On May 18th, supporters of the Santa Cruz Eleven held banners on the Soquel Avenue overpass, to be seen by passing drivers on Highway 1, in support of the eleven people charged in association with the 2011 occupation of a vacant bank building at 75 River Street in Santa Cruz. So far six of the eleven defendants have had charges against them dismissed by Santa Cruz County judge Paul Burdick, and the remaining five are still in the middle of pre-trial hearings. Community members also displayed banners on May 15th on the La Fonda Avenue overpass.

The Santa Cruz Eleven are local community members who have been charged with an unprecedented variety of offenses arising from their alleged involvement with the occupation of a long-time vacant bank building late last fall, 2011. These defendants are either journalists, members of our local press, and/or activists supportive of the Occupy movement.

Still facing pre-trial hearings are Brent Adams, Desiree Foster, Gabriella Ripley-Phipps, Becky Johnson, and Robert Norse (Kahn).

Read More and View Photos | Judge Burdick Dismisses Charges Against Four of the Santa Cruz Eleven | All Charges Dismissed Against Indybay Photojournalists Bradley and Alex

On January 9, the general assembly at Occupy Oakland passed a resolution calling on occupies across the country to support a National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners. In the following month, over a dozen communities across the nation followed in planning local prisoner solidarity demonstrations, including those in Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Denver, Durham, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Fresno, Portland, and Washington D.C.

On February 20, hundreds of demonstrators marched to San Quentin Prison where a rally was held in solidarity with the National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners.

San Quentin Prison is the first and oldest prison in the state of California, and the facility's death row is the largest in the country. In 2008, San Quentin held 637 male inmates on its death row, nearly twice as many as those held on the death rows in Florida and Texas.

Read more and view photos | More photos | Voices from Inside | Videos: 1 | 2 | Occupy4Prisoners.org

See also: The Framing of Kevin Cooper, on San Quentin’s Death Row

Occupy Wall Street in New York called for a nationwide May Day General Strike. Cities and towns across the United States are heeding the call. Workers will be striking, students will be leaving classes, and banks and other large corporations will be forced to close for the day across the nation. May 1st, 2012, promises to be the largest American May Day since the Immigrant Rights May Day in 2006 and probably the most widespread and furthest reaching in decades.

Local plans include a People's Festival on Market Street in San Francisco; support for workers at the Golden Gate Bridge, the SF Ferry Building, and other locations; the rebirth of the San Francisco Commune; a work stoppage by ILWU Local 10 which will effectively shut down the Port of Oakland for the day; a large March for Dignity and Resistance from Fruitvale to downtown Oakland; a one-day strike by thousands of California Nurses Association nurses in the Bay Area; autonomous actions; and much, much more.

Oakland — Occupied Oakland's May Daze | Occupy Oakland May Day Rally | May Day Oakland Police Riots: OPD Violate Their Own Crowd Control Policy Yet Again: video | Oakland May Day !!!!! (clips and cop watch) | Pic's of Oakland on May Day 2012 | Homies Empowerment en la marcha in Oakland | Oakland Police use Concussion Grenades and Extraction Teams on May Day 2012 | May Day in Occupy Oakland: Let a million seeds sprout | Denounce the attack on the Revolution Books table at Oscar Grant Plaza | Oakland Police January 28th Hit List. Who Is on the OPD List for May Day? | The Colonization of Occupy Oakland | Event Announcements: 8:30am M1 Oakland Gender Strike/General Strike: Anti-Capitalist March to shut down the banks | 12pm Everyone Converge on Downtown | 3pm March for Dignity and Resistance | May 1st Anti-Racist March: The Decolonial Carnaval | March with the Internationalist Contingent on May Day | Million Hoodie & Hijab contingent to march on May Day in Oakland | Bay Area Sutter Nurses Plan May 1 Walkout | Occupy Oakland May Day General Strike Press Conference, 4/26/12: video & photos | OCCUPY OAKLAND May 1 Strike posters + call to action | Poster series: Let us off from work on May Day, or else | Occupy Oakland Action Framework for May 1 - Blockades, Marches!

