Artists At War Blog

CONGRATULATIONS MAURICIO FUNES

2009-03-16T06:52:17Z

El Salvador, with its first leftist president, celebrates a new era when political opponents abandon their tools of war and let the ballot box decide who should lead. Congratulations Mauricio Funes! May you bring prosperity to your people.

"This is the happiest night of my life" - M. Funes 03/15/09

chichicaste.blogcindario.com/2008/01/index.html

"I salute my opponents with respect and I express my willingness to exchange ideas to strengthen democracy." - M. Funes 03/15/09

flickr.com/photos/elperiodico/3288098265/

AAW's Voter's Guide for LA City's Tuesday March 3 Primary Nominating Election

2009-03-01T04:31:40Z

Here are some things you'll see on the ballot Tuesday in Los Angeles, along with recommendations on how to vote.

YES on Measure A: Fire Department Assessor - Creates an independent Assessor to implement personnel reforms within the L.A. Fire Department. Endorsers include Courage Campaign, Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Young Progressive Majority.

YES on Measure B: Known as the "Green Energy and Good Jobs for Los Angeles Act" or the "Solar 8", this legislation proposes to create a DWP program that will provide 400 megawatts of clean, green solar power to customers, providing green jobs and renewable energy.
Great, right? However, controversy has swirled around this measure. The LA Times says it will be too expensive. Estimates are that it adds another 2%-4% more to our utility bills. Additionally, highly regarded LA City Controller Laura Chick suggested the means by which it got on the ballot are shady.
The bill was introduced in collaboration with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 11 and 18--made up of the union sisters and brothers at DWP who would install many of the solar panels. According to the LA Times, these photovoltaic arrays "would cover about 900 acres of warehouse rooftops, parking lots and unused rights of way." According to Local 18's website, the local infrastructure is in bad repair. So, if an upgrade is needed, why not modernize? They ask us not to wait to pursue our green dreams. And if you think it's too pie in the sky, and these people are not up for the job, just check out what they do in their free time at the LA Lineman Rodeo (images courtesy LALinemanRodeo.com)

Some backers of Measure B include the Mayor Villaraigosa, Working Californians, Courage Campaign, Sierra Club, Los Angeles County Democratic Party, Los Angeles County Labor Federation and Young Progressive Majority.

YES on Measure C: Disabled Children Benefits - Allows disabled children of deceased firefighters to marry or be adopted without losing existing benefits. Endorsers include Courage Campaign, Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Young Progressive Majority.

YES on Measure D: Survivor Benefits - Allows firefighters to purchase at their own expense a survivor benefit for a partner or spouse. Endorsers include Courage Campaign, Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Young Progressive Majority.

No on Measure E: Corporate Tax Giveaways - Enables the Mayor of Los Angeles to offer tax breaks and other items to large companies like Wal-Mart without City Council approval. Opponents include Courage Campaign, Los Angeles County Democratic Party and Young Progressive Majority.

Also, here's some good numbers to know when voting this time around. Keep in mind, this is a City election and isn't being handled by the Los Angeles Registrar Recorder.

City of Los Angeles Clerk
or phone: 213-978-1020

More important phone numbers for Election Day:

Election Division - General Information: (888) 873-1000 or (213) 978-0444

To find your Polling Place: (888) 873-1000 or (213) 978-0444

Language Assistance: (800) 994-8683

Voter Fraud Hotline: (800) 815-2666

Election Night Results Bulletin Hotline: (213) 978-3281

L.A. County Registrar-Recorder Operators: (562) 466-1310

President Barack Obama

2009-01-20T18:10:06Z

NO MORE BUSH. HURRAY!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president_obama/

A Peep of Our Next President
2008
8 in. x 10 in.
Marshmallow Peeps
by Mike Leavett
(Entered in The Seattle Times' Annual Peeps Art Contest)

'08 Athens = '68 Paris?

2008-12-18T19:34:00Z

Fantastic photos of the street scenes here:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/2008_greek_riots.html

L.A. Anarchist Bookfair | The 1st Annual

2008-12-12T21:29:27Z

http://www.anarchistbookfair.com/

Artists At War will be at the 1st Annual L.A. Anarchist Bookfair!

Saturday, Dec. 13
11am-?
Southern California Library
6120 S. Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90044

We will be revealing our newest artist's project by the Groundswell Collective.

Desperate Times...

