Where's Jamie ?

Heading home for Thanksgiving - November 16, 2005

2005-11-16T20:13:13Z

View archives of past emails here: http://www.songseek.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/list/jamie
Photos here: http://www.pbase.com/stevegallagher/jamie

Dear all,

Time in Argentina seems to go by fast each day. I find myself now back in Buenos Aires, staying at the same hostel I stayed in my first night in Argentina, nearly a month ago. I spent the last week in Puerto Madryn, a coastal town 17 hours bus ride south of Mar del Plata. The beaches were beautiful and we saw whales jumping and playing just off shore every day we were there. We spent our days sitting on the beach, or walking mile after mile of vacant shoreline. I must say it brought back many fond memories of similar beach walks in PEI over the years! We even saw two very smelly rotting dead whales which made me feel right at home!

The only thing missing in Puerto Madryn was our dear friends in Mar del Plata, so after camping for nearly a week, we decided to head back and say a final goodbye before coming home. We took a 10 hour night bus half way there and then after a few hours layover in a town we had warned was full of nazi�s, we took a 7 hour bus the rest of the way. Mar del Plata was just as we had left it and we were greeted with open arms and a warm welcome. We had just one more night in the back room at Tinta Roja that had become our cozy little home before having to say our goodbyes once again. Only this time we were also saying good bye to Koala (one of the 3 other friends I am traveling with) as she decided to spend an extra month in Mar del Plata.

We are determined to find a way to get at least a few of the folks from Tinta Roja to come visit us in the states within a year or two. One idea is to get them to do a workshop on the community organizing they do here at the National Conference on Organized Resistance held every February at American University in DC. They are beginning the process of getting passports, and we�ll start the rest when we get home!

We arrived here in BA at 5 this morning, and spent the day wondering around the city. We fly out tomorrow evening, and I plan on spending just a few days back in DC before making my way to Vermont for thanksgiving!

See you all then!
love Jamie

PS: I got a bunch more photos off of my camera and onto the website, including a bunch of the protest itself and lots of our friends in Mar del Plata!

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More photos from Argentina - November 10, 2005

2005-11-10T18:21:53Z

Hey all,

I uploaded a few more photos today. I dont seem to be able to upload directly from my camera so the ones of the protest and here may have to wait till we get home, though I�ll try a different cafe tomorrow. I put a bunch more up from the first half of the trip though,

http://www.pbase.com/stevegallagher/jamie

enjoy and much love to all,
Jamie

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On the move... - November 08, 2005

2005-11-10T18:16:23Z

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Photos here: http://www.pbase.com/stevegallagher/jamie

So,

I have some news to share with y'all that has us a little concerned and you should be aware of. On Monday morning (the day after all the fences came down and all the presidents and police had left) we were walking into town and were followed by a large military truck. At one point, someone in plain clothes got out of the truck and followed us for more than a dozen blocks. At one point he said the word�"gringo" to nobody but himself (and maybe a radio?). We met some of our friends a few hours later at a place we meet them often in the center. They said "you are not safe here" and quickly ushered us to a small out of the way cafe a few blocks away. There we found out that there had been an announcement made on a local radio news station that morning that the police had "identified and were pursuing" a group of "four north Americans" in association with Friday's protest. While they announced on the news that they identified us while reviewing videos of Fridays protest, we are not sure what for. None of us did anything illegal at anytime during the protest, and while we were seen associating with people who participated fully with the protest, we ourselves did not do any property damage or light any fires, or anything of the sort. Realistically I don't think even if they caught up with us they would have any legal grounds to do anything to us. We stayed in the back of the cafe discussing for a few hours and then took a taxi back to where our stuff was where we stayed with a neighbor until our bus left at 9:40 last night. While there we found out that other people had heard the same news on various TVand radio news programs, but it doesn�t seem to have turned up in newspapers.

We are now safely in a town about 16 or 17 hours south of MDP, camping on a secluded point on the beach (or at least we just got off the bus and are on our way to find such a campground which we read about in the lonely planet!). We plan on staying low profile here until the day before our flight home and taking a bus directly back to Buenos Aires.

