On Thursday, April 19th, a crowd of around 60 made up of McCarley Gardens Tenants and their supporters gathered across the street from St. John Baptist Church on the McCarley Gardens property to voice their opposition to the sale of their homes. The rally was called by the McCarley Gardens Tenants Association along with Buffalo Tenants United, and was the first mobilization in a campaign to defend McCarley Gardens.

Participants of the rally were asked to sign petition cards to Housing and Urban Development (HUD), asking HUD to keep to their restructuring agreement with the owners of the property, St. John Baptist Church. This agreement calls for the land where McCarley Gardens sits today to remain affordable housing until 2035.

Rev. Chapman has stated his interest in selling the land to the University at Buffalo for their medical corridor, a plan that Chapman believes will help to revitalize the Fruit Belt neighborhood. The McCarley Gardens Tenants Association however, cites concerns of gentrification, and of course, the mass eviction (or possibly relocation) of the McCarley Gardens community.

McCarley Gardens Rally Thursday 6pm at Michigan and Goodell

The McCarley Gardens Tenants Council has been in a precarious situation for months. As part of UB’s 2020 plan, the university hopes to buy the land that McCarley Gardens affordable housing complex is situated. The land will then be put to use as their new medical campus. This places nearly 500 residents of McCarley Gardens up against some of the most powerful people in the region.

The University at Buffalo currently forecasts a need for seven times more land than it owns in the area around Roswell Park. Universities throughout the country have made similar moves to buy large portions of particular neighborhoods. The result is usually the same. The current residents and local businesses of the neighborhood are pushed out by the rising property costs. Tenants in particular face the worst of this, as they don’t benefit in any way from the rising costs of housing or the new, more expensive businesses.

As universities also regularly do, they have partnered with local organizations to make their move more palatable. St. John Baptist Church, the same church that owns the McCarley Gardens and stands to gain millions from its purchase, is pushing a “community development” plan to bring more investment to the Fruit Belt. This investment is being pushed as a great move for the Fruit Belt community. But, if we accept that the community is the people in it, then we should know that this sort of investment will not help the people of the Fruit Belt. It will definitely help incoming businesses, students, and the new, more affluent residents of the neighborhood. However, as gentrification regularly shows us, the current residents will be forced to move into a neighborhood just like the one they’re in now.

Last night Green Gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins, insurgent Democratic State Senate candidate Mike Kuzma, and former Presidential Candidate and Consumer activist Ralph Nader stood side by side at Dnipro Ukrainian Center on Buffalo's east side. Their message for Buffalo was: be defiant, reclaim your vote, and there is no choice in a two-party monopoly between two neoliberal capitalist parties. One key difference between them and the Democrats and Republicans is the issue of the "Stock Transfer Tax".

The state of New York, that is in over $90 billion in deficit is expected to cut thousands of public sector jobs and slash everything on the budget, many things that New Yorkers depend on to get by every single day; yet the Stock Transfer Tax that would add and estimated $16 billion dollars that Wall Street is given tax-free through a 100% rebate cumulatively every year, goes unmentioned.

The local Green Party chairman, Eric Jones, introduced the speakers and pushed the petitioning effort for the NYS Green Party's Gubernatorial run. Succeeding Eric was Mike Kuzma , who was described by Eric as the "Ralph Nader of Buffalo". Mike is a local lawyer and activist who is often known for challenging city hall for their corporate puppetry. As more NYS national guard soldiers are sent to Iraq and Afghanistan to protect our colonial holdings Mr. Kuzma, unlike State Sen. Stachowski demands that the NYS national guard is brought home immediately. Senator Stachowski, the incumbent has not raised the issue.

(Apologies for lack of a better picture of the entire crowd, but traffic + dark + police = limited photo opportunities)

Saturday night around 11:15 approximately 70 people including trombone, trumpet, and drum players started a dance party on the sidewalk outside Holly Farms on Allen. Although there were many outdoor events occurring as part of the Infringement Festival, an annual art and music festival in Buffalo, including a movie screening only a few doors down the street on Allen, the Buffalo Police were very quick to respond to the "unauthorized gathering" outside Holly Farms. Upon the arrival of 3 cop cars, one of the only African American men in the crowd was swiftly arrested, followed by the crowd chanting "racist" at the Caucasian police officer. She screamed and swore back at the crowd that more police would be arriving to confront them. Eventually the amount of police cars on College and Allen increased to 10 and the Police pushed all of the individuals off of the sidewalk and into the parking lot of Holly Farms. The Buffalo Police Officers harassed the musicians and participants while they were on private property in the parking lot for another hour or so before leaving, resulting in the dispersal of most of the people involved.

