For the 5th year running, the burning of American flags will take place on Friday, July 3rd at Seabright Beach in Santa Cruz. Organizers say they raise the burning flag up as a sacred symbol representing their highest ideals as Americans, and that the "American Flag is so great a symbol that it represents the right to burn it."

Robert Norse comments, "Burning a flag in solidarity with the Honduran people on July 4th makes more sense to me than burning a flag as a celebration of the First Amendment. Divorcing flag-burning from its visceral ('Yanqui, go home!') content is a way of stripping the action of its force. Using constitutional arguments and hailing the First Amendment seems to me to be an attempt to dampen reactionary knee-jerk jingoism ('see, it's not so threatening'). But the point of a flag-burning in countries occupied by the U.S. or profiteering international corporations closely tied to U.S. guns and money IS to threaten ('get the fuck out!').

"Burn a flag on the 4th in front of the Honduran consulate in protest of continued U.S. support for the Honduran coup-sters. That's a real way of using the First Amendment in more than an empty symbolic way. Divorcing U.S. flag-burning from what it traditionally means is a way of concealing or ignoring important history."

previous coverage of flag-burnings: 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2005 | 2006 | 2008

On Sunday June 28th, the first-ever Atheist Film Festival will be held at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco's Mission District from 12pm to midnight. Feature-length films will be shown in the 240-seat theater, short films in the small 46-seat screening room. The free festival is sponsored by San Francisco Atheists.

Films shown will include: "Pledge of Allegiance Blues", a documentary that follows the Rev. Dr. Michael Newdow, the blues-singing California physician, as he battles to protect the separation between church and state; "Root of all Evil?" in which where professor Richard Dawkins examines how religious faith is gaining ground in the face of rational, scientific truth; "Evolution: The Musical" is a comical journey into the debate between creationism and the scientific model of evolution; "Submission" (by Theo van Gogh and Ayaan Hirsi Ali), "Audience of One," "Heathen Wind," and many others, including atheist youtube videos

San Francisco Atheists is one of the most active Atheist-related organizations in the Bay Area. The group's website states: "Atheists do not believe in gods, devils, angels, ghosts, or other imaginary creatures. Atheists accept reality. We want to live natural, religion-free lives. We respect science and learning, knowing that only human thought, effort and courage will bring individual freedom and cultural progress." Read more

American Atheists website | Worldwide Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Charles Darwin

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 (sound-catcher) Yosh from Palestine and SC (sound-cutter) MoCha from Tunisia. It creates experimental electronic music that aims at raising international awareness about the ongoing injustice and suffering of the civilian populations throughout the Middle East. Checkpoint 303 combines field recordings from Palestine with electronic beats, effects and subtle oriental tunes. Checkpoint 303's next two performances were in SF on Tuesday, June 23rd at the Balazo Gallery (2183 Mission St.), and on Wednesday, June 24th at Baobab Village (3372 19th St.).

Through its compositions, collected sounds, and noise, Checkpoint 303 spreads a message of peace and a call for the respect of human rights. Contrasting with the mainstream media's exclusive depiction of violence and suffering in the middle-east, CP-303's sound collages also report on the heroic hope in the region, as well as the seemingly banal but ever so meaningful little things that embody a daily search for normality in a state of emergency.

Checkpoint 303 music can be downloaded for free from their website. Read more

DJ Revolutions: Spinning Beats for Freedom | Checkpoint 303 - Streets O Ramallah video by Leaphar

When the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA) held a conference in San Francisco, the Raging Grannies made a surprise appearance on June 15th. Using carefully crafted song parodies and a skit, the Grannies urged conference participants to help work toward the passage of a single-payer national health care program.

The NCCA is a non-profit entity working to foster understanding of the vital relationship between creative expression and healthy aging. The Raging Grannies are similarly interested in successful aging through creative action, and note that the use of humor goes a long way towards getting out messages of importance to the public. They demonstrated the direct link between creative activism and healthy aging at the Tenants and Owners Development Corporation-Coleman House where the NCAA conference was held.

The San Francisco based members of the Raging Grannies Action League say that their performances promote enhanced societal functioning and independence from corporate control. While serving as a role model for activists of all ages, they encourage them to "fight injustice, live long, and rage."

Read More | Photos | Videos | Raging Grannies Action League

Ten bus shelter billboards advertising the University of California’s “Study in Israel” campaign were remade into “Boycott Israel” ads and placed around Berkeley and San Francisco in May.

Under the headline, “Boycott Israel? We boycott Israel because…”, one of the modified posters depicts students saying, “I believe in speaking out against racism. Israel’s entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel is frighteningly similar to the former apartheid system in South Africa!” and “I believe that governments must be held accountable for their actions! Israel denies its responsibility for the waves of ethnic cleansing that have made millions of Palestinians into refugees.”

