On February 4th, demonstrators for women's reproductive rights protested in front of the CBS affiliate in San Francisco. They rallied to protest the network's plan to air a commercial from a right-wing anti-abortion group during the Super Bowl on February 7. The demonstrators chanted and sang a song written by the Raging Grannies of South Florida, giving the acronym CBS a new, unflattering meaning.

Shortly after midnight on January 31st, San Francisco police and fire marshals raided a benefit party for student arrestees from recent campus occupations. The party was organized by students to help raise money for fines issued during last semester's spate of demonstrations. Eleven people were arrested. One person remains jailed on felony aggravated assault charges. Several party-goers received physical injuries from police.

January 22nd marked the 37th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The January 23rd "Walk for Life" was smaller than in past years. By its own estimate, the group against reproductive choice was 20,000 to 30,000. However, the San Francisco Chronicle estimated the size at "several thousand", not the "tens of thousands" that the pro-lifers claim. More than 200 pro-choice activists, while a smaller group, had a significant presence. Queer and feminist activists blocked the "Walk for Life" march for a brief period by extending a 25-foot banner reading "Religious Bigots Unwelcome in San Francisco" across the Embarcadero at the moment the march began.

Despite threatening thunderstorms, hundreds of people gathered in San Francisco's Justin Herman Plaza on January 20 to demand that the Obama administration provide significantly increased HUD funding in the federal budget to eradicate homelessness. Following a music filled rally in the plaza, they marched to Nancy Pelosi's office and on to Civic Center, making their way through puddles left by the recent downpours.

As another January 11 rolls around, giant posters appeared in advertising kiosks over the weekend. On January 11, 2002, the first groups of hooded and jumpsuited detainees were brought to Guantanamo. On January 21, 2009, President Obama pledged to shut down the camp, only one of many U.S. prisons where people are being held indefinitely without charge and in inhuman conditions, violating international and domestic laws. commemorated

Alas, it seems Sarah Palin may never go away, but on January 14, 15 and 16, comedian Jamie Kilstein will be in San Francisco to blast her with his own brand of sacrilegious humor along with his other favorite targets: politicians, war criminals, couch potato liberals and, yes, even God.

Students occupied the business building at San Francisco State University before dawn Wednesday, December 9th to protest higher tuition, massive layoffs, hundreds of classes cut and millions for administration salary. Hundreds of students linked arms at various points throughout the day in solidarity against the complete dismantling of the education system in California. Students drew connections between layoffs and cuts in other public sectors, billions spent on war and millions of people without health care. Just before 4am the next day, almost twenty-four hours into the occupation, riot police rushed the building, breaking a window to gain access, and arrested those inside.

Jeffrey Luers was originally sentenced to 22 years and 8 months for the burning of three SUV's in Eugene, Oregon to make a statement about global warming. In 2007 Jeff won his appeal and his sentence was reduced to 10 years. He is scheduled to be released this December. A final San Francisco benefit for Jeff to raise funds to help him as he transitions back to life on the outside will take place on Tuesday, December 8th starting at 8pm at El Rio.

On December 5th, women and men protested the Stupak amendment to the US Congress health care bill with a march and die-in in front of San Francisco's Ferry Building. Demonstrators wore black and rallied for full access to reproductive services, including abortion on demand.

On December 1st 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that he would send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan in the coming months, bringing the total number of American troops occupying Afghanistan to nearly 100,000. Describing the war as "not just America's war," Obama vowed to start bringing the troops back home by the middle of 2011.

On December 2nd, several hundred protesters gathered at 5pm at Powell and Market in San Francisco to voice their opposition for Obama's war plans.

On November 29th, Honduras held elections and the next day Porfirio Lobo was announced as the next president. On the day of the election, a picket was held at the Honduran Consulate in San Francisco; protesters described the elections as a sham organized by a government installed by a military coup. They demanded that there be, "no recognition of the coup regime and its election." Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, have refused to recognize the vote, and the UN, EU and the Carter Center, had condemned the electoral process as illegitimate and refused to send observers. The US, Peru, Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica and Israel are the only nations to have publicly indicated recognition of the electoral process and future regime.

On November 30th, the 10th anniversary of the global justice movement’s successful non-violent shut-down of the WTO in Seattle, activists exposed some of San Francisco’s worst climate criminals, demanding that they stop financing climate change and standing in the way of climate solutions. Protesters met at Justin Herman Plaza marched to a non-violent civil disobedience at the Bank of America where about two dozen people were arrested.

On Friday, November 20th, members and supporters of the transgender community in San Francisco held an event at the API Wellness Center in San Francisco called the 11th Annual San Francisco Transgender Day of Remembrance. Many people turned out for the event including Alexandra Byerly from El la program, Senator Mark Leno, Theresa Sparks and plus the many many speakers from the community who simply wanted to pay tribute to all the transgender men and women who have been killed.

Lynne Stewart, the much admired civil rights attorney who is struggling with cancer, has had her bail revoked, and she is now being held in jail after a Federal Court ruled on her appeal November 17th. On November 23rd, demonstrators in San Francisco protested against the ruling.

On November 23rd, immigrant rights groups held actions in San Francisco and Washington D.C. to expose the unjust treatment of immigrants in both Congressional and Senate health care bills. In San Francisco, hundreds of people joined a vigil at House Speaker Pelosi’s office to urge her to fight against anti-immigrant amendments to the bills. The same day, a group of Asian Americans and Latinos confronted staff in the office of US Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina.