This news has us a little concerned, but I think all will be fine. We are pretty sure they are talking about us as we are the only group of 4 north Americans who we met at the protests at all, and certainly the only four who stuck it through the tear gas! We also think its us because we have not heard of any other gringos who had been taken to the police station for "identification" which was what happened to us a few days before the protest.

My friend Oscar who I am traveling with has contacted his dad who has a close friend who owns a large corporation in BA (which operates all over the country) who has the iinfluenceto help us out if any legal trouble does arrive. We also have left copies of our passports with friends in MDP, and they have contacted their lawyers just in case.

Again, I don't write this to make you all nervous, but it is something to be aware of. We are pretty certain we are totally safe here. The biggest worry is if something happened when we get to the airport (or even in DC) but all that seems unlikely. It seems much more likely that it will all blow over by the time of our flight.

Anyway, I will write again every couple of days and keep you all updated! No need to worry, we are doing what we can and I�m confident it will all work out just fine!

lots of love,
Jamie

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Alive and well in Mar del Plata - November 05, 2005

2005-11-08T19:26:07Z

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Hey there,

We had a long day yesterday but are all alive, well, and not in jail! The night before last we decided to get a hotel room down town so that we would have a place to go if things got crazy or if we needed a shower to get rid of teargas, paint, or whatever else the cops might spray us with. It turned out the first hotel we could find that was still open (most were either full, or more commonly closed and boarded up) was one called Hotel FishGolf. It's windows were covered by old yellowing newspaper, and it had a small sign on the door saying closed for renovations. However, the door was slightly ajar so we thought the name was too priceless to simply walk on by. The lobby was dark and dingy and three guys sat around drinking Matte, the drink of choice in Argentina. We chit-chatted for a few minutes and when they found out where we are from and why we were here they offered us a room. Upstairs at the back of a dark hallway was room 17, a small room with a bathroom but no beds. They said they could bring us a couple beds later, so for US$7 a piece, we said we�d take it. We then went back to Tinta Roja and packed our bags for the next day. When we arrived back into the town center to check into our hotel, sure enough there were 4 beds in the room. We dropped off our bags and wandered downtown for dinner, hoping to find something open.

Our meals generally consist of either really bad pizza which is dirt cheap and can always be found, cheese and tomatoes on bread, or a real meal at a Tenadore Libre (free fork) which are all you can eat buffets for 7 or 8 pesos per person. These tenadore lebre�s are well known and can be found all over the country. we�ve tried three or four here in Mar del plata, and every single one as exactly the same dishes! The only thing we could find open was a pizza place, so we settled on that.

We awoke just after 6am yesterday morning to the sounds of loud drumming and chanting. We had strategically placed our hotel one and a half blocks from the first march of the day, scheduled to start by 7am. We dressed quickly, and headed for a day on the streets. a crowd of somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 people quickly gathered, and by 7:30 or 8 we started marching towards the stadium, where Hugo Chavez was scheduled to speak at the Summit of the People.

The march was built of many different groups which did not intermingle at all. We marched with the few other unaffiliated people on the sidewalk and just went up and down looking at each different group. Groups consisted of 50 to a few hundred people, and each group had their own peace police and often a rope around to keep infiltrators out. Most groups had large banners up on 15 or 20 foot poles, some nearly as wide as the street. Many groups also had cars or buses with their own loudspeakers. Throughout the march, various small groups of activists often dressed in all black (but not always) spray painted various anti bush and anti-capitalism slogans on any and every surface along the boarded up streets.

The march ended and most people went to listen to Chavez speak while everyone else hung out outside, trying to stay our of the drizzling rain, and to catch an ooccasional ray of sunshine. The next march did not start until nearly four that afternoon, at which point we had decided to march with the largest of the black blocks (we have become close friends with many of its members).

Aside from spray painting and lively chants, most of the march was uneventful. Someone spray painted an Anarchy symbol on the face of a statue outside a police station, and one person threw a rock at the police stations window, but everyone just kept moving along. There was a definite feeling of "save your energy for the fence".

