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||| A N T I F A |||
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||| I N F O - B U L L E T I N |||
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||| * News * Analysis * Research * Action * |||
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|| * -- ALERTS -- * - January 11, 1997 - * -- ALERTS -- * ||
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U R G E N T
A L E R T
_____
_________________________________________________________________
ALTERNATIVE MEDIA UNDER ATTACK!
_________________________________________________________________
CONTENTS:
-----
1. (AFN) AFRIKAN FRONTLINE NETWORK: Threatened Lawsuit
Against Arm The Spirit!
2. (ATS) ARM THE SPIRIT: No More Reuters News
3. (AFN) AFRIKAN FRONTLINE NETWORK: Black Liberation
Radio Raided by Illinois Police
4. (AFIB) When the Hammer Comes Down . . .
-----
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 10:04:35 -0800
From: Marpessa Kupendua <nattyreb@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: !*Threatened Lawsuit Against Arm the Spirit!
-----
* AFRIKAN FRONTLINE NETWORK *
http://www.webcom.com/nattyreb
_________________________________________________________________
THREATENED LAWSUIT AGAINST ARM THE SPIRIT!
_________________________________________________________________
Greetings,
I am enclosing two items related to the politically-based
mainstream media attack on Arm the Spirit in retribution for the
*excellent* job they are doing serving people all over the world
with their on-line news service. Having their news reports on
the MRTA situation via various world news sources has been
absolutely invaluable in getting the clearest picture available
on that situation. Whether the readers of these materials are
pro or con the activities of the MRTA, I am certain that anyone
with even a cursory interest in worldwide news that is not
limited to the diluted pap we are fed via the nightly news
appreciates them and should very definitely stand by them during
*any* attack on the free flow of information.
Below is the latest attempt by the powers that be to clamp
down on on-line activists who distribute this information.
Following that is a very on-time piece written by Tom Burghardt
of Antifa Info-Bulletin, another very valuable news distribution
service that deserves our support as well, ending with a repost
of the letter to mainstream media written by ATS. As Tom
Burghardt rightly points out, "Reports in the 'mainstream media'
seeking to link anti-imperialist internet activists to a world-
wide 'cyber-terrorist network,' can neither be ignored nor simply
brushed-off as the work of the ill-informed. Such reports,
though 'business as usual' by the bourgeois media, must be
challenged and public corrections of media distortions demanded."
Afrikan Frontline Network salutes and stands strong with ATS
in their struggle to bring to light what is too often muddied and
outright distorted via the myopic tunnel vision of what "big
brother" would allow us to freely digest in an unfettered manner
as citizens of the world. This unprincipled and disgusting
intimidation tactic against Arm The Spirit, as well as prior
attacks on the "Radikal" and other web sites, could very well
signal the beginning of an attack on all freedom fighters who use
this technology to distribute information if they go
unchallenged.
We urge everyone who feels strongly about being able to
continue to receive a variety of news through worldwide online
sources express these concerns directly to Jim Hohman's e-mail
address.
In Solidarity with Arm The Spirit,
Sis. Marpessa Kupendua
Afrikan Frontline Network
Dedicated to the Free Flow of Information!
*****
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 97 09:15:22 -0800
From: Arm The Spirit <ats@locust.cic.net>
Subject: No More Reuters News
-----
* ARM THE SPIRIT *
_________________________________________________________________
NO MORE REUTERS NEWS
_________________________________________________________________
Dear ats-l and kurd-l subscribers,
It seems that our MRTA Solidarity Page has truly upset the
powers that be, even within the capitalist media establishment.
The Reuters News Agenecy recently threatened to sue both us as
well as our Internet service providers due to our "illegal use of
Reuters material". But thanks to the great support given to us by
our friends at BURN!, this crisis has been averted.
But, there will no longer be any mainstream news from
Reuters on our lists.
