community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
community-based, non-corporate, participatory media
Rustbelt Radio for Aug. 15, 2011
by Pittsburgh Indymedia: Rustbelt Radio Collecti
Monday, Aug. 15, 2011 at 11:42 PM
radio@indypgh.org
On today's show: Hacker activist group Anonymous targets the Bay Area Rapid Transit system; Journalist, Glen Ford, points out the similarities between the treatment of blacks in London and the U.S.; We hear about the inadequacies in the coverage of the Fukushima nuclear disaster and more in our local and global headlines.
audio link: 
MP3 at 27.2 mebibytes
Rustbelt Radio for August 15, 2011
Welcome to this week's edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of the news from the grassroots, news overlooked by the corporate media.
On today's show...
Rustbelt Radio is broadcast live from WRCT studios every other Monday at 6 PM on 88.3 FM in Pittsburgh, and the program airs again on WRCT every Tuesday morning at 9AM.
We can also be heard weekly on the following stations:
We're also available on the internet, both on WRCT's live webstream at WRCT.ORG and for download, stream or podcast from our website at radio dot INDYPGH.org.
We turn now to local stories.
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You are listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of news overlooked by the corporate media. We turn now to other independent news from around the world.
We now bring you a commentary by Mumia Abu-Jamal on the recent debt ceiling bargains. Abu-Jamal is an award winning journalist and political prisoner held in State Correctional Institute Greene in Waynesburg, PA.
The hacker activist groups known as “Anonymous” announced that it would be taking action this week against the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, or BART. This action is in response to revelations that the San Francisco transit system blocked cell phone service in four stations in order to disrupt a planned demonstration over a police shooting. BART officials blocked the cell phone service by turning off the electricity to cell phone towers in the stations where the protests were planned to take place. The action by BART officials has received strong condemnation by both the ACLU and the hacker group Anonymous. The hacker group is primarily motivated by violations to civil liberties and has decided to respond with a number of attacks and protests during the following week.
On Saturday August 13, Anonymous released a press release detailing the content of their planned actions stating they planned to take down BART’s government website for twice the amount of time that BART shut down cell phone service for. Additionally, the group plans to hold a physical protest on Monday August 15, at the Civic Center Bart Station as well as spamming their fax machines with a large number of junk mail. Additionally stating that "We sincerely hope that this series of actions will serve as a warning to BART and every public organization in the USA to NOT engage in this sort of dangerous and human rights violating behavior." The group also released several spoken statements on youtube, describing their motivating philosophy behind their actions.
The group Anonymous originally formed and organized through the Internet image board 4-chan, with the aim of allowing anonymous individuals to act en masse without fear of reprisal. Like their name suggests the group operates anonymously, with involved members wearing Guy Fawkes masks, an idea inspired by the Allan Moore graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and the movie of the same name. Additionally, this structure allows the group to work collectively with no central figure deciding the target of their next protest. Originally the group centered on pranks and low level internet vandalism, but has become more politically motivated taking issues of censorship, freedom of information, and internet privacy as their causes. The structure of the organization allows any individual involved to speak on behalf of anonymous, by using speech to text voice translators. These text to talk translators are what result in the distinguished clipped and electronic sound in their videos. Here an Anonymous member addresses both BART and the San Francisco bay area at large with what to expect at their protests
The planned protests are the most recent in a series of operations that Anonymous has undergone in the recent years. Besides BART, anonymous has targeted the church of scientology, the Westboro Baptist church, and has been a strong advocate for Wikileaks and Bradley Manning. Although members have been arrested in connection to their actions with Anonymous, the structure of the organization allows others to take their place. BART has not directly commented on Anonymous planned protests, only warning users that their website may be unavailable on Sunday August 14. Besides the planned BART protests, Anonymous may also be taking action against Facebook in November, due to issues the group has with Face book’s privacy policy. For more news and information about Anonymous, visit AnonOps.blogspot.com
You're listening to Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of news from the grassroots.
Cities throughout England have finally quieted down followingfour days of rioting that began on August sixth. Over sixteen thousand police have been put on the streets to quell a nation wide rebellion that spread from London to other cities in England including Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and Nottingham.
The riots began as a small protest against the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old man and father of four, who was killed Thursday in Tottenham by officers from the Metropolitan Police. On Saturday evening, around three hundred people gathered outside the local police station to protest the murder. Several hours later the crowd grew large and angry.
Eventually, two empty police cars were burned and debris was thrown at the police by the crowd, this according to a statement released by the police.
Following the incident, waves of youth, both black and white, from all over the country attacked police stations, lit cars on fire, and looted department stores. Since the rebellion, over a thousand arrests were made and British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has threatened to impose curfews and restrictions on social media sites that were used to organize against the police.
Meanwhile, the Independent Police Complaints Commission recently admitted that there was no evidence that the black father, Mark Duggan, had fired his handgun at the police who shot and killed him.
While corporate media reports have blamed the riots on opportunistic youths looking to steal expensive merchandise, many people point to recent cuts to social programs and education as the source of the rebellion.
Pointing out the similarities to past uprisings in the U.S. and the economic situation now, African-American journalist, Glenn Ford, says that the situation is not much different here. We now go to an excerpt from independent media source, Black Agenda Radio, about the riots in London.
From the beating of Pittsburgh native Jordan Miles to the recent murder of Oscar Grant, smaller scale protests and riots have erupted though out the U.S. as well.
Recently, some individuals and community groups in the US have expressed solidarity with the rioters in London. Multiple organizations, including the Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant and members of the National Lawyers Guild, amongst others, released the following statement:
You are listening to a statement released by community groups in solidarity with the anger expressed in the recent London Rebellion.
That was Londons Burning by English punk legends, the Clash.
To keep up to date with the ongoing developments regarding the police killing of Mark Duggan and the the rebellion in England, go to london dot indymedia dot org.
And now we present the Indymedia Calendar of Events:
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Thanks for tuning in to Rustbelt Radio here on WRCT Pittsburgh, WIUP Indiana, WNJR Washington, WLRI LanChester, and FRSC Santa Cruz.
Our hosts this week are Mana Aliabadi and Emily Laychak with contributions from Lizzie Anderson, Seth Bearden, Hanna Taleb, and Peter Claus. This week's show was produced by Shawn Watson. Special thanks to all of our hosts, producers, and contributors.
Also, we at Rustbelt Radio want to give an especially special thank you to our intern for the summer, Peter Claus, who is leaving us this week to return to his other life. Peter has been a great volunteer and assisted in creating wonderful radio as well as additional projects of great importance. So thank you Peter! We appreciate you and hope for your return some day to our participatory media filled arms in the not so distant future.
You can get involved with Rustbelt Radio! To contact us, email RADIO@INDYGH.ORG. Become our fan on Facebook to receive updates on our latest episode, and follow us on Twitter @pghimc. All of our shows are available on our website at RADIO.INDYPGH.ORG and this show can be heard again Tuesday morning on WRCT at 9 AM after Democracy Now!
Tune in next week at this time for another edition of Rustbelt Radio, the Pittsburgh Independent Media Center's bi-weekly review of news from the grassroots.
Rustbelt Radio for Aug. 15, 2011
by Pittsburgh Indymedia: Rustbelt Radio Collecti
Monday, Aug. 15, 2011 at 11:42 PM
radio@indypgh.org
audio: ogg vorbis at 24.2 mebibytesaudio: ogg vorbis at 24.2 mebibytes
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