From the open publishing newswire: Ecuadorian police detained five journalists associated with Ecuador Indymedia late Tuesday night. Four of the five were released from custody on Wednesday afternoon. The government says that the four activists were detained because of their relationship with the fifth detainee, Ecuadorian resident and Colombian national Antonio Alcívar.

The government at first refused to issue a statement on the matter or inform the detainees of the reason for their arrests. The Regional Foundation for Assistance in Human Rights (INREDH) noted that this was a violation of the detainees' constitutional right to be clearly informed of the reason for their detention along with the identities of those who ordered and carried out the arrests.

According to Ecuador Indymedia and INREDH, the Judicial Police (PJ) and the Intervention and Rescue Group (GIR) executed the arrests. The journalists were arrested on the street and then taken to their homes where searches were violently carried out. Agents reportedly confiscated computers, documents and hard drives from the journalists' homes. Agents also reportedly confiscated a Che Guevara poster as "evidence."

According to INREDH, the detainees were not permitted to see their lawyer and were forced to undergo interrogation in the presence of a lawyer provided by police.

It is unclear why the Ecuadorian government made the arrests and whether the detentions are related to the recent conflict with Colombia. It seems possible that President Correa, in an effort to counter Colombian allegations, may be attempting to demonstrate the government's resolve to root out guerrilla presence in Ecuador—and intimidate some critics on his left in the process.

From the open publishing newswire: we need more housed people to come out and sleep on the sidewalks around city hall. until we have more housed folks out here showing that they are on our side and that this is in fact a WHOLE community issue, we will likely and unfortunately not be taken as seriously. pull out your sleeping bag, ground pad, tarp and sign, and set up shop with us. there's lot of friends down here who are willing to help you navigate our protest while sleeping on the street. see you there!

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Yesterday while doing Food not Bombs at protest until late, I did my best to listen to what the organizers there needed and others requested.

The big one is more people that aren't homeless. Tarps and Blankets.

Food not Bombs served on Tuesday at City hall. Weds. Food not Bombs will be held at City hall instead of outer SE. We will also be serving on Thursday. It was requested that Saturday Food not Bombs be held at City hall. We would actually like to request that all food not bombs be held at City hall. There is the looming response of a police ticketing sweep of City hall. But there are still no where near the about of beds needed for people on the streets.

From the open publishing newswire: Four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found shot to death below Bonneville river at noon today. The area is now sealed off as a crime scene, since the killing involved gunshots at a federal facility. The sea lions were found dead at the traps. ...at the TRAPS.
This killing is a direct result of the government's recent proposal to kill sea lions. This is what we all knew would happen, up and down the river, from now on. A killing frenzy. Sea lions have been scapegoated for the human-induced salmon crisis, and fishermen have whipped themselves up into a frothing vengeance. As we knew it would, they have taken the government's decision as permission to kill. As they were meant to.

These, by the way, are the very fishermen who have been screaming about how "aggressive" the sea lions are when they try to haul out into their boats. I think it's pretty clear which species is truly aggressive, and truly destructive here. The sea lions were apparently caged in the traps at the time of the shooting, and although the finger on the trigger was apparently some beer-soaked fisherman (who remains free tonight) rather than an ODFW official, the government is directly to blame for putting these sea lions into harm's way in this manner. Please let them know what you think.

And please get to the river and keep watch. There will likely be more shootings like this now. Do what you must to protect the sea lions from human aggression.

From the open publishing newswire: [May 1, 2008] Minutes ago, I spoke with Clarence Thomas of the ILWU executive board. "The rank and file action against the war is indeed happening right now", he said. And today the workers will write history.

In an attempt to head this off last night the PMA went to court, "Employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), will not agree to it, and threatened union leaders with court action under Taft-Hartley if they don't call it all off."

but the judge refused to take any action, until there is concrete action by the union in violation of their contract. This is a rank and file action by union members who are united by their opposition to the war. They disagree with the decision of the arbitrator who has dis-allowed the choice of May Day, by the ILWU, as a "day for union business" for workers at all 29 ports on the west coast. A "day for union business" is allowed by their contract. Their original intent was to use this day for their official protest, but official or not, the protest is on. Protests in the Bay Area began early today, led by Direct Action to Stop the War. DASW organized the famous march on Washington that gathered 500,000 people from groups across the nation. Today, they will close down the war effort in San Fransisco. Their effort to shut down the Union Pacific Rail lines began at sunrise this morning. Indybay reported:

From the open publishing newswire: In Forest Grove - the location of Pacific University - we live in direct contact with communities threatened by the largest dirty energy project proposed for Oregon: Liquefied Natural Gas. Yesterday, a group of us set out to educate our campus about the problems with LNG development.

