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.

Putting a spotlight on some of the biggest movers and shakers of the vegetarian world, Bay Area residents and visitors celebrated World Vegetarian Day with a weekend-long festival on October 4 and 5. The 10th annual World Veg Festival featured cooking demos, free samples, and international vegetarian delights to pique every appetite. Entertainment included the Red Panda Acrobats and a sing-along of tunes in defense of animals.

On October 11, San Francisco’s Arab Cultural and Community Center will present the 15th Annual Arab Cultural Festival, the largest celebration of Arab heritage in Northern California. This day-long event will showcase the arts, entertainment, food, traditions, and most importantly the spirit of the Arab and Arab-American people, and their contributions to the Bay Area’s cultural landscape.

On September 24th, San Francisco-based Twitter.com shut down an account that was monitoring the movement of police and military through the city of Pittsburgh during protests against the G-20 summit on September 24th and 25th. The Pennsylvania State Police also arrested Elliot Madison and Michael Wallschlaeger and accused them of "criminal use of communication facility" and other charges. On October 1st, the FBI raided Elliot's home in Queens.

Palestine Freedom Walks are taking place in almost 30 cities across the United States on Saturday, October 10th. The Palestine Freedom Walks will be silent marches, on behalf of an equitable U.S. policy toward Palestine that advances freedom for the Palestinian people. In San Francisco the march will start at 11am at UN Plaza sidewalk near the Civic Center.

September 28th was called as an international day of protest against the coup d'etat in Honduras. In San Francisco, demonstrators gathered at the Honduras Consulate to demand the immediate suspension of all U.S. financial aid to the coup government; stop endorsing the Arias Plan; and immediately recall the U.S.Ambassador until the reinstatement of President Zelaya.

On September 26 pioneering performing artists including Temple of Poi and OmniCircus graced Golden Gate Park's band shell stage. The surrounding Music Concourse was a spectacular maze of demonstrations for wearable art, 3D film viewing, and independent media publicity. The gigantic "Show and Tell" drew small tots with doting parents, hip singles, and Raging Grannies.

On September 24th, 1700 hotel workers in Unite Here! Local 2 and their supporters marched around union square to demand a fair contract with a number of San Francisco hotels. Ninety-two union members and others were arrested for blocking the entrances at the St. Francis Westin and the Grand Hyatt.

To kick off the new school year on Teachers 4 Class War on Free Radio Santa Cruz, l@s Maestr@s (the hosts) spoke with Jeff Duncan-Andrade once again, about the conditions facing teachers this year and every year in the California school system. Jeff has been a frequent guest on the show, and he's the closing speaker at this year's Teachers 4 Social Justice conference in San Francisco on Saturday, October 10th.

The amplified voices of activists calling out for health care reform resounded in front of Embarcadero Center in San Francisco on September 22nd. Some called for Anthem Blue Cross, which has offices in the building, to drop their option to a public option, others carried placards espousing a single payer plan for the nation. A dozen "Billionaires for Wealthcare" dressed as golfers, yachtsmen and wealthy socialites, mocked the excesses of health care insurance company executives and investors.

A coalition of organizations rallied in San Francisco on September 21st to deliver a message to U.S. lawmakers and polluting corporations. The protest started at the S.F. office of Senator Barbara Boxer and then moved to Chevron Oil Corporation’s downtown S.F. "Energy Solutions" office. The action capped the weekend-long West Coast Climate Justice Convergence, building grassroots pressure in the lead up to the December's Copenhagen climate talks.

More than a thousand hotel workers and their supporters marched through downtown San Francisco on Monday, September 7th, to demand a fair contract in their ongoing negotiations with the city's hotels. The Unite Here! Local 2 march started at the Embarcadero Hyatt to draw attention to the refusal by Hyatt to allow a fair process that would allow the workers at the Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf to have union representation. The march proceeded to HEI Le Meridien that is also a non-union hotel in the heart of downtown.

