SF Bay Area Indymedia indymedia
About Contact Subscribe Calendar Publish Print Donate
More
donate
$75.00 donated in past month

africa

canada

east asia

europe

latin america

oceania

south asia

united states

west asia

process

projects

regions

topics
East Bay News
Feel free to contribute content by posting to the newswire and selecting the category "eastbay".
If you would like to help out editing this page contact sfbay-web@lists.indymedia.org
Upcoming Events | photoPhoto Gallery

Sunday Jul 5
12PM East Bay Free Skool: Permaculture Workshop
12PM East Bay Hella Free Day
3PM LMNOP Weekly Peace Walk, 3PM
5:30PM East Bay Free Skool Class: Musical Funshare
Tuesday Jul 7
2:30PM Public Shift with Berkeley Copwatch
Wednesday Jul 8
2PM KPFA Election Event
Thursday Jul 9
7PM Berkeley Copwatch Volunteer BBQ
Friday Jul 10
7PM Laborfest: Films on Oakland truckers & Japanese...
More Events...

On Saturday, June 20, activists gathered at Trader Joe’s in Oakland and San Francisco to demand that the company stop carrying Israeli goods. Protesters removed Israeli products from the shelves in order to show customers which products they should not buy. They also met with the store managers and asked them to notify their headquarters that they no longer wanted to carry Israeli herbs, couscous and cheese. Similar actions were held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Seattle, Washington, and Sacramento, California. The activists were inspired by campaigns to deshelve Israeli products in Wales and France.
The demolition of the Bevatron, a.k.a. Building 51 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL), is scheduled to begin in July. The demolition will include the removal of radioactive waste, trucked down University Avenue covered with tarps. According to the LBNL website, 1000-1200 truckloads of the 4700 "may contain hazardous or radioactive material." A press conference will take place on Tuesday, June 23rd at 6:30pm in front of Berkeley City Hall in order to draw attention to this blatant disregard for the Nuclear Free Berkeley Act.
After print-runs for the SF and NY Anarchist Book Fairs, a magazine entitled Unfinished Acts: January Rebellions is now available on Indybay in digital format. The magazine is a collective recounting and analysis of events surrounding the shooting of the unarmed, 22-year-old Oscar Grant III by BART police officers in the early hours of 2009 on the Fruitvale station platform.
Wed May 27 2009 (Updated 06/20/09) True Cost of Chevron: Shareholders Protest
On May 27th, mayor of Richmond Gayle McLaughlin attended the Chevron Shareholder's meeting, along with delegates representing Nigeria, Burma, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Philippines, and Canada. The delegates introduced to the meeting this year's alternative Chevron annual report: The True Cost of Chevron. The annual report documents the ecological and human damage caused by mismanagement of infrastructure, laborers, and the environment.
The preliminary hearing in the trial of Johannes Mehserle for the murder of Oscar Grant III began on May 18th. Indybay has reports from inside the court room during the entire hearing. Outside the court house, demonstrators have gathered to press for an effective prosecution of Johannes Mehserle. The hearing concluded on June 4th when Judge Clay declared that Mehserle will stand trial for murder. The family of Oscar Grant gratefully acknowledged community activists and supporters who rallied at the court house.
On May 21st, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Civil Liberties Defense Center joined in a defense attorneys’ motion in the San Jose district court to dismiss U.S.A. v. Buddenberg, a federal prosecution of four animal rights activists in California for alleged conspiracy to commit animal enterprise terrorism. The four have been charged with First Amendment protected activities such as protesting, chalking the sidewalk, chanting and leafleting. The motion asks the Court to strike down the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as unconstitutional.