Revolutionary greetings,
Arm The Spirit
>From: Jim Hohman <jim.hohman@reuters.com>
>Date: Fri, 10 Jan 1997 16:08:20 -0400 (EDT)
>Subject: ILLEGAL USE OF REUTERS MATERIAL
>
>Dear Arm the Spirit,
>
>My name is Jim Hohman. I am vice president for sales at Reuters
>NewMedia, responsible for the sale of Reuters content to
>traditional and online media in the United States. I am writing
>to let you know you are stealing our content, in violation of
>copyright law. We will pursue legal action against your group
>and your sponsors if you do not immediately (by that I mean
>today, Friday, January 10, 1997) remove all Reuters content from
>any and all sites where it may be currently viewable or
>archived.
*****
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 1997 10:10:22 -0800
From: Marpessa Kupendua <nattyreb@ix.netcom.com>
FORWARDED MESSAGE ... A LUTA CONTINUA
Date: Thu, 9 Jan 1997 18:04:28 -0800 (PST)
From: Keith McHenry <kmchenry@Catch22.COM>
Subject: Police Raid Free Radio Station
-----
* AFRIKAN FRONTLINE NETWORK *
http://www.webcom.com/nattyreb/
_________________________________________________________________
UNLICENSED FM RADIO STATION RAIDED BY ILLINOIS COPS
_________________________________________________________________
The opposition station was taken off the air in U.S. just
weeks after Belgrade's B-92 was shut down by Serbian Government.
At 9:20 local time on January 9, 1997 over ten police
officers served a search warrant on Black Liberation Radio
operated by Napoleon Williams and Mildred Jones. The raid was
lead by Shawn Simpson of the Illinois Attorney General's Office.
The warrant stated that all broadcast equipment and files
pertaining to broadcasting must be taken.
Transmitters, tape players, tapes and computer seized by the
Attorney General's Office. So far no reason has been given as to
why the station was seized. Calls to the Attorney General's
Office failed to find out any information about why the station
had been shut down.
Black Liberation Radio 99.7 FM played an important role in
starting America's free radio movement. The fact that Napoleon
was able to continue broadcasting even after the government had
taken his children and jailed him sent a message that low watt FM
radio broadcasting was possible. According to Free Radio
Berkeley founder Stephen Dunifer there are over 300 unlicensed FM
radio stations broadcasting in the United States today.
Contact
Shaun Simpson State Attorney Generals Office
217-782-9082
Napoleon Williams
217-423-9997
Governor Jim Egars
State House
Illinois State Capital, Springfield, Illinois
For taped interviews call Food Not Bombs Radio Network at
800-884-1136
*****
_________________________________________________________________
WHEN THE HAMMER COMES DOWN . . .
`Public-Private Partnership' Targets Alternative Media
_________________________________________________________________
By Tom Burghardt
Editor, Antifa Info-Bulletin
SAN FRANCISCO (January 11, 1997) -- You think information
is free? You think if you distribute news reports from
"mainstream" sources without profit to yourself or your
organization, you can elude the capitalist "law of value"?
You think all your hard work, your time and effort, the love
and sweat you've invested to provide alternative media to the
black community in the most racist nation on the face of the
earth (and launch the micro-radio revolution in the process) will
provide you with immunity from the forces of reaction?
Think again.
Welcome to Amerikkka, 1997.
Reuters News Agency and the Illinois State Attorney
General's office struck a blow for preserving the Amerikkkan way
of "life" (profit and the state's monopoly over the airwaves).
Two separate incidents, same result; alternative information
channels closed.
The euphemism for repression today is "public-private
partnership". It's also called "restructuring," "neoliberalism",
"downsizing," "tough love", "war on crime", "war on drugs," "war
on terrorism".
I prefer to call things by their real name -- war on the
poor, war on workers, war on people of color, war on children,
war on women, war on everything that isn't "white" or rejects and
works to topple its privileges.
Yesterday, January 10, the anti-imperialist collective, Arm
The Spirit, threatened with a lawsuit by Reuters News Agency have
been forced to pull Reuters reports from their web page. Why?
Could it be that the White House, the State Department and
those paragons of "free speech", the CIA, their Canadian
"friends" in Ottawa (not to mention the Nazi-loving Canadian
Security Intelligence Service) object to Arm The Spirit's "MRTA
Solidarity Page"? Is a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate
such as Reuters threatened with bankruptcy by Arm The Spirit?
