Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 07.12.11

[shove001 (shove001]

            P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R   07.12.11

1. Cost of Coal        7.12 5pm
2. Occupation 101/film 7.12 6:30pm
3. Last Mountain/film  7.12 7pm

4. Alliant vigil       7.13 7am
5. Tax the Rich        7.13 12noon
6. Green drinks        7.13 6pm
7. Immigration         7.13 6:30pm
8. Carlos Montes/film  7.13 7pm

9. Chris Hedges - Carlos Montes and the security state: a cautionary tale

--------1 of 9--------

From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net>  +
Subject: Cost of Coal 7.12 5pm

"The True Cost of Coal" (Part 1)

The beehive collective is a group of artists and educators who, through
their unique and elaborate works, share narratives about some of the most
expansive and important topics of the day.  Their newest piece is called
"The True Cost of Coal" and centers around the history of
industrialization in southern Appalachia.  Through story-telling and
information about the main driving force behind this industrialization,
mountain-top removal coal extraction, we get a sense of our own history
and likely struggles for our future.  (filmed in April, UofM)

SPNN 15 viewers:
"Our World In Depth" cablecasts on St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN)
Channel 15 on Tuesdays at 5pm, midnight and Wednesday mornings at 10am,
after DemocracyNow!  Households with basic cable may watch.
Tues, 7/12, @ 5pm & midnight + Wed, 7/13, 10am
"The True Cost of Coal" (Part 1)

"Our World In Depth" features analysis of public affairs with
consideration of and participation from Twin Cities area activists.  "Our
World In Depth" is locally produced and not corporately influenced.  Order
a dvd copy or contact us at ourworldindepth [at] gmail.com.


--------2 of 9--------

From: patty <pattypax [at] earthlink.net>
Subject:  Occupation 101/film 7.12 6:30pm

Tuesday, July 12,  we will be watching a film called
Occupation 101, presented by Liza Burr.
It is a documentary of the current and historical root causes of the
Palestine/Israel conflict and the US government involvement.  Liza is
a member of WAMM's Middle East Committee.

Remember, the book for Little Book of the Odd Month Club will discuss
the book, In the Heart of the Sea, the Tragedy of the Whaleship,
Essex,  by Nathaniel Philbrick.  It is an intense and mesmerizing
read.  Hope you can read it.  This will be on last Tuesday of July.
We want YOU to be a whistle blower

Pax Salons ( http://justcomm.org/pax-salon )
are held (unless otherwise noted in advance):
Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm.
Mad Hatter's Tea House,
943 W 7th, St Paul, MN

Salons are free but donations encouraged for program and treats.
Call 651-227-3228 or 651-227-2511 for information.


--------3 of 9--------

From: "Lisa Daniels" <lisadaniels [at] windustry.org>
Subject: Last Mountain/film 7.12 7pm

Join us for a special screening of The Last Mountain and a social hour
following the film, proceeds will benefit the nonprofit Windustry.
7 PM, Tuesday July 12, 2011
Lagoon Cinema, Uptown Minneapolis and Bar Abilene, right next door.
Tickets are $10, available only through Windustry
www.windustry.org/events/the-last-mountain-july-12-at-the-lagoon-cinema

The new documentary,  The Last Mountain looks at the effects of mountaintop
coal removal in West Virginiaâs Coal River Valley, and the grassroots 
fight
to stop it.  It had its world premiere in the U.S. Documentary Competition
category of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Windustry is pleased to be among the wind energy experts consulted for the
film, which presents Community Wind as an alternative energy solution to
mountaintop removal.  Windustry Executive Director, Lisa Daniels, says: "The
subject of this film goes far beyond West Virginia. It shines a light on
Americaâs energy needs, how those needs are being supplied, and takes a 
stand
for supporting renewable energy."

This screening was made possible with the generous support of the owners of
Build Sustainable Homes, The Twin Cities' Green Building Referral Network 
and
Resource buildsustainablehomes.com and others.

Watch the Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5wmUkpOCKE&feature=youtu.be

Reserve your tickets now
www.windustry.org/events/the-last-mountain-july-12-at-the-lagoon-cinema

Lisa DanielsExecutive Director Windustry
Windustry  promotes progressive renewable energy solutions and empowers
communities to develop and own wind energy as an environmentally sustainable
asset. Through member supported outreach, education and advocacy we work to
remove the barriers to broad community ownership of wind energy.