At the May 16th ceremony for UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall law school graduates, World Can't Wait protested against Boalt Hall Law Professor and author of U.S. torture memos, John Yoo. The protest against torture called on graduates to demand that the UC law school not tolerate torture and those who are apologists for torture policies.
On April 30, 2009, a family of Section 8 landlords in Contra Costa County filed suit against the City of Antioch and several members of its Police Department for violating their civil rights. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco's U.S. District Court for Northern California, alleges that members of the Antioch Police Department used rough and illegal tactics to force the landlords to evict their Section 8 tenants, many of whom are African-Americans.
On Wednesday, April 29th, UC Berkeley Police, apparently acting on behalf of ICE and introducing themselves as ICE agents, arrested Jesús Gutiérrez, a worker at the Clark Kerr Campus Dining Commons and a union activist in AFSCME Local 3299. Gutierrez remains in Santa Rita Jail. On Wednesday, May 13th, a rally and a march was held at Sproul Plaza, UC-Berkeley, to demand the release of Jesús Gutiérrez from ICE custody.
A lawsuit filed May 1st in federal court by a security and private intelligence firm against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has revealed details of the militarized takeover of Oakland-based local United Healthcare Workers West (UHW). SEIU spent millions to conduct surveillance of UHW's headquarters and membership meetings and to provide "protection services" to SEIU leaders visiting California.
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.
On May 1, International Workers Day, rallies and marches are planned for cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Cruz County, and the Central Valley. Demonstrators will call for action in defense of jobs, families, immigrant rights, and unions.
On Tuesday, April 28th, the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee heard a proposal to "civilianize" the Oakland police department's Internal Affairs. The proposal requests that all citizen complaints against OPD go to the Citizen's Police Review Board (CPRB) and that the CPRB hire ten new civilian investigators. A large community turn-out appears to have convinced the committee to issue a directive to make the proposal happen.
On Thursday, April 16th, community rights defense organizer and filmmaker, Simon Sedillo, was at AK Press to offer perspectives on global implications of the Oaxacan peoples' struggle for communities in the United States. Through his multimedia presentation, Sedillo created a dialogue on the effects of neoliberalism on indigenous communities, immigrant communities, and communities of color in the US and Mexico. Sedillo will also give his presentation on Monday, April 20th at the Watsonville Cabrillo Center.
On Saturday, April 11th, family, friends, and former Black Panthers celebrated Lil' Bobby Hutton Day in honor of the 17-year-old Black Panther murdered by Oakland police in 1968. Bobby Hutton was the first member to join the Black Panther Party after its founding by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland in the Fall of 1966. The group Family and Friends of Lil' Bobby Hutton are working on a erecting a statue in DeFremery Park in West Oakland.
After months of pressure for greater transparency in BART policy making by Oscar Grant's family, community members, and activists, BART has scheduled its first public meeting on police oversight for Saturday, May 2nd in Oakland. Activists intend to remind BART that they still question if BART even needs its own police force, as well as to continue to demand that General Manager Dorothy Dugger and BART Police Chief Gary Gee be held accountable.
David Santos is being charged with felonies after having been arrested during the January 7th demonstrations in downtown Oakland that followed the murder of Oscar Grant. On Friday, April 10th, friends and supporters came to his pretrial hearing to demand that the charges be dropped. JR Valrey, of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee and Block Report Radio, was also arrested and charged with a felony on the night of January 7th. Drew Louis was also arrested on felony charges that night. All three are asking for public support to fight their charges.
