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In San José and all across the United States, marches for immigrant and workers' rights are reviving the long-dormant American tradition of May Day. While legislation for comprehensive immigration reform has stalled in Congress, demonstrators are poised to take the struggle to the next level. From coast to coast, over a hundred thousand marched on May 1, 2008 to demand respect and recognition as workers who contribute so much to building the United States.
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
On Thursday May 1st, Al-Jazeera reporter Sami al-Haj was released after six and a half years at Guantanamo. Upon his arrival in Sudan early on Friday, Al-Hajj was carried off a US air force jet on a stretcher and immediately taken to a hospital. Al-Hajj told reporters at the hospital that "rats are treated with more humanity" than the inmates at Guantanamo, whose "human dignity [is] violated". Ten journalists have been held for extended periods by the U.S. military and then released without charge. The U.S. military continues to hold Jawed Ahmad, a journalist for Canada's CTV, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
On May 1, all 29 ports on the U.S. West Coast were shut down by the ILWU in protest against the U.S. war on Afghanistan and Iraq. The Bay Area ILWU local was the first American union to condemn the war. In April 2003, as invading U.S. troops reached Baghdad, six longshoremen were injured and a union official was arrested as police fired on hundreds of antiwar protesters in the port of Oakland. Supporters of the ILWU meet in San Francisco at Mason and Beach at 10:30 am on May Day. There was then a march to a 12 noon rally in Justin Herman Plaza.
The Federal Communications Commisision will hold a hearing about the future of the Internet on Thursday, April 17th on the campus of Stanford University. The 12pm hearing will be preceded by entertainment from the Raging Grannies. In 2007, several organizations confirmed that Comcast, which is a giant cable company, had been secretly blocking and degrading particular applications over several months, while denying its actions publicly. "Talk Back to the FCC" speaker practice sessions are planned for cities around the Bay Area this week: Monday at 6pm in Berkeley, Tuesday at 4:30 in San Francisco, and Wednesday at 6:30 in East Palo Alto.
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 Army recruitment site GoArmy.com is one of the most heavily advertised web sites on the planet. It's a slick marketing effort to make enlisting look like the perfect job opportunity: a stable, safe way to make money and serve America. Of course, there's a lot about the Army that isn't mentioned on GoArmy.com. From the Iraq War to human rights abuses to the stop-loss policy, the official recruitment website is strangely silent.
On March 19th, NoArmy.com was launched to clear up confusion about the Army and commemorate the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. It's an unauthorized remixed version of the recruitment site which presents the facts missing in the Army sales pitch, and shows potential recruits what they can really expect if they enlist.
In 1971, Vietnam veterans held a conference that they called the Winter Soldier Investigation, to speak out about what was really going on in the Vietnam War. 37 years later, Iraq War vets held their own Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan, at which US veterans testified about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan. The conference took place from March 13th through 16th in Washington, D.C. A group of Vietnam vets from Portland stopped in Fresno on the way to Winter Soldier. KPFA radio suspended its regular programming over several days in order to broadcast the proceedings.
On March 4th, Skidmark Bob of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101fm interviewed Lyn Gerry, host and producer of Unwelcome Guests radio program and collective member of A-Infos Radio Project. The project's goal is to support and expand the movement for democratic communications worldwide by offering an alternative to corporate media.
On February 21st, the Bush administration finalized its controversial decision to remove the Northern Rockies gray wolf from the list of species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The removal of federal protections for the gray wolf puts its continued survival in the Northern Rockies at the mercy of the woefully insufficient state management plans developed by Wyoming, Idaho and—to a lesser extent—Montana. These plans call for dramatic reductions in wolf populations in the region.
George Cadman of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM interviewed Mike Leahy, Rocky Mountain Region Director for Defenders Of Wildlife, about the recent decision.  Read More and Listen to Audio
The re-sentencing hearing for Jeffrey Luers took place on February 28th in Lane County Circuit Court in Eugene, Oregon in front of Judge Billings. This followed an Oregon court of appeals ruling in February 2007 that Luers' original sentence of 22 years 8 months by Judge Lyle Velure was illegal, and the appeals court remanded the case back to Lane County Circuit Court for re-sentencing. Following the appeals court decision, negotiations have resulted in the decision to reduce Luers sentence to 10 years, bringing his release date to late December 2009.
On September 1-4 of 2008, the Republican Party is holding their convention in Minnesota. The RNC Welcoming Committee wants to make sure that "this time the fear-mongers will be met with their own biggest fear: people mobilized, organized, and taking the future back into their own hands." From March 2-8, the RNC Welcoming Committee's Infotour will make six stops in Northern California to share their plans and get input to take back to Minneapolis on their preparations to crash the convention in the Twin Cities in September.
On Tuesday, February 19th, in a ruling unrelated to the
pending US Third Circuit Court decision, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court
rejected death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal’s appeal of a 2005 ruling by
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe, which denied
Abu-Jamal’s Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition, on grounds that it
was not "timely." Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted—many believe falsely—of
killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner, and his trial was
riddled with improprieties.
The Humane Society of United States conducted a video-taped undercover investigation of Hallmark Meat Packing Company in Chino, California. The investigation documented cows unable to walk, known as "downed" cows, being rammed with the blades of a forklift, jabbed in the eyes, stabbed with electric prods and sprayed in the nose with high-pressure water hoses. Under federal regulations, only animals able to walk on their own can be used for meat.
GARDINER & WEST YELLOWSTONE, MT: 290 wild buffalo have been slaughtered by the National Park Service in Yellowstone since February 8th. These actions are being taken to appease Montana's cattle interests, who claim they fear the spread of brucellosis from wild bison to cattle. A week of action was held February 14th though the 21st to draw attention to the role of Yellowstone National Park and Montana in the harassment, capture, and slaughter of the last wild population of American bison remaining in the United States.
"Originally the U.S. Calvary was sent here to protect the last remaining bison found in Yellowstone," said Mike Mease, co-founder of Buffalo Field Campaign. "How sadly ironic that millions of U.S. tax dollars are now being spent to kill them."
George Cadman of Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM spoke with Stephany Seay of the Buffalo Field Campaign about the real reasons behind the slaughter, what they are doing to fight it and how people can get involved. Read More and Listen to the Interview | BFC's Feb. 21st Update from the Field
Meeting up with the BFC: The paradox of joy and failure || Stopping slaughter of buffalo in Yellowstone: What's next to do? || Previous Coverage
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.
GARDINER, MONTANA - Yellowstone National Park officials captured 53 wild American bison on February 8th inside the Stephens Creek bison trap located within Yellowstone National Park's borders. The captured bison are members of the last wild, genetically intact population existing in the United States, and number fewer than 4,600. Most, if not all, will be sent to slaughter without being tested for brucellosis antibodies.
On February 11th, more than two hundred participants of the Longest Walk 2 embarked on a five-month journey on foot from San Francisco. They plan on arriving in Washington, D.C. on July 11, 2008. Native American tribal leaders, religious groups, environmentalists, teachers, students, and people from throughout the world are joining the walk with its "peaceful and spiritual call to action to protect Mother Earth and defend human rights."
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What started on May 1, 2006 as some of the largest political demonstrations in U.S. history for immigrants' rights have in 2008 brought together three fronts -- labor, immigrant, and antiwar -- in one struggle for peace and social justice.
