, but I'm not sure what the cops do based on what they read here. I guess I'll be learning a lot at my own expense tomorrow night...

"The privatisation of public space in the form of the car continues the erosion of neighbourhood and community that defines the metropolis. Road schemes, business "parks", shopping developments - all add to the disintegration of community and the flattening of a locality. playground in Camden Everywhere becomes the same as everywhere else. Community becomes commodity - a shopping village, sedated and under constant surveillance. The desire for community is then fulfilled elsewhere, through spectacle, sold to us in simulated form. A tv soap "street" or "square" mimicking the arena that concrete and capitalism are destroying. The real street, in this scenario, is sterile. A place to move through not to be in. It exists only as an aid to somewhere else - through a shop window, billboard or petrol tank. Ultimately it is in the streets that power must be dissolved: for the streets where daily life is endured, suffered and eroded, and where power is confronted and fought, must be turned into the domain where daily life is enjoyed, created and nourished."

Join us for a fesitval of resistance this Saturday night!

Video From Argentina with Love.

Same video, different formats and sizes

windows media at 26.5 mebibytes

QuickTime movie at 26.5 mebibytes

windows media at 4.0 mebibytes

Raphael Lyon is a filmmaker and media activist working with the Independent Media Project, (www.indymedia.org). He is currently working on a film called "Eye of the Storm," documenting the crisis in Argentina and the role of independent media at the center of a revolution.

Caught between the today's clanging sounds of the cazerolazo, fumes of the piquateros burning tires - and the tear gas of nations police thoruoughly unhinged - is the articulate voice of a people who are determined to reconquer thier nation. A phoeinix even, rising from the fires. A note then, lest we forget, the heat of the fire.

Spanish lesson #1 "Los Desaparecidos"
The Missing.

Between 1976 and 1983 the military governement of the Republic of Argentina declared war on itself. Public space was no longer, and organizing of any kind was met with harsh results. Intimidation, torture and assasination hid in the shadows of everyday life. Anyone was suspect and everyone was guilty. Quiet conversations at a cafe between friends could easily mean a death sentence - to the conversationalists and everyone in their address book.This dirty war wrecked hundreds of thousands of lives, and claimed during its short regime of around 8 years, over 30,000. For blunt comparisons sake, only in terms of proportional loss of life, it would be as if the United States suffered a World Trade Center disaster every 38 days for eight full years.

For this reason, in Argentina you will not hear the word "assasination" in regards to the killing of a geneneration- you will hear "genocide." And 1983 was not a very long time ago. This is so true, and so obvious to Argentines, that it is rarely even mentioned to outsiders - the only hint can be find in the occasional pair of late seventies style dark sunglasses and a distinct nervousness around cameras. But this however, is the nightmare from which Argentina is walking. When people take to the streets today in Argentina, they know they are risking more than rubber bullets. When neighbors assemble on a street corner to talk politics it is not without the ghosts of the ones they lost over so much less. When the morgas arise from the barrios to play their drums, dance, and a sing social commentary they do so in direct defiance to regime that attempted to short circuit a traditional custom that goes back to when Argentina was first colonized. And when the people smile and sing with unhidden proud faces claiming the streets for their own, the parks for their own, Argentina for their own its because they are. It is a courage incomprehendible.

Spanish lesson #2 "Ya Presente"

They are here with us. They are not forgotten. They are with us now.

-RAPHAEL LYON

http://bleakbeauty.com/argentina/gallery/index.html

Tomorrow residents and activists will be setting up a camp and demanding reentry into the St. Bernard public housing complex in New Orleans. A tent city will be built on one of the properties blocks just outside of the complex. Residents have been shut out by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) and told that they cannot move back. Little has been done by authorities to ensure that the more than 10,000 residents of public housing in New Orleans before Katrina will be able to return. Thousands of public housing units stand empty today, but HANO and HUD claim they are uninhabitable because of mold, lead, and other toxins released by storm damage.

Act in solidarity tomorrow as you retake the beautiful streets of Santa Cruz.

the early days of computer animation ... and some inspiration from real Reclaim the Streets experiences of the late 90's ... and, voila ... a modest piece for you to enjoy ...

http://www.mangobunny.com/movies/rtsintro.swf

good luck in Santa Cruz ... in Buenes Aires ... for all ...

"I long for the liberation of love and land that results from the implantation of anarchy!"
an eloquent Spainish revolutionary

the people who made the flyers would've put it on indymedia if it had been wanted.

Never the less now's the time for autonamous action!

if y'all didn't want the info to be spread around, you need to put something on the bottom of the flyer or e-mail or secret note or whatever that says "please don't redistribute" or "please spread by word of mouth only" or something like that. you can't expect people to just know...

Are there any points of unity to this Reclaim The Streets?
Is this reclaim the streets trying to be 'in solidarity' with any cause or group?
Is there going to be any actual art in the streets?

I really hope this event turns out to be more than groups of 'anarchists' 'cops' and 'media' standing around waiting for something to happen.

I really hope there is no 'destruction of property' including 'tagging'

If there is a 'street party for everyone' then how will the RTSers respond to the people who are upset that there is a 'street party'

Surely not everyone will be 'down with this' so why is it being called a street party for everybody?

I do not think there will be many liberals at tonight's party.

What is our reason for taking the streets? How will people that are watching on the sidewalk going to understand what is going on? Will anyone be there with flyers about why people are having a 'free street party' while other people are trying to drive down the street that 'they pay to drive on'?

What is the movement? Is this going to help or hurt?

Why not use our time and energy to help people in actual ways, instead of creating a spectacle?

We can support the South Central Farmers in Los Angeles, people trying to return to New Orleans, cascadia prisoners and those in Atenco, immigrants and workers in Santa Cruz and Watsonville and soldiers that are refusing the fight wars. And these are only examples.

responses are encouraged.

T-Minus 2 and a half hours until launch....

Hello, good people.

I always love a good party, too, but I feel like I need to emphasize the fact that there have been FBI (you know, more than the usual amount) hanging around town lately, especially after the incredibly odd crime of 40 +/- bicyclists who supposedly graffittied large autos on the Westside while wearing long trench coats. Supposedly the FBI were called in because the SCPD couldn't solve this crime which occurred around 9:00 p.m. that happened in a rich neighborhood... with 40 people riding around on bicycles with black trenchcoats??? What??? Even I have more faith in the SCPD than that! ;-)

Anyway, be careful, peeps, and don't take any candy from strangers.

it would be nice if someone could post an account of what happened at the RTS. i haven't seen anything anywhere yet....

Several good articles are up now:
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/06/1827105.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/06/1827119.php