Will & Darwin write: Our intention... is to generate a greater level of critical reflection and discussion concerning the dominant role of the politics of “greening”... that characterize campus-based environmental organizations.... We can think of few more timely priorities for those who would use university campuses as organizing bases [than] to challenge the system of authoritarian power that is in the process of destroying the ecological basis for the existence of life on earth.
On April 9th, No Justice No BART assumed control of the BART Board meeting. Demonstrators took turns voicing their objections to the lack of accountability and the apparent cover-up attempts at BART regarding the murder of Oscar Grant. One demonstrator independently threw red paint onto BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger and was subsequently arrested. On April 2nd at the MacArthur BART station, No Justice No BART distributed fliers with campaign demands to over 1000 commuters.
The Women’s Choice Clinic of Oakland, the venerated feminist health clinic that has provided non-judgmental, culturally sensitive abortion and reproductive health care services to Bay Area women for 36 years, is closing its doors. The clinic is the oldest feminist health center providing abortions in the nation. However, it is not anti-abortion protests that are forcing the clinic to close, nor is it a decline in demand for services. It is California’s chronic low and slow reimbursements for MediCal services, and budget cuts. On Wed. April 8, a press conference will be held at the Oakland City Hall, at 1pm.
Kiilu Nyasha, former member of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, was recently interviewed on a wide variety of topics. Kiilu Nyasha quotes George Jackson from a passage in his book Blood In My Eye: “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”
The "Israel Truth Campaign" announced its first ad on March 30th in Berkeley in observance of “Land Day." The new satirical campaign make fun of pro-Israel PR efforts in the Bay Area. For example, the press release for the ads explains that the "campaign features a picture of Palestinian terrorists disguised as schoolchildren" and notes that the ad "commemorates attacks on Israeli forces by unarmed children."
On Friday, March 27, protesters decried budget cuts to home care workers in front of the State Building in Oakland. SEIU claimed that the California budget passed in February contains $1 billion in "trigger cuts" to home care, health care, higher education, SSI/SSP, and CalWORKS. The protest was part of a day of action organized by SEIU that included a rally at the Capitol Building in Sacramento and in five other cities.
No Justice No BART (NJNB) are holding a series of disruptive actions with the goal of seeking accountability for the abuse and murder of Oscar Grant. After successfully blocking the fare gates at Fruitvale BART in their first demo, NJNB chose the BART station in the upscale Rockridge neighborhood for their second demonstration on March 19th. NJNB is committed to demos at various stations until justice for Oscar Grant is reached. NJNB's next action will be at MacArthur BART in Oakland, Thursday, April 2nd at 4pm.
On Saturday March 21st, five people were killed, after police pulled over a man in East Oakland. Copwatch13 writes: "[F]or the second time in recent months, police in Oakland shot and killed a young African American man apparently after prematurely resorting to the use of deadly force when alternative remedies were available. This time, the haste on the part of police caused them to lose two of their own just after two other officers had just been shot...." A vigil and rally for Lovelle Mixon and his family was held Wednesday, March 25th.
On March 13th, 2009, Tristan Anderson, an Indymedia journalist from Oakland, California, was critically wounded in the village of Ni'lin after Israeli forces shot him in the head with a high-powered tear-gas canister. Tristan is a dedicated activist and reporter who has long been committed to social and environmental justice in the U.S. and abroad in places such as Oaxaca, Iraq, and Palestine. Tristan has posted his reports to Indybay since 2001. Tristan's family reported Sunday that he has moved his fingers in response to a request from a doctor.
