First, let's talk about direct action. Yes, some of this discussion is semantic shizzle, but it can be illuminating.

I think there is a misconception of late that DA is any action in which you get out and do something to make change (as opposed to petitioning so-called representatives to make change for you). But let's be more specific: I'll say, direct action first off is DIRECT. DA is when you take action that directly effects the object or issue of your grievance.

So putting yourself in the path of trucks carrying weapons and materials in order to stop a war is DA. Blockading trucks carrying lumberjacks and trees to save a forest is direct action. Squatting a building to provide housing for those who otherwise would not have it is DA. And creating an urban garden to support urban gardens is direct action.

However, blockading a street to raise awareness of an issue (war, homelessness, globalization, etc) is NOT direct action. Appealing to representatives or city managers of congresspeople, even if you do it actively, even if you march right up to the door of their office, is NOT direct action. Making demands to a manager or a chancellor or whomever with a strike or a sit-in or an occupation is not DA. In all these cases, you are appealing to someone else to take some action and make change.

Not to say that these direct appeals are less useful than direct action, they aren't. A strong appeal combined with direct action is very powerful. Working at many levels is important. And hopefully, we each fearlessly choose the level of making change that is comfortable for each of us.

What were we planning?

Originally, we were considering occupying Dick Wilson's office until he agreed to make significant changes to the newly enacted police spying policy. And whether we had a dozen people or a hundred was unimportant, though more people helps such quixotic endeavors.

After we discovered that City Manager Dick Wilson was out of the office on vacation, Assistance City Manager Martin Bernal was absent, and no council members were in their offices, there seemed to be little point in occupying offices chock full only of clerks and admins. And as we didn't intend to keep their offices anyway, it was hardly direct action. So we settled on a little playful and ceremony and got the fuck out. Apparently just ahead of the police who were responding to reports from city staff of unauthorized playfulness and frolic.

Was this Direct Action?

Yes. But not what you think. The issues here were free speech and free assembly. We insisted on taking our right to celebrate and to parade without city and police interference. A parade itself while often thought of as a symbolic gesture, was in this case -- during a fight for our rights to free expression and freedom to get together -- an expressive activity that very much was direct action.

What Now?

It cannot be truer here, that "working within the system is not working." We have done everything in good faith, we petitioned, we spoke out, we met with council members, we attended public meetings, we roped in allies such as the ACLU, we dotted our T's and crossed our I's. The halls of power, while they occasionally deigned to listen, they worked duplicitously behind closed doors to sideline the concerns of the people.

Even now Zack Friend (!) the new SCPD public relations expert and Mike Rotkin appear in print and on the tube putting a smiley face on a heaping pile of shit.

Meaningfully, after being dismissed and ignored by most of the council for the last few weeks, after our parade and the host of media sniffing around, we've gotten three unsolicited emails from city council members.

Whatever. Now they want to talk because they look like asses. That is the way it was in March too after their own police auditor blasted the asinine SCPD investigation of themselves and concluded officers had violated our civil rights.

While it is fine to continue to petition these clowns, it cannot be clearer that the city council has no power against the City Manager and the SCPD.

Most importantly, we'll keep up the direct action. If we want to exercise our free expression, we'll speak out. If we want to exercise our right to free assembly, we'll get together to celebrate, to mourn, to express our anger and frustration at the pace of change. This was the point after all of the Last Night parade. We are done asking permission to be free.

I Refuse to Ask Permission to Be Free

A direct challenge to the intrusion of
police and city control in our lives.

I want to live in a world full of play and celebration, where self-expression is a matter of course. A world full of surprises, in which relationships are authentic and open-ended. A world in which we share a direct connection to the world around us. Where one does not have to ask permission of authorities to realize one’s dreams of adventure and possibility.

Part of creating a new world is resistance to the old one, to the relentless commodification and control of everything, including celebration and the way we relate to each other.

This is a direct challenge to dominant institutions and hierarchical relationships.

When we ask permission to live our lives, to celebrate, to come together, to express dissent, we legitimate the power of institutions over us. We give up our power to make our own choices and become subject to the decisions of others who may or may not be acting in our interests.

To the degree one exercises one's freedom is the degree to which one is free. If we exercise only the rights we are granted, that is not freedom.


This Last Rights Parade and Protest is a sorrowful funeral parade for our free speech rights and right to privacy. A protest against the city's failure to resolve the Police Spying Scandal. A funeral, a parade, and direct action.

Our parade is both celebration and mourning. Celebration of the inalienable rights we possess as animals on this planet (beyond things written on parchment 200 years ago by dead white slaveholders) and a mourning for the rights we risk losing by not exercising them.


Late last year, Santa Cruz Police officers were caught infiltrating community meetings of a group planning a new year’s parade. Santa Cruz’ own police auditor concluded that police violated the civil rights of parade planners.

The city has failed in its promise to pass a policy providing protections for our rights. They resisted. They were dragged kicking and screaming to the issue. They stonewalled. They sidelined the ACLU. They lied. Then they told us they'd done their job and that everything was okay.


But the greater problem is not police policy, but the police themselves. City council and other elected officials are powerless to the city manager and business interests and don’t represent you anyway. While the police answer to the unelected city manager, never be fooled into thinking he will ever significantly limit the power of the police. While every other department is slashed, public safety expenditures are up to 55% of the city budget.

Our system of laws exist to maintain the dominance of those in power, and the police are its armed enforcers. (If you doubt this for a minute, look at who is the selective targets of our downtown laws: The homeless, the young, the poor, people who resist. Globally, look at who dies and who gets rich from our wars and other disasters.)

On the other hand, the less we rely on police, the more we have to take responsibility for our own actions and deal with our inevitable conflicts openly, honestly, and directly.


We are marching to celebrate, to build community, and to exercise our right to free expression.

We refuse to accept police spying in our meetings, groups, and events. We refuse to give up our rights to free speech and privacy. We refuse to let fear silence us.