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Santa Cruz Indymedia - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area
During Fall Quarter at UC Santa Cruz, the custodians that clean dorms had their hours cut on Thursdays and Fridays which resulted in overflowing trash cans, unsanitary bathrooms and increased cases of illness in residents. These cuts were fought and revoked. Now workers say they must unite with students and fight to defeat unsafe cuts to dining hall custodians.
On Monday through Thursday, February 8-11, UCSC staff and students will hold demonstrations at a different dinning hall for each of the four days, from 11:30am-1:30pm to protest the rising cost of student fees while student services are being slashed; major cuts to labor time while forcing workers to perform more labor; and workers, being rushed through their shifts, aren’t able to thoroughly clean dining halls, resulting in unsanitary eating commons and an unsafe working environment.
Read more | Publish your coverage to the SC-IMC newswire
Previous coverage: Service Workers Ratify Historic Contract With UC
The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a collective providing cannabis under California’s 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215), along with the city and county of Santa Cruz, have reached a settlement in their unprecedented lawsuit against the federal government. The suit, Santa Cruz v. Holder (previously Santa Cruz v. Gonzales and originally Santa Cruz v. Ashcroft), began in 2002 and aimed to halt the Bush Administration's interference with state medical marijuana laws.
WAMM's case was prompted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration's raid of their medicinal garden in Davenport on September 5, 2002, in which armed agents terrorized residents and patients, and seized more than 160 cannabis plants.
On January 22, 2010, Valerie and Michael Corral presented a statement to the US District Court in San Jose on behalf of themselves and other members of WAMM. In conclusion, they assert:
"We hope that over time the federal government will recognize its senseless position on medical marijuana and will formally codify protections for sick, dying and marginalized patients who have the right to use whatever substances their physicians recommend to ease suffering. We are nonetheless, heartened by the federal government's newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws and we are extraordinarily proud of our Collective's role in effecting this change in policy. However, should our government break their word and again pursue their senseless assault on the sick and dying, we stand at the ready and we promise to hold them accountable in a court of law."
Read the Full Statement | Previous coverage: WAMM Collective Wins Prestigious Award, Survives Wildfire
The first annual Earth First! California Roadshow will be traveling through the state this month to build connections between bioregions and different ecological resistance groups, and to promote the upcoming Organizers' Conference and Winter Rendezvous in Santa Barbara. About a dozen events are scheduled from January 12th to 24th, including stops in Santa Cruz (Jan. 13), Santa Rosa (Jan. 15) and Fresno (Jan. 20), to feature skillshares, music and information about ecology-based resistance to hierarchical power structures. Read more
Wednesday at 6pm: Anarchism & Fiction / Earth First! Bio-Regional Resistance Tour
On December 14th, Teachers for Class War interviewed Linda Nathan. She's the author of "The Hardest Questions Aren’t on the Test: Lessons from an Innovative Urban School," about her experience as founding headmaster of Boston's only public high school for the visual and performing arts, the Boston Arts Academy.
Nathan has worked on issues of school reform in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia, and teaches a course called "Building Democratic Schools" at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. But she has some Bay Area roots, too, having earned her bachelor’s degree at UC Berkeley in addition to a master's in education administration at Antioch University, a master's of performing arts at Emerson College, and her doctorate in education at Harvard University.
 Read more and listen to the interview
Five years after police were exposed infiltrating the organizing group, the Last Night DIY celebration still refuses permission to bring a homespun tradition to Santa Cruz streets. In it's fifth year, the do-it-yourself, grassroots celebration with a family-friendly parade, street party and performers is set for a evening of adventure and entertainment.
Organizers say that it's, "More than an evening's entertainment, this is a parade with a purpose. The message is simple: We can do it ourselves. From its beginnings in 2004, the parade is not about merely celebrating, but celebrating what we as a community can do outside of governments, corporations, and institutions. It is a celebration of both our autonomy and the support we bring to each other."
This year on New Year's Eve, the celebration will meet at 5pm near the Saturn Cafe parking lot on Pacific Ave and Spruce Street.
Read more | Last Night Santa Cruz | Previous SC-IMC Coverage
On Thursday, December 17th at 6:30pm in the Santa Cruz High School Auditorium, Joshua Hart and Bruce Appleyard will address the impacts of cars on our social lives and what can be done about it. Admission is free and open to the public.
People living on streets with heavy motor vehicle traffic are experiencing a considerable deterioration of their local social lives according to Joshua Hart, a former Santa Cruzan who recently completed research at the University of the West of England. Results suggest that residents on busy streets have less than one quarter the number of local friends compared to those living on similar streets with little traffic.