On November 23rd, members of SEIU Local 1021 blocked Market Street at the peak of rush hour, protesting San Francisco Mayor Newsom's plan to eliminate more city jobs. The protest shut down automobile traffic and Muni lines were forced to make detours. Eighteen people were arrested by the San Francisco Police Department.

On November 15th, Andrea Lewis died in an apparent heart attack at her San Francisco home. Andrea came to KPFA in 1999 as a co-host of the Morning Show and later became the host of the Sunday Sedition and the Evening News Co-Anchor.

In anticipation of fee hikes, students planned a series of occupations and strikes across the state for November 18th through 20th. On Thursday, November 19th, the University of California Regents approved a 32% increase in undergraduate fees, pushing fees to over $10,000 a year for the first time. 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.

On November 5th, Adisa Banjoko of the Hip Hop Chess Federation hosted a panel at O'Connell High School in San Francisco's Mission District that included Immortal Technique, Cesar A. Cruz and the Watsonville Brown Berets. The panel addressed issues on US imperialism, police abuse and murder, black & brown youth repression, indigenous resistance and hood liberation.

On November 8th, the SF Bay Area Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal organized an event in San Francisco focused on three innocent men, Troy Davis, Kevin Cooper, and Mumia Abu-Jamal, who may soon be executed depending on upcoming court rulings. Laura Moye, the Director of Amnesty International's Death Penalty Abolition Campaign spoke about Troy Davis, and Moye will also be speaking on behalf of Amnesty International at a press conference in Washington DC on November 12th.

Danny Blackgoat, a longtime Dine' (Navajo) resister of forced relocation, will be traveling from his home at Big Mountain (AZ) this weekend to speak in Santa Cruz on Friday, Nov. 13th and San Francisco on Saturday, Nov. 14th. He will be screening a new 24 minute film featuring Pauline Whitesinger, and giving an hour long presentation about relocation, coal mining, and recent happenings at Black Mesa.

On November 7th, the Democratic-led US House of Representatives passed a healthcare bill that includes a far-reaching attack on abortion rights and repeals the Children's Health Insurance Program by 2013. The morning following the passage of the legislation, women in San Francisco led the rallying cry for "healthcare not warfare" in demonstrations on the steps of City Hall and in front of Speaker Pelosi's and Senator Feinstein's respective homes. On November 12th, the San Francisco branch of Radical Women will hold a roundtable discussion to address the question: What will it take to achieve affordable quality healthcare for all?

Fifteen people occupied the San Francisco office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi on November 3rd, stating they would remain there, risking arrest, until Pelosi explained why she has turned her back on key promises related to health care reform. After three hours twelve people inside Pelosi's office were arrested for creating a disturbance on federal property. The charge against them was based on a technicality; singing and chanting for single payer was deemed not in accord with the rules and regulations of the federal building.

More than two dozen protesters blocked the entrances to the San Francisco office of Blue Shield of California early in the morning of October 28. They were joined by close to 200 other single payer system health care advocates, who festooned the building with crime tape and chanted loudly. The demonstrators charged Blue Shield with crimes including murder, breach of contract, and subversion of democracy.

On Sunday, October 25th, Zoya, a member of the radical underground organization Rawa, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan, will speak in San Francisco. Zoya's talk is part of a national tour in the U.S. against the ongoing U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and the threat of fundamentalism posed by the Taliban.

While President Obama spoke inside the St. Francis Hotel on October 15th, thousands of protesters turned out to deliver messages of their own. Health care was just one of many topics as people gathered from the left and right, rubbing shoulders and competing for space for their placards in the crowd. A large group of single payer health care plan advocates supported by physicians and nurses wielded some of the largest banners and drew a heavy turnout.

On Thursday, October 22nd, Ehud Olmert, a war criminal and Israel's former Prime Minister, will be speaking at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco for the World Affairs Council. During his last weeks as Prime Minister of Israel, Olmert unleashed a horrific war on the people of Gaza, that left over one thousand dead, a majority of them unarmed civilians, and hundreds of them children. It destroyed thousands of homes, leaving tens of thousands homeless. A demonstration calling for Olmert's prosecution for war crimes will be held at Union Square at 5:30 PM.
UPDATE: 22 Bay Area residents arrested for disrupting speech

On Thursday, October 15, hundreds came to Civic Center, to protest president Obama's appearance at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in a fundraiser for the Democratic National Convention. Earlier in the day another demonstration took place at SF City Hall to oppose the continuous cuts in education funding.

On Wednesday, September 30th, feminists, activists, and community members protested against budget cuts in front of the California State Building at Civic Center. The rally and speak-out featured demands to "chop from the top" and tax the rich and corporations as a strategy for solving the budget crisis.

On Saturday, October 17th there was an anti-war march and rally in San Francisco starting at 11am in U.N. Plaza. Protesters demanded that U.S. troops get out of of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, and that the U.S. government spend money on jobs, pensions, health care, and education rather than wars and corporate bailouts.

On October 7th, over 250 people came out to the New Federal Building in San Francisco on the 8th anniversary of the war and occupation of Afghanistan. While the Obama Administration, the Pentagon Generals and Congress argue over the degree to expand the war they are losing, this protest called to end the war now.