2008-12-07T22:30:51Z

Thanks to Bonnie for forwarding me the following article from the Socialist Worker. -TM

"CHICAGO FACTORY TAKEN OVER BY LAID OFF WORKERS

"Lee Sustar reports from Chicago on an occupation by workers who want what's theirs from management and the Bank of America.

"December 6, 2008

"WORKERS OCCUPYING the Republic Windows & Doors factory slated for closure are vowing to remain in the Chicago plant until they win the $1.5 million in severance and vacation pay owed them by management. In a tactic rarely used in the U.S. since the labor struggles of the 1930s, the workers, members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) Local 1110, refused to leave the plant on December 5, its last scheduled day of operation.

"'We decided to do it because this is money that belongs to us,' said Maria Roman, who's worked at the plant for eight years. 'These are our rights.' Word of the occupation spread quickly both among labor and immigrant rights activists--the overwhelming majority of the workers are Latinos. Seven local TV news stations showed up to do interviews and live reports, and a steady stream of activists arrived to bring donations of food and money and to plan solidarity actions. Management claims that it can't continue operations because its main creditor, Bank of America (BoA), refuses to make any more loans to the company.

"After workers picketed BoA headquarter s December 3, bank officials agreed to sit down with Republic management and UE to discuss the matter at a December 5 meeting arranged by U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill), said UE organizer Leah Fried. BoA had said that it couldn't discuss the matter with the union directly without written approval from Republic's management. But Republic representatives failed to show up at the meeting, and plant managers prepared to close the doors for good--violating the federal WARN Act that requires 60 days notice of a plant closure.

"The workers decided this couldn't go unchallenged. "The company and Bank of America are throwing the ball to one another, and we're in the middle," said Vicente Rangel, a shop steward and former vice president of Local 1110. Many workers had suspected the company was planning to go out of business--and perhaps restart operations elsewhere. Several said managers had removed both production and office equipment in recent days. Furthermore, while inventory records indicated there were plenty of parts in the plant, workers on the production line found shortages. And the order books, while certainly down from the peak years of the housing boom, didn't square with management's claims of a total collapse.

"'Where did all those windows go?' one worker asked. Workers were especially outraged that Bank of America, which recently received a bailout in taxpayer money, won't provide credit to Republic. 'They get $25 billion from the government, and won't loan a few million to this company so workers can keep their jobs?' said Ricardo Caceres, who has worked at the plant for six years.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"THE MEMBERS of Local 1110 have a history of struggle. In 2004, they decertified the Central States Joint Board--a union notorious for corruption and sweetheart contracts with management--and brought in UE, a far more democratic organization. In May of this year, Local 1110 mobilized for a contract by organizing a "practice" picket, and 70 workers used their lunch break to confront the boss with a petition listing their demands. The workers were able to turn back company's effort to win major concessions and won solid pay increases.

"Now, management is trying to get revenge by pocketing money that belongs to the workers. UE officials and workers acknowledge that it will be difficult to stop the plant from closing. But they're determined to get the money owed to t hem--and they believe that by fighting, they can set an example for other workers facing layoffs and plant closures as the recession deepens.

"Negotiations are set for Monday, December 8. Whatever happens, however, the workers have already sent a message to employers that if they violate workers rights and the law, they can expect a fight. 'This is a message to the workers of America,' said Vicente Rangel, the shop steward. 'If we stand together, we will prevail until justice is done, and we get what we're due.'

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

More info...follow organizer Leah Fried and the valiant efforts of UE 1110 workers in the press and web-o'-sphere.

"What can you do If you live in the Chicago area? ...

"If negotiations with Bank of America fail to resolve the issue, there will be a picket of BoA's Chicago headquarters at 231 S. LaSalle on Tuesday, December 9 at 12 noon.

"Members of Local 1110 need your support. Make checks payable to the UE Local 1110 Solidarity Fund, and mail to: 37 S. Ashland, Chicago, IL 60607.

"Messages of support can be sent to leahfried@gmail.com, and you can send a message of protest to Bank of America."

images courtesy FLICKER: uect, www.workersliberty.org & http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dkq2MV88M3aW

Nov 4. California State Ballot Initiatives--AAW's Endorsements

2008-10-30T19:44:06Z

Here is Artists At War's take on the California State Ballot Initiatives. We put this together because CA's ballot initiatives are always thrown at us like a handful of mud--lots of confusing questions to ponder. Yet they are hardly trivial matters. This year's batch contains 4 constitutional amendments that are far-reaching and almost impossible to undo.