The plan was to spend 30 minutes at the fence chanting peacefully and then each affinity group could carry out whatever actions they were planning and folks who wanted to leave could do so. However, it appeared that upon arrive at the fence (which we later found out was 6 blocks away from where Bush was at that very moment) the police started spraying rubber bullets and tear gas.

I had expected the crowd to expect this and react to it much better than they did. Instead of holding ground, most folks just turned and ran. Pretty soon however, people started throwing rocks through bank windows, and going in and dragging out desks, cardboard, and other large items and lighting large fires in the streets. Tear gas and smoke filled the streets, but luckily the wind was against capitalism too and blew it right towards bush and the other presidents who were posing for a photo op on the beach 6 blocks east.

Amid the fires, the breaking glass, the tear gas, and the excitement, we held our ground and stayed in the thick of it. It was very intense, but also a powerful experience. Everyone expressing their anger at specific targets in a calculated manner. At one point however, police started coming in from a side street and after breaking out the windows of an Argentine national bank, the group I was with decided to retreat down a side street. We were chased a few blocks by about 10 riot cops, but got away, changing out clothes as we went. We spent the rest of the evening watching the news and hoping all of our friends had made it out just fine.

I know that many of you don't generally think property damage is an appropriate action in this setting, but I must say here it sends a very clear message. One person accidentally broke a window of an apartment building, and everyone yelled at them loudly to make it stop. Just about all damage was done to banks and transnational corporations, which are all forces of oppression. My friend Cory was talking to a local elderly couple later last night and asked what they thought of the protests and all they said was �"The banks had it comin to them". I think this sums it up very well. Everyone expected and the vast vast majority of the people here supported that type of action. While randomly breaking and looting things certainly doesn�t accomplish anything, in this situation targeted property destruction sent a very clear message to the folks who live well by oppressing the rest of the population. (I by the way avoided actually participating in the property damage as it is not my city and I don't know as much about local issues, who owns what buildings, etc as well as other reasons).

Overall it was a long day and nerves where high, but we were all very surprised that it just sort of ended around dark and everyone went home. Bus loads of people returned to Buenos Aires and other cities around the country, and many activists from afar left last night or this morning.

Today we took a walk down Colon Avenue (where most of the action took place) and surveyed the damage, store fronts where already being repainted, windows repaired, and many places where opening back up. This afternoon we went with a group of people to the part of the fence where motorcades carrying delegates out of the security zone were passing. We had a noisy rally there, but mostly just waving flowers and middle fingers at the passing motorcades. Tonight we return to Tinta Roja and debrief and say our good byes to our friends there. Tomorrow in Nicole's birthday and then Monday morning we get on a train to the next still unknown destination!

love to all,
Jamie

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Police Harrassment - November 02, 2005

2005-11-08T19:10:43Z

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Dear all,

Everything here is getting more and more intense by the day, but we are all as safe and sound as can be. I have sent a few emails recently from my other email address (promisebreaker2001@yahoo.com) but haven�t gotten replies. Some other people here have said their emails aren�t always going through so I was just wondering if ya�ll would let me know when an email does get through! Let me know if my latest (the one sent the day before yesterday that was about staying at Tinta Roja came through or not, other wise I can resend).

We have still been staying at the squat-community center a few kilometers outside of the city center, the people there are amazing and are taking very good care of us. Police presence and harassment has already increased dramatically. The day before yesterday we decided to do our laundry in the city center. While our sleeping bags where being washed we went to a meeting at the University National de Mar del Plata. The meeting took place in a park ac cross the street from the main campus and within a few blocks of the town center. The meeting was simply to discuss the planned events for the summit on Friday and Saturday, the main march is on Friday. We left the meeting with the four of us plus three or four of our new Argentinian friends. When we arrived at the Laundry-mat, we noticed a police pickup truck parked two store fronts down. We didn�t think too much of it at the time as there are cops everywhere. However, we were detained as we were leaving the laundry mat. They checked out ID�s (passports) and ran the ID�s of the folks we were with. The entire ordeal lasted about 10 minutes and was frustrating, and a little nerve wracking since it appeared they had followed us from the meeting. Being detained for no reason is never a pleasant experience, let alone in a foreign country when you don't really speak the same language as the police. That ended and we went out to dinner and went back to Tinta Roja to go to bed.