In what is a tremendous flood of previously secret information about the ongoing war in Afghanistan, WikiLeaks has released around 91,000 reports. The story and some of the content of these reports was simultaneously broken by The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel.

In response to this report, Congress has begun rushing through a new funding bill for the war, with the understanding that this new information may provoke renewed anti-war fervor in the United States.

To read the reports directly, go to this dedicated site.

For the three main papers to break the story, please go to their sites:

Der Spiegel
The Guardian
The New York Times

Now you can just upload an image, and it will be resized and place in the story automatically. No codes to worry about and no giant images blocking the screen and using up bandwidth.

Also, images will no longer run into the story beneath them if the story with the image is short.

If you MUST display a giant file, you can still use the old file upload field , it's just lower on the page. (But please don't use it for normal display images.)

The device on the right is an Arduino micro-controller, a form of open source hardware used to make a variety of electronic devices including 3D printers.

Coming to Buffalo Sunday August 1st 2010, 6 pm El Buen Amigo.

Let's show these dedicated and effective organizers a great show of solidarity and support. The state has all of us as their enemy. We have to organize for our friends to have a chance to win this fight!

The State of Minnesota alleges that organizing a convergence space for
protesters to have meetings, eat free meals, and check teh interwebs (on
computers that an FBI informant helpfully set up!) makes the RNC 8 guilty of
conspiracy. The Federal government claims that Scott DeMuth’s writings and
associations suggest that he is an anarchist and therefore a domestic
terrorist, making him guilty of conspiracy under the Animal Enterprise
Terrorism Act.

We say organizing resistance to state repression isn’t conspiracy. It’s
survival. We say living our lives according to our principles isn’t
terrorism. It’s our right. We say we’ll continue organizing no matter how
much the state tries to destroy us and our communities.

Visitors to downtown Buffalo spontaneously gathered Thursday evening at Roosevelt Plaza on the corner of Main and Huron. Some people had drums and guitars. Some enjoyed the public space with Hula-Hoops, and of course religious evangelists were present as they are every Thursday. In counterpoint, one man dressed as a prophet carrying a sandwich board reading "There is no God..."Another more political group set up a table and flag and gave out free booklets.

Ominously present were Law enforcement agencies from all over the region. Their SUVs needlessly blocked pedestrian traffic, and the domineering behavior of the officers made this tiny street festival less revitalizing for buffalo than it could have been.

While some police presence may still be needed Thursdays downtown, one must question the use of taxpayer dollars in sending the border patrol to protect us from girls with Hula-Hoops.

A new video explains the factors that led to the current global financial crisis, and why every reasonable person should join an anti-capitalist organization.

Buffalo Forum alongside youth and community activists from Buffalo stood together with tens of thousands of Canadians to denounce the anti-people agendas of the G8/20 in Toronto and stand up for the rights of the peoples. Actions took place from June 21-28 and those against criminalization of dissent are continuing across Canada (see cpcml.ca for more).

Buffalo stood proud during a week of protests, representing the fighting stand of Americans to join with Canadians and all the world’s peoples to say No to the Anti-People Agendas of the G8/20! No to Criminalization of Dissent! One Humanity, One Struggle! By organizing to participate in these actions we took up the duty of Americans to stand against the wars, aggression and militarization of the U.S. and represent the drive of the people for their rights, including their right to govern and decide. Our banners flew high, Defend the Rights of All, No to U.S. Imperialism and U.S. War Crimes, Fight for the Fraternal Unity of the Peoples! Directly participating and being part of the various actions gave expression to this fraternal unity, which develops on the basis of organizing inside the U.S. for the change the people require and standing together with all those worldwide doing the same.