Please feel free to print this guide and bring it with you to the polls. Take your time (by law we are allowed 1 hour off of work), and do the right thing.

1A - Hi-speed Electric Rail
YES. Will provide an investment in 21st-century infrastructure, lots of jobs, and a great way to travel between SF & LA.

2 - Farm Animals
YES. It's bad enough that we're going to kill chickens and eat their tasty flesh. So let's let them have a little space to enjoy their short lives.

3 - Children's Hospitals
YES-ish. On the face of it, increasing funding to children's' hospitals sounds good. But I feel like this bill plays inside baseball with a lot of money, and we have no real idea how this industry works.

4 - Abortion Notification (Constitutional Amendment)
NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT.

5 - Drug Treatment
YES. We're killing ourselves, sending drug users to jail. It costs around $30,000 to incarcerate a person for a year. I'm sure it costs much less to get someone to kick the habit.

6 - Police Funding
NO! Moves law enforcement $ from the community to the police. I don't think the police are very accountable for their actions.

7 - Renewable Energy
NO. Pushes small companies in the renewable energy industry out of business. Send this back to the drawing board. In the coming years, there will be lots of legislation over energy and global warming. We need to be smart, and decipher GREEN vs. GREENWASHING!

8 - Ban on Gay Marriage (Constitutional Amendment)
NO. The law should be equal for all people.

9 - Victim's Rights (Constitutional Amendment)
NO. Builds more jails, throws away the key.

10 - Alternative Fuel Vehicles
NO. Again, this is a GREENWASH bill, that'll give tons of $ to a few companies.

11 - Redistricting (Constitutional Amendment)
NO. Deciding election districts will always be a dirty scrum, but this bill will concentrate the power of the Governor and a few select people to decide.

12 - Housing for Veterans
YES. The way vets get screwed over when fighting unpopular wars, we need to give them something.

Look Out '68 DNC, There's Police Brutality in the Twin Cities!

2008-09-02T06:42:20Z

Credit for the photo goes to Jim Gehrz at the Star Tribune.
Thanks for "allowing" us to borrow this sure to be award winning image.

I would encourage anyone reading this to check out tomorrow's Democracy Now, when we'll see/hear the brutal arrest of 2 DN producers and Amy Goodman.
Here also is some footage from Minnesota Public Radio of a homeowner who'se duplex was raided because he had the press staying in his spare apartment. Want to read more editorial? Just check out the comments below the MPR piece. My favorite, "I'm not paying taxes anymore."
This jibes pretty well with what I've been hearing from my friend on the ground at the RNC. Yesterday scores of arrests, he said. Today, StarTribune reports the Guard has been called in to quell some protesters who have been breaking windows and causing a disturbance.
Gina Berglund, a National Lawyers Guild member and attorney taking up the charge of advocating for the protesters has been quoted in various sources as saying, "we think it's unconscionable. We think it's out of control," and the police action was "completely out of proportion." "A lot of people in the activist community are really on pins and needles about who's next," she said in the Kansas City Star.

In an eerie flashback to the '68 DNC convention and the "Chicago 10" legacy, many are being arrested on charges of conspiracy to start a riot.
Who is drawing such ire of local and national law enforcement? Within this fracas have been reported the following:

A bicycle with a papier-mâché donkey head and tail attached, and another with an elephant head and body attached to it that notes the level of the national debt.
A 67 year old Minneapolis man enclosed in chicken wire in what he calls his own free speech pen,
Parents of a fallen soldier walking with a flag-draped cardboard coffin and a very real, very empty pair of boots and a uniform,
Some Rage Against the Machine fans who plan to attend their concert in Saint Paul on Wednesday night if they don't get arrested first.
and others...thousands of 'em...

Former LA Deputy DA got Manson family: Now going for Bush & Co.

2008-08-12T05:37:12Z

Friday, July 25, 2008
Vincent Bugliosi at the House Committee on the Judiciary.

A brief note on a new project...

2008-06-24T09:58:14Z

The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest just put online an amazing collection of essays, coordinated by Team Colors collective. Their project, at http://www.joaap.org/projects/whirlwind.htm explores the current state of resistance culture and politics in the US in light of the coming dnc/rnc protests this summer.

Heavy reading, but well worth it. Highlights include Ben Shepards piece, a Michael Hardt/El Kilombo pairing, I want to do this all day (an audio documentary about really alternative education projects around north america), and an interview with Ashanti Alston.