Yesterday, we went to visit our friend Panchito, who is a really fun 13 year old anarchist who lives over near the place we saw the sea lions. He met us in the city center and we all took a bus to his house. After eating lots and lots of pizza (you can buy pizza crusts w- sauce but no cheese for about 75cents for 3!), we decided to head back to Tinta Roja. We decided to walk to the city center (about 1.5hours walk) in order to get a better feeling for where the fences where, what streets were open, and just learn our way around that section of town. We got less than half way back when we were approached by a couple of police pick up trucks. They immediately said (in Spanish) "good afternoon, get down on the ground". We pretended on to understand any Spanish and just stood staring blankly. They came over and made us dump out our entire backpacks and searched through everything. We were adamant not to tell them where we were staying as we don't want to contri bute to police harharassment Tinta, so we said we had been staying with some friends outside of town and were on our way to find a hotel for the next few nights. They were very concerned that we were not checked into a hotel, and some of the fliers we had (that people at the `Summit of the People� had given us), where "anti-Bush" which clearly has become illegal internationally, not only in the US of A. They were also concerned that we were with Panchito who is a minor.

Soon many more police started arriving as well as the anti-terrorism unit. After lots of questioning and after taking lots of photos of us and all of our stuff and our passports, the head of the anti-terrorism squad (who spoke very limited English told us we were to "accompany" Panchito the police station to wait for his mother. Not having much choice, Nicole and I piled into the extended cab of one pickup and Oscard koala joined Panchito the back of another. They assured us we were just going to accompany Panchito, and could stay with him and leave as soon as his mom came....never trust a pig!

We where all brought through a courtyard into a room full of computers at the station. We gave out passports for the umpteenth time, and continued to be tinterrogated. Soon we were separated from Panchito, and we made such a huge fuss that they finally let us stay in a doorway where we could at least see him to make sure nothing happened to him. Eventually they took us away from the doorway and into a small tinterrogation room, where they brought in a terrible translator (who turned out to be a police officer herself!). Even with my limited Spanish, I could tell that she was not saying to us what the officers were asking, and not giving them our answers. The officer asked if we had heard of Tinta Roja, and the translator asked if we were staying there. We told her off, played dumb, and kept quiet. After a bit of playing good cop/bad cop and much intimidation, they realized we weren�t going to break. Finally Panchito's mom arrived and gave us each a kiss on the cheeks, (as is customary whenever you see people). We got up to leave and were told that we were not yet free to go.

We were taken back into the first room we�d been in and asked more questions and asked for our passports again. They asked for all our home address and family names and lots of other irrelevant information from home. They then wrote up this paper explaining all about what had happened and our information in it, though most of it was very inaccurate My new name is Morrby Jeans Douglas!. They kept telling us after you do this you can go and then we would do that and ask to leave and they would come up with another thing we had to do.

When they told us we had to be examined by the jail�s doctor before we could leave we jumped down there throats once again and said absolutely not!! I�m not having a cop look me over! After much discussion and mistranslation, we got them to allow Panchito�s mother to translate and together we could figure out what the documents said. We refused to sign them because they were so grossly inaccurate and because I hate signing anything in jails!

About four hours after we were first stopped, we were finally given copies of the document (yay, a souvenir) and told we were free to go. Panchito's mom gave us a ride to the city center and we splurged on a taxi back to Tinta Roja. Panchito's Uncle and grandfather are both lawyers and Tinta has lawyers as well. All lawyers are being notified and we will take it from there. There is a law in Argentina that if you are ever detained for more than 2 hours you get a phone call. We were denied this right and so may have a legal position to do something, we�ll see what the lawyers say. For now, we are taking every precaution possible (without leaving) and just hope for the best.