The original ad campaign was financed by the pro-Israel publicity agency BlueStar PR as part of an intensive campaign to promote study in Israel at California universities. The University of California recently reinstated its study abroad program at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, after years of lobbying from pro-Israel students and professionals. The program was suspended seven years ago based on concerns that the area was too dangerous.

Read more | "Israel Truth Campaign" Commemorates Land Day with New Billboard

On Monday, May 11, Students for Justice in Palestine will screen the documentary Slingshot Hip Hop at UC Berkeley. The film braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover Hip Hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.

Slingshot Hip Hop received many awards, among them being the official Selection at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It features Hip Hop artists and groups such as DAM, PR, ABEER, Arapeyat, and Mahmoud Shalabi. The director and producer of the movie is Jackie Reem Salloum, a New York based artist and filmmaker. Drawing on her Palestinian and Syrian roots, her pop-infused work focuses on challenging the stereotypes of Arabs in the media. Read more

Evening With Slingshot Hip Hop l Palestinian Rap Group DAM Use Hip-Hop to Convey the Frustrations, Hopes of a Dispossessed People | Slingshot Hip Hop l Pebbles and Boulders

On Saturday, May 2nd, Crafts Not Carbon gathered at Embarcadero Center to provide a safe space that fosters creativity and realistic conversation about climate politics; the group is affiliated with Rising Tide Bay Area. The event was held at 2PM, near the farmer's market and lasted till 5:30PM. While the group met in San Francisco for this event, its future intentions are to reach all regions of the bay area, as well as use the forum for strategic occupation.

Crafts Not Carbon is open to all crafts. For example, at this last event people knitted, cut hair, sewed, and read. Crafts Not Carbon looks forward to all the different types of crafts, anything practical that encourages sustainable practices for everyday life, which will be an inspiration for society as a whole.

Crafts Not Carbon was created around the idea that practical and creative crafting expresses the potential for a more just and sustainable world. Through an accessible forum, Crafts Not Carbon promotes community-building, skill sharing and the imaginative reuse of all materials that will shape a realistic climate politic. Read more

Bank of America Targeted by Rising Tide, an Environmental Group

Wednesday, April 1st was the second week in a row that fences were not erected in parking lot #4 next to the Santa Cruz Community Farmer's Market. For the past six months, mesh fencing has been used to deter people from gathering and drumming below the magnolia trees. Brent, a longtime and well-known drummer, reports that an experimental agreement has been reached between himself and Santa Cruz Police Department Sergeant Mike Harms. Read more and view photos

Previous coverage: Drum Circle Continues at Santa Cruz Farmer's Market

On Tuesday March 10th, the “Activism Right There (A.R.T.) Festival” was held at Zellerbach Auditorium at UC Berkeley. The festival, part of a week of events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the founding of the third world Liberation Front (twLF) strikes, featured a variety of radical performances.

In 1969, the third world Liberation Front (twLF) was formed by students of color at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and UC Berkeley to demand that classrooms teach about the struggles of third world peoples through the formation of a Third World College. Out of this movement came Ethnic Studies as a college (at SFSU) and as a department at UC Berkeley.

The artists at the festival, 40love, BRWN BFLO, Los Rakas, Bambu, Invincible, Zion I, and K-Salaam, used different modes of expression to bridge their own histories to resistance movements. They emphasized the need to struggle against oppression, drawing a parallel between the oppression of people of color in the Americas and of Palestinians in the Middle East. The Oscar Grant murder was a repeated point among the performers who called on the audience to resist state oppression. Read more with photos

Art in Activism l Activism Right There, March 10, 2009 ~ UC Berkeley

Pam Walton, Producer/Director of the film *Raging Grannies: The Action League*, is an award-winning independent video producer who is dedicated to telling the truth about American life. She is most interested in changing our culture's prejudicial views of racial minorities and gay and lesbian people, and in promoting citizen involvement in democracy. When she first met the activist group of older women called Raging Grannies on the street where they were demonstrating against the stolen presidential election of 2004, she was immediately intrigued. She followed the daily lives and "gigs" of the Grannies for over two years to produce this, her newest, documentary.

From San Francisco where they sing for women's rights by the Bay at the annual counter-protest to "pro-life" occupiers of the city, to San Jose where they rage against racism, and in Mountain View dressed as "Brides against Proposition 8" and many venues in between, the Raging Grannies have got the Bay area covered and Pam Walton's film doesn't miss a beat.

Heather Robinson of Curve Magazine sums up what is great about this special feature saying it "captures these kick a#$ women in action, with insight into who they are, where they came from and why they set aside their knitting to make the world a better place." She reminds everyone it would be a shame to "miss out on the mini revolutions happening on our own streets."

The documentary premiers on March 7 at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose and screens again on March 8. The Raging Grannies welcome the audience in person at both screenings in song, with an opportunity for Q and A with the film's director and some of the most venerable activists in the Bay Area, from their late fifties to ninety plus years!

Read more

What's *LEFT* for Cinequest | film description and trailer | Event Details March 7 Premiere | Event Details March 8 Screening