On March 7, a group of Indian welders, pipe-fitters, and marine fabrication workers employed under the federal H-2B visa program filed a federal lawsuit against Signal International, alleging that they were lured to work at the company's shipyards in Pascagoula, Miss., and Orange, Tex., with false promises of permanent US residency. Once in the US, the workers say they were forced into involuntary servitude and overcrowded labor camps. The class action lawsuit, David v. Signal Int'l LLC, was filed in US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, in New Orleans, by several organizations including the Southern Poverty Law Center.

An ongoing occupation of threatened oak trees on the campus of UC Berkeley reached its 485th day March 30. Perversely, the grove of some 90 California oaks was planted in 1923 as a memorial to Californians who lost their lives in World War I, adjacent to the university's Memorial Stadium. But UC now plans to destroy most of the trees to build an athletic training facility. Activists maintain the site is also an Ohlone Indian burial ground, noting remains found there when the stadium was built in the '20s. The campaign has taken on several demands beyond preservation of the threatened grove, including:

On Good Friday, March 21, three New Orleans residents who entered the vacant Lafitte Housing Development in a bid to save it from being razed were arrested and charged under an anti-terrorist "critical structure" law enacted by the Louisiana legislature in the wake of 9-11. The three activists—Jamie Laughner, Thomas McManus, and Ezekiel Compton—slipped below a barbed wire fence, scaled a metal grating and situated themselves on the balcony of an empty apartment. When the three were arrested an hour later, they were charged with trespassing, resisting an officer, and "unlawful entry into a critical structure." Apart from the insidious treatment of an act of civil disobedience as an act of terrorism, the charges are doubly Orwellian given that the activists—from the groups May Day Nola, C3/Hands Off Iberville, and Common Ground—were trying to save the "critical structure." City authorities subsequently ordered its demolition. (The Bridge, Boston, March 25)

Journalist Claims Philadelphia Police Officer Killed by Friendly Fire

by Hans Bennett, The Defenestrator

Almost 30 years after their imprisonment, the eight remaining "MOVE 9" prisoners are now eligible for parole. April hearings are scheduled for only seven, because Chuck Africa is eligible six months later than the others. In early April, they will be interviewed on an individual basis, and ultimately a majority 5-9 vote among the nine Parole Board Members will be needed for each prisoner's release on parole.

Almost 30 years after the Aug. 8, 1978 confrontation in Philadelphia, the eight remaining "MOVE 9" prisoners are now eligible for parole (see Philadelphia Inquirer and Metro articles). In early April, they will be interviewed by the Parole Board. With the hearings just weeks away, MOVE is asking for support by contacting the Parole Board and signing the online petition (already signed by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky). A new video series features interviews with MOVE members Ramona Africa (the sole adult survivor of the May 13, 1985 police bombing of MOVE headquarters) and Mike Africa Jr. (the son of MOVE 9 prisoners Debbie and Mike Sr.).

A town meeting in Brattleboro, VT, voted 2,012-1,795 March 4 to approve a measure calling on the town's police to arrest and indict Bush and Cheney if they enter the municipality. The smaller village of Marlboro passed a similar measure 43-25, with three abstaining. The Brattleboro measure read: "Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities, and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police, pursuant to the above mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecuted or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?" (Democratic Underground, March 4)

Fugitive environmental activist Tre Arrow was extradited from Canada Feb. 29 to stand trial in Oregon on conspiracy and arson charges after nearly four years in a Canadian prison. The 14-count indictment charges him with taking part in the destruction of several concrete-mixing trucks at Ross Island Sand and Gravel Co. in Portland in April 2001 and sabotaging logging trucks at Schoppert Logging Co. in Eagle Creek near Mount Hood in June 2001.

The high-tech Project 28 "virtual fence" on a 28-mile stretch of the US-Mexico border near Nogales, AZ, is ready for operation, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced Feb. 22. The $20 million project of sensor towers and advanced mobile communications, built by Boeing Co, was supposed to be completed in mid-2007 but was delayed by software problems, drawing congressional criticism. Homeland Security plans to extend the "virtual fence" elsewhere along the border in Arizona, as well as to sections of Texas.