We�ve been told that they are targeting foreigners a lot because they have very good intelligence surveillance and pretty much know what anyone from here is planning on doing, but they are scared of people they don't know anything about. We have also been told that technically they can legally take people in for "identification purposes" and hold them up to 12 hours without charging them. However, they can only do that to each person ONCE. So we are carrying copies of everything they gave us to prove we have already been identified. Though we have seen how much attention they pay to laws, we are hopeful it will help if we are detained again.

We also have left copies of all our passports with the folks at Tinta who have lawyers on hand and are ready to help if anything further does happen while we are here. So far today we have not had any trouble with the police, though we have mostly stayed off of the streets and are visiting peoples homes instead. Overall, nerves are still very high but I am hohopeful that that is the only time I see the inside of an Argentine police station or transport vehicle! It is very interesting to see how similar the scare tactics they are using are to those used in the week(s) leading up to the FTAA meetings in Miami two years ago.

I am still hoping to get some photos on-line soon, however, tInternet cafe�s don't seem to have the right program to download from my camera. I will try to get a CD today and download my photos onto a cd at a friends house tonight or tomorrow and then put them on-line in the next few days. However, tomorrow is looking to be pretty busy with the Summit of the People and other preparations and then the 3rd and 4th are the big days, so it may have to wait until after that!

Hope all is well with everyone at home, again please send a quick reply so I know that this is getting through, all internet and cell phone services are kind of messed up and on and off because of the summit. I will write again in a day or two when I next get a chance.

Love to all, and don't worry I am enjoying myself, learning a lot, and staying safe!

love, Jamie

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Preparations for the Protests! - October 30, 2005

2005-11-07T20:32:13Z

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Photos here: http://www.pbase.com/stevegallagher/jamie

Dear all,

So here I am in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, the week before the Organization of American States has their meetings here. Held at the Sheraton Hotel (as well as a few others) 34 heads of state will meet to discuss and plan the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), an agreement largely based on the highly destructive North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). We have come here in opposition to this agreement and are joining hundreds of thousands of fellow activists from all over north and south America who have made the journey to oppose this meeting.

The squat I am staying in here in Mar Del Plata, called Tinta Roja, is an amazing space. It acts as a community center, library, educational space, and much much more. The building sat empty for 7 years before a group of dedicated community organizers opened it as a squat. The folks who started it two years ago are very friendly and have been incredibly hospitable. We have our own key to the building, and they bring us breakfast most mornings. Many of the projects they work on, including providing shelter, food, and access to books to people without access to those things, are the same types of projects we work on at home, though in most cases they are thus far more successful than I have been in Washington, DC. In two years they have built Tinta Roja from a small squat into a formal group that gets money and food from the government and distribute it to many areas around the city. They also hold workshops and classes on many many different topics.

We seem to have social engagements just about every day. We visit with the closest neighbors, Paola and David, very regularly, and their many children ranging from age two to age 15, love to play with and harass us! Lots of time is spent rough-housing, playing soccer, and trying to exchange a few words. Their two year old is a plump child who eats every thing he can get his hands on. It is So cute! We all went over to David�s brother�s house for pizza the other night and the two year old goes around and eats everyones pizza and if anyone ever sets down a beer, it seems to be at the top of his list! We seem to have a different dinner engagement each night, not to mention invitations to all kinds of different community meetings.

Everyone is talking about the Cumbre (summit) since nothing of this caliber has ever happened here in Mar Del Plata. Some days are filled with intense discussions of politics, protests, and community organizing, while others are much lighter, visiting the sea lions sunning themselves by the fishing peer or swimming in the Ocean which is freezing cold but has incredible waves!

It is hard to believe we have been staying at Tinta Roja for a week already, and only have another week or so here. All our thoughts and most of our discussions are in preparing for next weeks protest. Everyone we meet, whether at a community meeting, or at a local store, wants to know why we came all the way from the United States to Mar Del Plata. Many of the folks here, especially in the outskirts of town, have never had visitors from the US., other than the waves of tourists who storm their beaches each summer but have no interest in local community or culture. It seems to be very exciting to them to have interactions with people from afar who share many of the same beliefs and values. It is an incredible learning opportunity for us as well as for them.