San Francisco — May Day Strike Shuts Down S. F. Ferry Service | May Day SF 2012 | Rise Up Mural on MayDay | May Day Creation: Rise Up Mural at Montgomery and Market | 888 Turk Raided In Early Morning Raid | SF Commune Solidarity Breakfast | Update on #SFCommune @ 888 Turk | may day sf: san francisco commune resurrected | Occupy Strikes Back: Revenge of the SF Commune | 888 Turk Raided? | May Day in the Mission | 888 Turk Street: Re-Occupied | The Strike Starts Early: Mission Police Precinct Attacked | Event Announcements: Golden Gate Bridge Labor Coalition updates. No more bridge rally, pickets instead | 10:30am Occupy Your Civil Liberties on May Day | 12pm The People's Street Festival - El Festival de Calle del Pueblo | 1:30pm May Day March to New SF Commune | 2pm San Francisco Commune - Housing & Social Center Occupation

Mountain View — May Day in Mountain View: Stop S-Comm

San Jose — Event Announcement: 3pm May Day March - A day without the 99%

Santa Cruz — Event Announcement and Coverage

Sacramento — Event Announcements: 11am Sacramento May Day Action and March | Anti-Capitalist Contingent At Sacramento May Day

Fresno — May Day in Fresno | Event Announcement: 5pm Primero de Mayo - May Day March

San Diego — Event Announcement: 11am May 1st Day of Action

Publish your own reports, photos, audio, and/or video to Indybay at http://www.indybay.org/publish.php!

See Also: Massive May Day Turnout Highlights Media's Disconnect From Reality | Corporate Media Bored With Occupy — and Inequality | Statement on Chris Hedges and the Black Bloc | May Day Protests for Justice | 100,000 march in Moscow and thousands march around the world for labor | May Day: A Radical Strike into the Belly of the Beast | ACLU and NLG Ask Oakland Police Department If It Seeks to Abandon Key Protections for Demonstrators | Occupy Oakland, Permitted Protest, and Police Repression | Occupy Oakland Will Provide Support If Workers Lead A Shutdown Of The Golden Gate Bridge | Fuck the Police 17 | Hella Occupy Oakland! 6 Month Anniversary | Occupy Earth Day Occupy Richmond March and Protest | Occupy Oakland Hoodie & Hijab March | Occupy Oakland Confronts Discriminatory Prosecutions by OPD and DA, 4/3/12: video & photos | Berkeley Police Price Quote For BearCat Armored Vehicle | Occupying a House Auction | /newsitems/2012/03/28/18710301.php | Occupy Oakland MARCH to Take Back the Town | Fuck the Police 14b | Fuck the Police 14a | Millionaires Tax Supporters Grapple with Withdrawal of Major Backers | Fuck the Police 13 | BENEATH poem | IC3: Defense Lawyer Threatened With Arrest, Police Report Doctored In Preliminary Hearing | New DIY Occupation Guide 2012 redux | Berkeley: Attack on the snitches at the Tang Center | Communiqué from Decolonize Oakland 3.18.12 | Oakland's FTP March | Berkeley: Rally and Speak Up Against Police Abuse | High Noon & Occupy at the Docks | Welcome Back to OGP | Oakland protests the latest atrocities in Afghanistan | Oakland LGBT Rally in Front of Courthouse to Respond to Hate Crimes Charges | Stay Away Orders Against Occupy Oakland Protesters Are Unconstitutional | Nell's friends stop auction of her home! | Occupy Oakland Protest for Tristan and Palestine | Fuck the Police March | Photos from Occupy Our Food Supply day at an East Oakland Community Garden | Did Somebody Say "Car Bloc"? | District Attorney O’Malley’s Strange Relationship to the Truth | FTP march in solidarity with Occupy CAL Berkeley and Athens part 2 | FTP March in solidarity with Athens and Occupy CAL Berkeley | Berkeley Police fumbles in a murder | Officer in Scott Olsen Incident Identified? (Article and Video)

Previous Related Indybay Features: Occupy the Farm Activists Reclaim Prime Urban Agricultural Land in SF Bay Area | Occupy Santa Cruz Supports the Santa Cruz Eleven | Wells Fargo Shareholder Meeting Invaded and Surrounded by Protesters in San Francisco | Snatch Squads at May 1st General Strike in Oakland? | 11 UC Davis Students, Professor, Charged for U.S. Bank Blockade | Occupy SF Liberates Vacant Building to Establish Social Center | Sacramento Protest Against Cuts To Education and Social Services | San Quentin Occupied on National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners | Occupy Oakland January 28th Move-In Day Ends with Hundreds of Arrests

A resolution in support of all eleven defendants who were charged in relation to the occupation of 75 River Street in Fall of 2011 was adopted by Occupy Santa Cruz at their general assembly held on April 29. Steve Pleich facilitated the general assembly, held on the steps of the Santa Cruz Post Office, and read the resolution before Occupy Santa Cruz adopted it.

