On June 19th, Checkpoint 303 performed at the Pork Store in SF. With members from Palestine, Tunisia, and France, Checkpoint 303, is a non-profit activist sound art project launched in 2004 by SC Yosh and SC MoCha. It creates experimental electronic music aimed at raising international awareness about the ongoing injustice and suffering of civilian populations throughout the Middle East. Checkpoint 303's was scheduled to play in SF on Tuesday, June 23rd at the Balazo Gallery and on Wednesday, June 24th at Baobab Village.

On June 11th in Tel Aviv, a group of queer Israeli activists protested the cynical use of gay rights by a conservative American group called StandWithUs (SWU). The activists disrupted an event called I-Pride, organized by SWU, exploiting queer issues to support Israel’s existence as an apartheid state and its occupation over Palestinians.

Early this month officers of the San José police union unleashed a new website with video mocking public testimony by a critic of police practices. Two City Council members, Sam Liccardo and Ash Kalra, quickly denounced inflammatory statements as well as the video on the police union website. The Council members noted that activist Raj Jayadev's testimony was incorrectly characterized as a threat, and signed a letter stating that, "First Amendment freedoms may be chilled when dissent is characterized as threats".

On June 6th, the 42nd anniversary of Israel's seizure of Gaza, a protest was held at the UN Plaza (7th and Market) at noon, in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Organized by the ANSWER Coalition, organization and individuals came to show support and to demand an to end the siege of Gaza.

Susan Jordan, a civil litigator and criminal justice lawyer from Mendocino County, died on Friday, May 29th in a plane crash in Utah. She was 67 years old and left a legacy of civil litigation and criminal justice work behind. Jordan represented several prominent political activists throughout her career, including Earth First!'s Judi Bari after she was car bombed with Daryl Cherney in 1990 and members of the SLA, Symbionese Liberation Army in the kidnapping of Patty Hearst.

On June 6th, a candlelight vigil and march for Luis Gutierrez Navarro, a farm worker killed by undercover Yolo County Sheriff's deputies, was held at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Woodland, CA. On April 30th, twenty-six-year old Luis Gutierrez was walking home from the Woodland DMV after taking a Driver's License test when he was approached by three undercover gang suppression officers who shot six bullets, killing him in broad daylight.

Joe Tougas writes: Is there a growing movement in China against capitalism after the curtain has been pulled back to reveal where that road leads? Growing inequality, less access to education, healthcare, housing, and the economic crisis all seem to be leading Chinese folks to be less than enamored with capitalism. Some are looking back to Mao as a model to provide an alternative to following the U.S. over the cliff.