Farmers and property owners in western Washington County - as in many other parts of our state - face the prospect of having their land seized through "eminent domain" to make way for LNG pipelines. Here in Forest Grove, we don't have to look to the oil fields of Ecuador or the coal-ravaged towns of Appalachia to find real people being displaced by the fossil fuel industries; they are right here, almost literally in our backyard.

To show just what an LNG pipeline means for property owners, our student group constructed a fake section of pipeline which we laid out on an often-frequented path. We strung out a length of red ribbon 25 feet to either side of the pipeline, marking off the size of the property "easement" rendered permanently unusable for tree farming and other practices involving deep-rooted crops or ploughing. The text accompanying our display asked viewers to "Imagine this is your property," and also spelled other problems with LNG development, which include contributions to global warming, and an increase in our dependence on foreign fuels. This dirty energy source means bad news for Oregon all around, and its time to let ALL our elected officials know it.

From the open publishing newswire: Omaha, NE - Tonight a group of Native women from the Klamath River Basin will stage a protest over Warren Buffett's fish killing dams on the Klamath River in Northern California. The event will be held during a cocktail party at Buffett's local diamond retail Borsheims.

"Wealthy women come here to shop for their jewelry. Wealthy women from the Klamath River make our jewelry from the plants that grow along the river banks and the shells of mussel and abalone," says Yurok Tribal member Georgiana Myers. "Now the river is so polluted from Buffett's dams we are worried about harvesting the plants we need for our jewelry and regalia."

The women, many of whom are mothers, hope to convince the Buffett family to consider their appeals to meet and discuss a dam removal plan that would serve in everyone's best interests.

From the open publishing newswire: The campaign against animal torture at the University of California-Berkeley continues on, despite the "terrorist" label being thrown at the activists, and the passage of AB 2296 (California Animal Enterprise Protection Act), which makes it a crime to run a campaign of this nature.

In the evening on Thursday May 1, activists demonstrated outside the lavish home of UC Berkeley primate vivisector Jack Gallant, in the hills near the Oakland/Berkeley line.

Gallant's research is especially frivolous and cruel. The macaque monkeys victimized by Gallant are confined to restraint chairs and denied the most basic freedom of movement. They are denied water. These sentient beings have holes drilled in their skulls and electrodes inserted into their brains. These animals suffer because of Gallant's greed.

This campaign continues on. No matter how many laws they are able to push through. No matter how many activists they attempt to jail.

From the open publishing newswire: Today in Olympia there was a march that followed a rally in Sylvester Park. During the rally people spoke about the plight of immigrant workers and the raids by ICE carried out in our communities. The hip-hop group Sound Asylum performed a short set and then the crowd marched up Capitol Blvd towards the Capitol Building.

When the march reached the Capitol, people flooded inside. Some people threw up tags on the marble walls and others chanted in front of the Governor's office. Afterward, people listened to speakers on the Capitol steps. The outline of a large circle (A) was still visible on the Roman columns above the speakers. The march then headed to City Hall where people listened to more speakers. When the march set off again, it headed down one-way 4th Avenue into the heart of Downtown Olympia. When the march passed the US Bank, multiple rocks were thrown and multiple windows were shattered. The march continued onward and soon passed a Bank of America. Multiple rocks were thrown, multiple windows were broken. And then the police attacked.

Three people were singled out and arrested. As of now this author is only aware of these three. Undercover cops pulled out their pistols and pointed them at people. Many people were hit and shoved by the police. The crowd stayed around the police and their cars as more police arrived. One officer started firing into the crowd with pepper balls at point-blank range. When the police had taken away the hostages the crowd went to the jail.

Another Mayday Reportback - more arrests in Olympia

Photogs from Portland's Mayday | 1st of may Hamburg, Germany: heaviest riots since 30 years | Mayday repression in Turkey | Mayday rally crushed in Istanbul

From the open publishing newswire: FBI escalates its intimidation tactics on Marie Mason supporters We would like to make Marie's friends and close supporters aware that recently individuals who have gone to visit Marie in Michigan have been pulled over for the most minor traffic violations by local law enforcement. A situation that should result in a warning or quick ticket turns into an interrogation of the identity, intent, and associations everyone in the vehicle. We believe this to be another form of harassment and attempt to isolate Marie likely being directed at Marie's friends and supporters from the FBI or some other related alphabet soup gang. If you are planing on visiting Marie it is best to give the vehicle you are traveling in a look over for any violation that could result in a ticket. You should also have the vehicles registration and insurance papers in order. The driver should have a valid drivers license on him or her. This wont stop them from pulling you over but will hopefully make the interaction go smoother.