--------4 of 9--------

From: AlliantACTION <alliantaction [at] circlevision.org>
Subject: Alliant vigil 7.13 7am

Join us Wednesday morning, 7-8 am
Now in our 14th year of consecutive Wednesday
morning vigils outside Alliant Techsystems,
7480 Flying Cloud Drive Eden Prairie.
We ask Who Profit$? Who Dies?
directions and lots of info: alliantACTION.org


--------5 of 9--------

From: kim defranco <kimdefranco [at] yahoo.com>  +
Subject: Tax the Rich 7.13 12noon

Join Welfare Rights Committee at the St. Paul state capitol this Wednesday.
July 13, 2011
MN State Captiol 75 DR. MLK Blvd  St. Paul, MN 55155
12 noon to 1 pm

WRC will still hold Governor Dayton's promise to Tax The Rich!
WRC will demand the Republicans tostop holding the State of MN hostage. We
can't afford their All-Cuts Bill!

We will have our 12 King-Size Tax The Rich banner. and stand outside to hold
the legislature accountable to Taxing the rich and not harming poor, people
with
disablitites, working and elderly people.

Please come and stand with the Welfare Rigths Committtee.

welfarerightsmn [at] yahoo.com


--------6 of 9--------

From: Do It Green! Minnesota <Do_It_Green_Minnesota [at] mail.vresp.com>  +
Subject:  Green drinks 7.13 6pm

Twin Cities Green Drinks - Wed, July 13 6PM

Do It Green! Minnesota is hosting the monthly Green Drinks event at
the Midtown Global Market June - September. Come join us this Wednesday for 
a
presentation, drinks and networking.
July 13th 6-7:30 Do It Green! Resource Center inside the Midtown
Global Market

Learn more about local residential energy programs, energy audits and the 
top
three home improvement projects that can make a big difference for your 
home's
energy use.  Presented by Neely Crane-Smith from the Center for Energy and
Environment on Advanced Home Energy Efficiency.


--------7 of 9--------

From: Lisa Peterson-de la Cueva <lisa [at] tcdailyplanet.net>  +
Subject: Immigration 7.13 6:30pm

The Twin Cities Daily Planet's series, The New Normal: Deciding Community
Priorities in a Downsized Economy, tackles a different issue each month. In
July we'll be talking about immigration, and will ask people in the Twin
Cities: "How can we fix immigration policy?"

Come and chat with others over snacks, learn some basics about trends in
immigration, and let us know how you think we should reform immigration 
policy.
We'll be using research from the Wilder Foundation's MN Compass project and 
an
article from the Twin Cities Daily Planet to get this interactive 
conversation
going. By participating in this discussion, though, you'll provide the part
that matters most. We'll report on these conversations in the TC Daily 
Planet,
and will share the results with policy makers.

Wilder Foundation
July 13, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation 451 Lexington Parkway North St. Paul
R.S.V.P. lisa [at] tcdailyplanet.net


--------8 of 9--------

From: kim defranco <kimdefranco [at] yahoo.com>  +
Subject: Carlos Montes/film 7.13 7pm

Movie Night: Walk Out! Learn more about Carlos Montes
Wednesday, July 13th @ 7pm @ May Day Books (below Midwest Mountaineering), 
301
Cedar Ave, Minneapolis

In May, Carlos Montes joined the ranks of the 23 anti-war and international
solidarity activists facing grand jury and FBI repression, when his home was
violently raided by the FBI and the Los Angeles Sheriff. Carlos is 
best-known
for his work for immigrants rights and Chicano liberation. Carlos is 
featured
in the HBO movie "Walkout," a 110 minute film about the East L.A. Chicano
Movement of the 60's and the role of the Brown Berets. Please join us for 
this
inspiring film, and a chance to get to know one of the people targeted by 
this
investigation and hear more about our case. Organized by the Anti-War
Committee.