Revolutionary and civil rights activist Richard Aoki died on March 15, 2009. Aoki was a founding member of the Black Panther Party (BPP), becoming a Field Marshal. Using his military training, Aoki assisted members of the BPP in acquiring weapons and trained members in defending the community from the Oakland Police. Aoki was also a leader in the third world Liberation Front (twLF), resulting in the establishment of Berkeley’s Ethnic Studies department.
On Saturday, March 21st, protest marches took place across the U.S. and around the world on the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. In the Bay Area, four days of demonstrations protesting the continuing war on Iraq officially commenced on Thursday, March 19th with leafleting at more than 20 BART stations and a march in Berkeley. On Wednesday, March 18th, a group of persons wearing masks smashed the windows and splattered red paint at the U.S. Marine Corps Recruiting Center in Berkeley. On Saturday, March 21st, a demonstration sponsored by ANSWER began with a march from Justin Herman Plaza at 11am culminating in a rally at Civic Center Plaza. On Sunday, March 22nd, a Rally in the Valley for Peace and Justice was be held in downtown Fresno.
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.
No Justice No BART (NJNB) held their first action at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland on March 5th. NJNB intends to continue disruptive protests at various BART stations until their list of demands is addressed. NJNB said the demo was a success despite not having fully closed the station. Passengers came and went yet BART collected no fares during the protest. The next NJNB action will be March 19th at Rockridge BART.
From March 2 to March 6, UC Berkeley students will host Israeli Apartheid Week. The week long event will include lectures, panel discussions and movies addressing the legal system of Apartheid in Occupied Palestine. The event is also orientated toward educating the public about the boycott, divestment, sanctions campaign, of Israeli-Apartheid products. In its fifth annual year, Israeli Apartheid Week will be held in over forty cities around the world. At UC Berkeley, the event is happening for the second year.
Over a hundred people marched through Hayward from the BART Station to City Hall on what would of been Oscar Grant's 23rd birthday on February 27th, 2009. A large outpouring of friends and family rallied in front of Hayward City Hall after the march. Family members called for justice for all those murdered by police and to keep the movement going. There was a large police presence throughout.
On February 23rd, students at UC Berkeley voted whether to recall John Moghtader, a senator at the student government. Moghtader, along with members of the student groups Tikva and Zionist Freedom Alliance, are accused of assaulting three Palestinian students for displaying Palestinian flags during a campus event last November.
Following a series of Town Hall meetings that have been held since the murder of Oscar Grant, the first in a series of Caravans for Justice traveled to the California State Capitol on February 19th to speak out and lobby legislators on the issues of Oscar Grant and police killings, repressive gang laws, Three Strikes, the San Francisco 8, environmental justice, and other laws and issues that negatively effect urban communities of color.
The 55-year-old Bevatron particle accelerator at the Berkeley Lab will soon be reduced to 4,700 truckloads of rubble to make way for a new experimental facility. Local residents worry that UC's disposal methods are not taking the human population and environment thoroughly into account, and point to the history of the Bevatron as a facility intended to further nuclear weapons technology. Radioactive waste will be trucked to Nevada, while less hazardous rubble will be dumped in Richmond and Livermore.
iCal feed From the Calendar:
12PM Sunday Jul 5 East Bay Hella Free Day