Thank you Paul Sills

2008-06-03T05:39:26Z

November 18, 1927 - June 2, 2008

Paul Sills gave us Story Theatre and improvisation which continues to influence thousands of individuals and provided a unique awareness about the space we inhabit. He brought these gifts into the world when America was unraveling at the edges. In the interview segment below, Paul explains how Story Theatre came out of a desire to make sense out of a time when abuse of power was rampant. After considering more direct ways to confront this, he decided to pour himself into his art where creating new worlds was possible and natural. Following these instincts led him to tell us some of the most percipient stories at moments we needed to hear them most.

Paul's immeasurable contributions to American culture and our theatrical tradition will be celebrated, taught and honored for generations to come. His achievements were due in no small part to the enormous support he received from family, especially from his wife Carol Bleackley Sills. They collaborated in Story Theatre productions in many ways. His presentations were unencumbered by props and theatrical mechanisms. He coached players to fill the vacant space by creating a collective minds eye capable of triggering imaginary scenes that held all the production value a story could need. These were places that invited play and extemporaneous expressions. Carol's minimal yet luminescent and painterly environments offered a perfect context for interplay among the players interpreting their stories. The image below was taken during Paul's presentation of the Metamorphoses in Wisconsin at the Peninsula Art School near the Baileys Harbor farmhouse he and Carol shared.

Excerpt from Interview: Paul Sills Reflects on Story Theatre
by Laurie Ann Gruhn

"[Story Theatre] was an answer to the question of how the theatre could be relevant in 1968. We opened the Story Theatre in Chicago in July, and the democratic convention nominated Humphrey in August of that extraordinary year, when in the Spring, first Martin Luther King, then Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Initially we were talking about opening a bar where we could put the Democratic party on trial for getting us into Vietnam in the first place, but that was just a desperate idea. Then I happened to read the Blue Light story in the Grimm Brothers collection and I saw it on stage in the space then and there without the need to change a word. Stage space is capable of transformation-with out mechanical scene changes-as we knew from working with Viola Spolin at Second City. Playing her game "Transformation of Relations," the players could change relationship from doctor patient, to flying birds, to robots, to whatever else emerged, and where they were transformed along with them. As all true improvisation is in pure stage space (without literal props or scenic devices), transformation of where is implicit. In the Blue Light, an old soldier who, on account of his many wounds can serve no longer, goes before the King and is sent off penniless into the dark forest. He limps along until he sees a light and comes to the house of a Witch. She refuses to take him in for the night unless he promises to go to the bottom of her well and retrieve for her a blue light that burns brightly and never goes out. She lowers him on a rope. The space shaping player helps the audience see the forest, the rope and feel the clammy surface of the well, and the quality of the mysterious blue light. As the Witch winds him up on the winch, be suspects she's not going to let him up and refuses to give her the blue light. She cuts the rope and he falls to the bottom of the well. There is no escape. He has nothing left but the blue light and his pipe, which as his last act he lights from the flame. And lo! A little gray man appears and offers to do his bidding. This is a motif in fairy tales: the power that's given from nowhere, just when nothing seems possible. In the depths of the despair, there lies the spark: the transformation of reality. The soldier gets his revenge on the King, replaces him, and marries the Princess and triumphs over soldiers, judges, over all authority and power. And when the paternal power was overthrown, in the highly charged political situation of'68, the young people cried, "Right on!" It was just in the air. After all, we were doing the story during the convention.

"As for the other fairy tales in the first Story Theatre show, the audience found those that were relevant to their concerns and saw them as pertinent to the hour. Later, in San Francisco, in '73, the Blue Light no longer seemed relevant, and San Franciscans said the show we did there wasn't political at all. To sum up, Story Theatre was a response to a need I felt to say something in'68, and I found what I had long been looking for, a theatre that took place in pure space, the space of transformation.

