Feature Archives

On April 9th, No Justice No BART assumed control of the BART Board meeting. Demonstrators took turns voicing their objections to the lack of accountability and the apparent cover-up attempts at BART regarding the murder of Oscar Grant. One demonstrator independently threw red paint onto BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger and was subsequently arrested. On April 2nd at the MacArthur BART station, No Justice No BART distributed fliers with campaign demands to over 1000 commuters.

The federal government has finally responded to a lawsuit against warrantless wiretapping filed last September by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In a motion filed on April 3rd, the Justice Dept. demanded that the entire lawsuit be dismissed based on the Bush administration's claim that a "state secrets" privilege bars lawsuits against the executive branch for illegal spying, as well as a novel "sovereign immunity" claim that the Patriot Act bars lawsuits for illegal surveillance unless the government "willfully disclosed" the intercepted communications.

Kiilu Nyasha, former member of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, was recently interviewed on a wide variety of topics. Kiilu Nyasha quotes George Jackson from a passage in his book Blood In My Eye: “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done, discover your humanity and your love in revolution.”

Peter Herlihy and Jerome Dobson, professors of Geography at Kansas University, received funding from the Foreign Military Studies Office, located at the Fort Leavenworth U.S. Army base in Leavenworth, Kansas, to map communally held indigenous land in the states of San Luis Potosi, and in Oaxaca, Mexico. The project, named the Bowman Expeditions or México Indígena, began mapping in 2005 in an indigenous region known as La Husteca, which is partially located in the state of San Luis Potosi, and then moved their operation to the state of Oaxaca amidst the statewide popular uprising of the Oaxacan Peoples’ Popular Assembly (APPO) in 2006.

A personal account of the government's persecution and entrapment of political prisoner, Eric McDavid, will be given on Monday, March 30th at 7:00pm at the Subrosa Infoshop (703 Pacific Avenue) in Santa Cruz. Eric was arrested on January 13, 2006, and has remained in custody since, after being sentenced to 19 years in prison. Eric was entrapped by an FBI agent, known as "Anna", who spent over three years setting him up for the felony of "thought-crime."

No Justice No BART (NJNB) are holding a series of disruptive actions with the goal of seeking accountability for the abuse and murder of Oscar Grant. After successfully blocking the fare gates at Fruitvale BART in their first demo, NJNB chose the BART station in the upscale Rockridge neighborhood for their second demonstration on March 19th. NJNB is committed to demos at various stations until justice for Oscar Grant is reached. NJNB's next action will be at MacArthur BART in Oakland, Thursday, April 2nd at 4pm.

Ten days after he was shot in the head by an Israeli Defense Force high-velocity tear gas canister, Tristan Anderson is still hospitalized, unconscious and on a respirator, following three surgeries in a hospital in Israel. His family's attorney has filed a formal complaint with the West Bank Israeli border police, demanding the immediate launch of a rigorous and independent investigation into the shooting. Friends of Tristan and Palestine held a rally and press conference on Thursday, March 26th at noon outside of the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, addressing the beatings and arrests that occurred after the March 16th Solidarity with Tristan and Palestine demonstration.