Buffalo Indymedia

Many University at Buffalo students and their allies from the Buffalo community organized to protest a talk by notorious Israeli fascist Effie Eitam on campus on Monday November 2nd. The lecture was sponsored by Hillel of Buffalo and the Jewish National Fund despite calls from students and faculty to have it canceled in order not to promote an inciter of hatred and racism on the UB campus.

Eitam, who served for 30 years in the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and who held few cabinet portfolios, is known for his fascist pronouncements and actions against the Palestinians of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, but also for his views concerning Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. He is an advocate of more illegal colonialist theft of Palestinian lands and actually lives in the illegal settlement of Nov in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. When he was minister of Housing and Construction, the building of Zionist colonies in the West Bank increased dramatically, an action that did not deviate from his repeated calls to expel its Palestinian population and have it annexed to Israel’s proper. He defended the use of Palestinian civilians in Gaza as human shields against a 2005 ruling by the Supreme Court of Israel that banned IOF soldiers from engaging in similar practices.

With hopes of rebuilding a community-based, social justice media outlet in Buffalo a public forum for the rebirth of Buffalo Indymedia was recently organized. A panel discussion with presenters from Rochester Indymedia, a former Bay Area Indymedia editor, and Buffalo activists began a powerful conversation about the possibilities and challenges that lie in the road ahead for local media activists.

Hannah Dobbz, from Pittsburgh, spoke about her involvement in the Bay Area Indymedia newspaper Fault Lines and the importance it had in garnering attention to local activist efforts. Andy Dillon and Ted Forsyth from Rochester Indymedia shared their experiences with Indy TV and a their work on distributing a print version of much of their website content. Local activists Joe Schmidbauer and Colin O'Malley talked of their inspiration to re-build local Indymedia in a way that would challenge the official story of those in power and help to build the voice of everyday people and their movements.

In coming years, Buffalo Indymedia hopes to build that voice in the region and report those stories that effect people's lives in huge ways that are often left unreported by local and national corporate media outlets. There was some discussion about the possibilities of not only maintaining the website, but also working on radio, print, and film efforts for Buffalo IMC. If you'd like to get involved in Buffalo IMC, you can register and begin writing and commenting on stories immediately on this site. To get further involved, or to inform the organizing group of an important story, please contact them at BuffaloIMC@gmail.com

When: TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2009 at 5 P.M.
Where: 107 ALLEN HALL (THEATRE), UB SOUTH CAMPUS

2009 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Department of African & African American Studies at UB! We're marking this extremely important occasion with a Reunion Speaker and further series of events in the Spring semester.

In 1969, Dr. James Arthur Miller, now a Professor of English and Chair of American Studies at George Washington University, became the first Director of what was then the Black Studies Program while a doctoral student in the English Department.

Dr. Miller will join UB faculty, staff, students, and local alumni on November 3rd to share his experience building the Black Studies Program as a student, with students, as well as demonstrate the continued necessity for Black Studies programs today.

Please join us to celebrate 40 years of Black Studies at UB - and please share this event with your friends, family, and colleagues so we can make sure African & African American Studies is around for another 40 years!

By José Antonio Gutiérrez D.
June 28, 2009
Article taken from www.Anarkismo.net

The flashing sabers have once again shown their edge in Latin America: the coups d'etat and destabilization processes orchestrated from Washington have succeeded in countries where governments are implementing reform that may be uncomfortable for the digestion of the hemispheric elite-Venezuela 2002; Haiti 2004, Bolivia 2008. This time Honduras' turn has come, a country whose president Manuel Zelaya was overthrown by the military and exiled to Costa Rica. While Zelaya was kidnapped by soldiers in Congress a letter written by Zelaya was read (which turned out to be false) in which he renounced his position as president. At the same time, and while several MPs complained that the conduct of the president put at risk the "rule of law" and accused him of multiple violations of the Constitution real and imaginary, he was removed from office, which was assumed by the Congress president , Roberto Micheletti (who is also from Zelaya's Liberal Party).

The coup happened on the same day that a non-binding public consultation, called by Zelaya would have taken place regarding the need to change the Constitution, drafted in 1982, when the country was just emerging from an extremely brutal military dictatorship supported by U.S. who wielded power from 1972 to 1981. If the results were favorable to constitutional change a Constituent Assembly would be convened in November.

Repost of an article by Tim Munier

As quoted in a recent Buffalo News article, Erie County Executive Chris Collins is a master of the political chokehold:

"I do play hardball. I will never apologize for that. I go into negotiations with the endgame in mind. I know my strength. I know my opponent's strengths. I know where I want to get to." –Erie County Executive Chris Collins

The Buffalo IMC is a non-commercial collective of independent media makers and media outlets, and serves as the local organizing unit of the global Indymedia network.
Principles of Unity

1. We strive to provide an information infrastructure for people and opinions who do not have access to the airwaves, tools and resources of corporate media. This includes audio, video, photography, internet distribution and any other communication medium.
2. We support local, regional and global struggles against exploitation and oppression.