ON THE SHOW IN JANUARY 2011:

In the wake of the sentencing of convicted police torturer Jon Burge, we feature audio from a special roundtable on Burge, police torture and related issues, featuring:

* Community activists Tomika Erby and Mark Clements

* Relatives of torture victims — Armanda Shackleford, Michelle Martin-Howard, and Bertha Escamilla.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS EPISODE:

chicago.indymedia.org/media/all/display/35131/index.php

LISTEN TO THE FULL ROUNDTABLE:

chicago.indymedia.org/media/all/display/35111/index.php

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From The Trenches airs on the 4th Sunday of each month at 6pm on WLUW 88.7 on Chicago northside radio:

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From The Trenches also airs on the immediately subsequent Thursday at 1pm on WHPK 88.5 on Chicago southside radio:

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HEADLINES FOR THIS EPISODE FROM THE WORLDWIDE INDYMEDIA NETWORK:

Undercover Police Officers Exposed for Infiltrating UK Social Movements
Indymedia UK and Indymedia Ireland featured developments over the unmasking of undercover UK police officers who infiltrated UK social activist movements. On October 21, 2010, a statement posted to Sheffield Indymedia revealed that an infiltrator who went by the name Mark Stone was actually Mark Kennedy, an undercover police officer who worked from 2000 to 2009. Subsequent developments led to a frenzy of media coverage, which resulted in the unmasking of three more infiltrators in UK anarchist, anti-fascist and climate justice movements. All four are believed to have worked for The National Public Order Intelligence Unit, a political police unit with ties to large corporations. Two of the infiltrators have worked outside of UK police jurisdiction, and all four have participated in illegal activity.
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/472314.html
www.indymedia.ie/article/97967
sheffield.indymedia.org.uk/2010/10/466477.html
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2011/01/472363.html

São Paulo Community Rallies Against Privatization of Community Space
Brazil Indymedia featured efforts against the privatization of a community municipal area in São Paulo. Quarteirão da Cultura, translated as "Block of the Culture", is a 20,000 square-meter community space which has been slated for private sale by São Paulo mayor Gilbert Kassab, ostensibly to raise money for daycare centers. But the "Block of the Culture" is the most environmentally sensitive area in its quarter, and already has a daycare center, and boasting native trees and archaeological sites, along with two schools, a theater, and a children's library. Supporters have rallied in its defense, circulating petitions to protect the space.
www.midiaindependente.org/pt/blue/2010/12/483217.shtml

Philadelphia Sees "Peoples Courts" Form In Wake Of Police Repression
Philadelphia IMC featured developments around a new community court system in the wake of a near-fatal beating by Philadelphia police. On September 3, 2010, Philadelphia police violently beat West Philadelphia citizen Askia Sabur, which was captured by many video cellphones and camcorders. In the wake of the ample community coverage of the beating, which saved Askia Sabur from being killed, West Philadelphia residents themselves organized a series of "Peoples Courts" as they're called — impromptu public assemblies to serve as a defense mechanism against police violence like that inflicted on Sabur. City police in the wake of this development and the negative public relations fallout from the coverage of Sabur's beating, established a series of their own community meetings and community policing efforts to deflect public criticism. But activists respond that such efforts have been used to stop the establishment of activist efforts in the past, all while violence and theft by police continues.
phillyimc.org/en/all-power-peoples-court-struggle-community-control-police-west-philly

Activists demand better health treatment for Leonard Peltier
DC Indymedia featured a call on behalf of a longtime jailed political activist in poor health. Quoting from the feature: The Leonard Peltier Defnese Offense Committee called for the immediate transfer to the Mayo Clinic of Leonard Peltier, a native American activist who has been jailed since 1977 for two killings he didn't commit. Peltier has exhibited signs of prostate cancer for the past year and after months of political pressure by his attorney, Peltier finally underwent blood tests, which indicated the need for a biopsy which has yet to be performed. Activists in support of Peltier have been charging medical neglect, and have called on concerned citizens to contact the U.S. penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where Peltier is being held, for transferral to the Mayo Clinic.
dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/150791/index.php

School of the Americas protesters sentenced, jailed
New York City Indymedia featured the sentencing of activists protesting against a notorious paramilitary training school. Two activists, Nancy Smith from New York and Christopher Spicer from Illinois, were each sentenced in January 2011 to six months in prison for entering the grounds of School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia, a training school long opposed by peace activists for its training of Latin American combat troops who frequently attack community leaders, educators, union organizers, religious workers, and political activists. Smith and Spicer join two other activists, a Franciscan priest and a Catholic worker, who also were jailed for six months. The School was ostensibly closed in 2001 and replaced by a different institution with a different name, but activists have charged that that graduates still engage in human rights abuses.
nyc.indymedia.org/or/2011/01/113617.html

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