The resolution by Occupy Santa Cruz "calls for the immediate dismissal of all charges presently lodged against the River Street defendants and calls for an end to all further prosecutions based upon any and all participation by any member of our community in the River Street action."

Read More and Watch Video | Support the Santa Cruz Eleven

Previous Coverage: Demonstration at Wells Fargo in Solidarity with 75 River St. Arrestees || Occupy Santa Cruz Marches to Protest Repression of the Occupy Movement || Indybay Journalists Charged with Felony: Conspiracy to Make Media || Demonstration at Wells Fargo in Santa Cruz: "Drop the Charges! Bust the Banksters!" || ACLU Statement of Support and Petition for "Journalists, Local Press and Activists" || WILPF Condemns Local Law Enforcement and Supports Eleven Local Activists || Judge Burdick Dismisses Charges Against Four of the Santa Cruz Eleven

Thousands of angry homeowners, immigrants, union members, Occupiers and community groups converged on the annual shareholders meeting of Wells Fargo Bank on April 24th. In a carefully choreographed protest, simultaneous marches left Justin Herman Plaza on the city's waterfront, site of the Occupy San Francisco encampment last fall. Demonstrators walked up parallel streets into the financial district, where they encircled the block in which the meeting was set to take place, in the Julia Morgan ballroom of the Merchant's Exchange Building. Beforehand, some demonstrators had moved into the building's lobby, while others chained themselves together, putting sleeves around their arms to make it hard for police to cut them apart to arrest them.

A group of religious, union and community representatives had purchased shares of stock in the bank, supposedly allowing them to attend the shareholders meeting. Some even held proxies, allowing them to vote the stock belonging to others. As the rally swirled outside, and speeches and songs filled the streets now vacant of their normal traffic, the police closed off the building and refused to let the shareholders inside.

Maria Poblete, from the housing rights organization Just Cause, and Cinthiya Muñoz, from Alameda County United to Defend Immigrant Rights, spoke from a flatbed truck in front of the bank, reminding the crowd of the reasons they'd brought their protests to the bank's doors. "Shareholders want to meet about how to best reap profits from foreclosures, for-profit prisons and detention centers, student loans, and tax evasion," Poblete shouted. "Today the bank can see that there's no more business as usual. We say no!"

Photos: 1 | 2

On April 18th, in one of the largest rallies in SEIU 1021's history, 23 members were arrested in front of Bank of America Wednesday for taking a stand against mega banks and corporations who have been cheating San Francisco residents for over a decade. At the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Market Street, more than 1,300 people were chanting “Let the People Go, Arrest the CEOs.” They were there to support the protesters, who sat in the crosswalk. By 6:30 PM, one by one each of the 23 protesters were handcuffed and put into the back of SFPD vans. On the front and back of each protester were large stickers that read “It’s time to draw the line: downtown greed or the city we need.”

“We chose to be arrested at a symbolic intersection: It’s the intersection that houses the Department of Human Resources and Bank of America, said Larry Bradshaw, Vice President of SEIU Local 1021. “That intersection symbolizes City Hall tax policies that prioritize tax cuts for the 1% while demanding pay and health care cuts for the 99%.” Research shows that only 10 percent of San Francisco’s registered businesses are paying the local payroll tax. The tax fails to tax highly profitable sectors of the economy such as banks like Bank of America and corporations.

Read More | Photos | NeedNotGreed.org

Copwatcher reports: Oakland Police claim that they have retrained all their officers in crowd control tactics for the upcoming May 1st general strike. While much is unclear about what will be different, there are things that are sure to be the same. Officers that make up most of Oakland's Police Shootings will continue to be deployed as Tango and QRF (Quick Response Force). OPD Chief Howard Jordan has suggested that he may send specialized units into the crowd for the purpose of making surgical arrests, rather than use lethal force through the deployment of chemical and less than lethal rounds indiscriminately. However, sending teams of Officers that are known for their relationship to violence into large crowds of people is a clear indication that OPD intends to incite panic and chaos rather than develop better methods for interfacing with large groups of people.

Video | ACLU and NLG Ask Oakland Police Department If It Seeks to Abandon Key Protections for Demonstrators