The police are also making preparations for the protests. The fences around the city are starting to be erected, and there are already 4 or more police officers stationed at every single intersection. Most international corporations (Citibank, McDonald's, etc.) are all ready boarded up and ready for a storm! Police on horses patrol the streets, and there is a general feeling that this is becoming a police state, filled with repression. Today we saw our first large military vehicle with a cannon mounted on the roof that shoots a mixture of water and paint (to mark people as having been in certain areas).

While most of our energy is going into making plans and preparations for the protest, we are also starting to think about where to go after the summit. Bush arrives here on November 3rd, the meetings are on the 4th and 5th, and then we will probably move on the 6th or 7th. That will leave us about 10 days to travel before we have to fly back home to DC. None of us are looking forward to that day! We might travel south and try to do a little hiking in Patagonia, but it is cold here and we fear we do not have the proper attire to go further south, so we may instead go west to the Chilean border to spend some time in the mountains there. It is all still up in the air and in a sense just barely at the back of our minds.

All is well here and even though our nerves are high, we are excited to be here and are learning a lot. We are taking many precautions and are learning as much as possible about what to expect next week. I am confidant that we will keep ourselves safe and have a successful few days. Our primary motive in being here is to show solidarity against the FTAA and US imperialism, to learn from the Argentine movement, and to take pictures to share with folks back home who were unable to come. In these roles I feel we can stay at a safe distance from the centers of action and still accomplish the goals we set out to accomplish. All trains and buses into and out of the city are shut down all of next week (for the summit) and I have heard rumors that Internet and phone lines will be closed to public use for the days of the Summit. All businesses, schools, etc. are also to be shut down for the days of the meetings. I suspect we will still find some Internet available, but it is hard to s ay, nobody really knows what to expect!

I hope all is well with everyone at home, and I will keep everyone posted as to how the protests go!

I�ll write again when I get a chance, and hope to post photos on-line soon.

Love to all,

Jamie

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Squating in Mar del Plata!, Argentina - October 26, 2005

2005-11-06T20:14:07Z

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Photos here: http://www.pbase.com/stevegallagher/jamie

Hey everyone,

Things are still going very very well, and we are having a great time. The anarchists we met on our first night here in Mar del Plata hooked us up with another anarchist group about 3 miles outside of Mar del Plata centro. We are currently staying in a squat that this group opened as a community center a year ago. I am learning a lot about how activism works here and it is truly amazing! Sometime in the '90's the building we are staying in closed as a church, and was vacant for 7 years. The community decided that it should be used as a Community Center, so they went in and occupied the building. Some old church goers came with the police but since they had no desire or ability to use it again in the near future, the stand off didn't last too long. It sounds as if the fight was intense for a while, and they truly had to defend the building. However after a few months the police gave up and the community declared victory. Over time they went to the utility companies a nd the governent and said we won, it's ours now. Since my Spanish is still thin, I haven't quite figured it out but that was one or two years ago. Now they pay the taxes and utilities, and operate the building as a library and community center. We are going to try to send them some children's books in English when we get home, for helping kids learn how to read. The same people who run it also get lots of food donated from the government (they had to occupy government buildings for long periods of time to get this!), which they distribute throughout the city. It is very refreshing to see examples of projects similar to the ones I am working on and would like to work on in Washington, DC, which are so incredibly successful here. It makes me wish there were more people to work on these issues back home who were as dedicated these folks.

