Headlines for 28 April 2010

Militant anti-police demo in Portland, OR

A communique on anarchistnews.org reports that on Monday, April 26 anarchists in Portland, Oregon organized a militant anti-police march.  During the march, the windows of a military recruitment center were smashed and its computers were vandalized. Other symbols of capitalism that were vandalized were Starbucks, two Wells Fargo bank branches, and a Bank of America branch.

Oil leak in Gulf Coast

A massive oil slick is spreading off the coast of Louisiana after a huge oil rig explosion last week that left 11 people missing and presumed dead. Oil continues to spill undersea at an estimated rate of 160, 000 litres a day.

Robot submarines have been unable to cap the well. The rig operator, BP, says that work will begin as early as tomorrow to drill a relief well to take pressure off the flow from the blowout site. However, the process will take months to complete.  The U.S. Coast Guard will ignite the thickest oil on the water's surfact to contain the leak.

The leak has moved steadily toward the mouth of the Mississippi River, an area home to hundreds of species of wildlife and near some of the Gulf's richest oyster grounds.

Canada will stop funding abortion in developing countries: Oda at G8

Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda opened the G8 meeting in Halifax yesterday with an announcement that the Canadian government will stop funding abortion in developing countries.

Until Monday, no one in the government had disclosed whether abortion would be included in the G8 child and maternal health initiative that Canada is supporting.

International aid groups, such as the Ottawa-based Action Canada for Population and Development, worry that Canada may stop funding any developing nation where abortion is legal.

In March, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the health initiative should include access to safe and legal abortion.

Police visit Ottawa activists

On Thursday morning, an Ottawa-area activist was visited at their home by two plainclothes police officers.  With the mobilization against the G8/G20 in Toronto in late June, activists suspect that authorities are planning to gather intelligence and use home visits to intimidate organizers. 

Guidelines on how to deal with police visits are posted on the anti-G8/G20 mobilization website,

Militant Take Back the Night march in Brooklyn

On Saturday evening, dozens of women dressed in matching black skirts and masks gathered in Brooklyn, New York for an anti-capitalist Take Back the Night march.  The women stopped traffic on Bedford Avenue, overturned trashcans, and broke windows.