For five years, ever since the Rosia Montana mining project began under the auspices of the Canadian company “Rosia Montana Gold Corporation” (RMGC), it has been at the center of many scandals and controversies, and has incited local, national and international campaigns of opposition. The use of cyanide in the mining process, the absence of a proper license for mining, and the displacement of the local population and the cemetery are the most serious reasons why the project has become so controversial. Despite all this, it also has its adherents, including the mayor of the town Rosia Montana.

Ukraine is building a shipping canal on the Bystroe arm of the Danube Delta which gravely endagers the eco-system of the region. Environmental groups together with other members of the Ukrainian, Romanian and international civil society are protesting against the destruction of the Danube Delta. Read on for more information about the issue, the most prominent campaigns, and ways to take action:

The conflict between staff and management at Moldova state television and radio began in November 2003 after a legal amendment broke up the existing company and created a new “public service.” Many voiced concern about the one-third cut in staff and the new company's lack of independence from the dictatorial government. On 27 July, 70 salaried staff formed the “Committee for the defense of Human and Professional Values” and began a non-stop strike, calling for the resignation of their bosses. The police responded to the legally authorized demonstrations with savagery, attacking children and beating one woman unconscious.

An open letter by the Indymedia Romania editorial collective (signed by Iulian Basescu, Andreea C., Claudia Campeanu, Ruxandra Costescu, Andrei Costina, Liviu Pop, Crina Resteman, Joanne Richardson, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu)

First of all we want to say that the domain www.indymedia.ro has no connection to Indymedia Romania, which is part of the Global Indymedia Network and whose real website is on an Indymedia subdomain,  http://romania.indymedia.org.

The type of property that is familiar to most people is physical objects. But there has always been a big problem with owning ideas. Exclusive use or control of ideas or the way they are expressed doesn't make sense. Many physical objects can only be used by one person at a time. This is not true of intellectual property. Ideas can be copied over and over, but the person who had the original copy still has full use of it.

An overwhelming majority of Romanians do not know or do not believe that the Romanian state was involved in the extermination of Roma and Jews during WWII. The majority are in favour of refusing Romanian Roma the right to travel abroad and almost half of them think that a demographic policy aimed at hindering the growth of the Roma population in Romania would be a good idea.[1]

It is axiomatic in nearly all variants of social and political theory that the communication system is a cornerstone of modern societies. In political terms, the communication system may serve to enhance democracy, or to deny it, or some combination of the two. Less commented upon, although no less significant, the communication system has emerged as a central area for profit making in modern capitalist societies.

The Rosia Montana Gold Corporation is taking Alburnus Maior, a local non-profit organisation, to court to stop them from publishing the www.rosiamontana.org website, informs APC member in Romania, StrawberryNet.

The RMGC has high hopes of carrying out what would be Europe’s largest open-cast mining development in this picturesque and historic Romanian village. However, the mining would involve the involuntary resettlement of over 2000 people as well as the destruction of unique archaeological and natural sites.

The media have been a recourse against abuses of power within the democratic structures of our societies. It is not unusual for the three traditional areas of power -- legislative, executive and judicial -- to make mistakes and operate less perfectly than they might. This is more likely to happen under authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, where the political realm is mainly responsible for violations of human rights and attacks on liberties. But there are serious abuses of power in democratic countries too, even when laws are the result of democratic votes, governments are elected through universal suffrage and justice is (at least in theory) independent of the executive.

It was quite possibly the largest protest ever in the United States! That's what is being said about The March for Women's Lives, which took place on April 25th 2004, based on the official estimate of 1,500,000 participants. This shouldn't come as a suprise if we consider that the issue concerns over half of the population directly and the rest of it almost as much and that its scope was both national and international (the stance of the US government on women's reproductive health and rights affects not only those who live in the US but women around the world).

Professors are among the most respected creatures in society today, along with policemen and priests - therefore, perhaps, the most contemptible. Students live somewhere beneath this lofty height, trapped between two worlds: an intolerable present of sacrifice, banality, and economic misery, which we barely recognize, and a future of comfort, intellectual recognition, and perfect accommodation to life, which does not yet exist. Between the two, perpetually ... we wait.

0. Doomed Agendas

The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) is scheduled to take place in the next month (December 10-12, 2003) in Geneva. This much celebrated meeting will supposedly shed light upon the obstacles that the so-called information society faces, and wil discuss ways to deal with them in the most efficient manner for the greater good of all. In a nutshell, the WSIS is the place to be if you're interested in how we all together can widen authentic civic engagement in matters rooted in the epicentre of the information society.

> How did Electronic Disturbance Theatre come about?

I will respond with a story from Subcomandante Marcos. Hola. Bienvenidos, hermanos y hermanas. Welcome sisters and brothers, I'm going to tell you a little story, una pequeña historia: Pedrito (a Tojolabal, two and a half years old, born during the first Intergalactic) is playing with a little car with no wheels or body. In fact, it appears to me that what Pedrito is playing with is a piece of that wood they call "cork", but he has told me very decisively that it is a little car and that it is going to Margaritas to pick up passengers.

Identity is the process of creating and maintaining borders, creating different kinds of people. This keeps the world packaged in tidy little boxes. These boxes, in turn, are necessary for the violence and domination of hierarchical societies. There cannot be masters or slaves, bosses or workers, men or women, whites or blacks, leaders or followers, heterosexuals or queers, without identity.

"World War III will be a guerilla information war, with no division between military and civilian participation." -- motto of Tactical Media Crew, borrowed from Marshall McLuhan

C.U.K.T (The Central Office of Technical Culture) was established in 1995 in order to disseminate and distribute technical culture. Members: Andrzej Wiadro, Anna 95-97, Awsiej/Kabala 95-96, Dr. Kudlatz, Mikolaj, Paulus, PH.D. Jan Smuga, RA-V, TJ 4495-97, Virus, Vitriol 95-96, Peter Style, Ewert, Dj 11.

Neocons' plans for global domination, exploiting the events of Sept. 11, 200,1 top the annual list of stories ignored or downplayed by the mainstream media.

If there's one influence that's shaped worldwide politics over the past year (2003), it's how the Bush administration has exploited the events of Sept. 11, 2001, to solidify its military and economic control of the world at the expense of democracy, justice and the environment.

> You work as a group and anonymously. Why did you decide for such way of presenting yourself to the public?

The fact that 0100101110101101.ORG is a group was not decided by 0100101110101101.ORG, but by "you". 0100101110101101.ORG could be only one person, a couple or dozens of people. It is absolutely irrelevant how many and which individuals work to 0100101110101101.ORG. 0100101110101101.ORG isn't concerned with artistic individuality, identity, style or personality.

"We understand the end of something all too easily in the negative sense as a mere stopping, as the lack of constitution, perhaps even as decline and impotence; the end suggests the completion and the place in which the whole of history is gathered in its most extreme possibility." - Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

Throughout its history, despite efforts by the Futurists in the 1920s, radio has been considered largely a means of communication rather than an art form. Therefore, it is ironic that just as traditional forms of radio are in decline, its possibilities as an art form are reaching extreme potentials. If, as Heidegger once suggested, the most extreme possibilities can only be reached at the end of something, what then ends with radio? What is radio's most extreme possibility?

What we propose with the exhibition and online project Kingdom of Piracy (KOP) and its different parts and elements – the installation and web interface BURN, the talks and live DJ/VJ sessions, the DIVE CD-Rom and finally this booklet – is that you dive into – immerse yourself in, familiarise yourself with and further explore – the deep seas of open code and free culture.