"The alternative way of telling stories in theatre is dramatic form, which inhabits a different space. Even Shakespeare, who moved closer to pure story in his last plays, does not escape the literal space of drama. Each scene has its exposition to orient the audience spatially. Both Yeats and Brecht, who came ever closer to story, often seemed restricted by dramatic form, having no conception of the transformation of space. They used storytellers, as Chamber Theatre uses narrators, for non-dramatic purposes. But story is different from drama; it intends something else. Drama may need and use story, as Shakespeare did, but story is primary, and story re-telling, a different act."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Link to full interview: Paul Sills Reflects on Story Theatre

Remembrances:
NY Times
LA Times
Chicago Reader

Playbill
Chicago Tribune
AP

Memorial Day

2008-05-27T05:43:44Z

The LA Times printed a heart wrenching page with 492 California war casualties listed on it. This kind of document Legislators should waive in their fists in the Congressional halls tomorrow. When will this madness stop?
Accompanying the list was a story about Riverside National Cemetery, the busiest cemetery in the Country for soldiers who aren't making it back from Iraq and Afghanistan alive. May they rest in peace.
I'd like to encourage some traffic at the site they put together: http://projects.latimes.com/wardead/

Take Action to Protect Tejon Ranch

2008-05-13T23:30:46Z

Folks at the Center for Biological Diversity are saying the following about the Tejon Ranch Deal:

One of the tragedies on the "deal" is what the environmental groups settled for on Centennial, gave Tejon ranch much more land for development than LA County was willing to give. The County was requesting that at least 50% of the land be set aside as open space. This "deal" undercuts the County significantly, when the County was actually TRYING to do some good conservation work.

They recommend the following actions:

1) If you live in LA County write your County Supervisor to oppose the Centennial new city. It is in Mike Antonovich's district and he is still riding the fence about it (he has been on the record opposing other mega-developments within his district to date).

2) Another thing you can do is write to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and tell them not to issue any permits to harm, injure or kill California condors. The FWS is currently in the process of trying to do that - to give permission to Tejon ranch to kill condors through granting an "incidental take permit". The letters/postcard can be sent to:

Mary Grim,

Section 10 Program Coordinator,

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,

2800 Cottage Way, W-2605,

Sacramento, CA 95825

Something along the lines of:

Please do not issue any permit to kill, harm or harass California condors.
Taxpayers and private individuals have spent tens of millions of dollars over a decade to bring the condor back from the brink of extinction.
The condor recovery program has been successful.
It is unprecedented and wrong to allow one condor to be lost, just to allow just another leap-frog urban sprawl development to be built on Tejon Ranch.

Include your name and address, so that it gets into the record.

Save Tejon Ranch

2008-05-11T04:48:25Z

Trumpeted this past Thursday in the LA Times was a humongous development deal between Tejon Ranch and a coalition of supposed environmental groups. In this time of oil and food shortages, the deal establishes a land trade for the right to develop this wildly beautiful and deeply invaluable remote Tejon area. This place is popularly known as the massive intact ecosystem (270,000 acres) reaching far beyond the the I-5 Grapevine.

The LA times (itself a shareholder in the ranch until 1997, and whose former owner, Harry Chandler, currently heads the investment group that currently owns the Ranch) announced this deal with uncritical, almost utopian, fanfare. Bullshit!

Unsurprisingly this deal makes less then everyone happy (the voices of condors, grasses, trees and hillsides have no say in the matter ), and a little digging turns up some fault-lines showing within the Sierra Club, a major deal-broker in this matter. To permit this building, the Sierra Club National apparently sold out Sierra Club locals- those who will be most affected by this pointless gas chugging chemical spewing sprawl.

The more principled Center for Biological Diversity all but condemns this deal....

Tejon Ranch covers over 270,000 acres of wilderness at the crossroads of Northern and Southern California. The Mojave Desert, the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, the great central valley and the southern forests all converge on Tejon Ranch -- the only place in California where four ecoregions come together.
"This deal does a disservice to the wildlands and wildlife of Tejon, to the people of Southern California who will suffer the consequences of overdevelopment, and to all Californians, who will pay the price," said Keats. "We can and must demand better. We live in a world too fragile to allow this kind of sacrifice. Now is the time to say enough is enough."

Save the Tejon Ranch! Does southern California need more mega developments? Create a plan that empowers local residents- not one that limits there right to challenge sprawl (as this one does). Groups are calling for the creation of a huge new natural area (state or national) on this critical environmental treasure.

Stay current on the issue & folow Sierra Club dissident Jan de Leeuw excellent Californian blog Not In my Back Yard.

For more info check out and support SAVE TEJON RANCH.

Here's to International Solidarity!

2008-05-02T01:59:02Z

Yo it's May Day!

Ports have shut from LA to Um Quasr in opposition to the wars. Workers are in the streets. Philly had its first May Day celebration in years.
I just wanted to share this message from my friend in Basra:

MAY DAY greetings to you , to all workers and labor movement.
Our hops for peace ,social justice, dignity and human rights for all people.

Hashmeya M. alsadawe
President of electricity union of Basra