2PM Wednesday Jul 8 KPFA Election Event
7:30PM Wednesday Jul 8 The Real Dirt on Farmer John
browse articlesarticlebrowse photosphoto
browse videosvideobrowse audioaudio
Update and thank you from Stephanie Tang Otis
Saturday Jul 4th 6:43 PM
Upcoming AETA4 Court Dates AETA4 Support
Thursday Jul 2nd 4:28 PM
The People vs. Johannes Mehserle: Days 6 & 7 of the Preliminary Hearing Rekia Jibrin (2 comments)
Wednesday Jul 1st 12:06 AM
Code Pink Protest Yoo & Torture Oaks4Peace News Crunchers (1 comment)
Sunday Jun 28th 6:49 PM
URGENT ALERT! DEFEND CODE PINK! Berkeley and UC Police at John Yoo's House Pride4Peace (1 comment)
Sunday Jun 28th 3:57 PM
Daily Planet Foes: “Bleed Money, Die Broke” Ehud (1 comment)
Friday Jun 26th 2:34 PM
Zachary Runningwolf arrested... again! Christopher Kohler (5 comments)
Thursday Jun 25th 10:22 PM
Berkeley Police Squad!: People's Park Epic Trance Oaks4Peace Trance Crew
Thursday Jun 25th 1:52 PM
BEVATRON! (update) Oaks4Peace News Crunchers (2 comments)
Thursday Jun 25th 12:57 PM
On World Refugee Day: Trader Joe’s Consumers Take Action for Palestinian Rights Don't Buy Into Apartheid (1 comment)
Monday Jun 22nd 1:32 PM
Charges Dropped Against Revolution Club Member David revcom.us
Monday Jun 22nd 8:36 AM
More Local News...
New Book Surveys Oaxaca Uprising to Teach Rebellion Hans Bennett
Monday Jun 22nd 9:48 PM
Toolkit for Renters Facing Eviction Due to Foreclosure Posted By Lynda Carson
Sunday Jun 21st 7:20 PM
White Supremacist Opens Fire at Holocaust Museum, But Will it Be Labeled “Terrorism”? Green is the New Red (1 comment)
Wednesday Jun 10th 2:10 PM
Housing News: Details & Material on New Tenant Protections Repost by Lynda Carson
Monday Jun 1st 2:40 PM
May Day With the Chinese Working Class Joe Tougas
Tuesday May 19th 7:26 PM
Maquiladoras-NAFTA's Sweatshops Gil Villagrán, MSW
Saturday May 2nd 12:41 PM
Pirate Bay Verdict: Why Does SWEDEN Persecute its Citizens? Clayton Hallmark
Saturday Apr 18th 8:55 PM
SUPREME COURT DENIES MUMIA ABU-JAMAL'S APPEAL CURLY ESTREMERA
Wednesday Apr 8th 6:04 PM
Study: Scientists Discover Active Thermitic Material in WTC Dust researcher (4 comments)
Friday Apr 3rd 7:30 PM
Is there profit in the Pain of others? Mike Gilbert
Tuesday Mar 31st 2:39 AM
The Eclipse of the American Dream: An Endangered Middleclass Gil Villagrán, MSW
Tuesday Mar 24th 5:50 PM
Resistance to the Colonial Occupation of Palestine continues MH. (1 comment)
Tuesday Mar 24th 2:23 PM
Privatizing the Public Trust: A Critical Look At Connected Nation Public Knowledge et al
Tuesday Mar 24th 9:00 AM
Parents of Tristan Anderson: “We Want Justice for Our Son” Friend of Tristan & Palestine (1 comment)
Monday Mar 23rd 4:03 PM
Wall Street Debacle: Resignations and Prosecutions are in Order Gil Villagrán, MSW
Sunday Mar 22nd 2:38 PM
More Global News...
Last Days of Cake- the EVIL webcomic 00065 Eric Xodik
Thursday Jul 2nd 5:54 AM
Last Days of Cake- the EVIL webcomic 00064 Eric Xodik
Tuesday Jun 30th 6:18 AM
Last Days of Cake- the EVIL webcomic 00063 Eric Xodik
Thursday Jun 25th 6:22 AM
Bluegrass for the Greenbelt Festival Tanya Pinkerton
Wednesday Jun 24th 12:53 PM
Last Days of Cake- the EVIL webcomic 00062 Eric Xodik
Tuesday Jun 23rd 5:47 AM
[repost] Oakland Cop Fired Over Shooting Death SF Chronicle repost
Saturday Jun 20th 9:05 PM
Last Days of Cake- the EVIL webcomic 00061 Eric Xodik
Thursday Jun 18th 7:53 AM
NEW G20 PITTSBURGH FLIER Messenger (1 comment)
Friday Jun 12th 5:16 AM
Last Days of Cake- the EVIL webcomic 00059 Eric Xodik
Thursday Jun 11th 6:02 AM
BART Police slap public in the face by assigning Oscar Grant cops to train other cops CA Beat (repost) (1 comment)
Wednesday Jun 10th 10:36 PM
Eyebrows raised again at BART Police, this time over controversial patch redesign CA Beat (repost) (1 comment)
Wednesday Jun 10th 10:31 PM
Mehserle's father gets man arrested for threats on Alex Jones site AP (4 comments)
Wednesday Jun 10th 10:08 AM
Requiem for Black Oak Books Irvin Muchnick via Beyond Chron
Tuesday Jun 9th 7:44 AM
Man arrested for threatening BART police at 911 Truther site Roanoke news (1 comment)
Monday Jun 8th 5:31 PM
Officer Ledward Hunts Autistic, Fails Oaks4Peace
Thursday Jun 4th 8:38 PM
Open Newswire...
feed