The other day we went to visit the fishing harbor, which was incredibly cool. The fishing boats are all slightly larger than the ones in PEI, Canada, and all bright orange! There is a giant group of sea lions that follow the fishing boats out for the day, so in the afternoons you can find them sunning themselves on the bud banks above the harbor. They are similar to the seals we saw years ago in PEI, though much larger, louder, smellier, and overall even more disgusting! They climb all over each other farting, belching, and pooping, peeing, and sneezing large quantities of slime all over each other! They are amazing animals though, watching them swim is beautiful as they are very graceful in the water. It is really interesting to watch the males fight over the best places to lay in the sun, and showing off for the slightly smaller females. We took lots of pictures and took turns climbing over the fence to pose with the closest sleeping sea lions! (we saw locals doing th e same and had to join them!).

Steve...if you want to send me that information about how to upload pictures from my camera to the internet I will try to do that. Internet is fast and cheap here so it should not be a problem finding a place to upload photos. There are also places that will make you a CD from your camera for a buck or two which I may do eventually if I run low on space on my memory card, but for now I have plenty.

Overall things are going very well and I am learning a lot. Next week will be intense, we've been warned that the streets will burn! The entire city is scheduled to be shut down, all trains and buses in and out of the city will not be running for the days of the summit (the 2nd through the 6th or so). It will be intense but also wonderful, we are asking a lot of questions of different people in order to be as prepared as we can be in order to stay totally safe, it is great having a free (though we'll make a donation) place to stay outside of the city so we will have a safe place to escape to anytime we need some quiet!

Everywhere we go we meet incredibly nice people and are invited in for matte and often dinner! Every time I travel I am reminded how kind people are all over the world and seeing this culture of resistance and dedication renew hope in a better future!

Hope all is well at home, keep me up to date on anything going on;)

much love,
Jamie

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Mar Del Plata, Argentina - October 23, 2005

2005-11-06T19:51:21Z

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Hello all,

Our second day in Buenos Aires was a lot of fun. We ended up running into our friend Mike McGuire from Washington DC just wandering around the city. He was on his way to a protest outside the Bauen hotel so we joined him. It turns out that the hotel was one of many hotels and factories and other businesses that was taken over by its workers. The way it works is the workers decided that the hotel was not treating them properly and that it in essence owed them a lot of back pay. They then claim (in court) that they are creditors, and essentially reposes the property, booting the bosses-owners out. This happened at the Bauen hotel two or three years ago. It has been worker owned and operated ever since, though there have been many battles both in and out of court. The day before yesterday, a judge ordered the hotel to be shut down. The workers, up for another battle organized a massive rally and march for that very same day. We met up with them just as the march was le aving the hotel heading for the court house. We took the streets and marched along with them. Once at the courthouse, they started shaking the massive 6 foot tall metal fence surounding the entrance to the courthouse. We stayed near the back, but got some good shots of the fence as it was whacked with sticks and threatened to come down. There were a few dozen officers inside the fence and a line of riot cops at the ready a block away. The fence was not taken down, the the drumming hitting the fence with sticks, and singing and chanting were loud enough that anyone inside knew just what was going on. We stayed at the rally for a few hours and then decided to go find an all you can eat buffet (for about US$2.50) as we had not eaten all day.

After a couple hours napping in our hostel, we went to a radical library that our friend Dave had told us about. It closed at 8 and since we were tired and had a long afternoon nap it was after 8 before we had figured out the subway system and made it to the library. The people there instantly invited us in and gave us a tour of the space. it included a library, a yoga lounge, a livingroom type artmaking space, a kitchen with outdoor patio dining, a room for a local indymedia type media outlet, and a few other office and storage rooms. They seem to sell a lot of products that are made in factories that have been repossessed and are now owned and operated by the workers. They were telling us all about how their collective runs and that just earlier that day they had had a big meeting about gender dynamics in the collective and had worked out a number of ways to fight the patriarchy that was causing some trouble internally (some things are the same everywhere). While I cou ld only understand bits and pieces it was good to see how other radical communities deal with the same struggles we are constantly fighting at home.

Even though the space was officially closed, they invited us to join them for dinner. We had a very fun and lively evening with a mix of Spanish and a little English. They were all local radicals about our age who run the collective and library. We learned a lot and had a great time. While they are not heading out to the main protests in Mar del Plata, they are organizing local solidarity actions. If we have a few days in BA at the end of our trip we certainly plan on visiting them again. They were incredibly amazed and enthralled by out camel backs, so we may leave one here with them when we leave!

