Couch Potato Revolution's journal

Free Speech TV presents a LIVE Broadcast of The Homelessness Marathon at 7pm Eastern Time on DISH Channel 9415 and online at freespeech.org.

Hanging out during Mardis Gras in Pass Christian, Mississippi, a city draped in Confederate Flags, I get a gut feeling that a deep love of old Southern values has not died. Unlike Virginia and Tennessee, Rebel Flags do not accompany American Flags. Rather, they stand alone, proud symbols of a defeated cause, a depressing cause, a cause as pathetic as it is forgotten.

Nobody knows better than these Confederate Flag waving Rebels that the South cannot do it again, that Mississippi, one of the nation's poorest states, has been forgotten. From slavery, to lynchings, to a government that prefers to invest Katrina Relief money into ports rather than people, Mississippi cannot help but view itself as a dying phoenix, burnt to ashes, longing to rise again, clinging to its despicable past to distract itself from the violence of the present, a violence caused by Northern neglect.

I have a few moments to write so pardon the rush job.

We just finished shooting short docs for The Homelessness Marathon. We arrived back at the hotel we're staying at where Kevin and Erin are starting to log and capture footage from today's interview with Jeremy Alderson, AKA Nobody, founder and host of The Homelessness Marathon and other incredible community activists.

Seeing the devastation from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Gustav has been troubling. Knowing that so many people are without homes, stuck in MEMA trailers they're about to lose to a state whose bureaucracy has failed the people should compel all people to action.

2:51 Unconfirmed report that the bus of riot cops just left the convergence center.

2:47: Unconfirmed report that a bus of riot cops pulled up to the convergence center.

2:45: Unconfirmed report that an armored truck is parked near the convergence center.

1:12 PM: Unconfirmed report indicates police have left the convergence center after a small scale raid.

Protestors from New York to San Francisco are hailing this afternoon’s actions at Funk the War and Reclaim the Streets an inspirational success. After marching through the streets in an un-permitted breakaway snake march, Anarchists and Anti-Authoritarians have revitalized feelings of pride and possibility in protest in the streets.

The breakaway snake march lasted approximately two-and-a-half hours. Demonstrators and police had three tense stand-offs. After police demanded protesters disperse, they did. And then they reconvened and continued the occupation of public space, several times.

Approximately 20 demonstrators surrounded by police escaped into a multi-story parking lot, ran up the building, and chanted enthusiastically from the roof to the delight of the crowds below.

With the Democratic National Convention coming to town, city planners and police have had to wrangle with questions about the fate of the homeless during late August. Many rumors have spread that homeless people will be removed during the DNC. People have reported incidents of increased police harassment. None have seemed to create a workable plan.

On the same day that Barack Obama begins his nationalistic patriotism tour in Independence, Missouri, the authorities-that-be announced that protesters will be fenced in by chain-length
or chicken-wire during the Democratic National Convention. While the Democratic presidential candidate wags on about a love of country and the importance of sacrifice to the nation-state, the Federal Court approves the creation of "Free Speech Zones," or the sectioning off of areas where Freedom of Speech can be granted within a metal cage.

I just read on an anarchist newswire a reportback from the Class Struggle Anarchist Conference.

From the report-back:
Organizers from the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC), Workers Solidarity Alliance, Industrial Workers of the World, Solidarity & Defense, Capital Terminus Collective, Amanecer, Class Action Alliance, Michigan-Minnesota Group, Anti-Racist Action, the (now defunct) Love and Rage Anarchist Federation, and even a former member of the Mujeres Libres of the Spanish CNT attended. We discussed organizing experiences in the community, workplace, and various social movements with a focus on the role of race and gender within the movement.