Thanks to a recent supreme court ruling you are REQUIRED to identify yourself to law enforcement on request. Outside of this we would like to remind everyone that they are under no obligation whatsoever to speak with law enforcement under any circumstances without an attorney present. Additionally, if you do choose to speak to law enforcement, and are found later to have been untruthful in any way, this constitutes basis for criminal prosecution. Its perfectly legal for law enforcement to lie to you but it is a criminal act for you to lie to them.

The National Lawyers Guild has established a hotline, 888-NLG-ECOL, for individuals arrested, subpoenaed or questioned for offenses related to environmental or animal activism. We encourage people to call the NLG hot line if you are contacted by law enforcement and would like to consult with an attorney on these matters.

Its all about the Struggle,
freemarie (at) riseup.net
www.midwestgreenscare.org

From the open publishing newswire: ALL of the westside under-bridge areas now have "illegal camping" notices. People on the street are reporting that both the west and east sides are being swept, as well as downtown doorways in the middle of the night. I met three people last night who had lost their blankets and belongings to the popo in these sweeps. There are aslo scattered reports of camps and sleeping spots off in wooded areas, even out of town, being swept, so don't anyone plan on sleeping anytime soon.

The City Hall camp is 20-40 strong at any given time. All are welcome to come for a safe drug and alcohol free place to sleep for the night. So far the city governments response has been to try to hide the poor until after the tourist festival season is over.

The best way to get up to the minute info is to walk yourself down to the Camp and ask someone what's going on.

Portland Homeless Watch

From the open publishing newswire: Organizing for this years West coast Convergence for Climate Action has been coming together really well and we are looking for organizations and individuals who are interested in plugging in, however they see fit. We are hoping to broaden the perspectives that are represented both while organizing the event and within our list of workshops.

• WHAT: Open Meeting for the 2008 West coast Convergence For Climate Action
• WHERE: It's A Beautiful Pizza, 3342 SE Belmont
• DATE: Sunday May 4th
• TIME: 2 - 4 pm

climateconvergence.org

From the open publishing newswire: Leventhal's gruesome primate experiments have now been discontinued due to a combination of efforts - public outreach, demands for public debates, constant exposure in the media, embarrassment at his domestic violence hearings, revealing his slumlord operations, demonstrations on campus and at his home, and even two instances of nonviolent direct action.

Thanks to everyone who put so much effort into pressuring Leventhal - now fewer primates will suffer at the University of Utah laboratories. And a big thanks to all those that have recently put up with police harassment and arrests to take this message to the neighborhoods of vivisectors. This type of personal embarrassment has an effect on their morale and willingness to engage in cruelty. We will win.

www.utahprimatefreedom.com

From the open publishing newswire: Something smells different in Cuba
author: Movimiento Libertario Cubano
 movimientolibertariocubano@gmail.com

With respect to the situation in Cuba these past few weeks, the Cuban Libertarian Movement - MLC (affinity group of Cuban anarchists in exile) speaks up to answer the unknowns and the challenges facing Cuban society. Ours is the voice of uncompromising commitment to freedom, equality and solidarity that has always been the sound of the Cuban anarchists. Something smells different in Cuba, yes; but not enough to harbor too many illusions about the strategy for change that seems to guide the steps of the fossilized "vanguard". In our view, the current flexibility is due to certain basic political and economic reasons.

The first thing we have to say is that self-management is not a cosmetic nor a band aid but rather an integral conception totally against private or state capitalism; an idea that rivals any other model of production, distribution and trade and which exists as a whole, without impediments or caveats, only as much as it can be generalized to all spheres of society. In short, self-management can not be understood as a test tube baby, as some practice worthy only of minimalist and isolated experimentation but as a model for relations between free, equal beings in solidarity, capable of deciding, individually and collectively, the affairs of their lives. Self-management is not a decoration but a principle, is not a model for the occasion but a liberating and revolutionary project by which people can re-invent Cuban society.

Cuban Libertarian Movement - May 2008
 movimientolibertariocubano@gmail.com