The Israel Defense Forces yesterday designated Bil'in and Na'alin as closed military areas every Friday until mid-August, in a bid to halt the weekly demonstrations against the separation fence in those West Bank villages.

Anarchists may be interested in the following submission sent to the UN Human Rights Committee reviewing New Zealand's human rights record. It shows what happens to a State when it follows the UN and the global elites which have condoned a discriminatory human rights agenda on the basis of social class thereby allowing the now 'united' establishment to implement such discrimination against the independent peoples. New Zealand's review will be completed tomorrow.

President Barack Obama recently expressed support for DNA sampling within the criminal procedure upon arrest by local, state and federal authorities.

It is a truism in US politics that the range of acceptable opinion is extremely narrow, even compared to other Western nations. Democrats and Republicans agree on virtually all issues of substance. Both parties openly support wars in the Middle East, the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the “war on terror” (even if they don`t call it that anymore), bank bailouts, and a host of other oppressive policies. Genuine disagreements among the ruling elite, such as whether to attack Iraq or Iran first, or how to best divide up Iraq’s oil fields, are generally handled quietly behind the scenes. Issues like same sex marriage, immigration enforcement, and executive bonuses for bankers are rhetorically elevated to the status of major policy disputes in order to preserve the illusion of conflict between Democrats and Republicans.

I recently attended two public events in Vancouver that got me thinking more about anarchists and their role in social struggles in the wake of the anti-olympic convergence. The first was a talk by anarchist writers Mark Leier and Robert Graham at the Vancouver Public Library on March 11, 2010. A small room was almost full with an audience of about 50 people of different ages.

What is “anarchist art”?

New Yorkers will get a chance to decide for themselves when the 2nd Annual NYC Anarchist Art Festival takes Manhattan, Thur.-Sat., April 15-17. Hosted by The Living Theater – the quintessential, historic anarchist theater group – and held in conjunction with the 4th Annual NYC Anarchist Book Fair, the Art Festival will include performances, music, installations, video art, dance, sculpture, drawing, experimentation, and collaboration.

Dozens of shivering Burmese gathered in front of the Courthouse on Sunday to urge government officials to publicly denounce discrimination against their community. Organizers said the rally was a response to the government's lack of reaction to a controversial sign posted at Ricker's City Laundry on South Calhoun Street several weeks ago. The sign, which has since been removed, read, "For Sanitary Purposes, There Are No Burmese People Allowed." Jay Ricker, head of the company, has since apologized for the sign, but Burmese at the rally said it was not enough to ease their fears of continued discrimination.

On March 16th and March 19th, Noah (American) and Natasha (Australian) will go to trial for charges related to the organization of demonstrations against the COP15 conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. They are facing politically motivated charges which accuse them of organizing to disrupt the public order and do violence to police, and face stiff prison sentences as well as deportation form Denmark. Both were targeted by Danish police and arrested in December during the COP15, and kept in jail for 25 days in isolation before being released in advance of their trials.

The Montreal Anarchist Bookfair -- and month-long Festival of Anarchy -- bring together anarchist ideas and practice, through words, images, music, theatre and day-to-day struggles for justice, dignity and collective liberation. The Bookfair is for people who don't necessarily consider themselves anarchists, but are curious about anarchism, as well as a space for anarchists to meet, network and share in a spirit of respect and solidarity. All are welcome.

This weekend the Israeli anarchists against the wall initiative were involved in even more struggles in more locations that become regular fronts: Beit Jalla, Bait Omar, Bil'in, Jeb Altheeb, Ma'asara, Nabi Saleh, Ni'ilin, Sheikh Jarrah. The state forces continued half heartedly to prevent the access of demonstrators to come to Bil'in and Ni'ilin but failed. Many activists continued from the noon demonstrations to the one at Sheikh Jarrah. Last night (Monday early morning) at 02:00 AM, state forces entered the village. Many copies of a document was posted around the whole village. This document declared that Israeli and international activists were strictly prohibited from entering Bil'in between the hours of 8 am and 8 pm on every Friday, the day in which the weekly demonstration takes place.

This is our response to a recent online statement made by “Testament” in which he personally attacks two of our members as well as Common Cause as a whole. The statement was made in response to several articles written by Common Cause members in a personal capacity that were critical of either the black bloc tactic used in Vancouver or of the dismissal of these criticisms by some who chose to do so by dismissing Common Cause’s political philosophy as a whole.

This article is a response to three other articles, “Breaking windows is not a revolutionary act” by Judy Rebick, “The State Is Not a Window” by Heatscore and “Thoughts on the anonymous communiqué from members of the Black Bloc” by Andrew Loewen.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who is criticized by media freedom groups, called on Saturday for regulation of the Internet and singled out a website that he said falsely reported the murder of one of his ministers.

Funk the War is a roving youth & student power street party, bumping the phattest of beats and reclaiming the streets to stop the war and break off the love affair between our government and the corporate parasites who Obama's been cheating with: war profiteers, climate criminals, and blood-sucking bankers.

March 19th, the seventh anniversary of the Iraq War, is nearly upon us. The US military is still occupying the country, contractors and mercenaries continue their charade, and with an embassy the size of the Vatican, there are clearly no real plans to leave.

Finally the state of Pennsylvania has decided to unseal the affidavit which lead to the arrests of the “Twitter 2″ at the Carefree Inn outside of Pittsburgh, PA on September 24th during protests against the G-20.

If the idea of community-based artwork is held as an unexamined good, the politics that define the word“community”are hidden. Instead of using a vague notion of community to validate vanguard cultural practice, what if art projects could be used to dramatize the very mechanics of community, and open its political workings to reconsiderations and repurposings by a variety of actors?