11/20 8:14pm: Occupiers are out, giving speech.
11/20 7:41pm: Protesters are slowly being released from Wheeler Hall; large crowd still gathered at the scene.
11/20 7:21pm: From Fresno: Over 100 students and supporters occupy the closed library at CSU Fresno.
11/20 6:50pm: Peter Glazer, poli sci professor, was part of negotiations and reports that police will bring protesters out without handcuffs and only misdemeanor charges.
11/20 5:01pm: SWAT team is attempting to enter the blockade in Wheeler Hall.
11/20 4:56pm: Reports indicate police have started using rubber bullets.
11/20 1:45pm: At least 40 students have occupied Wheeler Hall on the UC Berkeley campus and have requested supporters to come to the hall. UC Police have surrounded the building as a "crime scene". More updates

On Thursday, November 19th, the University of California regents approved a 32% increase in undergraduate fees, pushing fees to over $10,000 a year for the first time. Protests, including the occupation of four buildings, have taken place November 18th and 19th at UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, San Francisco State and San Francisco City College.

On November 19th at around 2:45 PM, UCSC's Kerr Hall, which contains the offices of the administration, vice-chancellors, and chancellors, was occupied by students. Hundreds of students who are occupying the lobby created a list of demands which was read and given to UCSC's Executive Vice Chancellor David Kliger and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Felicia McGinty. The prior day, November 18th, hundreds of students occupied the Kresge Town Hall.

On Sunday November 22nd, a vigil in honor of Jorge Steven Lopez Mercado will be held at the intersection of MacArthur Blvd., Lakeshore, and Grand Ave. in Oakland. Mercado, a very well known person in the gay community, was found dead on November 14th, in Cayey, Puerto Rico. Mercado was partially burned, decapitated, and dismembered. The police investigator handling the case said in public televised statement that "people who lead this type of lifestyle need to be aware that this will happen."

On November 18th, hundreds of students rallied at the two entrances to the UC Santa Cruz campus, shutting them down for several hours. The demonstration was in conjunction with statewide actions against a 32% increase in undergraduate student fees, effective fall 2010, which was approved the same day at UCLA by the Committee on Finance of the UC Board of Regents.

On Friday, November 6th, 2009, the Fresno Brown Berets and California Prison Moratorium Project organized a march and rally in protest of what they say is “Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer's corrupt and racist administration.” They called for his resignation or termination as police chief. Fresno police have killed nine people this year.

On November 13th, students at UC Santa Cruz conducted a study-in at the Science and Engineering Library. Due to budget cuts, both of the large UCSC libraries have severely reduced hours which detrimentally affects employee pay and students with study needs late at night.

On November 10th, the Stanislaus County District Attorney was not interested in anything less than a misdemeanor conviction against two volunteers arrested for offering syringe exchange, and harm reduction services in the Airport District of Modesto. In an act of punishment and criminalization of public health service, the District Attorney offered the defendants a plea bargain that included jail time, three years probation, and a "Stay Away Order," requiring them to stay out of the park where they were arrested. The stay away order was added the day after defendants began conducting syringe clean-ups and public education about safe disposal in the Mono Park area.

A police fishing expedition has been fought successfully over the course of the past year by one of the Indymedia.us system administrators and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), largely in secret due to dodgy gag orders. Earlier this year, U.S. attorneys issued a federal grand jury subpoena to Indymedia.us sysadmin Kristina Clair demanding “all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" for a particular date, potentially identifying every person who visited any news story on the Indymedia site. EFF argued that the overly broad demand for Internet records not only violated federal privacy law but also violated Clair’s First Amendment rights, by ordering her not to disclose the existence of the subpoena without a U.S. attorney’s permission.

On November 8th, the SF Bay Area Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal organized an event in San Francisco focused on three innocent men, Troy Davis, Kevin Cooper, and Mumia Abu-Jamal, who may soon be executed depending on upcoming court rulings. Laura Moye, the Director of Amnesty International's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign spoke about Troy Davis, and Moye will also be speaking on behalf of Amnesty International at a press conference in Washington DC on November 12th.

From Dialogues Against Militarism, "On Saturday, November 7, About 25 of us trudged towards military prison 400, just outside of Tel Aviv, coils of razor wire and lookout towers looming above us, fields of mud and dry grass to our right. we began setting up the sound system and preparing for the day’s goal of reaching earshot of Or Ben-David, a young Israeli being held in prison for refusing the army draft."

q@ writes: "On September 24th some of the most militant politicized street protests the States have seen in nearly a decade countered the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Anarchist Queers and Trannies were on the frontlines of this struggle; bringing the numbers, the flare, and the wrecking crews. A days worth of tear gas, rubber bullet attacks, and fending off straight-idiot-liberals, set the tone for what would be a night of ravenous Queer revenge."

This is the first of a series of profiles of alternative and activist media workers in the Bay Area, written and photographed by Indybay contributor Peter M. Featured in the first profile is Tracy Rosenberg, the Executive Director of Media Alliance. The story of Media Alliance is key to the history of media activism in the Bay Area.

Danny Blackgoat, a longtime Dine' (Navajo) resister of forced relocation, will be traveling from his home at Big Mountain (AZ) this weekend to speak in Santa Cruz on Friday, Nov. 13th and San Francisco on Saturday, Nov. 14th. He will be screening a new 24 minute film featuring Pauline Whitesinger, and giving an hour long presentation about relocation, coal mining, and recent happenings at Black Mesa.

