Just a quick heads up that I'll be talking with Palestinian singer Reem Kelani in the first hour of Spin The Globe tomorrow morning (Friday May 16). The rest of Spin The Globe will feature music from Buddhist lands, and the usual assortment of global grooves.

Listen in at KAOS 89.3 FM or listen online

Palestinian singer, musician and broadcaster Reem Kelani is in the Northwest as part of the , and performs this evening as part of the Global Divas show, as well as Friday morning and Saturday afternoon shows.

Kelani released her debut album “Sprinting Gazelle – Palestinian Songs from the Motherland and the Diaspora” (Fuse Records) in February 2006 to critical acclaim. Representing the culmination of twenty years’ work, which included research in Palestine, in Palestinian refugee camps and the Palestinian Diaspora into old traditional songs, Sprinting Gazelle is a fully independent production.

Special Fundraiser Event for the Freeschool Community! Pizza Party Event with live music, Those Bottom Feeders and Paris! At Fertile Ground, 311 9th Ave, SE, on Saturday, May 17th, 2008. 6pm-9pm. Join us!

for more information about the Freeschool Community classes and events, visit:

www.freeschoolunity.org or visit our back website at
www.freeschoolcommunity.org

There is a PDF Flyer for this event as a File Attachment here (pdf).

Please show solidarity and print it out ans share with others! Thanks!

Love, Solidarty and Peace worldwide! :)

Direct Action can be a powerful act. It can provoke though, shift dynamics, empower and incite. It can also erode alliances, damage communities and bring harsh consequences. Direct Action is a powerful tool and it's use will always have a powerful response, be it positive or negative.

It is my opinion that there are two useful "yard sticks" with which to measure the effectiveness of any direct action, that is to say, there are two primary questions to ask yourself as you plan and engage in any action. Those would be "Is this action confronting an issue at its source, thereby making it 'direct'?" and "Does this action empower others to themselves take action?"

Using these questions as guides we can compare two recent actions from here in Olympia. First, the port actions of last November. For specificities sake, I'm talking about the road blockades, both human and physical. Held up to the first question, "Is this action confronting an issue at its source, thereby making it 'direct'?" I think the answer would be a pretty clear Yes. Blockading the path of military equipment is about as direct as you can get when it comes to confronting the war effort.

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Reflections on May Day, 2008 in Olympia
May 3, 2008

The planning for the Olympia May Day and the resulting rally and march were a very worthwhile effort to connect the anti-war movement and GI resistance to the immigrant rights struggle within the context of the celebration of May Day--International Worker's day. I am very appreciative and supportive of the centering the May Day rally and march around the Sanctuary City proposal, possibly the first such proposal in the country that calls for a city to be a sanctuary for both GI's and immigrants. We need to connect issues and movements more as happened on May Day in Olympia. The rally and march was an excellent way to put this proposal for Olympia as a sanctuary in the public consciousness, the organizers of the May Day event deserve a lot of credit for this.

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As continued from another thread. Please feel free to add your thoughts, if you have numbers that is great too. EG, Gug, please forgive my lousy editing. Is Olympia an attractant for protest specific violence, and if so, why?