We left on an 8am train to Mar del Plata and arrived midafternoon. We are checked into a nice little hotel, for about US$7 per person. Mar del Plata is a very touristy town south of BA on the beach. According to the "Lonely Planet Guide" the only reason to ever go here in the summer is so you can never again call a beach crowded anywhere else. However, this is still early spring and chilly enough to need our long sleeve shirts, so the beaches that stretch as far as one can see are mostly deserted. This afternoon we plan to visit the fishing piers where we should be able to get within a meter of a large sea lion colony.

On our way into town, we saw a wheatpasted sign for a documentary showing last night at a local library so we decided to go to that. We met a bunch of local anarchists (who turned out to be very young, 16-19 yrs old). After the long movie which we all found very difficult to interpret, they invited us back to their house for matte. It sounds as if we will be offered free housing for more of the time we are here after tonight. They were all upset at us for paying the US 75 cents to get into the movie!

Overall I feel like we are getting connected to a bunch of local groups and are learning our way around the city. They plan to have 10,000 uniformed police and military officers plus however manyothers. We are currently researching exactly what is going on, what streets will be closed, etc., and have started in depth discussions of our plans for the week, though a lot of it will depend on how it goes. A few different groups have asked us to participate in their actions and to run with them during the protest, but dont worry, our first priority is still to watch, learn, and stay safe!

I'll write more at another date, Hope all is well with everyone at home. I�m writing these emails just quickly without any editing, but feel free to share with anyone interested if they want!

- Jamie Moorby

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Safe and Sound in Buenos Aires, Argentina - October 20, 2005

2005-11-06T19:17:05Z

Dear everyone,

We are here in Buenos Aires, settled into a really cozy hostel down town near one of the infoshops my friend Dave recommended we visit. The flight was relatively uneventful. We had a direct flight from DC to BA. it was like a 10 or 12 hour flight arriving here at 9 am this morning. We took a public bus from the airport to "centro", but we didn{t really have any idea where or what "centro" was. We just kind of rode the bus for two hours or so and got off when we thought it looked like a good spot! It ended up being perfect. On our walk from the bus to the hostel we happened across a protest outside some office of the authority over health and social services or something like that. It was very impressive. The entire 6 or 8 lane road in front of it was blocked off and chock full of people. Traffic was blocked on either side by activists who had their entire heads and faces covered with cloth. They were armed with large wooden sticks, nunchucks, and steel pip es. The cops with helmets but no riot gear stood in formation a block or so away but did not interfere. They chanted and held banners and spray painted the crap out of the entire outside of the building. It was great. I think the next few weeks are going to be very exciting!

BA is fun. There are spray paint tags everywhere, rarely is there a surface of wall without graffiti on it, most of which is either commy or anarchist. Lots and lots of anti-Bush graffiti. The main slogan is "Bush not one foot in Argentina", and that is spraypainted in Spanish everywhere.

Tonight we went to the infoshop to watch a showing of Bella Chow, which ended up being canceled due to technical difficulties. Instead there were a few speeches and a Q and A about the week of actions. With my Spanish I didn't get too much, but Oscar and Nicole did a little better. It got pretty heated, lots of people being like, "so what is going on BESIDES just the marches?" and the organizers being like, "this isn't the time or place to discuss that, lets just wait and see." Lots of energy and lots of folks were like, "let's start tomorrow, let's show bush he's not welcome, let's do a lot of stuff!" There was a debate over whether or not Chavez would be participating in the march. Some were excited about the prospect but suspect he won't 'cuz of possible asassination attempts. So it was a bit of a brain overload trying to get it all, but it was a lot of fun too and good to see. It seems as if people are already heading out to Mar del P lata, s oIi think we will do the same in a day or two.

After that who knows what!
Ok, I have to go now but I'll write more another day. Hope all is well at home and I'll talk to you all soon!

love Jamie

- Keep tuned for more...

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