Get real, homey.
Or could it be because Arm The Spirit provides timely and
accurate information on the MRTA action that Reuters threatened
to shut ATS down?
You be the judge.
Meanwhile in Illinois, the State Attorney General's office
raided Black Liberation Radio in Decatur on January 9. They had
orders to seize all radio equipment and files pertaining to BLR.
Why?
Could it be that station operators, Napoleon Williams and
Mildred Jones, disrupted the program in the city that "know's
how", the city dubbed the "Illinois War Zone" -- Decatur? The
home of Caterpillar and Staley, Inc. whose strikes were
mercilessly crushed by the "level playing field" of the "free
market" -- and the armed fist of capitalist order, the police.
The city where it's always open season on black youth and
where workers peacefully protesting bourgeois "workplace
rationality", aka _strike breaking by low-life scabs_ were beat
up, maced and gassed by the cops and "private" union-busters.
Could it be that Black Liberation Radio, by righteously
denouncing state repression and murder perpetrated against
Decatur's black community, and by providing alternative news and
a healthy dose of radical hip-hop culture "in the belly of the
beast" upset the apple cart in the State of Illinois?
All that and more ...
When the hammer comes down in capitalist Amerikkka, it's not
the corporate bloodsuckers who've looted and raped the planet,
the racist cops who protect them, FBI COINTELPRO "red hunters" or
CIA terrorists who feel the blow.
When the hammer comes down in capitalist Amerikkka, it's not
the Nazi boneheads who bash queers or the Ku Klux Klan monsters
who burn down black churches; it's not the antiabortion "kill a
doctor for Jesus" crew or the militia "patriots" who incinerate
women and children in Oklahoma City who feel the blow.
It's long past time we begin scraping the rust off our
hammers ...
"Move as a _team_, never move alone -- and Welcome to the
Terrordome." P.E.
SOLIDARITY WITH ARM THE SPIRIT!
SOLIDARITY WITH BLACK LIBERATION RADIO!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!
VENCEREMOS!
* * * * *
ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN (AFIB)
750 La Playa # 730
San Francisco, California 94121
E-Mail: tburghardt@igc.apc.org
On PeaceNet visit ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN on pol.right.antifa
or by gopher --> gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:7021/11/europe
On PeaceNet visit BACORR's <women.clinicdefense> conference.
For subscription information e-mail Wendi Jones,
wjones@igc.org
AFIB & BACORR text files can also be found on the following
sites:
ARM THE SPIRIT
WWW:gopher://locust.cic.net:70/11/politics/Arm.The.Spirit/BACORR
FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/politics/Arm.The.Spirit/BACORR
FTP: ftp.etext.org -->
/pub/politics/Arm.The.Spirit/Antifa/Antifa.Info-Bulletin
INSTITUTE FOR ALTERNATIVE JOURNALISM (AlterNet)
http://www.alternet.org/an/demworks/html
gopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:70/00/orgs/alternet
+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+
+: A N T I F A I N F O - B U L L E T I N +:
:+ :+
+: NEWS * ANALYSIS * RESEARCH * ACTION +:
:+ :+
+: RESISTING FASCISM * BY ALL MEANS NECESSARY! +:
+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+:+
----------------------------------------------------------------- Arm The Spirit is an autonomist/anti-imperialist information collective based in Toronto, Canada. Our focus includes a wide variety of material, including political prisoners, national liberation struggles, armed communist resistance, anti-fascism, the fight against patriarchy, and more. We regularly publish our writings, research, and translation materials in our magazine and bulletins called Arm The Spirit. For more information, contact:
Arm The Spirit P.O. Box 6326, Stn. A Toronto, Ontario M5W 1P7 Canada
E-mail: ats@etext.org WWW: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats MRTA Solidarity Page: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~ats/mrta.htm FTP: ftp.etext.org --> /pub/Politics/Arm.The.Spirit ATS-L Archives: http://burn.ucsd.edu/~archive/ats-l -----------------------------------------------------------------
++++ stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal ++++ ++++ if you agree copy these lines to your sig ++++ ++++ see http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/spg-l/sigaction.htm ++++
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