Flyers were posted in the windows of San Francisco's 24th Street Real Food grocery store as a reminder that this Labor Day was the 6th anniversary of the store closure that shut down their efforts to join a union and cost all 31 employees their jobs. The "Real Food Company" was a popular community natural food store in the heart of Noe Valley. Terminated employees, however, said that the closure was undertaken to prevent them from joining a union. The workers have gone on with their lives, as they await a related court decision.

On August 23rd, Cynthia McKinney, former US Congresswoman and member of the Free Gaza movement, gave a talk at the San Francisco Lunacy Theater.The event was part of a Bay Area benefit tour for the San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, an independent monthly that covers a variety of local and international stories. Her speaking tour follows her recent expedition on a boat delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza under siege.

Michael Steinberg writes about August 11th: "Protesters gathered at 5 p.m. in front of the Honduran Consulate to protest the coup that removed elected President Manual Zelaya, and called for an end to repression in Honduras and the return of Zelaya to office. Zelaya was seized at gunpoint in his pajamas during the early hours of June 28 and forced onto a plane that flew him to Costa Rica. Honduran General Romeo Vasquez, who ordered this action, is a two time graduate of the notorious School of the Americas..."

On Friday, August 14th, hotel workers from Unite Here Local 2 rallied and marched for a new contract that preserves affordable health care and job security. Contracts covering 9,000 Local 2 members are expiring, and hotel workers are gearing up to fight employer attempts to undermine work and living standards in the San Francisco hotel industry. In their 2004 contract negotiations, more than 4,000 Local 2 members endured a 53-day strike and lockout that ultimately led to the contract now expiring.

On Wednesday, August 5th, protesters met in San Francisco to protest Governor Schwarzenegger's budget cuts which disproportionately target health services fighting the spread of HIV. Due to Schwarzenegger's line item vetoes in this year's budget, an additional 85 million in funding is being cut from HIV/AIDS-related organizations and groups.

DS writes: "On Monday night, many people assembled to honor the youth killed and injured in Tel Aviv's LGBT Center. I was dreading this event, I needed to mourn – for the youth, and also for the sense of safety that I lost, years ago, when I first realized that my own LGBTQ youth center was unsafe space for me. I worried, that I wouldn’t be able to mourn, but would instead be distracted by anger and alienation at the Zionist rhetoric that accompany public Jewish events."

On July 25th, an estimated 4,000 people across Northern California joined thousands of demonstrators around the world in a global day of action to express solidarity with the Iranian people challenging the results of the country’s controversial June 12th election. Bay Area residents poured into San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza to participate in the demonstration, spearheaded by District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, the first Iranian-American to be elected to public office in San Francisco.

On Saturday, July 25, the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival will show Rachel, a documentary about Rachel Corrie, at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. This film by Simone Bitton is a critical, in-depth look at the life and tragic death of Rachel Corrie, the American activist killed in Gaza in 2003 by a Caterpillar bulldozer operated by the Israeli military. Rachel, working with the International Solidarity Movement, was killed while trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian family's home.

The Governor and the California General Assembly approved wage reductions for in-home assistance to elderly and disabled as part of an overall budget reduction proposal earlier this year. On June 23rd, activists from "The People's Day of Reckoning" protested those cuts as well as the governor's accusations that state funded In-Home Support Services is "rife with fraud." Seventeen people, many in wheelchairs, were arrested. On July 15th, members of that coalition were joined by labor activists, educators, and students at a larger protest at the same location.

On Monday, July 6th, labor activists gathered at Harry Bridges Plaza in the Embarcadero to remember the day, July 5, 1934, when two strikers were gunned down and killed by police. Several hundred union members and their supporters, many from around the world, marched in a reenacted funeral procession of the fallen men, Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise. As the procession passed the memorial at Mission and Steuart Streets, across the street from the site of the deaths, they took off their hats.

On July 6th, California State prosecutors were forced to admit that they have insufficient evidence against the San Francisco 8. Charges against four of the defendants were dropped and Jalil Muntaqim pled no contest to conspiracy to commit voluntary manslaughter. Those for whom charges were dismissed were Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank Jones, and Harold Taylor. A Community Celebration for the SF8 was held July 7th in San Francisco.