--------9 of 9--------

Carlos Montes and the Security State: A Cautionary Tale
By Chris Hedges
Jul 10, 2011 TRUTHDIG

On May 17 at 5 in the morning the Chicano activist Carlos Montes got a 
wake-up
call at his home in California from Barack Obamaâs security state. The Los
Angeles County sheriffâs SWAT team, armed with assault rifles and wearing
bulletproof vests, as well as being accompanied by FBI agents, kicked down 
his
door, burst into his house with their weapons drawn, handcuffed him in his
pajamas and hauled him off to jail.

Montes, one of tens of thousands of Americans who have experienced this
terrifying form of military-style assault and arrest, was one of the 
organizers
of the demonstrations outside the 2008 Republican National Convention in St.
Paul, Minn., and he faces trial along with 23 other anti-war activists from
Minnesota, as well as possible charges by a federal grand jury.

The widening use of militarized police units effectively nullifies the Posse
Comitatus Act of 1878, which prohibits the use of the armed forces for 
civilian
policing. City police forces have in the last few decades amassed small 
strike
forces that employ high-powered assault rifles, armored personnel carriers,
tanks, elaborate command and control centers and attack helicopters. Poor 
urban
neighborhoods, which bear the brunt of the estimated 40,000 SWAT team 
assaults
that take place every year, have already learned what is only dimly being
understood by the rest of us â in the eyes of the state we are 
increasingly
no
longer citizens with constitutional rights but enemy combatants. And that is
exactly how Montes was treated. There is little daylight now between 
raiding a
home in the middle of the night in Iraq and raiding one in Alhambra, Calif.

Montes is a longtime activist. He helped lead the student high school 
walkouts
in East Los Angeles and anti-war protests in the 1960s and later 
demonstrations
against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was one of the founding 
members of
the Brown Berets, a Chicano group that in the 1960s styled itself after the
Black Panthers. In the 1970s he evaded authorities while he lived in Mexico 
and
he went on to organize garment workers in El Paso, Texas. He and the 
subpoenaed
activists are reminders that in Barack Obamaâs America, being a dissident 
is
a crime.

âIt was an FBI action, as I recall,â Sgt. Jim Scully told reporters of 
the
Pasadena Star-News. âWe assisted them.â

Montes was arrested ostensibly because he bought a firearm although a felony
conviction 42 years ago prohibited him from doing so. The 1969 felony
conviction was for throwing a can of Coke at a police officer during a
demonstration. The registered shotgun in his closet, bought last year at a
sporting goods shop, became the excuse to ransack his home, charge him and
schedule him for trial in August. It became the excuse to seize his 
computer,
two cellphones and files and records of his activism on behalf of workers,
immigrants, the Chicano community and opposition to wars. Prosecutors said
Montes should have disclosed his four-decade-old felony charge when he 
bought
the shotgun at Big 5 Sporting Goods. Because he neglected to do this he will
face six felony charges. The case is to be tried in Los Angeles.

âThe gun issue was clearly a pretext to investigate my political
activities ,â he said when I reached him at his Alhambra home. âIt is 
about
my anti-war activities and my links to the RNC demonstrations. It is also 
about
my activism denouncing the U.S. policy of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, their
support for Israel and the Colombian government. I have been to Colombia
twice.â

âI thought someone is breaking in, somebody is trying to jack me up,â he
said. âI was a victim of an armed robbery in December of 2009 in my home. 
I
do have a gun in my bedroom for self-defense. I was startled. I jumped out 
of
bed. I saw lights coming from the front-door area. They looked like
flashlights. I saw men with helmets and rifles. I gravitated towards the 
front
door. I didnât take my gun. I could have done that. I have it there. It 
is a
good thing I didnât pick anything up and put it in my hand.â

âI yelled, âWho is it?â â he said. âThey said, âThe police. 
Carlos
Montes, come outâ or âcome forward,â something like that. I approached
the entryway. They rushed in. They grabbed my hands. They turned me around.
There were two police officers on each arm. They brought me out holding my
arms. I have a little patio. They handcuffed me and patted me down. I am on 
a
little hill. I looked down the street and [it was] full of sheriffâs
vehicles, patrol cars and two large green vans. They were bigger than vans.
People could stand in there. They didnât have any logos on them.â I 
thought
it was an Army truck at first. Later on I found it was from the sheriff.â

