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On May 2nd, immigration agents conducted a large-scale raid at taquerias across San Francisco and the East Bay. Agents arrested about 60 employees at several locations of the El Balazo chain. Some of the workers have been released, but forced to wear electronic ankle bracelets while they await deportation hearings. On Monday May 5th, immigrant rights activists marched on the I.C.E office in San Francisco to protest the raids.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is helping put together the largest Iraq war spending bill yet.
The aim appears to be to fund the war for nearly six months into the next president's term to prevent a new Democratic President from having to vote for the war without risking the war actually ending.
On April 28th, Code Pink started a peace vigil on the front porch of Pelosi's house in San Francisco to urge her to not give the President another blank check for the occupation of Iraq
Over 600 SFSU students walked out of their classes and blocked traffic May 1st to protest further cuts to California's education system. The students protested a proposed increase to next semester's fee increase, which is an increase of 113 percent since 2002. The proposed increase of student fees are a part of a $14.65 million cut to next year's SFSU budget and part of a larger $4.8 billion budget cut to California's education system. As a result essential services will have to be cut, people will lose their jobs, students will have fewer classes and be forced to pay more for less.
On May Day, there was a Reclaim the Streets action in San Francisco. A little over 100 people participated. The mobile party started in Civic Center and went all the way to Golden Gate Park. There was some confrontation early on while leaving Civic Center. The participants were pushed back onto the sidewalk for about five blocks and then claimed the streets once again.
Direct Action to Stop the War brought its anti-war focus to May Day actions in San Francisco and Oakland on May 1st. Starting at 5:45 a.m. at West Oakland BART, DASW lead a community picket to shut down the Union Pacific rail lines at the Port of Oakland. From 12:30-2:30pm, DASW marched from Justin Herman Plaza to protests at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center (670 Davis St. at Broadway) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (630 Sansome St. at Washington St.). DASW also had a contingent at labor and immigrant rights demonstrations on May Day.
Organizers in cities and towns around the U.S. are hoping to bring back the historical significance of May 1st in international labor and workers' struggles, and to reignite the labor movement by integrating recent undocumented workers' struggle for amnesty. Marches, rallies, and other gatherings on that date will focus on issues such as federal agencies and ending harassment by local police, raids, and the separation of families in immigrant communities; stopping the use of "no-match" letters to intimidate worker organizing efforts; holding elected officials accountable to supporting immigrant rights; funding human needs and services instead of militarism and war; and amnesty for those who do not have current documents.
On Wednesday, April 9th, the Olympic Torch came to San Francisco.
The Olympics will be taking place between August 8th and 24th in Beijing, China. Many human rights groups are concerned that China is cracking down on dissidents ahead of the games. Some pro-Tibetan organizations have called for a boycott of the Olympics, and organizations such as Amnesty International are upset with China's involvement in the crises in Darfur and Burma.
Thousands of people gathered in an Francisco to either cheer or protest, but few saw the torch as the relay did not go along the announced route and the closing ceremony was cancelled.
One torchbearer tried to display a Tibetan flag but the SFPD quickly took the torch from her and pushed her onto the sidewalk.
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The court has called for a sentencing hearing that would result in either an execution or life in prison without parole; the hearing will be scheduled within 180 days. A San Francisco demonstration and press conference was held at 5:00 pm at the federal courthouse at 7th and Mission on Friday, March 28th. In Oakland, protesters gathered at 14th and Broadway from 4:30-6:30 pm on Friday. National protests are being planned for April in San Francisco and in Philadelphia.
The 4,000th US soldier was killed in Iraq on March 23rd. Vigils and actions were held at the Military Recruiting Centers in Capitola and Berkeley on March 24th to express grief over so many senseless deaths in Iraq. In San Francisco, a vigil was held in Civic Center Plaza. CodePink shut down the Marine Recruiting Station in Berkeley by conducting a direct action inside of it.
Every March, anarchists from around the Bay Area and the Americas come together for a week in which they celebrate anarchism with a number of different kinds of events. 8 Days of Anarchy begins and concludes with discussions at the Long Haul in Berkeley. The Anarchist Cafe will return to San Francisco on Friday night, March 21st. The Anarchist Bookfair will again take place on both Saturday and Sunday. The BASTARD Conference will be held at UC Berkeley on Sunday, March 24th.
March 19th saw a revival of the direct action movement in the Bay Area. Independent media activists came together to broadcast a radio station and DASW had a webcam broadcasting video. Volunteers provided legal assistance. Affinity groups came back together for another day in the streets, putting their bodies on the line to remind the world that torture has been a way of life for the Bush administration. Bike contingents and snake marches wove in and out of crowds, providing assistance to protesters and facing an equal risk of arrest. The police responded by swiftly arresting approximately 150 people- including protesters and media-- at several sites. Four Codepink protesters were detained after allegedly hanging a banner from the Golden Gate Bridge, while paintballs were anonymously thrown at several corporate targets.
Police had amassed before 7:00am near some key intersections. At 7:09am, it was reported that the Federal Reserve building at 101 Market had been shut down by a lockdown. At UCSF Mission Bay, protesters set out to shut down the UC Regents' meeting with a lockdown and an Alternate Regents' meeting. Police busted the lockdown and started arresting participants by 7:30am. 345 California, home of Chevron Energy Solutions, was another site of a lockdown and some ten arrests. Chevron closed business for the day.