On November 7th, the Democratic-led US House of Representatives passed a healthcare bill that includes a far-reaching attack on abortion rights and repeals the Children's Health Insurance Program by 2013. The morning following the passage of the legislation, women in San Francisco led the rallying cry for "healthcare not warfare" in demonstrations on the steps of City Hall and in front of Speaker Pelosi's and Senator Feinstein's respective homes. On November 12th, the San Francisco branch of Radical Women will hold a roundtable discussion to address the question: What will it take to achieve affordable quality healthcare for all?

A memorial mural of Gary King Jr was painted on a support column underneath the BART tracks on Martin Luther King Boulevard after Oakland police officer Patrick Gonzales shot and killed Gary King Jr at the spot in 2007. On September 24th, 2009, the mural was removed by BART employees. The new mural also includes images of Anita Gay, Andrew Moppin, Casper Banjo, and Oscar Grant — all murdered by police in Oakland and Berkeley.

On November 4th, tenants and community members gathered in front of East Palo Alto's West Park Apartments to hold the first in a series of actions to demand the roll back of rents that have seen drastic increases in the last few years. In 2006, Page Mill Properties began gobbling up rent-controlled housing and illegally raising rents with the nation's biggest public employee pension fund CalPERS as a principal investment partner. Tenants Together, California's statewide organization for renters' rights, is calling on CalPERS to adopt predator-free real estate investment policies that will prevent it from ever committing funds to Page Mill type schemes again.

Fifteen people occupied the San Francisco office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi on November 3rd, stating they would remain there, risking arrest, until Pelosi explained why she has turned her back on key promises related to health care reform. After three hours twelve people inside Pelosi's office were arrested for creating a disturbance on federal property. The charge against them was based on a technicality; singing and chanting for single payer was deemed not in accord with the rules and regulations of the federal building.

On October 26th, Free Radio Santa Cruz hosts The Maestr@s spoke with James Loewen, a researcher, author, teacher, and history-doer. His latest book is a how-to guide for teachers, with the aim of reclaiming history from boring dates and names, and replacing a vibrant sense of connection to the past. Teachers for Class War airs every Monday at 6pm on FRSC 101.1 FM.

On October 30th, Doug Zuidema, Director of Judiciary Affairs at UCSC, notified a collection of students that they were potentially subject to disciplinary proceedings. Occupy California writes that, "The University increasingly functions like a police apparatus: taking surveillance photos at protests, compiling dossiers on individuals, modifying response protocols and manufacturing phony charges against students and workers for kangaroo courts."

On November 1st, the 16th annual Peace & Unity March took place in Watsonville with over 100 people in attendance, including many families of victims who have died from violence.

Raj Jayadev writes: "On Oct. 24, the San Jose Mercury News released the video of a San Jose State math major getting beaten and tased by the San Jose Police Department in his home on Sept. 3, 2009. Police were called to the scene after 20-year-old Phuong Ho allegedly wielded a knife during an altercation with his roommate. All the viewer can hear, in between groaning cries of pain and calls for mercy, are the cracking sounds of the batons as they meet 20-year-old Phuong Ho’s head and body, and the torturous zapping of a Taser gun. It is, in a word, disturbing."

On Thursday, October 29th, Israelis and internationals joined Palestinians for a quiet protest against the destruction of olive trees near the village of Susya, South Mountain Hebron. The Hoshia family who own the land in this area, had more then twenty olive trees cut down by settlers in October. During the recent months, settlers destroyed hundreds of olive trees own by Palestinians in the West Bank.

More than two dozen protesters blocked the entrances to the San Francisco office of Blue Shield of California early in the morning of October 28. They were joined by close to 200 other single payer system health care advocates, who festooned the building with crime tape and chanted loudly. The demonstrators charged Blue Shield with crimes including murder, breach of contract, and subversion of democracy.

UC Financial Crisis: Big Picture and Practical Actions is a public forum occuring at UCSC's Classroom Unit 2 on Thursday, October 29th from 7-10pm. Two of the featured speakers, Stanton Glantz and Robert Meister, have been particularly devoted to investigating the University of California's finances.

On October 24th, as part of the worldwide action on climate issues, activists rallied throughout Northern California. In Santa Cruz, marchers carried placards through town and held a mock trial of the automobile. In Humboldt County, demonstrators chose the ancient redwood forest in Richardson Grove as their protest site because it is threatened by Caltrans’ proposal to widen highway 101. In San Francisco, Justin Herman Plaza was filled with an enthusiastic crowd, while in nearby suburbs residents gathered to share planet-saving tips with neighbors.

On October 21st, Fresno State saw one of its largest mobilizations since the 1960s. The student walkout was in protest against the recent fee increase of 32% (fees go up almost every year typically by around 10%), class furloughs (pay more get less), over-crowded classrooms, faculty layoffs, staff layoffs, a corrupt administration, and a corrupt Associated Students, Inc., which refuses to represent the students. The California State University master plan from the 60s promised free education to all, but the university is now run like a for-profit corporation.

On Sunday, October 25th, Zoya, a member of the radical underground organization Rawa, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, will speak in San Francisco. Zoya's talk is part of a national tour in the U.S. against the ongoing U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and the threat of fundamentalism posed by the Taliban.

Otis writes:,"The rally and march against police brutality on Thursday, October 22nd, in Oakland at 14th and Broadway at 12pm, must be a powerful political expression of our anger and determination to stop a system which sets the police on the people, and then defends them from punishment. First the police murder Oscar Grant in Cold Blood! Now, the the judge has agreed with the murderer's attorney, that killer-cop Johannes Mehserle cannot get a fair trial in Oakland. A screaming irony, considering the "fair trial" that Oscar received at the hands of judge-jury-executioner Mehserle." Actions will also be happening in Arcata, Eureka, and Santa Rosa.