by Louise Koster
PotentNews.com
May 6, 2012

Potent News Blast #7

By Dave Zirin - May 6, 2012

In the ’60s they said, “Don’t trust anyone over 30.” When it comes to remembering Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died on May 4, I don’t trust anyone under 30. Adam Yauch and the Beastie Boys stood for more than just hip hop and their personal “sounds of science”...The Beasties were global ambassadors from a lost New York City since smothered under the weight of police violence and gentrification. It was a city that churned out hip hop and basketball legends with arrogant ease.

By Stefan Christoff - Coop Média de Montréal

During the day, on the ground in Victoriaville, police forces seemed at times overwhelmed by both the size and the militancy of the protest...At the protest a number of de-arrests took place, protesters rushing Sûreté du Québec (SQ) police to break-up arrest attempts. SQ forces instead chose to arrest students under the cover of night, away from the media cameras...Just after 10pm, fully armed SQ forces boarded and took control of our Montreal-bound bus, announcing all were under arrest for “participating in a riot.”

By MIKE KING - May 03, 2012

When the FBI sends agents [to Occupy] talking about blowing up bridges they will be hard pressed to find someone stupid enough to work with them. But they have a very big bag of tricks we need to educate ourselves about. Occupy is not going to stop. The State won’t stop trying to kill it either. The outcome of this death match is unknown, but the terrain of state repression is becoming quite clear.

By Alexander Billet - May 2nd, 2012

Just as Pussy Riot’s own actions were inspired by an amalgam of Egyptian protest, western riot grrrl and their own rich traditions of resistance, so do we have something to learn from them. Namely, that “protest music” isn’t merely the stuff of history books or passive hippies. It can be brash, it can be in your face and on the streets. It can be a battering ram, widening the cracks in the edifice for all to see. Putin and others like him have every reason to be nervous about that. We too would do well to pay attention.

by Amir Alwani
PotentNews.com
April 30, 2012

Episode 6 of the Potent News Blast covers the demonization of Iran, Canada's approval of torture, the fraud of "green" homes, and much more.

By Dave Zirin - April 30, 2012

Institutional support of police brutality against a workforce either unemployed or limited to service jobs was the flammable mix saturating the streets of Los Angeles, which caught fire when Rodney King hit the nightly news...There are lessons here, if we are willing to learn them. For cities like London and Rio, the host cities of the next two Olympic Games, attack the working poor of your country in the name of “Olympic security” at your own peril.

By Clara Weiss - 27 April 2012

Thirty-seven workers and political activists have been put on trial following a brutal intervention by police on December 16 in the Kazakh city Zhanaozen, which left at least 17 striking oil workers dead and hundreds wounded...The massacre was a response by the government to a month-long strike by thousands of oil workers in Zhanaozen. The demands of the workers included better wages for themselves as well as for local teachers and doctors, and the resignation of President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

By LISA MARTINOVIC - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

Despite a generation of sensitivity trainings and multicultural studies, an astonishing number of people still feel emboldened to express their misbegotten bigotry in very public arenas. Cops and vigilantes alike are caught on tape throwing down racial slurs before they kill, Rush Limbaugh has no compunction about “slut-shaming” for a national audience, and classroom bullies drive a steady stream of gay youth to suicide.

In this 5th episode of the Potent News Blast I cover various different aspects of the tyranny we find ourselves in and (for the hardcore researchers out there) I give a couple handy PC tips that should make it easier for you to absorb the information that is so rapidly and constantly pouring in these days.

This speech (linked immediately below, with recently-added english subtitles included in the video itself) was given by the co-spokespeople (Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois & Jeanne Reynolds) of the Coalition Large de l'Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante (ie., the Large Coalition of the Association for Student Union Solidarity), or CLASSE, following the historic demonstration on March 22nd, 2012 that saw over 200,000 people take to the streets of Montreal against tuition fee increases.

March 24, 2012 - Vancouver Media Co-op

Blood and Honour was established in 1987 by Ian Stuart Donaldson, lead singer of the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver...B & H takes its name from a slogan used by the Hitler Youth. The organization has served as a propaganda and recruitment arm for fascist skinhead groups in Europe and North America, primarily. Members have been charged with a variety of crimes over the years, from assault to murder.

By Michael Gould-Wartofsky - March 23, 2012

Campus spies. Pepper spray. SWAT teams. Twitter trackers. Biometrics. Student security consultants. Professors of homeland security studies. Welcome to Repress U, class of 2012...Since 9/11, the homeland security state has come to campus just as it has come to America’s towns and cities, its places of work and its houses of worship, its public space and its cyberspace.

By Adele M. Stan - AlterNet

...[A]t an event this weekend in Louisiana...the hatefulness of the Santorum agenda was exposed as the former senator from Pennsylvania applauded Pastor Dennis Terry of the Greenwell Springs Baptist Church, as he spewed hatred from the pulpit for gays, Muslims and Buddhists, the latter of whom he suggested don't really belong in America...And then he prayed over Santorum, asking for his angry, intolerant God to "have favor upon Rick Santorum," a blessing the candidate freely accepted.

By Independent Jewish Voices - rabble.ca

...Mr. Mulcair's leadership campaign represents an electoral coalition with Canada's Israel Lobby...[Independent Jewish Voices] is a non-partisan organization and is not endorsing any candidate in the [New Democratic Party] leadership race. However, this information raises serious concerns about what direction Mulcair would take the party if he were to win the leadership race.