Please forward far and wide. And feel free to respond at maslauskas84@gmail.com. -Brendan Maslauskas Dunn

Student Power and the Sit-in at Evergreen

May 30th marked the 10th day of the sit-in of Evergreen State College administrator Art Costantino's hallway. Students are demanding the immediate reinstatement of Olympia SDS and have recently added the additional demands that Kelly Beckham, an SDSer be offered her job back as well as compensation for time lost, and a change in the process by which student groups lose their RSO (Registered Student Organization) status that is determined by those most affected, the students and members of > these organizations.

The banning of SDS as a student group is an indication of the current political climate at The Evergreen State College, one that has been increasingly suppressing student dissent, which includes the aiding of law enforcement agents in the arresting of students, the handing over of student records to law enforcement agencies, punishing students for their political beliefs and activities. This includes the firing of Kelly Beckham and the firing of students who were allegedly involved in the events of February 14th, but who have not been convicted or even charged as well as the selective enforcement of a "concert moratorium. The Evergreen State College is also on a path of becoming increasingly more mainstream which is pushing the college in a direction contrary to its original mission statement. The students sitting-in want to see an end to all of this.

I thought some of you might have an interest in the next Ground Zero Nonviolent Direct Action, a commemoration of the life of MLK jr. For more information see: www.gzcenter.org

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Share the Dream of
A World Without War

Join the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action for a traditional vigil and direct action at the gates of Naval Base Kitsap, Bangor, on Saturday, January 19. Honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as together we resist nuclear weapons, the occupation of Iraq, and the bombing of Iran.

[via email:]

Twelve Arrested in Des Moines as Obama Campaign Hinders Press Coverage of Protest

by Michael Gillespie for publication

1/2/2008

Josh Earnest, Iowa communications director for U.S. Sen. Barak Obama (D-IL), is running scared in the final few days before the Iowa Caucuses. He must be, otherwise he would not have risked the consequences of ejecting half a dozen media workers from Obama's Iowa campaign headquarters on Wednesday, Jan. 2, and barring entry to several more.

Reporters and photojournalists representing news organizations in Japan, Germany, Great Britain, and the USA were hindered in their efforts to report on a bona fide news event when Earnest insisted they work outside in the sub-freezing single digit cold while inside a group of eight antiwar activists from Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV) and the Iowa Occupation Project questioned Obama's positions on the war in Iraq, military spending, and U.S. Middle East foreign policy.

Though he knew who the protesters represented and why they had come to Obama campaign headquarters (this reporter heard an Obama staffer say, "We knew they were coming and we have a plan to deal with them"), Earnest told one Iowa newspaper, "They basically just sort of came into the front office and were talking loudly and being disruptive."