Wednesday, Jan.18th, 2012, marked the third day of the five-day "pop-up" occupation: Schools Not Jails. This demonstration strives to bring awareness and to protest the city's proposed youth jail. While the organizers' original gameplan had been to occupy the site of the proposed youth jail 'round the clock, from Monday-Saturday, by Wednesday the strategy had dramatically shifted.
On Monday, Jan.19th, 2012, a.k.a - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, The Indypendent Reader caught up with Lester Spence, at the kick-off action for the Schools Not Jails five-day "pop-up" occupation.
On the eve of the two month anniversary of Occupy Baltimore, participants and allies of the emerging movement gathered at the 2640 Space to reflect upon the previous two months of an intensive experiment in mass participatory democracy; it's successes, pitfalls, challenges and potential new directions.
The president of the Baltimore AFL-CIO, Ernie Grecco, along with twleve other union leaders wrote a letter to Mayor Rawlings-Blake urging the city to allow for the Occupy Baltimore encampment to continue. This comes just one day after the city declared the encampment illegal, threatening to evict the near one month protest.
Text of the Letter:
Originally published at Free Speech Radio News
Occupy encampments continue across the country, including in Baltimore, where over the weekend Pan-African theorist Max Rameau gave a teach-in and addressed the General Assembly. Rameau is an organizer with the Take Back the Land movement, which uses direct action to push for community control over land.
Indyreader caught up with community activist, Reverend Heber Brown, at the end of the Stop the Youth Jail march this last Tuesday. He spoke on some of Baltimore's fundamental issues that the majority of the city's population faces, as well as positives and potential challenges that the growing Occupation Movement may have within the city.
Several dozen people participated in an economic crisis teach-in at McKeldin Park, the site of Occupy Baltimore.
Activist and academic, Lester Spence, spoke on the relationship of neoliberalism and the black community, and Joel Andreas spoke on the economy, militarism and imperialism.
“What do we want?”
“RESPECT!”
“When do we want it?”
As the crowd marching down The Block screamed “NOW!”, we drowned out the traffic and the passers-by, who didn’t seem to realize that their slurs and catcalls were the reason we had all come out in the chilly rain. The name of the march, that stormed through Baltimore, on Saturday, September 17, was: SlutWalk. Some of us had never been called “sluts” before, some of us were used to it. And for most of us, that was beside the point.
Hello world! Welcome Autumn! And welcome back to our Baltimore-centric (although not exclusive) headline-news-round-up called Sounds of Independent News. We are committed to posting snippets of independent news, to help equip and inform local social justice activists and organizations. We are committed to posting regular segments and updates. We solicit your important news and announcements, as well as any suggestions and ideas. Email us at: indypendentreader@gmail.com
Local queer activist,and Baltimore Indypendent Reader correspondent, Dulcey Lewis, presented her lecture: The Lesbian Avengers w/ Dulcey Lewis - to a packed house, at Red Emma's Bookstore Coffeehouse, on Friday, September 9th, 2011.