At 10am, a die-in at 3rd and Market street took up all lanes and Market street was completely blocked. Police moved in and 27 people were arrested. Around noon, 100 protesters engaged in a second die-in at Montgomery and Market Streets, stopping all traffic for about two hours. At 3pm, Codepink, Raging Grannies Action League, and some black blockers converged on the recruitment center on Davis.
By 5pm, approximately 165 people had been arrested in various direct actions across the city.
In the evening, there was a rally and march starting from Civic Center. Several thousand people listened to speakers and took to the streets to protest the war.
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Archived Breaking News
Outraged over the undemocratic nature of the University of California Board of Regents and the Regents’ continued management of the national nuclear weapon labs, on March 19th, students from the Coalition to Free the UC took nonviolent direct action at the UC Regents meeting at UCSF Mission Bay campus in an attempt to obstruct their ability to meet.
Twelve Free the UC members locked themselves to doorways with bicycle U-Locks around their necks, while others unfurled banners stating “Democratize the Regents,” “Money for education not nuclear weapons,” and “Eliminate the SAT.” Other issues raised included UC’s continued privatization and corporatization as evidenced by UC’s $500 million deal with British Petroleum, UC’s continued internment of 13,000 Native remains against the wishes of Tribal Leaders, the environmentally destructive UCSC Long Range Development Plan, and UC’s plans to cut down Berkeley’s Memorial Oak Grove.
Entitled “Free the UC Day,” the day of action was part of March 19th Direct Action to Stop the War in downtown San Francisco. Ten of those who locked down were ultimately arrested and cited for “disturbing the peace” and other misdemeanors, and released within a few hours on their own recognizance. Over 100 students from five UC campuses participated. Read More and View Photos | More Photos
Teachers at the San Francisco Institute of English will go on strike starting Monday, March 17 at 8:30 am to demand livable wages and the return of health care benefits. The English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers have not had a cost-of-living adjustment in 12 years and have been without health care benefits since 2004. The strikers are asking for community support on the picket line and for their strike fund.
On March 11th, hundreds of protesters gathered in San Francisco, calling for the state to prioritize California's children and their education and demanding job security for educators.
Governor Schwarzenegger's 2008-09 budget proposes a $4.8 billion cut in state education funds. Preparing for this eventuality, the San Francisco Board of Education sent out 535 pink slips to teachers and administrators this week.
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 marks the five-year anniversary of the beginning of the US war and occupation of Iraq. Events will be held all over the United States to observe and protest the ongoing war and its environmental, societal, and financial tolls. The Iraq war is the second longest in U.S. history. It has killed more than one million Iraqis and 4,000 U.S. troops. The cost of the war is now running at more than $400 million per day, nearly $5,000 per second. In San Francisco, there will be direct actions throughout the day on the 19th, as well as an ANSWER march.
Direct Action to Stop the War is planning "mass direct actions" to protest the 5th anniversary of the US-led war and occupation of Iraq. For March 19th, DASW is organizing a day of decentralized, multiple-target direct action against government offices and war profiteers in downtown San Francisco. Direct Action Radio will be on 102.5 and streamed over Indybay. People will be able to call in reports from the street. DASW, along with community organizations, held a direct action outside of the Chevron refinery in Richmond on March 15th.
On January 24th, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Chuck Conner announced the availability of $74.5 million in emergency funding to combat the light brown apple moth (LBAM) "infestation" in California. President Bush's recent budget proposal sent to Congress sets aside $330 Million to eradicate plant pests, like the LBAM. It is unprecedented to design a long term plan to spray chemicals on people, which are untested for safety.
On Wednesday, March 5th, 2008, several students at San Francisco State University came together to Reclaim the Quad in protest of the fee hikes. Since 2002, fees have gone up 94% -- making education inaccessible and unaffordable to working class students. The latest fee increases and budget cuts have caused students to pay more for less. Students on campus have been organizing to demand an end to the fee hikes using direct-action and educational outreach.
On February 26th, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed two key resolutions. The first re-establishes the city's sanctuary status and calls on Mayor Gabin Newsom to take
action. The second is a resolution that allows for dispensaries to stay open after the March
1st deadline, pending an amendment to the current ordinance. On February 4th, members of San Francisco's medical cannabis community and their supporters gathered to call onhe Mayor to end his silence about recent US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)'s scare tactics against medical cannabis facility landlords. Days later, Newsom's spokesperson made a lukewarm statement against the DEA's actions, but supervisors and their constituents wanted to provide assurances that medical cannabis patients and dispensaries would be protected.
A federal court in San Francisco has wiped whistleblower site Wikileaks.org offline, granting an injunction requested by lawyers for a Swiss bank, which is attempting to prevent the public from accessing allegations of illegal activity at the bank. On Feb. 18th, Judge Jeffrey S. White ordered Wikileaks.org's San Mateo-based domain registrar to "disable the wikileaks.org domain name" and to "immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name."
To celebrate the growing support for medical cannabis and the spread of safe
access in medical cannabis states throughout the nation, Americans for Safe
Access (ASA) organized Medical Marijuana
Week 2008. Medical Marijuana Week commemorated the passage of Proposition 215, California's medical cannabis law. Each day during the week, Americans for Safe Access announced
opportunities to advance safe access to
medical cannabis, through actions such as educating one's community,
meeting with U.S. Senators, and more. Events were held in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley during the course of the week.
3PM Saturday May 10
Zoofront Fundraiser
5:30PM Saturday May 10
Gay Shame Meeting
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