Houston

On May 16th Thorne Dryer and Sherwood Bishop spoke about their work with Space City News, the underground newspaper published in Houston in the 60's and 70's which brought together the leftist and countercultural movements of the time. The talked about the history of the organization, how it worked with different communities in Houston, and the national growth of underground press across the US and in Texas.

A recording of the first half of the January 21st workshop giving an introduction to the history and politics of the Palestine Israel Conflict and the movement for justice in Palestine. The Primary presenters were Hadeel Assali of the Houston Palestine Film Festival and Ala Alazzeh, a graduate student at Rice University. This event was hosted by the new Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Houston and attended by more than 40 people.

Ester King was an activist in the Black Power movement in Houston from the late sixties until the present day. I spoke wih him in the December of 2008 about People's Party 2 and their chariman Carl Hampton who was killed by police in 1970.

Charles "Boko" Freeman was a member of People's Party II which became the Houston Black Panther Party. He spoke with me in December of 2008 about the struggles of People's Party 2 in Houston and their legacy.

In December of 2008 I interviewed 2 veterans from the Black Power movement in Houston Texas about People's Party 2, a group modeled on the Black Panther Party, which existed from 1970-1971 and was followed by the Houston Black Panther Party which lasted till 1974.

Charles Boko Freeman was a Member of Peoples Party 2 and is currently based in Atlanta. Ester King participated in the Black Power Movement in Houston and continues as a community activist today.

Houston IMC spent our show on January 9th talking about the Isralei siege of Gaza and the outpouing of solidarity worldwide in support of the Palestinian People. The show features headlines from around the world interviews with protesters at solidarity protests in Houston, and a conversation with 2 Palestinian Americans, Hadeel Assali of the Houston Palestine Film Festival, and Sousan Hammad, who recently wrote an article for counterpunch called Phoning Home to Gaza.

Hundreds of Houstonians gathered in downtown starting at noon, as similar rallies and protests against proposition 8 and in favor of the rights of marriage for gays and lesbians took place all across the country and abroad. There were a number of speakers from the GLBT community, and the democratic party. The crowd was diverse in terms of age and gender, it was predominately white, thought there were many people of color.

Around 2 dozen people gathered Saturday Morning at the Houston Processing Center, an immigrant detention facility run by the private corporation Corrections Corporation of America, to protest the recent raid and detention of more than 150 workers at Rags USA in East Houston.