Read more | On the Level: Car Free Blog | Driven to Excess
PORTLAND — Dec 16th, 2009 — Jeff Free Luers, political prisoner and environmental activist, was released from the Columbia River Correctional Institution this morning after serving nine and a half years. Luers was originally sentenced in 2001 to twenty two years and eight months for the politically motivated arson of three SUVs at a car dealership in Eugene, OR. This sentence was deemed grossly disproportionate to the damage sustained by the car dealership and was condemned by legal professionals, human rights groups and activists worldwide. At an appeal hearing in 2007 it was ruled that Luers' original sentence was illegal, and was consequently reduced to ten years.
This is the second in a series of profiles of activist and alternative media workers in the Bay Area by Indybay contributor Peter M. Featured in this profile is Bradley, who works with Santa Cruz Indymedia. Bradley spoke about his life as a student, his work, and his connection to Mexico.
"I met with Bradley in his modest Santa Cruz apartment, where he sat for an interview under a poster of Ricardo Flores Magón, an anarchist figure from the Mexican Revolution. Bradley has worked with the Santa Cruz Indymedia website since 2001, and has been one of the key people in its development."
 Read Story and See Photo
Chaper 1: Tracy Rosenberg of Media Alliance
On December 4th, 1969, the FBI, working with the Chicago police department, assassinated the Chicago Black Panther Party Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton in his bed as he slept. Along with the murder of Mark Clark in the same apartment that night, the "raid" was one in a long line of illegal actions taken by the FBI as part of its COINTELPRO war against the social justice and anti-war movements. Fred Hampton Jr. embarked on a speaking tour to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of his father.
After fifteen months, more than a dozen court appearances, three major motions, four rejected plea deals, two district attorneys, and nearly a thousand hours of defense work, the case against drum circle supporters, Wes and Jack, is finished.
On September 17th, 2008, two protesters were arrested at the scene of the farmer's market drum circle, Jack, a cook for Food Not Bombs and Wes, a drummer with the Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra. Both Jack and Wes took part in a protest at Santa Cruz Parking Lot 4 in support of the drum circle at the Wednesday Farmer’s Market, and to oppose the fences erected by the city to preclude the drummers from their traditional spot around the trees in the parking lot near the farmer's market. Read morea and view photos
On Monday, November 30th, Teachers For Class War spoke with Sandra Nichols, a school board trustee for almost ten years in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. Sandra talked about why she ran for the elected office, and the political battles waged over the course of her time on the board over issues like bilingual education, transparency, budget priorities, military recruitment, and more.
Sandra Nichols has been a teacher for over thirty years. She ran for School Board after her involvement in the campaign to stop Proposition 227, which attempted to outlaw bilingual education and establish English-Only as mandatory policy for schools statewide.
PVUSD school board elections are less than a year away. This year there is an opportunity to radically change the make-up of the school board as four seats are due for a vote.
Read more and listen to audio | Education Matters
On November 19th the University of California Board of Regents approved a 32% fee increase in undergraduate fees, pushing fees to over $10,000 a year. Student Regent Jesse Bernal was the only vote in opposition. Protests, sit-ins and occupations took place at UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, CSU Fresno, San Francisco State and San Francisco City College. Students occupied Campbell Hall at UCLA, Kresge Town Hall and Kerr Hall at UC Santa Cruz, Mrak Hall at UC Davis, Wheeler Hall at UCB, and the library at CSU Fresno. Students at the Academy of Arts in Vienna marched on the U.S. embassy. At NYU and at the New School in NYC students marched in solidarity with protestors at the UC’s.
"The UC administration say it is the state that is to blame," notes gazuedro group. "They tell us to bring our fight to Sacramento to demand a bail-out for public education. To that we say, THAT’S YOUR FUCKING JOB! In fact, we don’t want a bail-out as it does nothing to fundamentally change the unjust structure of the UC system at large. The university will remain an institution that perpetuates race, class and gender divisions until the stakeholders (students, faculty and workers) gain democratic control. So what is to be done? Stakeholders must seize what is theirs for the taking, that is, their futures and the future of public education."
Read more | They Pledged Your Tuition | A Crisis of Priorities: Why Sacramento is not "the Problem"
On December 1st, Jesse James Forrey, who served two and a half months in a Ramsey County, Minnesota jail for "damage to property" during the 2008 RNC in St. Paul, was released.
Jesse and his co-defendant have a court date on Thursday, December 10th concerning restitution, and they still need financial support. Friends of Jesse James send their thanks to everyone who has donated, wrote letters, and offered support over this difficult time. For more updates or to make a donation, go to Support Jesse James.
Previous coverage: Jesse James Forrey Sentenced to 120 Days in Jail
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