FBI harasses Dakota activist Waziyatawin for speech in Minnesota

The following article by Brad Sigal is from Fight Back! News:

Winona, MN – On Jan. 3, an FBI agent contacted Waziyatawin, a well-known Dakota activist and scholar. The agent from the FBI’s Mankato, Minnesota office wanted to question her about her beliefs and about the content of a speech she gave in Winona on Nov. 8, 2010. Waziyatawin said she declined to talk with the FBI agent about the presentation or her viewpoints and instead referred him to her attorney.

According to a statement being circulated by her supporters, Waziyatawin’s Nov. 8 speech concerned the brutal realities of the colonization of this continent’s land, its resources, and First Nations People. She also spoke of a common need to restore the environment and a way of living that is not reliant on capitalism and the destruction of nature.

FMLN Takes Power in El Salvador

The following article is from Fight Back! News

El Salvador's new Vice President Salvador Sanchez Ceren, with former CISPES Executive Director Cherrene Horazuk and solidarity activist and Fight Back! reporter, Brad Sigal

FMLN Takes Power in El Salvador

By Brad Sigal

San Salvador, El Salvador – In an historic day here, June 1, Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren were sworn in as the new president and vice-president of El Salvador. Funes and Sanchez Ceren are members of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a leftist political party which was formerly a guerrilla movement that fought against the U.S.-backed right wing dictatorship in El Salvador in the 1980s. Funes and Sanchez Ceren won election on March 15, marking the first time there will be a leftist government in El Salvador’s history.

Anti-war march challenges McCain on last day of RNC

Anti-war march challenges McCain on last day of RNC
Crowd repeatedly tear gassed, 396 arrested as police pull out all stops to prevent anti-war march from reaching Xcel Center

Jess Sundin of the Anti-War Committee on Day 4 of RNC, Sep 4, 2008

by Brad Sigal

St. Paul, MN – On the final day of the Republican National Convention, Sept. 4, over 1000 protesters took to the streets to deliver a strong anti-war message while John McCain was speaking. The march was initiated by the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee, with the theme, “No peace for the war-makers.”

Thousands of riot police repeatedly blocked the anti-war march from getting anywhere near the Xcel Center, even though there was supposed to be a ‘public viewing area’ that was to be open to any protesters until 11:00 pm each day of the RNC.

By the end of the march, hundreds of people were tear gassed and subjected to concussion grenades. 396 people were indiscriminately rounded up and arrested, including fifteen journalists. More people were arrested at this march than the rest of the Saint Paul RNC protests combined.