âIt was kind of misty,â he said. âThe ground was wet. They put me in 
the
back seat of the car. I was handcuffed. They closed the doors and the 
windows.
I was sitting there looking around, in a state of shock, thinking is this a
dream or the real thing? I tried to close my eyes for a little while to see 
if
I could wake up from this nightmare. I always had it in the back of my mind,
one day they will come and raid me. My name was on the anti-war committee 
FBI
search warrant raid in Minnesota. People were saying âwe all got raided 
and
your name is there.â The lawyers said, âBewareâit could happen to you
sooner or later.â They were raided on Sept. 24 last year.â

Those who were raided were all issued subpoenas to appear before a federal
grand jury in Chicago. They have refused to testify. The March on the RNC
organizing committee was infiltrated by an agent although the protest groups
had obtained licenses to demonstrate at the Republican National Convention. 
The
Justice Departmentâs inspector general later released a report that
criticized the FBI for invoking anti-terrorist laws to justify its
investigations and harassment of peace and solidarity groups, including
Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the Catholic
Worker.

While Montes was in the back of the police car a man in a windbreaker and a
baseball cap approached the vehicle. The sheriffâs deputies rolled down 
the
right rear window. The man in the baseball cap told Montes he was from the 
FBI
and wanted to speak with him.

âI blurted out, âDo you have a card?â â Montes said. âHe laughed 
and
said, âI donât have a card.â He said, âI want to talk to you about
Freedom Road Socialist Organization.â I didnât say anything. I kept 
quiet.
And then he walked away.â

Montes has written articles for the newspaper Fight Back News about Chicano
immigrantsâ rights struggles in Los Angeles, the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan
and the fight against the rise of charter schools. He said he was not a 
member
of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The organization, a Marxist group, 
is
reportedly being investigated by the FBI because of connections with the
Colombian rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and 
the
Palestinian group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, both of
which have been labeled as terrorist organizations. The Sept. 24, 2010, 
search
warrant for the anti-war committee offices in Minneapolis lists Montesâ 
name
among the groupâs affiliates.

Montes was taken to the Los Angeles County Jail, known as the Twin Towers, 
and
held for 24 hours until he was able to post a $35,000 bail.

âThey called my sister to secure [my] house,â he said. âShe called the
handyman and he put a piece of plywood over my door. I did not have my 
wallet
with me. When I got out of the county jail I did not have any phone numbers 
or
money or an ID. I was walking around in slippers â at least they gave me
slippers â and my pajamas. I got back about 5:30 the next morning. I got 
the
door off. There were files and papers on the floor along with photograph 
albums
of the anti-war movement, Latinos Against the War, the â92 Rebellion, my
sonâs wedding, my daughterâs birthday, scattered on my kitchen table and
floor. It looked like they lined up a bunch of stuff on tables and went 
through
it. It was the same thing with my living room table. They had a file out 
from
1994 when we did a campaign against police brutality when the sheriffs were
going crazy killing people. In my closet I had Chicano archives going back 
to
the 1960s and 1970s. Those were pulled out and on the floor. They went 
through
all my political documents, including my work with the Southern California
Immigration Coalition and the campaign to elect a school board member, 
which we
won, to stop the privatization of the local high school and the charters 
coming
in. They went through all those files. It took me a couple of weeks to clean
things up. They took a bunch of stuff.â

âThe government sees the Chicano people as a threat,â he said. âWe 
were
able to turn out millions of people in 2006. In 1994 we had hundreds of
thousands. We are growing. There are millions in the Southwest. We are all 
over
the country, but especially in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California. We
are still unorganized, but if we get organized we could really demand 
changes.
We had millions of people out in 2006 and then they came after us hard in 
2007.
There was a lot of police repression, especially in Los Angeles. They fear 
the
Chicano people challenging the status quo.â [Mort power to them - ed]

âMany of the activists that were raided by the police are anti-war and
solidarity activists,â he went on. âAnd even though the anti-war 
movement
is not massive right now, the potential is there because there is an 
economic
crisis. There is mass disgust with this economic system. People are out of
work. It is not yet like COINTELPRO [Counter Intelligence Program] started
under Hoover and the FBI to carry out surveillance, infiltrate and disrupt
domestic political organizations, but the situation is getting worse. That 
is
why we have to have demonstrations to put a stop to it now.â


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